10. echo #3
Hunter’s grin settled into something colder, and for the first time since I sat down, Malakai stopped looking entertained enough to interrupt. Hunter leaned back in his chair and let the silence stretch until the table around us seemed to pull tighter.
“You stepped into a world you know nothing about, Matthews.” His voice stayed low enough that the people watching from nearby tables would have to work for it.
“There are rules here. Some are written down. Most aren’t.
You follow them because the people who ignore them eventually learn why they exist.”
I pushed my plate away a few inches and rested my forearms on the table. “I’m not following a bunch of fucking rules because your families have been scaring each other with them for generations.”
Ronan looked toward me, his expression losing some of its amusement.
“You keep hearing rules and thinking somebody’s asking for manners.
Hunter’s talking about the structure underneath this place.
Who gets access, who gets protected, whose word carries weight when something goes wrong.
You can hate it all you want. It still functions whether you respect it or not. ”
Malakai pulled my abused fork from where I had left it beside the plate and rolled it between his fingers.
“And you already used it yesterday. You wanted Nichlas badly enough to bargain with Hunter instead of trying to cut through everyone around him yourself. That means you understand enough to know the structure matters when it stands between you and something you want.”
I looked between the three of them and felt my irritation building again.
“Then stop talking in fucking riddles. Every conversation with you people eventually turns into some warning about names and influence and consequences, and nobody actually says what they mean. If you’re threatening me, threaten me. ”
Hunter went still.
Ronan’s gaze shifted toward him, and Malakai set the fork down.
Hunter folded his hands loosely in front of him and studied me for several seconds before answering. “I looked into you yesterday.”
“Congratulations.”
“I found a twenty-three-year-old transfer student with a clean academic record, no meaningful disciplinary history, enough practical experience to move around this campus like you’ve been trained for it, and four fathers whose backgrounds get thinner the farther I push.
” His eyes stayed on mine while he spoke.
“Employment records that don’t explain the money.
Moves that don’t line up cleanly with jobs.
Years where there should be more documentation than there is.
A family that exists on paper without leaving much of a trail behind it. ”
My attention sharpened despite myself. Hunter noticed, because Hunter noticed everything he thought he could use.
He leaned forward a little. “Then there’s you.
You tracked an ex across the country, transferred into his university, learned his schedule, got around the people assigned to him, put your hands around his throat, and pulled a knife when you had the chance.
That tells me something happened between you that you don’t intend to discuss over breakfast.”
“You already know what happened. He betrayed me.”
“I know the sentence.” Hunter’s gaze moved over my face.
“I don’t know what he betrayed. I don’t know what was in that ledger, who wanted it, or why handing it over nearly got you killed.
I don’t know why someone with your background decided murder was the proper way to settle it. Those are the pieces I’d start with.”
He continued before I could answer. “If you decide my rules don’t apply to you, I’ll find out who you really are.
I’ll start with the men who raised you and keep pulling until I understand what they were hiding, what they taught you, and why there’s so little left behind them.
Then I’ll move through everything attached to you.
Your enrollment. Your friends. Every place you’ve worked.
Every person who helped you get here. Whatever piece of your life you think is protected because nobody at Aldrich knows where to look, I’ll find it. ”
Priya’s face flashed through my head for half a second, followed by Devon and Maren. Then my fathers. That was probably the reaction Hunter had been looking for, because his expression sharpened when I didn’t immediately dismiss him.
“I’ll tear it apart at the core,” he said.
“By the time I’m finished, every place you thought was safe will have my name sitting between you and the door.
You’ll have nowhere left to run that I can’t reach, and eventually the safest place available to you will be beneath my feet.
When that happens, you’ll beg me for a place there. ”
Malakai had gone very quiet beside me as Hunter leaned closer until the distance across the table felt deliberately small. “Behave.”
I looked at him for a second before smiling. The expression on his face changed by the smallest amount as I reached across the table. I touched one finger lightly against his lips, held it there just long enough to make his eyes narrow, then pushed his face back an inch.
“If all of that was supposed to scare me, it didn’t.
” I withdrew my hand and reached for my water.
“You said it yourself. I’m not part of your world.
I don’t understand your terror. You can threaten me with names, money, access, whatever invisible structure keeps everyone else here obedient, but I have no reason to wake up frightened of something I’ve never needed. ”
Hunter’s jaw tightened. “You should.”
“Maybe I’ll learn.”
Malakai made a low sound beside me that could have been a laugh if he had been stupid enough to let it become one. Ronan rubbed a hand over his mouth, watching me with an expression I couldn’t quite place.
I finished the water, set the glass down, and pushed my chair back. “Great breakfast. Excuse me. I have an ex to kill.”
Hunter caught my wrist before I had fully stood. His grip was firm, his expression already back under control. “No public bloodshed.”
I looked down at his hand. “You’re going to have to define public.”
“Anywhere another student can reasonably walk in and find you standing over him.” Ronan’s voice came from my other side, calm enough to make the rule sound even more irritating. “And before you start looking for loopholes, yes, we mean it.”
I pulled my wrist free and stood. “Fuck. You sound like Father Three.”
I picked up my bag from the empty chair beside me before any of them could ask. “Don’t,” I said, pointing toward Malakai when his mouth opened. “You’ve already used up your questions for breakfast.”
I turned away from the table and headed toward the doors, hearing Ronan say something low behind me and Malakai answer. I didn’t bother trying to catch either one.
They wanted rules.
Fine.
I could work with rules.
Especially once I knew where they ended.