Chapter 10
Ten
Salvatore
The professor obviously thinks we’ve starring in some cliché spy movie. We’re supposed to meet in his office during lunch, but of course the plan needs to be sneakier than that, so he assigned us specific separate times to arrive.
Like anyone’s paying that much attention which students he calls in to berate anyway.
Still, I play nice and show up when he told me to. I might not see why Elodie needs any matches other than me, but fate obviously recognizes how special she is, and I’m not going to mess with that.
Much.
After I knock and he calls me in, I find out he gave me the last arrival time. The other three guys and Elodie are already inside: Professor Raith sitting behind his desk and the others standing in a semi-circle around it.
“You better not have started without me,” I remark as I amble over to where Elodie’s standing the farthest back from the desk. I wrap my arms around her slim frame and rest my chin against her purple-tinted hair.
Her stance tenses just for an instant, and every nerve in my body jolts with the panic that I’ve upset her with even this casual embrace. But before I can yank myself back, she’s already relaxed again.
As she leans into me, letting me take a little of her weight, I can’t hold back a satisfied smile.
She might have four matches, but for the moment, she’s more mine than any of theirs.
Raith glares at me from behind his desk. Worth’s expression isn’t much friendlier. The professor’s brother just looks awkward.
I’m the only one who can hold Elodie like this, the only one who doesn’t have to worry about accidentally activating a glim with all the potential consequences. Sucks to be them.
Professor Raith clears his throat. “All right, let’s keep this brief. I looked into Kenneth’s records as we discussed. There wasn’t anything definitive, but his grades took an unexpected turn for the better in the past couple of trimesters. It’s possible that’s related to his crimes somehow.”
I scoff. “He was looking to mow down the competition? He wasn’t even in the top ten.”
The professor’s eyes narrow even more. “I don’t know what his motivations were. I’m stating the facts we have.”
Elodie sets her hand on my arm with a gentle squeeze—reassuring me that she appreciates my input or warning me not to argue too much?
When she’s touching me at all, it’s hard to care about the reason.
“Kenneth’s family invested in a new business alongside the Kingsleys and the Somersets,” she says.
“None of—of my friends have done anything obviously threatening, but… I found a pen in Stella’s bedroom.
In the trash, but the fact that she had it at all…
It had the same strange vibe to its ephemera that Kenneth’s clothes did. ”
My arms tighten around her instinctively. “That bitch is part of—”
She squeezes a little harder. “I don’t know yet. I don’t know any reason she would want me dead. But we are looking for some woman who had Kenneth’s ear. I’ll be careful around her—and the Somerset twins.”
I start deciding where I’ll first jab my knife if any of those vicious princesses so much as glances at my girl wrong.
Professor Raith looks more alert at Elodie’s news. “I haven’t encountered any more of that oddness, but I’m keeping watch for it. Anything else?”
Worth lifts his head. “I haven’t overheard anything suspicious about Kenneth from the other students, here or outside of class.”
He shoots Elodie a look as if she’ll understand more from what he’s saying than the nothing it sounds like to me. She tips her head in a subtle nod.
“No one’s hung around the Devine house who looks like they shouldn’t be there either,” I put in.
All the gazes in the room snap to me. Even Elodie twists her head to glance up. “How would you know that?”
I shrug without releasing my embrace. “I’ve been keeping an eye on things when I can. Kenneth followed you from your house. Whoever he was scheming with might stop by there again.”
Professor Raith lets out a disgruntled sound. “The police are still investigating Miss Devine’s poisoning. You don’t want them catching you spying on her and thinking you shouldn’t be there.”
Who is this void-head to act so superior when he’s still calling his fate-given match by her last name?
I roll my eyes. “I do know a thing or two about evading law enforcement.”
Worth’s expression turns pained. The professor sucks in a breath as if to speak again, but Elodie beats him to it, lifting her other hand to brush her fingers against my jaw.
“I don’t want you sticking your neck out too far. In the whole city, my house is probably where I’m the safest.”
I frown at her, but it’s hard to argue. I can sense enough of the security spells layered around the Devine home that I wouldn’t set one foot into the yard without a good excuse.
