Bridges Burned (Going Down in Flames #2)(95)

What was he getting at? “I assumed he was teaching you the secret Directorate member handshake and taking you on a tour of the clubhouse.”

“After your grandfather discussed legal issues and demonstrated how they were recorded in the ledgers, he showed me a book of marriage contracts where he already had our names written in for a request of lineage check.”

Valmont arrived at that moment bearing trays of cheese sticks and toasted ravioli. He froze with the platters halfway to the table. “What?”

Jaxon actually laughed. “Please, run away with her. I’ll pay you.”

“That’s it.” Bryn’s grandmother spoke in an ice-cold tone that cut through the room. “Jaxon Westgate, if you ever slight my granddaughter again, you will regret it.”

Okay. Jaxon had been a jerk, but he’d been joking. Sort of. Maybe that wasn’t the root of her grandmother’s concern.

Bryn touched her grandmother’s arm. “I promise I will never run away.”

White-lipped, her grandmother nodded.

Nervous laughter bubbled from Bryn’s throat. “Even if the Directorate sticks me with Jaxon, I won’t run away. I may have my knight run him through with a broadsword, but I won’t run away.”

Her grandmother glanced at Valmont. “You may have your uses, after all.”

Valmont grinned. “I live to serve.”





Chapter Thirty-Six


Bryn was surprised when Rhianna called her the next day. “I was wondering if I could visit you this evening.”

“Sure. Is everything all right?”

“I’ll see you at seven,” Rhianna responded like she hadn’t heard Bryn’s question, and then hung up.

Later that night, Rhianna sat on the couch in Bryn’s rooms, hugging a throw pillow to her chest. “Sorry to bother you, but I didn’t know anyone else besides you and Jaxon I could talk to about this.”

“You can always talk to me,” Bryn said. “That’s what friends are for.”

Rhianna released her grip on the pillow and laid it flat on her lap. “Rather than returning to school, the Directorate suggested I might be more comfortable at home with a private tutor.”

That was bullshit. “Tell them they can take their suggestion and shove it up their narrow-minded—”

“Stop.” Rhianna laughed. “Finish that sentence and I’ll never be able to keep a straight face around a Directorate member again.”

“Did they ban you from campus?” Bryn asked.

“No. Technically, I could return to school with you.”

“You are going back, end of story.”

“What if none of the other injured students come back?” Rhianna’s voice wavered. “I don’t want to stand out any more than I already do.”

“We’ll just have to make sure the other students know they have a choice to come back.”

“Some may not want to,” Rhianna said. “I felt sorry for myself, until I heard the extent of some of the other students’ injuries. I’ll fly crooked but at least I can still fly.”

“Exactly, and you can still think and learn and do all the things a student should do. So, we need a plan. What’s the best way to reach everyone and ask if they want to return? And how can we do this without the Directorate hearing about it?”

“Good question.” Rhianna stared at the fireplace for a moment. The corners of her mouth turned up. “I bet Lillith would do it for us.”

“Why would she?” It’s not like she ever stood up to Ferrin, or as Bryn thought of him, the asshat extraordinaire.

“We can appeal to Lillith’s maternal instincts. We’ll tell her student morale is low due to the attacks and the threat of war, and we wanted to invite all the students to some sort of ‘welcome back to school’ party. That way everyone, even the injured students, will receive an invitation to return to the institute.”

“That just might work. As long as it’s not a dance,” Bryn said, “I’m in.”

Some of the light left Rhianna’s eyes. “No argument there.”

Great thing to say to someone with a permanent limp. “Okay, I’m now a nominee for the jerk-of-the-year club. Sorry about that. It’s just that my relationship with Zavien ended at one dance. And an act of war happened at the only other dance I’ve attended.”

“Maybe we should leave the type of celebration up to Lillith.”

There was one major flaw in this plan. “My grandmother would never speak to me again if she wasn’t asked to plan a major event.”

“Then I’ll say it was my idea. I’ll contact Lillith, and suggest she ask your grandmother for help.”

“Won’t this fall apart when Ferrin hears about it?”

“If Lillith wasn’t pregnant, and likely to burst into tears at any given moment, yes.” Rhianna laughed. “Blue males, alpha males like Ferrin, back down from nothing, except upsetting a pregnant female. Heirs are how they control the world after they’re gone.”

Bryn’s phone rang. “I wonder who that is?” She crossed the room and answered the phone.

“Come down to the small dining room, immediately,” her grandmother said.