Chapter 1
LIVY
“Livingston, you have to come with us,” Miranda yells from the bathroom of our three-bedroom dorm.
When I walked by, I saw that she was plastering sage green eyeshadow across her eyelids.
She wants me to go to a rugby game with her and our other roommate, and it’s just not my vibe.
I don’t like crowds or to be in situations where I can’t protect myself.
“You haven’t been to one game yet, and the rugby guys are seriously the hottest on campus.
Don’t roll your eyes at me, I know you are. ”
I laugh quietly because I don’t want her to know that she was right, and my eyes were mid-roll when she called me out.
Even though I’m pretending like she might accept a no for a legitimate answer, we both know she won’t.
I don’t know Miranda very well because I’ve just been moved to this dorm unexpectedly after my last roommate left campus without a word.
One thing I do know about Miranda is that she always gets her way, eventually.
I’ve spent the short time I’ve been here praying I could make it through St. Killian University without stepping foot into frat parties and sporting events.
I’ve spent a lot of my life in witness protection after my parents were brutally murdered in front of me.
I don’t remember much of that day, or really the weeks surrounding it.
I was only ten, but the memories come back in flashes.
I’ve been bounced from one foster home to another.
Sometimes they were group homes, sometimes they were couples who had debts to fulfill.
I’ve almost been killed three separate times, and became homeless when I turned eighteen.
I was in survival mode for the longest time, working as a waitress and moving from one motel I could afford to the other.
Finally, a few months ago on my birthday, my inheritance was finally mine according to the court ruling.
I knew I needed to get out of America and go somewhere no one would think to look for me.
That’s actually the whole reason I picked St. Killian. It’s small. Private. Elite. Tucked away in the middle of nowhere in the Irish countryside. It doesn’t hurt that the research library is a renovated castle.
It felt like exactly the kind of place where someone like me can disappear. I also didn’t have any connections in America. No friends. No family. No one to notice that I’m even missing.
I hurry down the hallway and into the living room of our dorm.
This place is nicer than the single room dorm I was assigned when I first arrived.
I shared one space with a roommate. There was no kitchen, no living room, and the bathroom was a communal one down the hall that the entire floor of rooms shared.
I spend most of my time in the research library, and not because it’s a castle, but because I know the man who killed my parents is still out there, and I suspect he’s the one who has come after me all these years.
I’m trying to figure out why he targeted them so I can protect myself.
I know I can’t keep running forever, and my inheritance is only going to last so long.
Juniper is sprawled out on our black leather couch, erasing something in her sketchbook. Her long hair fans around her face, and she doesn’t even glance up when she speaks to me.
“She’s going to be insufferable if you don’t come to the game,” she says flatly.
I groan, and Juniper only laughs when I say, “I know she is. I just need to decide what’s going to be worse. Dealing with her if I don’t go, or dealing with a people-y place like a rugby game.”
“People-y places are the worst,” Juniper agrees, and I watch as her phone lights up with a picture of her stepbrother.
He’s frowning in the picture, which is standard for him, but he also appears to have a pink lipstick print on his cheek.
Juniper looks at the phone but makes no move to answer it, and the cheeky smirk that pulls at her lips makes me wonder what’s happening.
As soon as the phone stops ringing, it starts again.
This time she ends the call early. Again it starts, over and over until she says to me “Aren’t you going to ask? ”
“It’s not really my business,” I say honestly, and she only smiles.
Juniper has to go to the game, I think? Her stepbrother, Kalen, is apparently some kind of star player, and they’re kind of inseparable.
Miranda makes jokes about them being too close, and Juniper dishes jabs right back at her.
I’ve seen them together a handful of times, and he’s very intense and always seems to only have his eyes on her.
It’s none of my business what they’re doing or who they’re doing it with, but if I had to guess, I’d say he’s so moody because he’s fighting his attraction to the girl who grew up in his house.
The one who is supposed to be his sister, but instead she’s the object of his desire.
Juniper’s long brown hair curls around her pale cheeks, and her makeup is flawless as usual. She said she’s going to teach me how to do a winged liner, but I have my doubts. I had to double cleanse my face the other day because I got moisturizer in my eyes.
Despite our completely different styles, Juniper and I bonded almost immediately after meeting.
Our childhoods were nothing alike, but somehow they’re weirdly similar.
Juniper grew up rich because her mother married Kalen’s father when she was two years old.
I don’t know the full story, but I heard Miranda saying that Kalen’s mother is a Moretti. They’re a notorious crime family in America that is based out of Castlebrook.
