Between my fight with Jeremy and my fight with Rain, my shoulder was wrecked and the pain pills I forgot to take were reminding me why the doc said to down them first thing in the morning.
The road spun.
“You’re going to have to drive,” I said, pulling off the road. “And wake me up.”
My head hurtled toward the dash—black blotting it out before I hit.
Chapter Two
Rainey
I brushed Cairo’s hair from his eyes, tracing the curves and angles of his sculpted perfection.
Doc Nash was out. The clinic’s nurse practitioner helped me carry Cairo out of the car, sewed him up, and ordered me to make sure he took his meds. I brought him home, helped him up to one of the many guest rooms, and fed him chicken soup till he dropped his head and passed out.
Cairo was surprisingly mellow about my fussing. Turns out Vicodin soothes even the most savage of beasts.
He doesn’t look like a savage beast now.
Light streamed through the slats in the blinds, playing in his golden crown. When you couldn’t look in those unnerving eyes, Cairo Sharpe was all soft, full lips, slightly pointed ears, and the smell of the forest I grew up in. But if I was honest with myself, awake or sleeping, he was perfect.
He was mine.
“So don’t charge around with open wounds, spilling your blood all over Bedlam, Sharpe.” I pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “I’m the one who’s going to keep you.”
I shut the door soundlessly behind me, leaving my wolf to sleep. There was another man of mine I needed to see.
Roan reclined on Legend’s couch, messing around on his laptop while porn played loud and proud on the television screen. I flicked it off.
“Just when it was getting good.” A hand crept under my dress and delighted to find me panty-free. Roan teased my lips open. “You’ll have to take over entertaining me.”
“Later,” I replied, drawing away reluctantly.
Roan had been getting his kicks watching Legend punish me, which left him satisfied, but didn’t indulge my growing Roan addiction. I knew what he wanted, and that was for me to take what I wanted. But a few weeks ago, I was a virgin. The jump from that to knife-wielding dominatrix was taking a minute to get my head around.
“I assume Cairo told you all the truth about... last night.”
He nodded, adopting his rarely used serious expression. “Do you want to tell me the rest?”
I did, starting from the first letter I received to the fatal mistake that cost Bella her life.
“That’s not all,” I continued. “Cairo thinks the psychopath that took over for Cavendish is a student, or in some way connected to the university. He believes the same of the person who tried to kill you.”
“The latter isn’t that surprising,” he said, setting his laptop on the coffee table and tugging me down to take its place. “The former is.” Roan inclined his head. “Or maybe it isn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been looking through Cavendish’s old school records. Mom requires every student involved in a traumatic incident to see the university therapist. Don’t need any festering resentment boiling into a school shooting.”
I sat up straight. “You can access the therapist’s notes?”
“Yep.”
“Can you access the notes on everyone who sees the therapist?”
“I can.”
I massaged my temples. “And you use those deep, soul-bearing secrets to keep people in line. I’m no longer asking why someone tried to kill you.”
He winked. “I’m a very unlikeable guy, beautiful, but you feel free to whip me into shape.”
I just might, I thought even as a blush painted my cheeks.
“But this time, I assume you’ll forgive me.”
Roan assumed correctly. “What was in the notes?”
“Stella didn’t detail her fears that she was sitting across from the next Bundy. Actually, I’m leaning toward telling Dean Mom to fire her after what you’ve said. Stella wrote that Cavendish was handling the loss of his best friend well under the circumstances, and that his strong support system would help him through. I’d bet the guy was sleeping like a baby after getting away with murder.”
It was hard to argue for the woman’s job considering. I didn’t bother to try, and instead latched on to something he said. “Strong support system? Who was she talking about? Nathan Wade and Sam Dillion?”
“And Blake Jensen.”
“Blake Jensen,” I repeated. “Who’s that?”
Roan crossed his hands behind his head. I was sitting on his lap in no underwear, and his hands weren’t all over me. This was the first time I’d witnessed Roan taken off his single-minded course for pain and pleasure.
“He’s the guy Cavendish was mentoring around the time he killed his best friend,” Roan said. “Stella specifically made a note of it, saying that focusing on Jensen and volunteering was a healthy outlet.”
“Blake Jensen,” I said again, rolling it around on my tongue and finding the taste unfamiliar. “This is the first I’ve heard that name. It didn’t come up in connection with Cavendish at all. He’s not even listed as one of his friends on social media. I looked up everyone when the new Letter Man came crashing in to continue destroying my life. I’m certain there wasn’t a Blake Jensen.”