Chapter 4 #2
“Okay,” he finally sighs. “Just looking out for you, is all.”
He grins and reaches out to ruffle my hair. I swear, he still thinks I’m seven. I bat his hand away and glare at him.
“You don’t have to shadow me just because my dad asked you to, you know.”
He snorts. “Excuse me? Have you met your fucking dad? He told me on your first day here that if anything happened to you at school, he’d cut off my balls, followed by my head. And we both know that wasn’t hyperbole.”
Coming from my father? The notorious Nero De Luca?
No, it was not.
Damiano clears his throat. “Speaking of the party… You didn’t cross paths with any of the Drakoses, did you?”
My brow knits. “I don’t…think so?”
Just a stranger in a mask who held a knife to my throat and finger-fucked me into oblivion—I’m sorry, what was the question again?
Damiano nods slowly. “Okay. Well, if any of them gives you shit, especially Achilles, let me know.”
I frown. “Gives me shit about what?”
He grimaces. “Fuck, have you not heard? The goddamn building.”
I'm confused.
Nine months ago, my father was approached by the Santoro family out of Boston. They were looking to make a move into New York, and wanted to start with a major real estate purchase. But they needed some liquidity and a New York partner. That's where Dad stepped in.
Admittedly, there was a little bit of rockiness with the Drakos family to start.
The building that the Santoro family and mine ended up buying is directly behind a building on Central Park South that’s been in the Drakos family for generations.
The Drakos family mansion estate sits on the roof of it.
As in, there is literally an enormous mansion that was moved brick by brick from the English countryside to the roof of their forty-story building by Central Park, complete with grounds, rose gardens, and two pools.
Dimitra Drakos, Achilles’ great-grandmother, has lived there for most of her adult life.
Apparently the Drakos family had also been eying the building Dad and the Santoro family ended up buying, but my father used his city government connections to make sure there was no bidding war.
The Drakos family wasn’t very pleased.
But I’m confused why Damiano thinks they’d be giving me shit about it now because Dad smoothed things over after the sale.
He gave Ares Drakos, Achilles’ father, first dibs on certain residential units that might get built, and promised that the building would never be vertically expanded, thus ruining Dimitra’s view.
I frown. “I thought everything had been settled with that?”
Damiano smiles wryly. “It was,” he growls. “Until Angelo Santoro launched a PR campaign this morning online, complete with blueprints with the plans for twenty additional fucking floors added to the building.”
Oh shit.
Damiano nods grimly. “So, like I said, if Achilles tries to start anything…”
I smile wryly. “Achilles? I mean, I get that he’d be upset about something like that. But I mean…” I lift a shoulder. “We’re talking about Achilles Drakos, the golden prince of Knightsblood.” I smile. “Are you really worried he of all people would retaliate for this?”
Damiano says nothing for a second, just rubs his clean-shaven jaw.
“People aren't always who they appear to be on the outside, Lena,” he says quietly. “Look, just… Stay sharp, okay?”
“Looks like we all left too soon.” Galina smirks.
“Oh, hilarious,” Wren mumbles, still looking the worse for wear.
I lean over and give her a side hug before I glance back at Galina. “Wait, why?”
She grins impishly. “I was talking to Aurora. Apparently Kirill was in the hot tub showing everyone his new ring.”
I frown. “You made that sound way more scandalous than it—”
“The ring is through the tip of his dick.”
Arianna makes a sour face and Wren scrunches up her nose.
“Why?” Wren groans. “Just why?”
Galina shrugs. “I mean, I hear it’s supposed to feel amazing for the girl?”
Lucia nods. “I’ve heard that too. I was actually thinking about getting my hood pierced, but changed my mind after getting my nipples done. That shit hurt.”
“What?!” Galina squeals, her brows shooting up. “Seriously?”
Lucia shrugs, unzips her hoodie, and tugs her bra down to reveal two small metal bars through her nipples.
“Holy shit,” Ari gapes. “That must have sucked.”
Lucia makes a face. “It…wasn’t pleasant.”
“Which hurt more, those or the tats?” Wren asks her.
Lucia blushes. “Depends which tattoo we’re talking about.”
Galina leans forward gleefully. “For real? Which one could suck more than getting your fucking nips pierced?”
“The one on my pussy.”
After the rest of us are done shrieking and clenching our legs together, Lucia ends up standing and peeling down the front of her yoga pants and underwear just enough to show the delicate dot-work Mandela tattooed on her pubic area.
“Okay, that’s it,” Galina declares. “You are officially the baddest ass I’ve ever met, and this calls for drinks.”
She jumps off her bed and darts over to her desk, grabbing a bottle of Prosecco from the mini-fridge underneath it and some paper cups from a drawer.
