Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
EMILIA
I barely made it five steps out of class before I felt him.
Griffin’s presence always came like a storm front, thickening the air before he even spoke.
“Emilia.”
He stepped in front of me. Tie loosened. Jaw clenched. That smug Caplan confidence,
“I’ve been looking for you,” he said low, voice sharp enough to cut but quiet enough that no one else could hear.
God forbid anyone herd him say out loud he had been looking for me. His ego could not handle that.
“I’ve been in class.”
He laughed, short, bitter. “Right. Class. While you’ve been living in the Crow dormitory.”
I flinched. So he knew.
Of course he did.
Rumors traveled fast when the truth was this entertaining.
“It was the academy’s decision,” I said, forcing my spine straight.
“Bullshit,” he snapped. “You could’ve said no.”
“No, I couldn’t. ”
“You’re an Adams,” he hissed, stepping closer. “You don’t shack up with the family our fathers have watched for a decade. You don’t make them look like heroes while you look like?—”
“ Careful, ” I whispered.
He froze.
But the damage was already done.
I could feel it.
The word he didn’t say still hung between us.
“I’m not doing anything wrong,” I added, though my voice sounded thinner than I wanted.
Griffin stepped in again, backing me against the support pillar behind me.
“You’re making a fool of yourself, Emilia. Of your name. Of your family.” His gaze dropped to my mouth, then back to my eyes. “You think they want you there for your mind? For your company? Wake up. You’re a game to them. A girl to pass between.”
I clenched my fists. “You don’t know them.”
“Oh, I know exactly what they are. The Crow twins have never wanted anything they didn’t break first.”
My chest burned. Shame, rage, helplessness weaved together until I couldn’t tell them apart.
I opened my mouth to fire something back—anything—but a voice cut in before I could.
“ Move. ”
Griffin turned his head slightly.
I didn’t have to. I already knew who it was. His backhand insults lived rent free in my mind. Not to mention that stare.
Luca.
He looked... calm. Which was worse.
That kind of calm — dangerous, slow-burning calm that meant someone was about to bleed .
Obviously he was having a bad day before he walked down this hall.
Griffin scoffed. “Didn’t realize she needed a bodyguard.”
“She doesn’t,” Luca said evenly. “But she does need you to back the fuck up.”
Griffin’s eyes narrowed. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“It does when you corner girls in public and speak like they owe you silence,” Luca replied. His tone didn’t rise. If anything, it dropped lower. Colder. “ Especially this girl.”
Griffin looked at me, then back at him.
“You’ve had her, haven’t you?” he said, jaw tight. “Or maybe both of you have. Is that what this is?”
“Griffin—” I started, voice cracking.
“That’s what’s got you pissed?” Luca’s laugh broke through everything. Dark. Icy. Almost amused, he stepped forward. “Or is it the fact that every night, she climbs into bed across from me and my brother?”
Luca closed the distance with another step.
“Or maybe it’s the thought of her walking around my cousins—being the only girl in our house.”
Griffin’s face twisted. But he didn’t speak.
Because Luca was too close now.
And everyone knew the Crow boys didn’t bluff. They executed.
“I’d walk away if I were you,” Luca said quietly. Calm as a closed fist.
And for once… Griffin listened.
He backed off, muttering something under his breath, and disappeared down the hall.
It wasn’t until he turned the corner that I realized I hadn’t been breathing right.
Luca looked at me. Just looked. Some stupid reason that made me nervous .
“You okay?” he asked.
I nodded. Too fast. Too shaky.
“Yeah,” I lied.
He didn’t press. But he didn’t believe me either.
Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wrapped lollipop — like it was nothing.
Where the hell, did he always have candy?
He held it out to me.
I stared at it. “Really?”
He shrugged. “Sugar helps with adrenaline. Don’t ask me. Maddy says it’s science.”
I took it.
“Thanks,” I muttered more shocked he was actually standing here talking to me.
He nodded once. Then turned and walked off — as if everything that had just happened was completely normal.