Chapter 6

By some miracle,I managed to dodge Roman for two days. Two glorious, tortuous days of thinking about him every second when I'm not thinking about Bree. The two of them occupy my every thought, and I have to force myself to keep moving forward with my regular schedule, instead of just lying in bed all day.

It's late afternoon when I finally get a break between classes and head over to the dining hall. I've been living off chips and protein bars for the last couple of days, so a hot meal sounds amazing. The dining hall is expensive, though, so I try not to come every day. I barely have enough money for all the books I need.

I'm standing in line for a piece of pizza, looking down at my phone, when I feel the weight of someone's gaze on me. It's such a strange feeling, like a prickle on the back of my neck, and I glance up quickly. I scan my immediate area, but I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

You're being paranoid.

It's no wonder, though. I'm still on edge about Tyler. The guys have said he's no real threat, but I'm not sure how much I agree with them. I've seen firsthand what a mental break can do to someone. It can make a person do things you'd never think them capable of.

Trying to shake the feeling of being watched, I step up to the pizza counter and order my slice. While I'm waiting for it to be heated in the pizza stove, I twist and scan the dining hall again.

Just beyond the food stations is the seating area, and I'm just casually looking around when I catch a glimpse of someone looking directly at me. I actually do a double take, squinting, because the person is at the far end of the dining room.

It's Tyler.

He's staring at me, hands in his pockets, a scowl on his face.

My heart immediately jumps into my throat, and panic sets in. The way he"s looking at me is murderous like he's imagining the moment he can take me by the throat and squeeze until every last breath of air has been wrung out of me.

Abandoning my pizza, I weave through the people gathered around the pizza station with the exit squarely in my line of vision. I can't get there fast enough, though, and I'm considering where I can go that he won't follow.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but my first thought is Rush House. Tyler would be an idiot to follow me there. He's been banned from the property, and the guys would hand Tyler his ass in less than thirty seconds if he dared to pop up at Rush House.

It's all the way across campus, though, and the panic is already making it hard for me to breathe. I struggle to pull in each breath as I push through the exit, and out into the open air, heading toward Rush House purely on instinct.

I'm walking quickly, glancing behind me every few seconds. I don't see Tyler following me, but the campus is busy, and he could be hiding among the groups of people making their way to and from class.

I pick up my pace until I'm practically running. When I see the spire of Rush House poking up over the student affairs building, I relax a tiny bit, slowing down a little so I can catch my breath.

But it's not until I reach the creepy walkway leading up to Rush House that I stop, and bend over, sucking in large gulps of air. But even as I try to get my shit together, I'm looking around, expecting Tyler to pop up out of a fucking bush or something.

Once I catch my breath, I head up the walkway and open the front door. I don't bother knocking, because it doesn't seem like anyone really does that here. People just seem to come and go at all hours of the day. Plus, I don't care about being polite to Roman and his crew of bullies.

In the foyer, a few people are milling around, walking up and down the stairs, or heading into the living room. They look at me curiously as I walk in, but they don't say anything.

I head straight to the living room, where I hope to find either Roman or one of the other Sacred Sons—and fortunately, I find three of the four. All the guys are here, except Roman.

The room is pretty full, so no one really acknowledges me when I walk in. Jackson's consort is on his lap, kissing his neck while he stares down at his phone. Lucas has a couple of girls crawling all over him while he watches someone else playing video games. Christian is shirtless, and smoking weed while he plays pool solo.

I let my backpack fall to the floor by the door and walk up to the TV, so they have no option but to look at me. "Where's Roman?" I ask.

Lucas blinks up at me. "Yo, Lux. What are you doing here?" He looks surprised to see me here, and honestly, I'm right there with him. I never thought I'd be walking into Rush House voluntarily. I'm usually here because Roman has lured me somehow.

"I need to talk to Roman. Where is he? It's urgent."

I have everyone's attention now, and Christian chimes in. "Have you tried texting him?"

"No," I say exasperated. "I just came straight here—"

I'm cut off by Jackson, who has his phone pressed to his ear. His consort looks annoyed by the interruption. "Yo, Roman, your chick is here at the house, in the living room." There's a pause, and he looks at me, his stoic gaze taking me in. "No idea, but she looks upset." Another pause. "Bet." Then he hangs up. "He's coming down." Then he returns to his scrolling.

"Uh, thanks," I say awkwardly, stepping away from the TV. Everyone just kind of goes back to what they were doing while I wait. I scan the room and see Nathan with the guts of a computer spread out on a table in front of him. I consider waving at him, but he doesn't even look up at me. He's got his headphones on, and he's laser-focused on what he's doing. I don't even think he knows I'm here.

Thankfully, I don't have to wait long for Roman to show up. Two minutes later, he strides into the room, and his assessing gaze immediately falls on me.

"Lux," he says, approaching. Everyone in the room stops what they're doing again. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Um." I hesitate, shifting on my feet, and glancing around. It's weird saying this with everyone in the room staring at me. "I, uh…"

Roman gets it, thankfully, and turns to face the room. "Ladies, guys…" He claps his hands together once. "Give us the room, please."

With a collective moan, everyone gets up and leaves the room. Everyone except Lucas, Christian and Jackson. And Nathan. He's listening to something on his headphones and clearly has no idea what's going on.

Christian glances over at him. "What about Nathan?"

Roman dismisses the question with a wave of his hand. "He's my brother's friend. He's fine."

"Yeah, he's cool," Lucas says.

With that settled, Roman turns his attention back to me, crossing his arms over his broad chest. He looks genuinely concerned, his dark brows pinched together. "What's going on?"

I swallow. "I saw Tyler. He was in the dining hall and he was staring at me."

