Just Like This (Albin Academy #2) - Cole McCade Page 0,103

comes back, he’s dirty all over except his clothes, and he smells real bad. Like he’s been swimming in... I don’t know. Beer, I guess, but he ain’t drunk. Sometimes other stuff.” He made a face. “Like, sharper, heavier.”

Rian came to attention, drawing in a breath.

That was a detail Luke had left off before.

Damon’s tight expression said his train of thought wasn’t far off from Rian’s. “Whiskey?” Damon supplied. “Or like, rum?”

Luke snorted. “You think I know what whiskey or rum smell like?” he said dryly. “My family’s Seventh Day Adventist. Dry house, baby, and that’s a line my ass don’t cross.”

“A student who hasn’t tried to steal a taste of hard liquor,” Walden said with a cool, sardonic lilt. “I believe we’ve found the eighth wonder of the world.”

Luke narrowed his eyes. “You said this conversation didn’t happen, right?” he asked, and Walden nodded briefly.

“Correct.”

A smirk spread Luke’s lips. “Then I’m not gonna get in trouble for telling you what an asshole you are, huh, Mr. Walden?”

Walden’s eyes narrowed. “I would suggest not pressing your luck.” With a deep sigh, he laced his fingers together. “Instead, I would also suggest you cooperate a little longer, and assist these gentlemen in searching your room.”

Now it was Luke’s turn to sigh. “Great. Now everyone’s gonna know I’m a snitch.”

“We’ll keep a low profile,” Damon promised, and curled a hand to Luke’s shoulder. “C’mon. Let’s go take a look.”

Walden didn’t say anything until the door was open and they’d started to file outside, Rian bringing up the rear—only to freeze as that icy, silken voice turned almost too pleasant, enough to send shivers down his spine.

“Oh, and Mr. Falwell?” Walden said.

Wincing, Rian glanced back. “...yes...?”

Glacial eyes speared into him, Walden’s jaw set in a hard and irritated line. “The paint cups are still in the sink.”

Oops.

“Sorry,” Rian said faintly. “I’ll, um...tonight?”

“See that you do,” Walden bit off. “Now get out of my office, and don’t come back.”

Chapter Sixteen

True to his word, Damon tried to keep a low profile about slipping into Luke and Chris’s room—hanging around the corner of the hall with Rian while Luke unlocked the door, and waiting until the corridor was empty before they went scurrying down the floorboards to duck into the large shared room afforded to students.

He’d almost never had any reason to enter student quarters when he rarely drew rotation for monthly room inspections, but he didn’t know if it was a point of bitterness or a point of amusement that the room was almost three times the size of his own; he just didn’t need that kind of space, especially when between Luke and Chris they’d filled it with...

A hell of a lot of mess.

And Damon was pretty damned sure that inspections were next weekend.

Luke was quick to move in front of the bed on the right side of the cluttered room, strewn with clothes everywhere, books, junk food packages, a few musical instruments, posters, gaming devices. He spread his arms, giving them both wary looks.

“My side,” he said. “Stay out.” He nodded toward the other bed on the opposite side of the room, the blue coverlet rumpled and the pillows askew, a few old junior high football trophies on the shelf above the headboard. “That’s all Chris’s stuff. Left side of the closet’s his, too.”

Damon glanced at Rian, who stared at the room in clear dismay. “Where you wanna start, Falwell?”

“With a vacuum cleaner,” Rian said hollowly, before shaking his head. “I’ll, um, take the closet?”

“Sure. I guess I’ll just take...” Damon swept the room with a look. “Everything else.”

“Trust me,” Rian said as he crossed to the large sliding double door that opened into the closet and pulled it aside, staring with wide eyes and slack lips at the veritable wall of crap the door was barely holding in, “I think you got the easy job. Wish me luck; I’m going in.”

And with that, Rian literally pinched his nose like he was about to dive underwater, and pushed his way into the bristling mess of sports equipment and balled up clothing and God only knew what else. Damon watched him burrow in with a small smile, then shook his head and set to work himself.

For long minutes the only sounds were those of the grinding as the interlocked and delicately balanced mess in the closet shifted, Rian’s faint grunts of exertion, and Damon tossing books and things about as he rummaged under the mattress, in the desk drawers, inside the dresser drawers,