“Seriously, what’s your fucking problem? I’d actually started thinking you were a decent human being after last weekend, but then bam!” I flicked my fingers. “Monday rolls around, and you’re just as bitchy and pathetic as ever. No, worse. Did me getting beaten half to death somehow offend you? Or was it the fact that Brandon didn’t finish the job and rid your royal presence of the poor little orphan girl?”
Rafe froze mid-step, then turned slowly back around to face me. His eyes were narrowed and his shoulders bunched with tension.
Immediately, I knew I’d made the wrong move.
“Tell me something, Vi,” he ordered, prowling back towards me. Crap. I tried to step backward, but I was hard up against the wall. What. A. Moron.
“Tell you what?” I snapped back, raising my chin with determination. I’d be fucked if I let this asshole see any fear in me.
A small, cruel smile touched his lips as he closed in on my personal space, and his palms hit the wall on either side of my head with enough force to make me squeak. Mentally, that was. On the outside I was a goddamn fucking ice sculpture.
“Did you want me to follow through on that threat this morning?” His voice was dark and sultry, full of danger and seduction. Oh shit, I was so screwed. “Did you want me to slide my hand inside your jeans and see how wet you were? How wet are you right now? You get off on danger, don’t you, Violence?”
One of his hands left the wall, and he trailed a finger down the front of my shirt. All the way down, until he reached the waistband of my jeans. My breath caught, and I mentally cursed my overactive libido. Sex with Alex had only made it worse, not better.
“What would you do, I wonder, if I plunged my fingers into your cunt right here? I bet you’d be soaked, and it has nothing to do with your murderer of a boyfriend.” His fingers hooked into my fly, flicked the button open, and slid the zipper halfway down before I found my brain.
“Stop it,” I hissed at him, grabbing his wrist in an iron grip. “You want to know what I’d do? I’d knee you so hard in the balls you’d be coughing up pubes for the next month. Wanna try it?”
The cocky smirk on his face made me want to do it anyway.
“Neither one of us believes that, princess.”
Gritting my teeth, I forcefully pushed his wrist until he was no longer in touching range of my way too eager pussy. “I have a boyfriend, Rafe. Maybe that doesn’t mean much to royals, but it sure as shit does to me.” I glared at him, forcing as much disgust and poison into my gaze as possible. “I’m not a cheater.”
He stared back at me for a long moment. A long tense moment, one in which I seriously thought he was just going to pin me to the wall and take what he wanted, consequences be damned. But then he stepped back and laughed.
He fucking laughed.
“What a shame your so-called boyfriend doesn’t hold the same moral code.” With another infuriating smirk, he turned his back on me and started down the corridor. “See you tonight, Vi. Can’t wait to see what you’re really made of.”
Outraged and infuriated, it took me a few moments to remember that I was standing outside the men’s locker room with my jeans undone and my red lace panties on display. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Hands shaking, I righted my clothes, then strode across the hall to the locker-room door and knocked on it loudly. Rafe’s words were still sinking in, and I needed to ask Alex what the fuck he’d meant. Now. I needed to know right fucking now.
“Whoa.” The guy who opened the door looked me up and down, then yelled over his shoulder. “Girl!”
“Clearly,” I snarked at him, folding my arms tightly over my chest to hide that they were shaking. “I need to see Alex; can you tell him Violet’s here?”
The guy’s grin was just this side of leering, and I was two seconds away from smacking it off his face. “Sorry, cutie, he’s already gone.”
I frowned. “What? When? I’ve been waiting…” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder to indicate the hallway. How could Alex have already left without me seeing him?
The guy just shrugged. “After that scene with Rafe, Coach told him to go cool off. He probably went back to the dorms.”
Ugh. Of course.
“Right. Thanks.” I gave the dude a half-assed smile and turned to leave.
“Hey,” he called out, and I paused. “Look, I know we haven’t officially met or anything, but the guys seem to think you’re a pretty cool chick.”
By “the guys,” I could only assume he meant Nolan and Jordan. No one else really knew me.
“Okay, and?”
He awkwardly shifted, scratching the back of his neck. “Look, just… be careful, you know? He’s got a pretty wicked temper.”
I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, I know. Rafe seems to be permanently pissed off at me.”
The guy frowned. “Uh, I meant Alex. Anyway. Catch ya.” With that he disappeared back into the locker room and let the door swing shut behind him.
What the fuck was that all about? He wasn’t the first person to mention Alex’s temper, but I’d never seen anything like that from him… I mean, he had just started a fight with Rafe on the soccer field and there had been that fight the first day I arrived. But that was just stupid boy shit, wasn’t it?
Chewing at my lip, I hurried down the corridor. I needed to see Alex face to face and hash some of these rumors out.
My wrist buzzed, and I pulled the message up as I walked, clicking on my reader to open it.
Angel: Newbies fight first, don’t be late.
The message was accompanied by a picture of one of the academy hallways. In it, a small lamp on a shelf was circled in red and a time scribbled beside it. Shit. That was only twenty minutes from now!
Confronting Alex was going to have to wait. I couldn’t miss this fight. Not for anything.
Changing my course, I ran back to my room and hauled my old duffle bag out from the closet. My purple Vengeance catsuit and boots were tucked into the false bottom, along with my blade, so I quickly pulled them out and dressed.
Back home, no one gave a shit if chicks were fighting, so my costume didn’t conceal my gender. Quite the opposite, I’d made a weapon of it. I’d lost count of how many fights I’d won simply because my opponent saw some tits and hips and assumed I’d be a pushover.
Once dressed, I threw a black woolen coat on top to conceal my costume and hide the deadly blade at my waist. A quick glance in the mirror told me it just looked like I was wearing purple leggings and boots. Nothing suspicious there.
I took a few steadying breaths before applying my makeup: smoky black eyeshadow and winged eyeliner with plenty of mascara, then a soft lilac lipstick to compliment my outfit. I’d never needed to wear a mask in my previous matches, but I tucked the black one Nolan had given me into my coat pocket.
“Nice to see you again, old friend,” I murmured to my own reflection, smiling wickedly at the gleam in my eyes. Fuck yeah, this was going to be fun.
After slipping out of my room, I hurried through the halls of the academy. Last time had been a whole shitload easier, seeing as everyone had been asleep. What the fuck were they thinking starting the fights so early? Didn’t they know everyone was still out celebrating from the soccer game? Then again, maybe that was the perfect cover.