Blaze
“I still can’t believe you got your ass kicked by that newcomer,” I say.
Despite said ass kicking, River looks fine now. He’s chomping down on his burger, not at all bothered by the small bruise on his jaw. His hands don’t look too scuffed up either.
The cafeteria is crowded with all the students. When the weather was warmer, some people took their food outdoors, but with the freezing cold, everybody is in here.
River shrugs. If he’s bothered by the loss, he doesn’t show it. “We’re going to have a rematch next week. Now that I know how fucking fast she is, I can anticipate it better,” he says between bites. He swallows, then adds, “If she kicks my ass again, then you can make fun of me.”
“And how strong.” I grin widely. “She fucking lifted you straight off the ground. You weigh what, one-sixty-five, one-seventy?”
“One-sixty-seven,” he says. “Super middleweight, in boxing terms. If I keep eating like this, I’ll tip over.” That doesn’t stop him from eating. “I don’t know, man. Apparently, Bobbi lifts.” He grins at me. “It would have been no contest if I hadn’t already been a little tired.”
I nod indulgently. “Of course, of course.” I take another bite of my veggie wrap, then I say, “How was Pandora last night?”
“Needy,” River says. “She kept talking about Bobbi, though.” He rolls his eyes. “I think she has a crush.”
My stomach tightens strangely, the way it had last night when Pandora was talking about wanting to be bench pressed by Bobbi. “She wouldn’t go for her, right? Pandora was joking.” I bite my lip. “How bi is Pandora, anyway?”
“Um.” River pauses, shaking his head. “I have no idea what she’s been up to for the last year. She wouldn’t cheat on us, though. Three men have to be enough for her. Right?” He suddenly doesn’t look as amused as he had before.
Is three enough for her? She has three father figures, but that doesn’t mean she’s holding three up as an ideal. And if Pandora gets a taste for pussy…
“We’ll just have to keep her too satisfied to go chasing after anyone else,” I say. I finish my veggie wrap and ball up the wrapper. “I don’t know how she has so much energy. I used to think I fucked a lot.”
River snorts. “Even the three of us together can barely satisfy her when she’s in one of her moods,” he replies. “But she won’t go looking somewhere else.” He finishes his burger and wipes his mouth with a napkin.
“We need to make more progress on the other stuff,” I say more quietly. “But I don’t know where to start. There are so many files in the drive, it’ll take forever to go through everything—and that’s if the info we need is on them.”
Exhaling slowly, River tears the napkin in two. “Yeah. I don’t know, though. It’s all just secrets. Unless someone actually confesses to killing a girl named Rachel, are we even going to get very far? I doubt they even know the women’s names anyway,” he says, his voice edged.
“There has to be a record of who got sent where. That’s important information.” I bat the balled-up wrapper from one hand to the other. “There’s no way my dad didn’t keep track of that shit.”
“The question is whether the info is in those drives or not,” River replies. “But it’s not like you can ask. He’s—” He cuts himself off, his eyes narrowing at something behind me. “Oh, great.”
I turn to see what’s caught his attention. Holden and Brock are crossing the cafeteria in our direction, and while Holden looks nervous, Brock’s expression is thunderous.
“Ten bucks says this is about Pandora,” River says in a low voice.
“How?” I ask. “She was with you last night!”
Before River can answer, Brock and Holden stop in front of our table. Brock slams his hands onto the table, like the noise is going to intimidate us.
His hand must be healed enough, since he doesn’t wince in pain.
“You can’t even fight your own battles, Bouchard?” Brock sneers. “You send your girlfriend to go after Keegan?”
I sigh and reach for my wallet. I pull out a ten and hand it to River, who takes it with a shake of his head.
“I have no fucking clue what you’re talking about,” I say earnestly.
Holden glances at Brock, then looks at me. “You seriously don’t know? Blaze, you need to get her on a leash or something.”
As hot as Pandora on a leash would be, I don’t think she’d agree to that.
…Since when do I care what somebody agrees to?
“Fine, enlighten me? What did she do that you idiots couldn’t handle yourselves?”
Brock sneers openly at me. “She broke into our house. She released rats in the house. We’re going to have an infestation for weeks!”
Oh shit. I cover my mouth, but not fast enough to stifle my laughter.
She’d threatened the rat thing, but I didn’t think she’d go through with it.
Wait, scratch that. Of course Pandora would go through with it. She doesn’t make empty threats.
“What am I supposed to do? Hire an exterminator.” I don’t bother suppressing my grin. “Unless you’re too poor for that.”
River is chuckling, too, which seems to have Holden and Brock even more pissed off.
