“He’s too young for that!” Her eyes were crazed while Breaker snorted into his cup. “What? Why are you snorting into your cup? Are they sexually active?”
“I love today.” I burst out laughing.
And then Ash threw down the gauntlet, his eyes flashing. “He stole a girl’s underwear today!”
“Up top,” Tex put up his hand.
“How do you even know that?” I wondered out loud.
“Junior!” Ma chucked a roll at my face. I ducked, but it narrowly missed my right eyeball. “That’s so rude!”
“He’s a guy.” My dad winked.
I winked back.
“Stop that! Stop the winking!” Ma shushed him, and somehow it worked. He kissed her on the cheek and was silent.
“Saw them in your coat pocket while you were fighting Serena on the lawn. Actually, I noticed that Serena—”
“Has syphilis, yes, it’s very sad.” I interrupted.
Serena’s face went up in flames. “Are you high?”
“YOU DIDN’T USE PROTECTION?” Nixon roared, face looking slightly possessed as he jumped to his feet and grabbed a knife while Trace did the same.
I burst out laughing while Serena chugged her wine, wiped her mouth with her napkin, and tossed it down onto her plate. “I just lost my appetite, and no, I don’t have syphilis, we know who the manwhore is at the table.”
Everyone pointed at me.
Including Breaker, who we’d nicknamed breaker of hearts.
“Bullshit! I don’t even have a girlfriend!” I roared.
“Family dinners.” Ash lifted his wine into the air. “So much fun.”
“Cheers.” Dante clinked glasses with him.
“Don’t encourage them,” El, his wife, whispered under her breath. Then she winked at Ash.
They were the youngest, meaning closet to use in age, more like older siblings than anything, and they might have encouraged a lot of bad behavior, not that we minded.
I was still traumatized from when Dante tried to explain sex to me.
And I think my dad laughed for a week straight every single time I saw a girl.
Serena was in the process of storming off while Tempest, Dante’s daughter, belted out loudly. “Mama, what’s syphilis?”
“Thanks.” Dante glared.
“I’m here to educate.” I put a hand over my heart and noticed Serena was gone.
It was for the best.
That was what I chanted to myself the entire way back to campus, in tight jeans, a shirt that showed off every single tattoo I had, and with enough ammo to take out whoever I needed to.
It was for the best, her hate.
Because if I had her love—I wouldn’t be able to become the monster my dad needed me to be—the monster she needed me to be—to keep her safe.
Chapter Five
Serena
We always arrived at the on-campus parties together. To an outsider, it looked like we just wanted to make an entrance, but to us? The new Elect on campus? It was survival.
Junior led us with Ash on his right.
Claire and I were in the middle.
And Breaker was behind watching our backs.
Violet stayed back as per usual since she was consumed with her studies. After a ton of arguing—shocker, I know—the bosses decided it would be best that Izzy stayed in the SUV and updated the bosses as we sent her text updates. She didn’t have the same stomach for violence that we did, but she loved the behind the scenes gadgetry that Sergio often mentored her with.
We left her with a gun, an earpiece, and enough Coke Zero that she’d be happy just watching the show and hanging out in the background. Plus, if we needed to get out, we needed someone who hadn’t had one or two drinks driving us.
After Junior’s outburst at the table, I’d decided to dress in leather pants and a crop top that almost showed side boob.
And if I accidentally brushed against him, reminding him of what he was missing? Well, would that be so horrible?
I was still livid he’d said I had an STD.
Granted, I knew he was protecting me—in his own masochistic way—but it still stung.
He was the guy who used to hold me when I cried.
Now he was the reason for my tears.
Talk about messed up.
My heels clicked against the cement as we neared The Spot.
The welcome back party was already raging, thanks to our new friends who literally took one for the team this morning when classes started.
It was their job to make sure we had kegs and to make sure that only those we invited were allowed inside.
Before we were born, the building had been condemned after a few murders took place there, something that Dante and Andrei still argue over.
The minute we were forced back to Eagle Elite, we claimed it as our own. So what if there were bloodstains in the concrete? Or names of people who’d been tortured written in blood on the walls?
Students said it was haunted.
And I always wanted to laugh and say that our families were the ones who haunted it.
Z was at the door. “Guys.” His eyes flickered over Ash and Junior, then settled on me, well my chest, and then my legs, until he finally focused in on my mouth. “Looking sexy as always.”