“I had to just make it across the lake,” Bru admitted, frowning. He couldn’t even look at me at this point. He put a hand on the ground. “They told me if I made it across, I was in.”
I couldn’t believe this. All of this was so ridiculous, and Dorian was seething. He shot a finger toward Bru, but faced the other boys. “This shit is banned, bro. Fucking banned for a reason.”
He started to grab Ryder since he was closer, but the boy raised his hands.
“Wolf told us we had to,” Ryder shrieked, turning his face before the blow that was obviously coming. He waved his hands before Dorian could strike. “He said we had to, or the Sloane kid couldn’t get in.” He frowned at him. “You didn’t know?”
By the look of shock that struck Dorian’s lovely face, it appeared he hadn’t.
But that didn’t mean much to me.
This was how he operated, him and his crazier-than-fuck friends. They did this shit to people. All bred from the same cloth.
And I was apparently very, very wrong about him.
I was wrong about everything. It didn’t matter if Dorian Prinze had a soul or not. It didn’t matter if he cared. This was still the wicked Legacy he came from, and there was no place for Bru in it.
That went double for me.
The result would be nothing but poison and most certainly would end in my brother’s death. I started to help Bru up, putting my shoulder under his arm. I got him to his feet, but when Dorian started to assist, I raised my hand.
“Stop it,” I said, his eyes twitching. I shook my head. “Just don’t. I appreciate what you did. Saving my brother, but don’t.”
I did appreciate it. He did save my brother’s life, but we couldn’t do this shit. This was some fucked-up mess.
Dorian raised a hand, like he actually did care. “Sloane…”
I raised and dropped mine. “I just can’t with you, okay?” I studied the area, all of us drenched and two of us almost dead. That was the result of him and his people. All of this was on them, on Wolf. My jaw clenched. “I can’t have anything to do with this toxic, elitist shit.”
It really would kill us in the end, and it might kill Dorian himself.
And how beautiful he was. Dorian stood still in that dark moonlight, his wet T-shirt clinging to his big body, his jeans damp and doing the same. He really did appear that dark prince.
But it wasn’t a compliment. He was toxic, and he came from cruelty. It didn’t matter if he showed me flashes of something else.
Dorian’s hands clenched at his sides, like he was doing all he could not to do something else. I carted my brother away, no time to see what he’d do.
I didn’t care anyway.
“This wasn’t his fault,” Bru said, angling a look back. He shook his head. “Sloane—”
“Don’t.” My brother hadn’t listened to me at all since we’d gotten there.
He was going to listen now.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dorian - age 17
Thatch had asked me to meet him at the computer lab today, and it couldn’t have been good.
He had asked me to come alone.
He’d only do that if he wasn’t sure about my reaction to something and wanted to spare me from showcasing that reaction to our other friends. This was his way of looking out for me.
I didn’t ask for it.
We were all in this together, but I showed up alone like he’d asked. He was in front of the computer when I came to him, his permanent place as of late.