Holden glares at me, which is more than he’d do on a typical day. He must really be freaked out.
“They’re just rats,” River points out. “Come on. It’s a harmless prank.”
“She put the rats—” Holden starts to retort, only to get elbowed hard in the side by Brock.
“We’re going to destroy her,” Brock says in a low growl. “Fuck you and your fucking family. I don’t care anymore. You don’t scare me.”
The anger boils up inside me. I stand up and get into Brock’s face.
To his credit, he doesn’t step away.
“I should scare you,” I say quietly. “Not because of who my father is, but because if you don’t back off, your nicely healed hand is going to be permanently removed.” I motion to River. “He knows what it’s like to lose an appendage. Why don’t you ask him how fun it is.”
River gets up, too, the cash still clutched in his hand—the one missing the pinky finger, for that matter—and he says, “I bet you’d piss yourself, like Holden here did during the fire.”
Holden’s cheeks turn bright red. “That wasn’t my fault!”
I laugh cruelly. “Well, you’re in good company with Tate. He can suckle the piss from your cock. How’s he doing, by the way? Heard from him lately?”
Brock lets out a frustrated sound, then he grabs my shirt and shoves me backward. I have to grab onto the table to prevent myself from falling to the floor.
Well, if it’s a fight he wants…
I stand up straighter, and without another word, I punch Brock in the face.
He cries out and clutches his nose, which is already bleeding.
“Let’s try again,” I say with cheer. “Get the fuck out of here and stop bothering me.”
We’ve attracted a crowd, and several people have their phones out as they record the altercation.
It’s better than them showing off the videos of Pandora.
“Blaze—” Holden begins, but when he catches the look on my face, he stops speaking. “Let’s go, Brock. We can report this to the dean. He’ll care.”
Brock flips me off before he storms off with Holden.
I sigh and sit down again. “Fucking hell.” I pull out my phone and tab over to my messages with Pandora.
Blaze
Where are you?
Pandora
In my dorm. Do you think it’s possible to die of a thousand needle pricks?
I stare at the text, then show it to River. “Is she considering a new form of torture?”
“Definitely,” River says. “We should probably talk to her. Not that I think it’ll help, but we can try before she pulls something with Ezio that actually will get her into trouble.”
We clean up the table and make our way to Pandora’s dorm. She opens for us after one knock, which makes it seem like she was waiting in the kitchen.
“Hey!” Pandora says, kissing my cheek before she closes the door. “And River, too!” She grins at him and gives him a quick peck. “What are two-out-of-three of my favorite people doing here?”
She doesn’t even care.
She’s completely oblivious, and she thinks she’s untouchable.
But I remember what she looked like when we’d rescued her from Ezio the last time. Bruised up, hair a mess, dangling off the side of the cliff, and I know if River, Asch, and I had been even a second later, Ezio would have killed her.
“You stupid fucking—” I growl as I grab her arm and shove her against the wall.
“Oh!” Pandora gasps, and her smile widens. “If that’s what you’re here for, you should know I’m still a bit sore from last night, but…”
I wrap my hand around her neck and squeeze as I cover her lips with mine. Pandora struggles half-heartedly, moaning into my mouth and gripping my shirt.
“You aren’t nearly as sore as you’re going to be when we’re done with you,” River says, his own voice dark. “Not that I think that’ll teach you the lesson you need. What the fuck were you thinking, Pandora?”
Pandora doesn’t say anything, because she can’t while I’ve got her throat constricted and my tongue inside her mouth.
When I finally give her air, she gasps hard and smiles.
“More,” she whispers, wrapping her arms around my torso.
This isn’t going to teach her a lesson.
I draw away and grab her arm again. “River, find her cuffs or chains or whatever the fuck she’s got in her closet. Or some fucking rope.”
Because we both know she has some.
Pandora tilts her head at me. “Hey, I’m not fighting you. We can have awesome sex without the chains.”
I shake my head and drag her toward her bedroom. “You don’t fucking listen to us! How many times do we have to tell you to let it go.”
“Too many,” River mutters. He follows us into the bedroom, but he goes straight for the closet. I hear him rummaging around, then he says, “Bingo.”
He’s carrying a plastic container when he joins us near the bed, and when he opens it, I see that Pandora really does have a whole arsenal of toys and supplies: rope, handcuffs, a few dildos, and even a small flogger.
The sight of the flogger gives me ideas.
A lot of ideas.
The first time Asch and I had shared Pandora, she’d been pretending to be scared. On her knees, defiant, but following orders and hissing with impotent rage.
Not so impotent, I’ve found out, but she’d been hot like that.
Pandora tries to pull away from me, but I keep my grip tight on her.