I shift my attention to her other matches. “So what are we going to do next? How else are we tracking down this crazy cunt who has it out for Elodie? I could put the screws to Kenneth’s brother.”
The twitch of Elodie’s body against mine suggests she’s suppressed a wince.
The younger Raith grimaces at the same time. “I don’t think we should go around hurting anyone when we’re not sure who’s involved.”
“I’ll keep prodding as much as I can using my connections,” Worth says. “Maybe I can find out more about the Hearsts’ joint business venture too, see how closely the families were working together.”
Professor Raith nods. “I should be able to access more details on Kenneth’s changing school performance—I just need to be discreet about it.”
I exhale in a huff. “Come on. These are homicidal criminals we’re talking about. We’ve got to step up our game before they come at our match again.”
Professor Raith’s gray gaze fixes on me, hard as steel. “This is a different kind of criminal situation than you’re used to, Mr. Cosgrave. And it requires a different approach than rushing in guns blazing.”
I have never run anywhere shooting wildly, but I do have a reputation to uphold, so I keep quiet about that. My mind leaps to Elodie’s investigations yesterday.
I glance at Worth and the younger Raith. “Can either of you come up with an excuse to get into Kenneth’s house? If he left evidence, that’s the best place to check.”
The professor smacks a hand on the desk. “The last thing we should be doing is making overt moves that tie us to his disappearance. Weren’t you the biggest advocate for covering that up?”
I’d like to take an advocate and shove it up his ass.
Worth answers my question anyway. “Kenneth and I barely talked… And while he’s missing rather than known to be dead, we can’t even express condolences without it being suspicious.”
I restrain a growl. “So we’re going to sit around hoping something useful falls in our laps?”
“I’ll keep pushing for more information too,” Elodie says. “I’m around my friends all the time—I’ll have lots of opportunities to watch their behavior.”
Before I can say anything else, the professor stands up. “All right. It sounds as if we have a plan for the next few days at least. We can discuss where we’re at next week.”
He flicks his hand, dismissing us. I glower right back at him as his brother and Worth obediently trot out of the room.
Elodie disentangles herself from my arms but keeps her hand on me to tug me toward the door. She stops at the threshold, ignoring the professor watching us from the other side of the room.
When her deep green eyes meet mine like that, it’s hard to remember there’s anyone else in the world.
She grasps my hand, twining our fingers and making me wish I’d taken off my glove so I could feel her skin to skin.
“I know you want to protect me—and you have no idea how much I appreciate that. But I don’t want you putting yourself in any unnecessary danger, okay?
This woman is obviously very good at going under the radar and manipulating other people.
It could take a while to get the full picture.
We’ll all just be careful in the meantime. ”
She holds my gaze, waiting for my agreement. For a promise not to take any risks to keep her safe?
A queasy sensation forms in my gut. How badly have I screwed up with this woman, not just in the way I touched her in the condo yesterday but with everything, that she doesn’t even trust me to have her back?
I’m not part of the same world as her or the rest of them. She doesn’t think I can handle this kind of menace.
The sting to my ego is chased away by a surge of resolve.
I’ll show her. I’ll show her I can wait to have her all the ways I want to and that I can crack this fucking case with methods her other matches wouldn’t even think to try.
“I know,” I say, because I do know how she feels. “I won’t do anything I don’t need to.”
Only our definitions of what I need to do are somewhat different.
Elodie smiles and even bobs up to offer me a kiss that makes me feel a twinge of guilt along with a whole lot of good things. She ducks out ahead of me, and I aim a smirk at Raith that earns me yet another glower.
When I set off down the hall, I’m already spinning through the possibilities in my head. We need to get right to the bottom of this conspiracy, of Kenneth’s murderous intentions and his strange allegiances…
I’ve already pointed out the most obvious way to get there.
I veer toward the main doors rather than the cafeteria.
No one will be surprised by Salvatore Cosgrave skipping a few classes. It’s practically a requirement for a man of my stature.
And the middle of the day is the best time if you want to find a house unoccupied.