Chapter 48
CHAPTER 48
Ivy
I sit up straight and scramble off Heath, trying to cover myself up with my hands, but honestly, nothing is left to the imagination.
“What the…” The dean stops in the middle of the room and stares us all down.
Mortified, I swiftly grasp my dress off the floor and put it back on haphazardly even though the straps won’t hold without the zipper being pulled up. My entire skin is flushed red, and I feel so goddamn hot. I wish I could step under a shower made of pure ice. I’d probably settle for a fridge right about now. Not just to cool down in but also to hide in.
“Silas,” the dean grits, his sanpaku, hollowed-out eyes looking ghostly. “Fuck, I should’ve known.”
“What? That I’m just as fucking freaky as you are?” Silas steps away from the pool table, nonchalantly zipping up like he wasn’t just caught red-handed, while Heath and Max both silently slither off the table and put their pants back on.
“In the fucking game room?” The dean points at the table. “I just had that reupholstered!”
“Relax, it’s just a fucking pool table,” Silas replies.
The dean’s eye begins to twitch as he looks at me. “Who is this?” The dean’s eyes narrow. “Is this what I think it is?”
Silas places a hand on my shoulder and pulls me behind him. “So what if it is? It’s none of your business.”
“It is when you decided to involve your mom’s men,” he retorts. “What the hell were you thinking? Calling them to clean up some bodies in the middle of the street?”
My eyes widen.
Oh God, he knows about the killings.
“What? It’s not like they don’t do that on a monthly basis for her,” he replies.
“Undercover!” The dean points his finger at Silas’s naked chest. “I warned you not to overstep, and you went out there and murdered a dozen people in broad daylight.”
“Actually, it was in the middle of the night,” Max mutters, but after a stern glance from the dean, he immediately raises his hands. “Semantics. Never mind.”
“I told you to control your urges,” the dean hisses at Silas. “You broke our agreement.”
Silas swats his finger away. “I did what I had to. Those men were after her.”
“Then you should’ve called me ,” the dean says with a low tone that brings goose bumps to my skin.
“It’s solved, isn’t it? The bodies are gone. No one noticed.” Silas shrugs.
The dean runs his fingers through his short, dark-brown hair. “Tell that to the lady who lives in the building across the street.”
“Mrs. Schwartz?” I mutter. “She wouldn’t tell a soul.”
His eyes nearly bore a hole into my forehead. “If you want to stay alive, stay away from him.”
Silas’s face contorts. “I might be a fucking psychopath, but I would never let anyone lay a fucking hand on her.”
I glance his way, my throat suddenly feeling clamped up.
“He’s telling the truth,” Heath says.
“Yet you can’t stop leaving bodies everywhere you go,” the dean says. “Why?”
“To protect her .” Silas’s green eyes flash with obsession, and I suddenly find it hard to swallow.
The dean crosses eyes with me before refocusing on his son. “Do you even know what you’ve gotten yourself into? Those men were part of the Bones Brotherhood.”
Bones Brotherhood.
My skin begins to crawl.
“If your mother hears you’ve been messing with them, you’re done for. Over,” Dean Felix growls, and he grabs Silas by the back of the neck and goes head-to-head with him. “Do you hear me? You. Won’t. Survive.”
I swallow.
Jesus Christ. What kind of a woman is his mother?
“I can handle myself,” Silas growls back.
“Yeah? You think you can protect her too?” He points at me now. “Whatever you three are doing, it stops right fucking now.”
“I’m sorry,” Max squeaks, but Heath puts his finger against his lips to shush him.
The dean turns around after another drawn-out stare toward everyone.
“And clean up this fucking mess. Undergrads are coming to the open day next week, and I don’t want them to be discouraged from joining the Skull and Serpent Society because it smells like wet pussy.” He frowns as his nostrils flare. “This is my fucking Society, after all.”
He slams the door shut behind him, leaving the paintings on the wall quaking.
“Jesus,” Max says, sitting on the chair in the corner.
“Tell me about it,” Heath says, chuckling at Silas. “I see where you get your temper now.”
“Shut up,” Silas growls.
“What was your dad talking about?” I ask. “With the whole undercover stuff. I thought her business was stealing from the Mafia?”
Silas narrows his eyes at me. “You want me to tell you all about my family business while telling me nothing about yours?”
I slam my lips shut. “Fine.”
Silas rolls his eyes and sighs. “My mom’s the head of an organization that infiltrates and destroys underground trafficking rings. There. Now you know.”
I frown. “That’s more than just the Mafia stuff you told me about earlier.”
“Your turn,” Silas says. “Care to tell me why literal Bones Brotherhood men were after you? The same men my mom’s been hunting for years?”
I tilt my head. “They want something I have.”
Silas makes a face. “What? Money? You?”
I swallow. I don’t trust him enough to divulge the truth.
Heath snorts. “Wake up, Silas. She’s not going to tell you.”
“I told you the truth,” Silas grits.
“I didn’t force you to,” I reply.
His fist balls. “Playing games again, thief?”
“Guys, guys, calm down. There’s no point arguing when clearly she doesn’t wanna tell for good reasons. Why else would she still keep it a secret?” Max says, getting between us.
