“What the actual fuck, Raine? Do you know how many people have dared to slap me without my permission?” His voice was steel.
I didn’t answer him, frozen in shock that I’d hit him.
“None. Zero.” He crowded me against the wall, trapping me in place with his huge body.
“You deserved it.” I was shaking with anger beneath him, welcoming the burn as it chased the sadness away. “You’ve taken away the one bright spot in my week, the only thing that meant something. Do you know how important drama club was to me?”
He ignored my words, his hand still rubbing across his jaw. “Don’t you dare raise your hand to me, again. I told you to watch your back, Raine.”
“Watch yours.” I glared at him through my tears, breathing heavily.
“What are you gonna do? You have no power in this school.” His mouth was so close to mine, his breath hot on my lips, and I jolted as I felt his hardness press against me.
With an effort, I managed to smother the spark of lust that shot through my body and focused on my task. “Really?” The familiar purr of an SUV sounded behind Carter, and it gave me a sudden burst of confidence. “We’ll see about that.”
Before Carter had a chance to react, I tore myself away, darting under his arm, and skipped down the steps towards Cassius.
Leaning against the door of his car, he watched me coming towards him with a huge grin on his face. “Babe!” he exclaimed, lifting me into his arms. “Arms around me,” he hissed in my ear, and I complied, laughing into his neck as he carried me around to the passenger side of the car. “You should see his face.”
He set me down, and I climbed into the SUV on shaking legs. “Bye, Carter,” he called out of the window as we drove away. I didn’t dare to look, instead staring straight ahead. The euphoria from managing to shock Carter faded as I filled Cassius in on everything that had happened.
“You think he’s behind the missing cash?”
I nodded. “I’m sure of it. He practically admitted as much. It would’ve been easy enough for him to get a key, too. He’s Carter Blackthorne—there’s nothing he can’t get when he puts his mind to it. Other than a decent grade in our English class, that is.”
“Fucker,” he muttered. “I’d bet anything that there’s something incriminating in his house. You need to get there and investigate.”
“How exactly am I going to do that?”
He glanced over at me before returning his eyes to the road. “Invite yourself over next time he has a party. Wait until he’s been drinking, then sneak up to his room and do a bit of sleuthing.”
“It sounds like you have personal experience with this,” I commented, and he laughed.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“I don’t know that I have it in me to invite myself to one of his parties,” I admitted. “What I might be able to do is invite myself over with my aunt, though. Sometime when he’s not there. Then maybe I could sneak away and see if I can find anything.” My brain whirled, thinking up plausible scenarios for inviting myself round his house.
We lapsed into silence as Cassius turned onto my road. Pulling to a stop outside my house, he turned off the engine. “Homework. Get to Carter’s house, get evidence, and keep getting under his skin. You got him to crack today. Don’t lose that momentum.” Turning to me, he eyed me critically. “Remember what I said about fighting fire with fire? From a purely objective point of view”—he winked at me—“you’ve got a banging body, but you’re hiding it away. Lena said you’ve got skills in costume design. Put them to good use.”
“Ugh. I don’t want to draw any more attention to myself.”
His expression turned serious. “Listen. You’ve got to stop hiding away. You can’t go through life hiding in the shadows. Maybe it’s time to step into the light.”
I stared at him. “Has anyone ever told you how much you sound like Lena? That’s the exact same advice she gave me.”
“She learned from the best.” He shrugged, then grinned at me.
“If you say so.”
14
My head was a fucking mess. “Do you know anything about Cassius Drummond seeing a girl from our school?”
I felt Kian’s stare, but I kept my attention on the road.
“Cassius? Why are you interested? Wait, it’s not Ana, is it? Do you want to get back with her?”
“Fuck, no.”