Devil Incarnate (Boys of Preston Prep #4) - Angel Lawson Page 0,39

a cheerleader and a junior. She’s pretty popular despite being friends with Sydney, and when all the stuff was going on with Heston, she did freak out. She wanted her to dump him, so she must not be completely stupid.”

Vandy’s expression is sour until she raises her eyebrow at me, and says, “What about your new roommate?”

“Josie?” I blurt. “Are you kidding?”

Vandy reasons, “She’s pretty. I noticed she’s in all AP classes, so she’s smart. Obviously rich—”

“And trouble,” I point out. “She’s from Sparrowood. Talk about a narc. She’s only been at Preston a few days, she has no sense of loyalty to us. What if she tells them about the Devils? That would fuck up everything.” We glare at one another for a moment, until I sigh. “This is hard.”

“No wonder they left it up to us,” Vandy replies. “Dumbasses.”

“Complete dumbasses!” I agree. “How do you recruit zero underclassmen to carry the torch?”

“The problem is that we’re too nice,” Caroline offers, her expression turning thoughtful. “We want, like, good people in the group, but remember our confessions? That first night, I was convinced I’d done something really stupid. I was hanging out with a bunch of liars and cheats and delinquents. But I realized that we all had shitty stuff in our past, and that shitty stuff is what bonded us, you know?”

She looks between us, and I nod. “That night changed my life.”

Caroline smiles. “So let’s stop thinking about the perfect person and start thinking about the perfect Devil. Those may not be the same thing.”

“You’re right,” Vandy says, straightening. “I’m letting my personal grudge get in the way of this.”

“Same,” I agree. We’re looking at this the wrong way. Devils need to be tough, fearless, resilient. They can’t be afraid of getting into trouble, and they should have a little bit of a reputation. If Emory or Bass were here, I’d even ask their advice. But they’re not. A thought occurs to me. “I mean, there is someone else on campus who was a Devil,” I blurt, already feeling my face bloom hot. “Maybe even the best Devil, for a given value.”

Vandy frowns. “Who?”

But Caroline knows just who I’m talking about. “Heston? You can’t be serious. He helped destroy the Devils!”

“No, right, I know, I know,” I say quickly, covering my tracks. “I don’t even know why I said it.”

But I do know. I know my habits and my cycles. My weaknesses. He was right earlier, about me coming to him to test the temperature. I never would have believed him if he’d told me he was clean. I just had to know what I was dealing with—whether I’d managed to put a wall back up around my libido.

I didn’t like the answer.

Just like then, I realize I’m looking for a reason to talk to him. To be around him. To, you know, accidentally have my vagina fall on his cock.

I’m disgusting.

“I know you’re taking the swim class with him,” Vandy says, voice full of caution, “but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be around Heston very much. He’s too manipulative and sneaky. I don’t trust him.”

“I don’t either,” I agree, glad that I’d chosen not to tell them about what happened in his office. That had nothing to do with trust, but people like Vandy and Caroline…

They’re romantics.

They wouldn’t understand sex for the sake of sex.

“You’re right,” I say, smiling tightly. “You’re both right. I think just having him around makes me anxious. Like it’s better to know where he is and what he’s doing than to constantly wonder who he’s gunning for next.”

“That’s reasonable. You two have a past—a really shitty past. No one blames you for being uncomfortable with him being here,” Vandy says, slipping into her amateur psychiatrist role. She’s the only person I know who’s had more therapy than me. “I think the best thing is keeping him at as much distance is possible under the circumstances. You already have to be subjected to him for swim.”

Caroline nods and takes the notepad from me. Together we flesh out a list and each pick a few recruits to do some recon on. We agree to come back together in a few days to compare and pick the final nine.

“What about that?” Caroline says, pointing to the memory card.

Vandy looks between us, palms up. “I’m already out about the pill addiction. I have less to lose than the two of you. Y’all decide.”

Smirking, I look at Caroline. “Are you thinking