From the bits and pieces that Juniper has shared with me, once her mother married Kalen’s father, all of her attention was solely on him and ensuring her position and status as Edmund McLaren’s wife.
Juniper’s life was all boarding schools, private jets, lavish family vacations, but no attention from her mother or stepfather.
Juniper grew up with money but without parents.
I grew up with neither.
So in some strange way, we understand how each other must have felt growing up that way.
Juniper had something else though, that I never did.
She had Kalen by her side through it all.
Something bad happened to Kalen, and I’d never expect Juniper to tell me what that is, but he seems to be stuck to her.
While he does come across as very protective of her, I get the vibe that behind closed doors Kalen is clingy and codependent on his stepsister.
Miranda makes it a big deal, but they’re not blood-related, and Juniper doesn’t seem to mind the way he seems to monopolize most of her time.
Miranda’s family is a mystery. She doesn’t really like to talk about her past, and I can’t say I blame her. I feel the exact same way.
I sink into the oversized pink fluffy chair I bought the day I moved in here.
That whole situation was weird, but I’m glad it worked out like it has.
My old roommate and I didn’t really talk, and when she left, I was kind of bummed to be alone once again.
Out of nowhere, I was notified by the student housing department that I’d be moving to the Windham dorm with two other students.
I even went over to check and make sure it was correct, because these are the fancy dorms that cost a lot more money than the regular ones.
I wasn’t willing to burn through my savings to move there.
The really nice lady who met with me assured me that it was complimentary because my roommate had left unexpectedly and there was an open room.
Sometimes things just work out, I suppose.
Juniper is right about the game though, and maybe I should give it a chance. For the short time I’ve been here, nothing weird has happened. No weird notes, no break-ins, no threatening phone calls.
Maybe it would be fine? I don’t get to finish my thought because the main door bursts open and in the frame stands a very broody, very large rugby player.
He’s in a sage green and white shirt and shorts that show his muscular thighs.
I watch as Juniper’s eyes sweep up his body slowly until they lock onto his face.
He looks like he could rip this building down with his bare hands, but there’s something in his eyes that’s nothing but absolute panic.
“To what do we owe the pleasure, Kale?” Juniper says, finally sitting up on the couch, and now I realize why she ignored his calls. She wanted to see him.
“Well your mouth isn’t broken and your fingers look fine. Is your phone destroyed? Because I don’t see any other reason you’re ignoring my phone calls.”
Miranda pops up, fully decked out for the game. She has the number 9 painted on her cheek in some kind of glittery makeup and her hair is up in two ponytails decked out with sage green bows.
“Oh my god, I heard her phone, you literally called five minutes ago and then ran over here to kick our door in,” she rolls her eyes at him, and I try to stifle a laugh when he glowers at her like he’s mad that she said it, but also that she’s right.
Kalen must decide that he doesn’t want to deal with Miranda because he’s stomping across the living room, hoists Juniper up and over his shoulder and pats his hand on her ass.
She doesn’t fight him, but doesn’t help him either.
She’s deadweight in his arms, and it makes me laugh how she seems to be his only comfort and his biggest headache all at one time.
Kalen starts walking toward Juniper’s bedroom, and I try to cover my laugh when I see that she’s stretching her arms down his back trying to push his shorts down as he’s walking, giggling as she does it.
He slaps her hard on the ass, which makes her squeal, but doesn’t deter her otherwise.
When he reaches her door, he nudges it open with his foot like it’s something he’s done a million times before.
He slowly lets Juniper slide down the front of him and cups the back of her head to steady her when she wobbles from the headrush of being flipped around.
Kalen points at Miranda and says, “Wipe that shit off your face. I don’t want to listen to him bitch about you painting his number on his face.” He doesn’t wait for her to respond, but instead pulls Juniper into her room and shuts the door behind them.
I look over at Miranda who doesn’t seem phased by Kalen barking at her. I don’t know who number nine is, or why he doesn’t want her wearing his number, but something tells me it’s going to be a big ordeal.
“Rugby game and then The Red Boot Pub for greasy food and beer?” Miranda offers, tilting her head as if to challenge me.
These girls make me feel less alone, and even though my guard isn’t fully down, maybe they’re right. Maybe the rugby game will be a fun time, and I won’t regret agreeing to go.
“Sounds like a good plan to me,” I finally say.
Miranda claps excitedly, and I think she might say something encouraging, but the only thing that she blurts out is, “And you can’t wear your uniform. Come look in my closet. I’m so excited!”
I groan.
This is definitely going to be a long night for me and number nine.