Page 76 of The Villain's Beast

“So he’s no better than Fletcher.”

“He’s a thousand times better than Fletcher,” Luca snapped.

I arched a doubtful brow, and Luca stretched his legs out in front of him.

“He’s picked his side then,” I said, cocking my head to the side and feeling more alone than I had in years. “Have you?”

Chapter 53

Bellamy

Gideon kept me locked in the library for three days. There was no bed, but a door connected to the guest room bathroom, so at least I was able to take care of that on my own. Unfortunately, the pass-through door to the guest room remained shut. Luca came around three times a day with food, but he wouldn’t look me in the eye. The anger he’d carried away from Thorn Hill was still boiling just beneath the surface, and I worried if I asked him about it, he’d explode.

Being isolated gave me more than enough time to think about how dramatically my life had changed since the summer and drew into sharp clarity that if I wanted to get control of things again, I’d have to take it. If I had to play Gideon and Fletcher against each other, I would. I just had to get out of this locked room.

Realistically, I knew he couldn’t keep me locked away forever. My cell phone was dead. I had classes—which I’d already missed, and there was Vince. I knew Vince was the one behind my father’s phone call the day after Daren took me out of the apartment, but how deep Vince’s relationship with my dad went was something I still hadn’t had a chance to figure out.

Before Fletcher exiled me to Rose Hall, he’d instructed me to get any information I could about Gideon North and his father’s business dealings. He’d told me it was in my own best interests to cooperate, and I would have sworn his eyes had the hint of a plea in them when he said it. For as much as the four of them complained about being pawns, I was the true pawn, stuck playing a game I didn’t even know the rules to. Fletcher had implied things with Gideon’s family were not as they seemed, and I’d told him that was the case across the board.

The whole lot of them presenting nothing but rank and class to the public while drowning in lies and manipulation behind the scenes.

Even in the darkest parts of my lonely nights in the library, I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Fletcher and Gideon growing up. Even Daren and Luca, knowing they were meant for this life and they had no say over it. They all seemed so resistant to it, but were four men enough to topple generations of a secret status quo?

I hoped so.

The lock on the door disengaged, and I turned from my perch on the chaise lounge I’d been using for a bed, expecting to find Luca, as usual, with a plate of food. Instead, I found Gideon, with bags under his eyes and a week of scruff grown out on his cheeks. He looked scarier than usual, with the shadows cast across his sharp features, the way he hunched his shoulders to step into the room.

“What do you want?” I asked, immediately recoiling at the vitriol I heard in my voice.

Gideon scrubbed a hand down his face and I sighed, climbing off my seat and closing half the space between us. His body swayed away from mine, so I stopped in the middle of the room.

“I came to see if you wanted to come have dinner with me,” he said, not quite a question.

“Yes,” I answered quickly, biting back anything else I had to say to him.

He turned and stalked out of the room without saying anything else. He left the door open, so I assumed I was meant to follow, which I did.

The formal dining room in Rose Hall was overstated and ridiculous, made of dark wood with ornate carvings of roses and thorns along the edge. There were twelve high-backed chairs, all matching. I found two places set, the end of the table and the seat beside it.

“Where’s Luca?” I asked, using all of my strength to pull the heavy chair away from the table so I could sit down on the plush red cushion.

“Sulking.”

“Seems to be a theme,” I muttered.

Gideon took his seat with a huff, but it was hard to worry about him for long. Luca had been feeding me well, but the meal in front of me was the most delicious thing I’d ever smelled in my life. I was quick to grab my fork and knife, to slice into the pot roast and shove a forkful of it into my mouth. Gideon eyed me warily, face almost amused, but not quite.

We didn’t speak through the entirety of the meal, but my pace had slowed to something closer to normal by the halfway point. The silence almost felt companionable, and by the time our plates were cleared, I was relaxed for the first time in weeks.

“Should I go back to the library?” I asked softly, folding my napkin and setting it on the table beside my plate.

“You can if you want,” he said, pushing his chair away from the table and standing up. “Or you can join me in mine.”

Of all the things I’d ever anticipated from Gideon, an invitation to his bedroom wasn’t anywhere on the list. He’d been intimate with me, but I wouldn’t have called what happened between us sex. I knew he hadn’t slept with Luca, and definitelyhadn’t even heard rumors of him being with other students. Not in the way Fletcher was, at least. To the best of my knowledge, Gideon had only ever been with Fletcher, so the invitation was enough to make me choke on my own spit.

It felt like a betrayal to say yes.

Gideon was inviting me of his own accord, and my consent was solely to get out of the library, so I could get Fletcher the information he was looking for. I didn’t want to hurt Gideon, but something had to give. Someone had to take action, and Fletcher was the only one trying to make moves.