“Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“You let me go, outside the bar…” When he doesn’t deny it, I add. “Don’t tell me you were actually afraid Jude would shoot you?”
He shakes his head, cold blue eyes looking at me with not a hint of playfulness. “I like the game just as much as you.”
“No, you don’t. You’re always saying I should get in and out quicker. Rule number three. See, I remember.”
He stares at me for a few seconds and then he grins, holding his hand up. “You got me there, V.”
I glare at him. “I want to speak to Quinn.”
“Your shadow is back.” Dante says as he looks up and over my head. I glance over my shoulder. Jude is hanging back by the classic literature section. I’ve no idea why he’s my back up when he’s already proved useless in that regard.
“You’ve got a death wish showing your face around here,” Jude says with a grimace.
I roll my eyes and turn back to Dante. “Just tell me why you’re doing this. Is it for the money?”
“Yes and no.” Dante says, cryptically. “I’m doing it for your own good.”
Dante is playing with me. He doesn’t want to kill me. He’s just here to fucking mess with me. And it’s obvious I’ll get nothing more out of him. Jude breathing down my neck makes it harder to be candid.
I turn heel abruptly and stalk back to the table. Relief shows on Dino’s face the second I return. He opens his mouth to say something but I shoot him down with a shitty look. Jude’s in his seat a moment or two later, his gaze glued to the area we just left. His body is tense. Brow creased into a worried frown. As if any minute Dante will appear and gun down the entire goddamn school.
If they exchanged words when I left the stacks, I didn’t hear it. I’m glad. Jude has no idea what he’s getting into, going up against Dante every fucking time is bound to get him hurt.
Not my hero if he ends up dead.
“Enjoy your lover's reunion?” Lorcan drawls, not looking up from his books once. His expression has deepened, his demeanour detached. But I know him well enough by now. His fingers are twiddling the pen in his hand, and the muscle in his jaw is twitching. Anger is simmering just beneath the surface and I’ve no fucking idea why.
God, give me strength.
I spendthe rest of the day watching Dante.
I watch him eat lunch. I stare at him in the homeroom as he calls the second register, and I clock him going into the teachers’ lounge several times in the day. At home time, I loiter outside said lounge, studying the coded lock until a well-presented student with a prefect badge walks past. I sigh loudly and pretend to be annoyed.
“I’m going to be late,” I say to no one in particular.
The perfect frowns and stops, squinting almost as she takes me in.
“Victoria?”
Ice freezes in my chest. “No, it’s Verity. Verity Hawthorne” I smile at her, tossing my brunette locks. Victoria was the cover I used at Sacred Heart. I note her glasses and long, plain brown hair. Was she…was she someone who knew me there?
She blinks a few times but the frown doesn’t dissolve. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought you were someone else. You look like a girl I knew from my last school.”
“Oh I get that a lot. I must have that kind of face,” I say. It dawns on me who she is. It’s Laura. I asked her for directions once. She must have one of those photographic memories. Of all the prefects I could have chosen. This is the problem Dante warned me about. If Laura recognizes me, who else will?
I weigh up the options between getting her to help me, or walking away.
Laura makes the choice for me. “Can I help you?” She glances at the teachers’ lounge door which I’m still standing in front of. “Are you waiting for a particular teacher?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m waiting for Miss Douglas. I knocked but no one’s come out.” I give her a broad smile. Actually, I’m stalking my ex mentor slash assassin in the hopes he’ll reveal why he’s playing games with me.
“If you want I can go inside and ask for her? Save you waiting.”
“Oh, you can go inside?” I tilt my head towards the lounge. I know perfects can go into the lounge because it was in the handbook I studied before enrolling here. But I keep the stupid smile plastered on my face and play dumb.
“Yes, of course. All prefects can. We run errands for teachers sometimes. It helps that we can access their things if they need us to collect them.” Laura looks absolutely chuffed with herself as she reels off all the perks of being teachers’ pet. I bet she was a prefect at Sacred Heart too.