The Order: Hit and Run by Emma Cole Page 0,19
and pick up as many bags as I can handle. Jaeger grabs the rest and follows me out of the store and back to our dorm suite.
He remains silent until we’re in the elevator. “No more running off on us. If it happens again, I’ll report you to the headmaster.”
I gape at him, incredulity turning to fury in seconds. “I’m not a prisoner, Jaeger! That wasn’t in the contract!” I’m still fuming even as the doors slide open, and my feet stomp down the hall to our door.
“See, that’s where you’re wrong. You’re to follow all university directives, and you’ve been directed for the five of us to chaperone you. Damien was a big presence on this campus, and his father is on the board. There are more than a few board members and students very unhappy with you being here.” He's matter of fact in his delivery, bored even, as he dashes my hopes to avoid them like the plague.
“All of you? I have to be in the vicinity of one of you the entire time I’m here?” My raised voice brings the attention of a few students wandering the halls, and I shut up before my business is all over campus.
Fishing out my ID, I swipe it to unlock the door and beeline for my room, ignoring the occupants still sitting around and the shadow behind me carrying the rest of my supplies. Jaeger comes in right behind me, depositing his armful on the bed next to mine. I turn to face him, hands fisted on my hips, waiting on his answer.
“Yes, unless there’s a class or extracurricular that one of us doesn’t share, someone will always be on duty to escort you. Even to and from those classes you’re in alone. The only exception is when we’re in our meetings once a month. During that time, you’ll be in your room.” He’s barely done speaking before I let loose.
Aggravation shines clear in my voice as I follow him back out. Fuck the audience. “I’m not a damned pet, Jag, and I don't need to be treated like one. Where do you or the administration get off on making me one?”
The girl perched on Riggs’ knee snorts indelicately. “Don’t pets wear collars? Shouldn't you have picked one up with your supplies?” The bitch doesn’t understand that I will fuck up her veneers.
Riggs does though, and he pushes her off onto the floor to intercept me. “Cora, enough! It’s what we’ve been instructed. Kelly,” he addresses the girl on the floor, “make yourself scarce. I’ll call you later.” Not even a reprimand, just a promise of a booty call. What a douche.
“What happened to you all, Riggs?” I whisper furiously at him, trying to avoid the others hearing me. “None of you used to be this way, not until Damien. Not until that night at the lake house. Why?” I should have known not to show vulnerability, but I still care for those boys I used to adore when I was part of their circle.
One cool fingertip traces my cheek from the corner of my eye to the fullness of my lips. “Don’t you know, Cora? You happened. You wrecked our boy, then you spread your slut legs for your dead baby daddy.” His hand trails down to my chest as I stand in stupefied silence, only to have him shove me backward into the chair he’s just vacated. “Karma, bitch.” His parting words echo in my head as he grabs his keys off an end table and walks out of the suite.
Hitting me would have been preferable to his comments. Struggling to control my emotions and not cry in front of everyone left, I rush into my room, slamming and locking the door behind me. I can’t believe he’d said those things. Riggs is a playboy, but I didn’t think he was malicious. Not like that.
His rakish dark looks had always been intriguing, but I wasn’t that kind of girl. The kind that pines for their boyfriend’s best friend, so he’d been firmly in the ‘safe-to-flirt-not-to-touch’ zone.
While it was Jaeger and Damien in their own little bubble, the others were a posse. Drake, Ash, Riggs, and Blaise. Riggs is technically Calvin Rigby III, and Ash is short for Ashton, but everyone calls them by their nicknames. They're all varying shades of darkness. Pale to swarthy skin and eye color aside, they could all be related from appearances alone.
Actually, Kael had fit right in too with his black hair