19. Hunter
Hunter
I was halfway across the east quad when Ronan called.
I had one hand around the strap of my bag and exactly eleven minutes to get to class, which would have been manageable if my life had stopped producing problems for more than an hour at a time.
I answered without slowing, expecting an update on Nichlas from the doctor or another piece of Westbridge information.
Ronan skipped both. “Nichlas was moved.”
I stopped in the middle of the walkway while students split around me. “Moved where?”
“Quorum medical property off campus. Authorization went through under your name about forty minutes ago.” His voice stayed level, which usually meant he had already moved past being angry and into the part where somebody else needed to worry. “You didn’t authorize it.”
It was not a question. I turned away from the academic building and started walking in the opposite direction. “Who did?”
“Camille used a legacy approval attached to her family credentials. Someone in medical accepted it because the request was routed through Hansen security and she said the protection arrangement had changed after last night.” Ronan paused long enough for me to hear keys moving beneath his voice.
“We know where Nichlas is. He hasn’t left the property yet, and I’ve already frozen the transfer beyond that location. ”
That saved one problem from becoming two. “Get him back under our people. Don’t bother calling Camille.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
I ended the call and changed direction again.
My class could survive without me. Camille was about to learn whether she could.
The route to Echo’s building took less than five minutes if I cut through the administration courtyard.
By the time I reached it, the anger had settled into something cleaner.
Camille had spent years assuming proximity to my family translated into proximity to my authority.
I had tolerated more of that than I should have because most of it was annoying rather than consequential.
She inserted herself into dinners, spoke as if future plans were already settled, and treated access she had inherited through our families as though I had personally granted it.
I had made myself clear before.
Apparently clarity had not been enough.
The stupid part was that Echo listened better.
Echo, who argued with nearly every instruction I gave her. Echo, who tortured a protected man after finding a technical hole in five words. Echo, who treated my authority like an interesting theory she had no obligation to respect.
Even she understood where the actual lines were.
She pushed them, mocked them, occasionally stepped directly on them to see what I would do, but she had never pretended to speak for me.
She had never issued an order under my name, rerouted my people, or used my family to override a decision I had already made.
As much of an unknown as Echo remained, the trouble she created was usually hers.
Camille had just reached into my territory and made a decision on my behalf.
That difference mattered more than I liked.
Echo’s class had another six minutes left when I arrived. I considered waiting in the hall, then decided I had already sacrificed one lecture and saw no reason to become patient now.
I opened the door.
The professor stopped mid-sentence. Thirty students turned toward me, including Echo, who sat three rows from the back with a pen in one hand and an expression that immediately suggested I had become more interesting than whatever was on the board.
I looked directly at her. “You’re with me.”
Her eyebrows went up. She opened her mouth, probably prepared to remind me that normal people waited until class ended before issuing summons, but she took one look at my face and reconsidered. Echo shoved her notebook into her bag, muttered something to the woman beside her, and stood.
That almost made me angrier.
Camille could have learned something from her.
I stepped back into the hall while Echo collected the rest of her things. She joined me less than a minute later and immediately started beside me as I headed toward the central commons.
“I’m assuming this isn’t because you suddenly developed a passion for attendance violations.” She adjusted the strap of her bag and had to lengthen her stride to keep up. “Where are we going?”
“Camille.”
Echo looked at me more carefully. “What did she do?”
“She moved Nichlas.”
That wiped the amusement from her face. She caught my arm hard enough to stop me for half a step before releasing it. “You said he was still mine.”
“He is.”
“Then why the fuck is Camille moving him anywhere?”
“Because she used old family access and my name to authorize a transfer I never approved.” I started walking again, and Echo followed without another argument. “Ronan already knows where Nichlas is. He’s handling that.”
Her silence lasted until we crossed into the next building. Students moved around us in clusters, several of them looking twice when they recognized me and then again when they recognized Echo beside me.
She glanced toward the upper lounge where Camille usually spent the hour between classes. “What exactly are you planning to do?”
“I’m about to make a fucking statement.”
That earned me a slow look, but Echo did not ask me to explain.
The Quorum lounge occupied the second-floor corner of the building and stayed crowded enough during the day that almost nothing said inside it remained private. Camille liked it for precisely that reason. She enjoyed having people watch her belong somewhere.
She was sitting near the center with four other students when I walked in.
Her expression changed the second she saw me. The smile came first, automatic and polished, before she noticed Echo at my side and the edges tightened.
“Hunter.” Camille set down her coffee and stood. “I was going to call you after class.”
“You moved Nichlas.”
The room did not go silent, but it changed. Conversations closest to us softened as people realized something worth listening to had arrived.
Camille glanced briefly at Echo before giving me her full attention. “He needed to be moved. He was nearly killed while supposedly under your protection, and the private doctor you chose was keeping him in a location she already knew.”
Echo shifted beside me. I did not look at her.
“You used my authorization.”
“I used access my family has had for years because somebody needed to fix this before your father heard a protected Quorum asset had been tortured under your roof.” Camille’s voice remained controlled, but irritation had begun pushing through.
“You left him alone with her after everything she has done since she arrived here. I made sure he was somewhere secure.”
“You made a decision for me.”
“I made a decision you should have made yourself.”
There it was.
The assumption beneath every dinner invitation, every reference to what our families wanted, every time she had behaved as though eventually I would stop resisting and become the man everybody else had decided made sense beside her.
I moved closer. “Your family being protected gives your family protection. It does not give you authority over my territory.”
Camille folded her arms. “This stopped being only your territory when your choices started creating Quorum problems.”
“Careful.”
“No, you need to hear it.” Her eyes flicked toward Echo again.
“You brought her into your circle without knowing who she was. She tortures someone you promised to protect, and instead of removing her, you put her under your protection too. You’re letting whatever this is affect decisions you’re supposed to be making for Aldrich. ”
Echo remained unusually quiet beside me.
Probably because she knew she did not need to do anything.
Camille had made the same mistake she always made. She believed being close enough to the structure gave her ownership over it.
“I have heard you,” I said. “Repeatedly. That seems to be the part you keep missing. I heard you when you decided we were supposed to end up together. I heard you when you treated every woman near me like she needed your approval. I heard you the last time I told you I was done with this.”
Several conversations around us had stopped completely now.
Camille’s face hardened. “Don’t do this here.”
“You did it here the second you used my name to move someone under my protection.” I stepped close enough that she could not pretend this was a misunderstanding meant to be handled later.
“So everybody can hear the rest too. I’ve been done with you.
I want nothing from you. Your family is protected because that relationship existed before either of us had a say in it, but I am not your fucking bitch, Camille, and you are not in my bed. ”
Color climbed into her face.
“You think humiliating me changes what your father expects?” Her voice sharpened now that control had stopped working. “Desmond has been very clear about what makes sense for both families.”
I laughed once, without humor. “Then you can fuck him.”
Somebody behind Camille choked on a drink.
I felt Echo turn toward me, but I kept my attention on Camille because I was not finished.
“I’ve got a new bitch.”
Then I reached for Echo.
One hand closed around the front of her neck, fingers spanning lightly beneath her jaw as I turned her toward me and kissed her.
I expected resistance.
At minimum, I expected the pause she always gave before deciding whether she was going to allow something or turn it into a fight. I expected her hand against my chest, maybe a shove hard enough to remind me exactly who I had grabbed without warning.