17. Blaze #2
I spot River talking to Franklin, the wuss pledge who probably is only still here because his parents are important. I know he’s on a secret fast track not to fail, and I don’t particularly care why right now.
I need a woman. Any woman .
Except Pandora.
I find a girl standing on her own right outside the kitchen.
She’s wearing a cute summer dress, not quite as skimpy as what some of the others are wearing.
She’s not as stick-thin as the other girls, and she wears the dress well.
She’s also not a redhead, but Asch isn’t that picky. Cute, shy, probably a bit desperate.
Perfect.
I walk up to her and smile charmingly. “Hey. I saw you all on your own and thought, no way should a girl this pretty be alone.”
The girl blushes and ducks her head. “Oh. Um, hi.”
Internally, I’m rolling my eyes. The shy ones are usually boring, and they cry easily. But Asch would be nice to her, and Asch doesn’t want somebody like Pandora. So the exact opposite is the right call.
If he’s content with boring, let him have boring.
“Hey. I’m Blaze,” I say, lifting my mostly empty cup to her. “What should I call you?”
She purses her lip, looking at me with suspicion, like she thinks I might be pranking her. I can already envision a whole high school bullying backstory, where guys made her feel like she was the ugliest person on earth.
That should make it easy to convince her to join me, at least.
“I’m Sandra,” she says, so softly it’s almost impossible to hear over the music. “I’m only here because my friend invited me.”
I look around. “I don’t see your friend.”
“Oh. No, she’s dancing with somebody.” Sandra shrinks against the wall. “But I’m okay. You probably have other people to talk to.”
Her eyes are hopeful though, a silent plea in them to not leave her alone.
I think about the effort it’ll take to put her at ease. I’ll have to dance with her, make jokes, give her my number, tell her about Asch, smile through it all, and pretend I actually want her and above all, make sure she has a good time so she doesn’t go off on either of us later.
Maybe Asch will be nicer to her, and take her home, and he’ll agree to see her again when the night is over.
I open my mouth to say something charming?—
And I don’t want to.
“Okay, so, I’m mostly playing wingman tonight,” I say, still smiling. I point down the hall to where River is still talking to Franklin. “See the white guy there, with the curly blond hair? His name is Franklin. He’s been too shy to approach you.”
She follows where I point, and I can see the small hint of disappointment. She’d rather have me than Franklin.
Sandra should be really glad I’m too tired and bored of it all to continue.
“Here, I’ll introduce you,” I say. I put my hand on her shoulder, and she reluctantly lets me lead her to River and Franklin.
River looks at me warily. “Bouchard.”
“Hey, River, Franklin. Congrats on surviving your first week!” I say. I nod at Sandra. “Franklin, this is Sandra. Sandra, Franklin. I think the two of you have a lot in common.”
Like both being completely boring.
Franklin looks at me in awe, though, and quickly nods. “Oh. Hi, Sandra. Um. Are you with a sorority?”
Once the conversation is going, I walk away—with River on my heels.
“What are you doing?” I hiss at him.
“Enjoying the perks of being a Kappa Alpha brother,” he says. “Shouldn’t you be celebrating the evening with your bitch boy?”
I turn and lunge for River’s neck, but he blocks me. We end up against the wall, face to face.
“Don’t call him that,” I snarl at him. “If anyone’s somebody’s bitch here, it’s you. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you follow Pandora around like a fucking dog.”
It’s his turn to glare at me. “I thought tonight made it pretty goddamn clear what I think of her. ”
“Yeah?” I pull away from him. “From where I was standing, it looked like you were very into her.”
“Doesn’t make me her bitch,” he retorts. “I can appreciate a pretty woman, and I can want to shut that smart mouth up with my cock, too.”
I chuckle, but I’m not amused. “Yeah. Well, I haven’t seen her shut up, yet.”
“She shut up when I was fucking her throat,” he says with a harsh laugh of his own.
I take the last remaining sip of my rum and set my cup onto one of the nearby tables, which is already littered with empty plastic cups.
If I can’t get Asch laid tonight, I might as well work on finding out more about Pandora.
“What’s she doing here?” I ask him. “And why’s she got you jumping at her word?”
River’s expression turns wary. “You’d have to ask her why she’s here.” He smirks at me. “But good luck getting an answer. Pandora does what she wants, when she wants it.”
Isn’t that the truth.
My eyes travel down to River’s hand, the one that’s missing the pinky. It’s unnoticeable most of the time. He has a habit of keeping that hand close to himself, probably in a subconscious attempt to hide it.
He’d gotten in trouble with the mob, he’d said.
My brow creases as I start to put two and two together.
“The mob you got in trouble with… was it the Pavones?” I ask.
I’m not sure whether he’s going to answer at first. The song changes in the background before he finally replies, “Yeah. About a year ago.”
“When you were seventeen?” I know my family does have junior members too—hell, Asch technically joined when he was sixteen. Still, normally punishments are beatings, not removing an entire finger. Something that extreme would require an equally dire transgression.
“Couple months after my eighteenth birthday,” he says.
I wait for him to elaborate, but he doesn’t continue.
“So, what? You failed to deliver a shipment?” I ask. “You came up short in payments? You stole from them?”
River laughs humorlessly. “Be careful with Pandora,” he says. “You really don’t know who you’re fucking around with.” He lifts his cup in a mock toast to me. “Enjoy the rest of your night, Bouchard.”
He walks off, not waiting for a response.
“Same person you’re fucking around with,” I point out to his retreating back.
Like I haven’t already realized that she’s trouble. But no matter what Asch or River say, I can’t stay away from her.
My father wants me to keep an eye on her.
Pandora’s always chasing me.
And I want to see her on her knees again, this time begging for forgiveness, choking on me and asking for more.
I’ll use her up and destroy her once I’ve gotten what I need out of her.
I don’t care who her father is.
She doesn’t get to toy with me, with Asch, and get away with it.