Page 54 of The Villain's Beast

“I trust Daren,” he said quickly, “and most of the time I trust Gideon.”

“And you?”

“Luca and Fletcher.”

“Blindly?” I asked.

“They’ve given me no reason to doubt them.”

I swallowed, shoving my hands into the front pocket of the hoodie and staring down at my feet.

“Who should I trust?” I whispered.

Luca climbed to his feet, and he and Daren together closed the center of our little triangle into a point.

“Yourself,” he said, brushing his fingers down my cheek until I tipped my head back to, once again, look at them both.

“Not either of you?” I asked. “Not Fletcher? Not Gideon?”

“Not until you understand why you’re here,” Daren answered.

“We’re pawns.” Luca sniffed, the scrunch of his nose lifting his glasses. “Even Daren and I. We’re just pawns in someone else’s game, and until you know who’s moving the pieces, you shouldn’t trust anyone but yourself.”

“What happens after today?” I dared to ask, but barely above a whisper. Luca ruffled his fingers through my hair and I closed my eyes, letting myself lean into the warm cradle of Daren’s hand.

“I don’t want to think about it,” Luca murmured.

“That’s up to us,” Daren answered. “Either everything’s the same, or everything’s different.”

“Who decides?”

Before he could reply, a deafening crash rang out from downstairs and then everything went silent.

Chapter 38

Fletcher

For a moment, I was sixteen again, the same height as Gideon, all knobby limbs and too big hands…too big hearts. And we stood in the middle of his bedroom at Rose Hill Prep, mouths pressed together like we had any right.

Like we deserved it.

Daren’s bedroom door slamming closed upstairs brought me back to the present, back the man in front of me who was so far removed from the boy I’d known. The boy I’d fallen in love with.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” I said.

Gideon licked his lips, stare raking down my chest and stomach, lingering a little longer than he should have at my waistline. “Did I interrupt?”

“I’d just finished.”

He exhaled loudly out of his nose, lip curling up in disgust.

“Don’t be a prude.”

“I’m not.”

“That’s why you brought Luca to the exchange instead of a first year?” I arched a brow and took one step toward him, clasping my hands together behind my back.

“I was doing him a favor,” Gideon said, which just confirmed to me that he also knew about Luca’s relationship with Daren.