RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,37
broke into my room was looking for something. Something concealed inside the jacket of another book or taped to the bottom of a drawer. And the pillows and bed? Same thing. They were searching for something that I don’t think they found.
It’s possible that the knife in the bed wasn’t a threat. It’s possible that whoever tossed my room got disturbed at some point, either by me or someone else, and they fled, leaving the blade buried up to the hilt by accident.
I have no reason to believe it was Wren who did this, but every cell in my body is screaming that it was him. The way he was staring at me during our English class…it looked like he was plotting terrible, evil things, and for some sick reason I couldn’t force myself to stop looking at him. That hour, trapped inside Doctor Fitzpatrick’s room, was an embarrassment. I should have had a little more self-control. I should have been able to block Wren out. I’ve never had an issue ignoring a guy with an attitude problem before, but this guy. This guy. He’s different.
I suspect he’s way more than I can handle. And invading my room? Breaking every personal possession I own? Destroying the only thing I really, truly hold dear? That’s so cold and calculating that I’m actually worried I might not be able to manage the attentions of a guy like Wren Jacobi all by myself.
I’m too agitated to sleep, so I pace back and forth by the window, turning things over in my head. What the hell does he want from me, for fuck’s sake? And what the hell did he want in this room? I know so little about Wren that guessing the answers to these questions is near impossible.
So, what do I do about him? What do I do about this troubling fascination I feel coiled like a snake around my insides every time I think his cursed name? How the fuck do I make it through these final months at Wolf Hall without falling foul of some terrible, dark act? Because it feels like something terrible and dark is about to happen. Just like the storm clouds amassed in the sky above Wolf Hall, this sense of foreboding presses down on me from above, filling me with dread.
From the way Carina reacts any time Wren, Dashiell or Pax are close by, my worries seem justified. Dashiell treated her horribly and broke her heart, but something in my gut tells me there’s more to that story than she’s letting on. I think she’s keeping secrets, and I don’t begrudge her them. We’ve only been friends for a little over a week. I can’t expect her to trust me and take me into her confidence, when neither of us have figured each other out yet.
She warned me not to go near the boys or their precious Riot House, but shit. If there’s something I need to know, something specific that could prevent me from getting seriously, actually hurt, then that would be useful information.
The best thing I can do is stay the hell away from Wren and his friends. Avoid contact with them at all costs. And get a fucking lock on my bedroom door, even though they’re forbidden according to the Wolf Hall rule book. Fire Ordinances, or health and safety, or something like that. I dare anyone to challenge me over a little protection for myself and my belongings, now that this has happened, though.
By midnight, the storm outside has gotten so bad that the wind howls through the gaps in the windows, and the rain slamming down on top of the eaves above my window sounds like my father’s old unit are practicing their drills right on top of me. It’s so dark outside that I can barely make out the boughs of the huge live oaks that loom over the maze, tossing and groaning under the elemental assault.
I’ve lived in all kinds of different places, climates and landscapes. For a time, my mother insisted I stay with her for a year in Chicago when I was a child, but aside from that all of my other homes have been in warm climates. Deserts and beaches, for the most part due to my father’s dislike of the cold. That he sent me to live in such a bitterly cold spot now really speaks to the fact that he plans on never visiting me here. Which is totally fine by me.