17. Blaze
BLAZE
Pandora Pavone .
The name keeps repeating in my mind, over and over, followed by waves of anger and humiliation.
She’s been playing me this entire time.
“Giulio Pavone is fucking scary .”
My hands clench and unclench. Even the satisfaction of a good fuck—and I can’t deny how hot it had been, to have her impaled between me and River, mewling and taking it—can’t wash away the betrayal.
No wonder I’d seen fire in her eyes. She isn’t a meek, spoiled princess. She’s the heir to the largest crime family in the northeast.
Zayden and the other pledges, the ones who’d managed to grab a Nyxie girl, are already inside the frat house. The party is in full swing, with everybody cheering their successes and congratulating the pledges for making it through hell week.
I’m not in the mood to celebrate.
I storm through the building. I spot Asch over by Franklin, but I ignore his questioning look and go up to my bedroom, shutting the door and locking it behind me .
It’s 3 a.m., and I should go to bed and sleep it all off, but the knowledge that I’ve been fucking Pandora Pavone circles in on me. This is important. This means something.
I call my father. There’s only a one-hour time difference with New Valence, and I’m sure he’s still awake. He’s always been a night owl, to my mother’s chagrin. She’s the early bird who wants all the worms.
It only takes a few rings for my father to pick up.
“What is it?” he asks mildly.
“There’s a situation. I wanted to see how you want me to proceed,” I say cautiously. No small talk, no greetings. My father doesn’t want his time wasted. “Giulio Pavone’s daughter is sniffing around the fraternity.”
I don’t mention that I’ve slept with her.
I don’t mention that she had me fooled.
I don’t mention that I’ve been fantasizing about her since that day in the tunnels, that I want to make her scream and cry out and beg for me.
There’s a pause before my father answers, “Pavone? Why did he send his daughter to Dyschord? It’s not his alma mater.”
“I think she’s spying for him,” I admit quietly. “It’s the only thing I can think of.”
“Hmm,” my father says, and I hate that sound, the one that means he’s already made a judgment but I’m not allowed to know what it is. “I haven’t heard of Pavone attempting to move south, but it would be a problem if he did.”
Despite the many years Giulio Pavone has lain low, people still repeat the same rumors about him. He took out an entire rival family for a single insult. He murdered his own father. He will destroy anyone who crosses him.
They’re ridiculous, of course, but my father has a healthy professional respect for Pavone and it’s one of the reasons we’ve kept our business discreet up north .
“Do you want me to… that is. Pandora’s pretty. She could be…” I stop myself from finishing the sentence.
She’d be good product.
I’m sure there are enough clients who would want a woman like Pandora.
She’s mine , I think viciously, and I don’t know where that sentiment came from. I don’t care about women. They’re boring and tedious, good only for a fuck and to keep Asch happy.
But Pandora is wild and unpredictable, and she humiliated me.
Nobody else should get to destroy her.
“No!” my father abruptly says. “Do not antagonize the Pavones. Not until we know what they’re up to. Keep an eye on her. I’ll have somebody look into it too. Keep me apprised of any new developments.”
I breathe a small sigh of relief. “All right.”
I wait for my father to say something else, but it’s the end of the conversation, and he hangs up without so much as a goodbye. I’m used to it, but I still hate that I wait, lingering on the phone, until I realize he’s hung up.
I throw the phone onto my bed and growl in frustration.
Keep an eye on her .
Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll do that, starting with finding out what the fuck River knows. Maybe beating it out of him, or snapping off another one of his fingers, until he admits what they’re up to.
He’d been great in the hunt, I can admit that, but I’m not going to trust him.
I open my bedroom door to head down to the party, maybe to get drunk and smash somebody’s head in.
I stop when I see Asch standing opposite the door.
“Hey,” he says.
I know him well enough to know he’s trying to hide his concern. With anyone else, it might have even worked.
He’s holding two red cups, and he holds one of them up to me. “Rum and coke,” he tells me. “Thought you might want a drink. ”
I take the cup gratefully and chug half of it in one go. It’s more rum than coke, and it burns as it goes down my throat.
“You know me so well,” I say to Asch with a smile. “All right. Who survived hell week? River did, and I saw you with Franklin. Did Peyton? I kept hoping he’d drop out, but he got through all the other shit.”
“Nine of them, including Peyton,” Asch replies, taking a sip of his own drink. I wonder if it’s as laden with booze as mine is, but it probably isn’t. He’s never been a heavy drinker, always stopping just shy of getting more than a buzz.