Roman widens his stance. "Tyler has been expelled from ExU. I confirmed that with the Undergraduate Dean two days ago."

It sounds like he's trying to convince me that I didn't see him, that I was seeing things.

"Well, that may be the case," I say, looking at the other guys to gauge their responses. "But I saw him. I did."

Christian is leaning against the pool table, his blond hair messy, the blunt hanging from his lips. "I wouldn't be surprised to hear Tyler is lurking around campus."

I lift my hand at Christian, like, see.

"Uh, yeah, we did find something on campus this morning that might confirm what Lux saw," Jackson says, rising off the sofa. He pulls something up on his phone and turns the screen toward us. I step closer and so does Roman. It's a photo of graffiti on the Humanities building.

Death to the queen, string her up and watch her swing.

The words are accompanied by a crude drawing of someone who looks like me, hanging from a noose. The image is so shocking, I suck in a breath and stumble back. I knew Tyler was pissed, but this is something else. This is revenge.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Roman asks Jackson, anger edging his tone.

"We already took care of it," Jackson says, shoving his phone back into his pocket. "It was up for all of an hour. We didn't really think it was worth mentioning."

Roman drops his hands and pushes out a breath. "Thanks for handling it," he says. "But this shit is escalating."

"Tyler will move on eventually," Lucas says, totally unconcerned. "He's just trying to save face, let off a little steam."

Seriously? Calling for my death seems more serious than just letting off steam. "He was staring at me like he wanted to dive across the dining hall and strangle me. That feels like more than just saving face," I bite back.

And then there's the whole trying to flatten me like roadkill thing, which everyone seems to forget about, conveniently. Granted, we can't prove it was Tyler, but still.

Lucas shakes his head. "Tyler is—"

I hold up my hand to stop him. "I know, a pussy. But I don't want to take any chances. Maybe I should just go back to the police. Let them handle this."

"Whoa!" Lucas says, standing up. When he moves toward me, Roman steps in front of me. Lucas notices and backs off a little. But I can see he's pissed about what I just said. "Did you say go back to the police?

I'm confused by his anger, and I'm sure my face shows it. "Um, yeah," I say slowly.

He looks around Roman's shoulder, so he can talk to me. "And what the fuck did you tell them, exactly?"

I blink, trying to understand why Lucas is so bent up about me going to the police. It had nothing to do with him or even the Burning Crown. "I just…talked to them about Bree. I didn't mention you guys at all."

Jackson sighs. "So you didn't tell them you were here the night before, at the Preference Ceremony?"

What, now he's pissed too? Jesus.

"Well…maybe I did mention that." I lift my hands. "But they don't even believe she's missing anyway, so I don't know what you guys are worried about."

That seems to anger Lucas even more. "We're worried about them digging around in our fucking lives," he says angrily.

"Dude, chill," Roman says. "Jackson's uncle can smooth things over if it comes to that."

"Hopefully," Lucas spits back. "But there's no guarantee about that, is there, with the new Chief of Police running things? And those guys tend to point fingers at innocent-ass-people." Lucas looks directly at me. "So, yeah, we're not thrilled that you're involving them."

Lucas's over-the-top reaction to the police makes me wonder what dark secrets they're so desperate to protect.

And I don't know how to explain it, but I have a sickening feeling that whatever is happening it's only the tip of a very large iceberg that's buried deep in the dark, frigid waters of the Society of the Burning Crown. An iceberg the Sacred Sons would like to keep hidden.

And if I'm being real, Lucas' reaction is more than just a red flag. It's a whole damn parade of red flags that are blowing in the breeze, and whipping me in my face.

"Okay, but what the fuck do you want me to do?" I ask. "My friend is missing, and no one will help me look for her!"

"Guys," Roman interjects. "We take care of this Tyler shit, and we help her find her friend, then there's no problem, right? No reason for the police to look into anything."

The guys grumble collectively as Jackson shoves his hand into his front pocket, and pulls out a scrap of paper. He tosses at me, and if I'd registered what he was doing quickly enough, then I could have caught it. Instead, I watch as the tiny paper floats to the floor. Picking it up, I flip it over and see a crude sketch on the backside of the torn scrap paper.

"What's this?" I ask, looking up at Jackson.

He points to the sketch. "This is us helping. We've been asking around about your friend, and someone at the bonfire saw the guy she was talking to. She didn't see his face, but he had that mark on his forearm."

I glance back down at the crude drawing. "Is it a tattoo?"

Jackson shrugs. "Appears so. She said it looked fresh like it was new. Still had some scabbing on it."

I turn the paper a little, trying to make out what the image is. "Is this a snake?"

"Yup. And we talked to the tattoo parlors around here, and none of them remember doing a tattoo like that recently, so it must have been done somewhere else."

Now that I have the paper oriented correctly, I can see it"s a viper with its mouth open in a vicious smile, a single drop of venom dripping from it's fang. It's hard to tell if the tattoo is stylized, or if the person is just shit at drawing.

I glance up at Jackson. "A million guys probably have snake tattoos."

"I guess," Jackson says with a shrug. "But it certainly narrows the pool of suspects, doesn"t it?"

Roman walks over to Christian, takes a hit from his joint, then holds it out to me. I shake my head and shove the piece of paper into my pocket. "Thanks for this," I say. It's something at least. One more piece of the puzzle that I didn't have yesterday. "So what are we going to do about this Tyler business?"

They're the ones who dragged me into the tribunal, convinced it would solve everything. But now that it's made things 1000% worse, so it's only fair they fix the situation.

Roman pushes out a breath and glances at the guys. "See who you can talk to about patrolling the campus. We can put a couple circle members on it. A few of them really hate Tyler. I can get them out of their classes and assignments if need be." Then he turns those pale blue eyes on me. "As for you…you come with me."