“A toast!” she laughs. “To Lucia and her massive balls of steel.”
“So,” Wren grins, gulping down her Prosecco. “How fast did Para Bellum throw Kirill out of the party when he started flashing his dick piercing around?”
Galina’s eyes bulge. “Ohmygod! That’s the best part!” She leans forward. “They didn’t. Apparently, Selene Drakos was in there with him for like an hour. It’s quite the scandal on the socials today.”
Lucia laughs. “Wow. Attractive college students party in hot tub together. In other news, water is wet.”
I snort a laugh. But suddenly I’m remembering Jude’s fierce words in the common room this morning.
He’s a fucking menace, is what he is.
Was that jealousy?
“Oh, shit!” Lucia suddenly blurts, startling us all. “I totally forgot!” She scrambles to yank her phone out of her hoodie pocket. “Did you guys see?!”
Arianna frowns. “See what?”
“Velvet Villainess!” Lucia says excitedly, tapping on her phone. “She posted a video at like three a.m. last night, and it’s obviously filmed at Kingsward Hall.”
The rest of us scramble closer as she navigates to Velvet Villainess' page and taps on the latest video. Same as usual, it begins with her dancing seductively to super sultry music that would be perfect for a dark romance book’s playlist.
She’s wearing a blank hockey mask, sort of like Jason's in the Friday the 13th movies. Except this one is matte black and has bright pink kissy lips painted onto the mouth. Her long blonde hair cascades down in gorgeous waves, framing the mask as she dances.
The music gets steamier, and slowly, Velvet Villainess turns her back to the camera.
Then she slips the straps of her black dress off her shoulders and lets the whole thing tumble down her bare back to her waist. She keeps one arm over her chest as she turns coquettishly and blows an air kiss to the camera.
After that, it cuts to the cover of a new hit dark romance book, and her text review of how much she loved it.
“Girl has moves, I’ll give her that,” Wren sighs. “And she’s up to, what, a million followers now? She’s gotta be making bank.”
“Look past her!” Lucia says excitedly. “Where she’s filming.”
She restarts the video, and we all lean closer.
“Holy shit!” Arianna suddenly yelps. “That’s totally the Para Bellum house, and it had to be shot last night!”
My jaw drops.
She's right.
Velvet Villainess’s latest video is set in front of an ancient-looking bookshelf filled with leather-bound volumes. And yeah, it could be anywhere…until you see what’s sitting on the top shelf.
“Is that what I think it is?” I murmur.
“Oh yes,” Wren nods. “It most definitely is.”
Like I said, Morvaine Manor was the home of Silas Morvaine, one of the ten founding fathers of Knightsblood. Kingsward Hall, meanwhile, was the home of Charles Pembroke, who has that academic building named after him.
The Pembroke family continued to live there for close to a hundred years after his death.
But eventually, in the early 1900s, one of Charles’ descendants decided they were done living on a college campus and bequeathed the property to the school—on condition that Para Bellum have exclusive use of it.
That’s what's sitting on the shelf above Velvet Villainess’ left shoulder: the ceremonial key to Kingsward Hall, given to the then-president of Para Bellum when the Pembroke family left.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s a stamp of a crown on the back of Villainess’ hand, like the ones we all got at the party last night.
“She’s totally a Knightsblood student!” Arianna gasps.
“Busted!” Lucia crows.
I laugh, shaking my head. “Who the hell is she? That’s so crazy. Like, we might’ve walked past her on campus a billion times.”
“Okay, you guys got me,” Galina sighs, lifting her shoulders and flicking her gingery hair dramatically. “It’s me. I’m Velvet Villainess.”
The rest of us crack up before Wren suddenly sits forward, her eyes shining.
“Oh, by the way…” She glances around the room. “Did you see the tall guy in the mask last night?”
Arianna arches a brow. “It was a mask party, girl. There were several—”
“Bitch, I don’t mean the regular masks!” Wren cackles. “I mean that freaky Scream one.”
It's like getting shoved off a dock into icy cold water.
Instantly, my lungs seize up and my entire body tightens.
But as soon as the shock passes, the icy sensation melts and becomes vicious and hot, curling and coiling around my center, squeezing and tightening until dark venom oozes through my core.
“W-what?” I croak, breathless.
Wren nods. “Okay, so I had a few drinks last night—”
“Oh, did you?” Galina says sarcastically, grinning.
Wren flips her off and continues. “But I know what I saw. This tall dude in the freaking Scream mask came down the stairs, grabbed a bottle from the bar, and walked straight into the back library.”
Arianna frowns. “Where Velvet Villainess filmed?”