“She still doesn’t trust us,” Heath says.
“She just needs a little bit more time,” Max interjects, grabbing Heath’s arm. “Please. You promised me we were done fighting over her.”
He sighs and rubs his forehead. “Fine.”
“Silas?” Max asks gently.
“How am I supposed to protect you when I don’t even know from what?” he grits.
“Then don’t. I never asked,” I respond.
Silas scoffs, “And then what? Let you get dragged away by those fuckers? Is that what you want?”
I stare him down, fiercely holding my ground. “I’m done owing anyone anything.”
The room grows quiet. So quiet it becomes awkward.
“So … what do we do now?” Max asks.
“What do you mean, what now?” Heath frowns. “The dean was pretty clear. Let’s go clean up the pool table. And the floor.” He eyes his pants, which have a stain on them. “And ourselves.”
Max snorts and hides his laughter with a smile.
I sigh and walk to the bar, grasping a bucket from underneath so I can fill it with water and a bit of dish soap.
“What are you doing?” Silas asks as he approaches me.
“What does it look like?” I reply, grabbing a sponge too. “You wanted me to clean, right? So get out of my way.”
He pulls the bucket right out of my hand. “No.”
He snatches the sponge away too and chucks it back into the sink. “I had a debt. You told me to clean, so I’m cleaning to clear that debt, and now you don’t want me to clean. So which is it?”
“We have maids for that,” he says.
He has got to be shitting me. “You say that now?”
“Yes. But you knew that already.” He grabs a loose strand of my hair, playing with it like he’s thinking about something, but I can’t tell what. “You knew I liked watching you get filthy for me and clean up after me … and you also know you enjoyed every second of your submission to me.” He tucks my hair behind my ear. “Admit it.”
I swat his hand away. “This is all transactional, that’s it.”
He grabs my wrist midair. “Is it? Or are you just too afraid of what else it might be?”
Panic flashes through my body.
I can’t, it isn’t safe. Cora needs me.
“Run from me again, and I will chase you,” he says.
I frown. “Duly noted. Now let me go.” I jerk free and pass by him.
Bagel enters through the door and zigzags through my legs, headed straight for Silas right when he was about to grab me again.
“Goddammit,” Silas growls, trying to shake him off.
A short snigger escapes my mouth, but I stop it immediately when they all look at me. “He needs someone to play with him.”
“And?”
I shrug. “You’ve got enough makeshift toys lying around here. Good luck.”
“Wait, where are you going?” Max asks.
“To check on Cora by myself. Or do I need to be supervised within the house too?” I quip.
Max pouts. “But I still wanted to … talk. About this.” He circles his finger around the room, insinuating all four of us.
But I really, really don’t want to talk, and especially not about this.
Because whatever this is … it’s not good.
It felt good—it felt too good.
Their greedy kisses, their possessive touches, all the tongues everywhere, and God, those dicks inside me made my entire body zing. Fucking them … was like everything suddenly didn’t matter anymore.
And that scares me.
“Not now …” I say, opening the door while adding, “Please.”
Max licks his lips. “I love you.”
And I can tell from the way he says it that he truly means it. I feel it too, deep down in my heart, but the problem is that I’m not sure he’s the only one, and that’s what I’m not ready to face.
“I …” I mutter.
“You don’t have to say it if you’re not ready yet,” he adds.
Thankful for the grace he extends me, I smile back, then close the door behind me and head up the stairs.
Silas
“What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing ?” I growl, looking down at that cat prancing between my legs.
“What she told you,” Max says, casually chugging down some water. “You play with it.”
“Whatever,” I say, rolling my eyes. “I don’t have time for this.” I open the door. “I want to know why the fuck the Bones Brotherhood was targeting her.”
“Obviously, she has a beef with them,” Heath replies, folding his arms. “How much you wanna bet she owed them money too?”
My eyes narrow. “That can’t be it. There’s a reason she was stealing from us. No thief would pay one debt by creating another.”
“Except a thief who’s desperate,” Max mutters.
Desperate … for what?
“Meow.”
That demon is between my legs again, dancing around on its toes, rubbing its tail against my calf, and it’s beginning to annoy the shit out of me. “What do you want from me?”
“He obviously likes you,” Max says.
“Wrong person,” I growl, and Max laughs at me. “C’mere then, you deal with this.”
“You’ve been chosen by the Bagel.” He shrugs. “I don’t make the rules.”
Max walks right past me.
“Hey!” I try to catch up, but this cat keeps following me everywhere, nearly making me trip. “You can’t leave me with this thing .”
“His name’s Bagel!” Max calls back as he walks off.
“What am I supposed to give it? A dead mouse?” I grit, annoyed at myself that I’m even entertaining the idea of playing with this cat.
Heath grabs the curtain near the window and rips off the tassel. “How about this?” He throws it at me, and as I catch it, that cat leans up to claw at it.
“Jesus, it just tried to fucking claw out my eyes,” I say.
“Oh, stop exaggerating.” Heath laughs as he walks past me. “Good luck!”
“Hey, wait a second—You can’t just leave me with this Bagelthing .”
“I sure can. Try not to kill that Bagelthing ,” Heath replies, winking. “Unless you want to give her an actual reason to kill you.”