Chapter 12 Pandora
PANDORA
River’s right about one thing: cutting off fingers is so cliche at this point.
What’s the point of revenge if you aren’t a little creative about it? I had my fun with Blaze and Asch—so much fun that even the rest of campus has noticed those two are no longer glued at the hip—but River’s gotten off easy.
So far.
“Bye, Samantha,” I say to the dying dahlias.
“I promise you that River’s going to have the absolute worst day of his life today.
” I pause. “Okay, second worst. It’ll be in the top three worst days at least. In the top nine for sure?
I’d say top ten, but River can’t count off that many with his fingers. ”
I heft my backpack and shut the door behind me.
River’s at the gym right now, if he’s following the same predictable schedule as always. That’s the problem with routines. Everybody knows where you’re going to be at all times. It’s why Papa is always late for things: so nobody can anticipate his movements.
Uncle Slayer says Papa is always late for things because he wants to piss people off, but who are we going to believe, Papa or Uncle Slayer?
I stop in front of the gym entrance.
My breath catches.
I look around, trying to spot whatever it is that’s making me tense up, but there’s nobody else out here. The lights are on, and the few cars parked nearby are empty.
I check the ground beneath my feet, but it’s a totally normal sidewalk. I don’t see any obvious signs of danger anywhere.
What the fuck? Why am I so on edge?
I quickly reach into my pocket so I can grip my charm. It pulses and sends a small flash of heat through me.
Probably not literally, but let’s pretend.
I let out a breath.
The gym doors open, and two women walk out, chatting with each other. They spot me, and one of them waves. I think I know her from one of my classes.
I wave back, then I finally step through the gym doors.
The lights are all on, and the hallways are bright. Several students are sitting in the couches in the lobby. One of them is fighting with the vending machine.
Perfectly normal.
Nothing weird about anything.
I shake off the strange goop dragging along my arms and continue down the hall to the fitness training rooms. I can hear several people grunting and talking. A quick peek inside reveals the usual jacked up college guys.
Frat guys.
Tate is in one corner, lifting weights. My hand grips the strap of my backpack tightly.
I have ideas on how to punish him, but that’ll have to wait until after I’m done with River.
River is attacking the punching bag. The sweat glistens on his bare arms, and he’s so, so hot like that. It’ll be good to see him even sweatier later.
Nobody pays much attention to me as I walk closer to River. I sit down on the same bench with his gym bag—and his water bottle, sitting right there with its little sippy straw because boxers are basically babies.
Okay, because they’re not supposed to drink too much at once and throw it all up after one good punch to the gut.
But still.
I pick up the water bottle, uncap it, and quickly dump the powder I brought along inside. I close it again and swirl it all around before setting the bottle back where it had been.
Then I get up and leave.
Like Uncle Slayer taught me, people really don’t pay attention to you if you act like you belong. I leave the training room, satisfied with myself.
I nearly bump into somebody.
“Oops, sorry,” the guy says. He’s tall and muscular, with bleached hair and a wolf tattoo on his throat. He furrows his brow when he sees me. “Pandora?”
My smile freezes in place. “Yeah. Um, Fenrir… Winters?”
He’s the son of another organized crime leader in New Bristol. I’m sure I met him a few times at parties or events. He’s the cousin Anastasia was going to see while she was here.
“Yeah.” He stares at me. “Thanks for putting Stasya up. My place would have been too cramped for her.” He glances past me. “Were you looking for River?”
“No,” I say immediately. “I mean, I was avoiding River. Bad luck that he’s in there. Don’t tell him I was here, okay? I’ll do my lifting some other time.”
Shit. Fenrir had better not ruin everything.
Fenrir folds his arms over himself. “Avoiding him? Why?”
“Why?” I repeat, confused. Shouldn’t that have been enough? Everybody already knows. “Because of… the things.”
“The things?” Fenrir sighs and shakes his head. “This is some Chaos crap, isn’t it? I fucking hate those douchebags. River’s too good for them.”
Is he? Is he really too good for them?
He played along. Blaze said jump; River didn’t even bother to ask how high.
“Yeah. Chaos crap.” I step around him. “Anyway. Maybe I’ll see you around.” I jog away, down toward the locker rooms.
I duck into the women’s locker rooms and sit down on a bench, breathing heavily.
Okay. That wasn’t a complete disaster.
It’s good to know that not everybody on campus is a complete gossip. Anastasia must not have told him about all the shit we found on the devices either.
