Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(46)

Maybe I’d pegged her wrong. Maybe we all had. I let a lot of preconceived notions rule my thinking where she was concerned. While she might have been a little unruly and disrespectful, mostly in a playful way, the year before—no such pretense existed this year.

She didn’t talk to me at all, given a choice. The few times we’d had to interact for class, she’d been almost coldly polite. Too cool. Almost unfeeling.

That girl? That girl was far more alien than the elemental girl I’d been getting to know.

The one I’d kissed…

Fuck.

“We can’t help her either,” Harley said in a soft voice as though she was sorry she had to remind me.

“Maybe she didn’t get tapped.”

Harley snorted, then gave my arm a squeeze before she walked away. Yeah, the chances she hadn’t been tapped were slim to none. She was a member of Torched. If they linked her to us, then she was also a legacy. However, the band’s reputation and her own ferociousness would speak for themselves.

I pulled out my phone and sent Lachlan a message. He responded swiftly enough that he’d meet me for coffee. I’d have to make up the prep time later. Fortunately, Lachlan didn’t keep me waiting.

The fresh bruise on his jaw just made me sigh. At least his new black eye had begun to turn green and yellow. If he could manage to not ram his face into Jonas’ fists anymore, he might heal the rest of the way.

I passed Lachlan his coffee before I nodded to the doors. The sun was out and the temperature was balmy, making it almost a perfect day. That was a good enough reason to be out there.

The paths had cleared with the bell signaling transition between classes had ended and all students should be in class. The quiet in the air was one of the things I savored about the campus, no matter the time of year. There was something about the hum of activity, but it was these moments of profound peace that just soothed something in my soul.

“We just going to walk and drink coffee?” Lachlan asked. “‘Cause your message seemed serious.”

“The invites are going out.” I took a sip of the coffee and waited. While I wasn’t looking directly at him, I tracked his reactions in my periphery. Shock rippled over his face and he jerked a little.

“They banned them—”

“For two years,” I reminded him. “It’s been two years.”

He took a long drink of the coffee like he was slamming a beer. Anger tightened his expression until he all but glared ahead of us.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “I didn’t know they were doing it.” It pissed him off. Well, to be fair, I hadn’t known they were doing it either.

“We don’t really do much with them.” We hadn’t since the incident with Kelly.

Incident.

I rubbed my face again. The earlier niggling headache blew up into a full-blown pound behind my eyes. This could go so wrong. Most of the members involved had moved on to other schools, or at least other activities.

There were probably only a few of us left who knew the dirtier details. The idea of the pause had been to create a clean slate.

“You going to make me ask?” Warning Lachlan had been one reason to call him out here. The second was a lot more personal.

He quirked a brow at me. “Ask what?”

“Are you going to tap KC?” The minute the question slipped out, I regretted it—the phrasing, if nothing else. Lachlan smirked, albeit briefly.

“We don’t discuss the invites,” he said. “Just like we don’t discuss the riddles or the trials. Everyone is on their own until they make it past the first set of Knots and Chains.”

I glared at him.

“What?” He shrugged. “I don’t make the rules.”

No, he didn’t. At the same time, I wanted to tell him to leave her alone. Don’t tap her. Let her continue her little experience without the burden of Knots and Chains.

The minute I admonished him to not do something, he absolutely would though. I had a feeling his most recent black eye was directly related to her as well. Since no one reported Lachlan fighting, it was most likely Jonas.

“It’s killing you,” Lachlan said. “Isn’t it?”

“What is?” We were almost to the library. The best way to deal with Lachlan was to not rise to his bait.

“That Ace has a thing for me.”

I blinked slowly and glanced at him. “What is the color of the sky in your world?” Because I’d seen KC when she was dealing with Lachlan. Those were not the eyes of affection or interest, unless she was sizing him up for a coffin.

I could get her those measurements. It was like running sandpaper over my nerves. Lachlan never knew when it was too much. He was a bulldozer when he decided he wanted something. Clearly, he wanted her.

"Hey, she’s got friends,” Lachlan said. “You know, if you need me to fix you up.”

I just stared at him.

“Right, I forgot, you never take the stick out of your ass and remember that you’re not already a fifty-five-year-old faculty member.” He toasted me with his coffee then lifted his chin. “Thanks for this. I actually have to meet with the counselor about classes. They may have worked out a plan for me.”

Uh-huh. Right up until he threw a wrench into it. He’d been playing tag with everyone from the administration, and in the meanwhile, they’d enrolled him in three classes to keep him busy. It barely caused him to crack a book.