Page 6 of The Devil We Crave
“Welcome to Galina 101.”
“Tell me about it,” Wren giggles. “I mean, the girl is on the hunt for everyoneexceptherself. Did you know Kirill Tsarenko wanted to take her out last semester and she flat-out said no?”
I grin. “Isn’t Kirill a total man-whore who fucks anything that moves?”
“Well,yeah, but come on. If you’re looking for someone to cook you dinner, don’t you want a chef who’s cookeda lotof dinners before??”
I howl with genuine laughter. Wren grins.
“There’smy Lena.”
I flash her a smile. “I didn’t go anyway, honest. I’m just…”
“Tired, I know.” She sighs. “You keep saying that. I wish you’d remember I’m your best friend and you can tell me anything, though.”
The first part is one hundred percent true. I wish the second part was.
“Anyway, let’s go find Para Bellum boys and see how long it takes them to mention who their fathers are and all the super important shit they’re planning to do.”
I grin. Then my gaze wanders to one of the staircases leading to the upper floors and my fingers snake back into my pocket, touching the lace.
“You know what, I just saw a girl in my econ class I’ve been meaning to catch up with,” I lie. “Talk to you later?”
“Booo,” Wren grumps. Then she nods. “Yeah, go do you. If you need me… The bar isover there.”
I frown at how quickly she knocks back her drink. “Okay, but…you know…take it easy?”
“Easy like Carly Presioso, the fuckingslutwho, uh, lives in this house?” Wren says with a fake smile.
Carly Presioso is, in fact, the girl that Bryce’s dick was in when he officially broke things off with Wren.
Ick.
I make Wren promise to be safe, then watch her dance away through the crowd before I turn and eyeball the side staircase.
Time to use a dead girl’s panties to frame someone for murder.
Hey, there's a first time for everything, right?
I slip into one of the less crowded rooms, keeping to myself and avoiding the circles of conversation. Near the back of the house, I sneak up another staircase. The party is continuing here on the second floor.
My target is one above, though.
There’s a small sign on a chain hung across the staircase leading to the third floor that reads “no admittance”. There doesn’t really need to be a sign. It’s common knowledge that the third floor of Kingsward Hall, where the president and senior members of Para Bellum have their bedrooms, is invite only.
No one sees me creep up the stairs and count the doors down the hallway until I get to the third one on the right.
I wasn’t lying to Wren before. I did recognize a girl in my economics class downstairs when we walked in. We’re not friends, but Ididhear her talking earlier this week about the former Para Bellum president coming back to visit campus for the party tonight.
She also mentioned he’ll be staying in what used to be his room when he was a student here and that she hoped she'd get “a personal tour” of it.
The only reason I didn’t scream at her to stay away from the monster is that by the end of the night he’ll be in fuckingjail.
The huge bedroom is dark when I slip inside. The king-sized bed would be the obvious place. Maybetooobvious. My eyes adjust to the darkness as I tug the red lace out of my pocket.
Finally, my gaze lands on the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves against the far wall.
That’ll work.