He only bothers with a splash of liquor here and there to keep up appearances. We’ve never talked about it, but even before his own hell week had included so much liquor I’d thought he might have alcohol poisoning, he’d never been a big drinker.
“Fucking Peyton,” I say. “Well, he might still drop out before we accept it. If we keep being dicks to him.”
It’s not Peyton I want to be a dick to.
It’s not Peyton’s fingers I want to snap.
I go stand against the wall next to Asch, tapping my red cup against his. “How come you didn’t join us for the fun part of hell week? I would have gotten you out of party setup duty.”
Asch starts to say something, and I recognize the stubborn glint in his eyes. “They already think I’m your bitch,” he says, and while his voice is mild, I notice the tension in his shoulders. “Anyway, how was it?”
I take another gulp from my cup. The rum settles warmly in my stomach.
“It was good. I tailed River. He almost got a girl, but she escaped by climbing up a fucking tree. She looked terrified, clinging to the tree like two branches up. I could have grabbed her ankle and pulled her down, but I figured I’d leave the easy prey to somebody else. ”
“Of course you did,” he says, shaking his head. “Which Nyxie did River get? Or did you not even bother to get her name?”
I shake my head. “Wasn’t a Nyxie. Pandora got in the way. I don’t know what the fuck she was doing there, but… eh, a cunt’s a cunt. River and I spitroasted her.”
I watch Asch carefully when I say it.
If I hadn’t been, I’d have missed the way he tenses, and as it is, I’m not sure what he’s thinking.
“Asch?” I ask cautiously.
“I’m glad you got to fuck her again,” he says, his voice neutral in the way that means he’s anything but. “And that she didn’t stab you.” He tries for a smirk, but he doesn’t manage it.
“Yeah,” I agree. I stare into my cup and swirl the rum around. “You should probably stay away from her.”
“Me?” he asks, the neutrality dropping in favor of blatant disbelief. “ I’m the one who should stay away from her? You just fucked her with Rivera, and you’re warning me away from her?”
I scowl, not used to Asch getting upset at me. Normally he agrees with what I say—at least, if it’s important.
“I found out who she is,” I say defensively. “She’s not just some spoiled princess. She’s Pandora Pavone. As in, Giulio Pavone’s oldest daughter. You don’t want to get mixed up in that.”
His eyes narrow, and he takes a long drink from his cup.
His entire body has gone rigid, and his voice is terse as he replies, “So you’re…
What? Trying to protect me?” He scoffs. “You don’t plan on leaving her alone, do you?
You’re going to keep fucking her and—” He cuts himself off, then mutters, “Never mind. You do what you want, Blaze. I can’t stop you. ”
I push away from the wall. “I can’t leave her alone.
My dad wants me to keep an eye on her. But there’s no reason for you to get involved as well.
You already made it clear you don’t like her, anyway.
” I smile at him. “Come on. There’s probably chicks downstairs.
I’ll find one for you. A redhead, right? You like redheads.”
Asch’s jaw clenches. “What do you think is going to happen after we graduate?” he demands. “I’m supposed to be protecting you, and I can’t do that if you shut me out. Or do you plan on hiring Rivera to do my fucking job instead? ”
I remember River, thrusting into Pandora. The way he’d handled her, and how hot the entire scenario had been.
Sex is one thing. I wouldn’t trust him to have my back, not like Asch.
“It’s not like that, Asch,” I say. I reach out for his free hand, but he pulls back before I can grab it. “Come on. There’s a party downstairs. You need to get laid.”
“Yeah? Because getting laid solves every problem in the world, especially if it’s with Pandora Pavone ,” he says sarcastically. “Go without me. I’m not in the mood.”
He storms off into his room, and I watch in shock.
Then anger starts to pool in my stomach.
How fucking dare he blow me off like that. He doesn’t get to treat me like that. He does what I say, when I say it.
I fight the urge to follow him into his room and put him in his place. I could wrap my hands around his neck, and he might fight, but we both know that if it comes down to it, he doesn’t have the will to oppose me.
I could tear him apart and make him beg.
Pandora would help me do it, too.
I flush with arousal, imagining Pandora trailing a knife over Asch’s bare skin. “ Make him your bitch, Blaze, ” she’d say.
Or maybe she wouldn’t, because so far, she’s never done what I told her to do.
I shake the thoughts away and down the rest of my drink.
Sex. Sex is going to calm everything down. I go back downstairs to where the music is pounding and the room is filled with new pledges high on success and plenty of drunk and horny women to even out the numbers.