I dig my nails into my arms. The sweater prevents me from actually scratching myself.
Fenrir might mess up my plans, though. River was supposed to walk to his car on his own. He’d have been easy prey that way. If Fenrir keeps River occupied, the drug might hit his system too soon, or too late, or… crap.
I pull out my phone.
Pandora
Where are you?
It takes too long to get a response to my text.
Cry Me A
Busy.
Pandora
At the gym? Great, I’ll meet you there!
Cry Me A
Go bother Blaze or Asch.
Pandora
So mean!
But this is good. He’s annoyed with me. Hopefully that means he’s not going to want to stick around. After all, I could be on my way at any moment. I could be just around the corner, ready to make his day worse!
I browse my socials for a bit longer, until I hear voices approaching outside. I prop open the door to the women’s locker room, making sure to stay out of sight.
“You want to join me for drinks?” Fenrir says. “Me and a few of the Hell crew are going into town later.”
“Nah, I’m tired. I’m going to hit the sauna, then head home for the night.” I can hear his audible yawn.
Sauna.
Oh, that’s perfect. I bite my lip with glee.
I bounce lightly on my feet, then rush to the other end of the locker room. The saunas have two entrances, one from each locker room. I wait until I hear the door from the other men’s side open. After a few beats, somebody enters an individual sauna room and the door shuts.
I quickly pull my sweater over my head so I’m left in a t-shirt and tight jeans. I take my shoes and socks off too and cram all of them into a corner of the locker room. With my bag in tow, I enter the sauna area.
It’s immediately warmer, but each individual room has its own temperature control. The frosted glass doors obscure the interior, but I can see enough to find the single occupied room.
I pull the door open and smile brightly when I see River inside.
He’s wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, and as soon as he sees me, he lifts his head. “What are you doing in here? I told you to go bother someone else.”
Aww, someone’s still butthurt from the other day.
I close the door behind me. I check the temperature, and it’s way too hot for what I’m about to do, so I touch the arrow to lower the temp.
“The less you want me to bother you, the more I’ll do it,” I say, crossing over to him.
River tries to get off the bench, but he crumples easily when I push down on his bare chest. “Pandora, I’m not in the mood for this.” His voice is already starting to slur, and he has to stifle another yawn.
“Hey, no falling asleep in the sauna. That’s deadly.” I run a hand through his thick, black hair. The sides are getting long. He’s neglected to trim them, but I guess being a douchebag takes up so much of his time.
He grabs my wrist, but his grip is nowhere near as strong as I know it could be, and his reaction times are slow. “Okay, fine. What do you want?”
“I thought we could chat.” I drag my hand down his chest and pinch one of his nipples. “You were so wordy the other day.” I grin and mimic, “‘Pandora, I’m sorry.’ Sorry is pretty weak, River.”
“You’re going to think anything I say is weak,” he retorts, but then he quiets. “Because it is, I guess. Words are cheap, et cetera.”
“Yeah.” I nuzzle his jaw. “You don’t want to give me another finger. So how are you going to make up for what you did?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t know what I can do.” He yawns again, trying to push at my chest, but it feels like a kitten pawing at me. “Stop touching me like that. We’re in public.”
“There’s a frosted glass door. Not public at all. And it’s late. Most people are done with the gym by now.” I let my hand drop down to his lap and squeeze his cock through the towel.
“Pandora…” He reaches for my wrist again, but his grip is increasingly loose.
I see it when he puts the pieces together, and he goes still beneath me.
“What did you do to me?” he demands, but the words are so slurred now that they don’t sound threatening at all.
“I drugged you,” I say cheerfully. “You were so focused on punching that bag, you didn’t even notice me.” I stroke his cock through the towel a few times. “No more crying about how you don’t want to do this with me.”
I brush my lips against his mouth.
He tries to pull away, but I’m insistent.
He’s going to learn what it’s like to be helpless.
“You made your point,” he says, resting heavily against the wall behind him. Sweat is trickling down his brow even though I’ve dropped the temperature by several degrees. “Get me out of here before I pass out from heat stroke.”
“I’m not going to kill you.” I run my tongue across his lower lip. “Where’s the torture in a quick death?”
Death is so permanent.
A bit of screaming, and then, poof, incinerator.
“For fuck’s sake, Pandora,” he mutters. “You do realize sex with you isn’t exactly torture, right?”