Wicked (Somerset University #2) - Ruby Vincent Page 0,53

questions seriously. But the one person we know for certain holds malicious hate toward me is the mystery person in the white car. If it is them, they know where I go to school and how I spend my time.”

“I’m doubling your security.”

“Ryder, wait. This is one crazy person against a team of trained guards. If they wanted to test their luck with them, they would have done it already.”

“You don’t know that. They could be biding their time until you and Juliet turn a blind corner with the other two lagging far behind. It’s a college campus. You see a lot of random faces wandering around every day. How would you know who shouldn’t be there? And then there’s Leighton Lewis and the sorority she ran for years before you came along. She could have plenty of friends in that house willing to do her bidding beyond the grave. If it’s not her in the first place.”

I dropped my head back, expelling a tired breath. “All right. I get it. I’m not underestimating the danger. I just don’t want more people following me around everywhere. Do you know what it’s like feeling someone’s eyes on you all the time? Watching you eat, cough, and scratch? It reminds me every second that my sense of safety is shattered.”

“I know, Val.” Ryder lifted my head, pressing our foreheads together. “They’re looking for this guy. Soon we’ll find him and you can go back to your life. I promise.”

I tapped his nose. “I’m going to hold you to that promise.”

“Do it. You know I’m good for them.”

Snuggling into his neck, I breathed him in. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is Leighton.”

“Why not?”

“Calling me a whore is pretty telling. Whoever did this must have a problem with me and my four boyfriends. Leighton didn’t care at all. Actually, she was so strongly in support of better treatment for women and their right to choose their partners that she slit Logan Bilius’s throat. She’s not running around spray-painting ‘whore’ on anyone’s car.”

“The only thing you know about Leighton... is that you don’t know her at all.”

I inclined my head. “Fair enough. But we keep coming back to the fact that Leighton doesn’t have a reason to hate me. I haven’t told the world what she did.”

“If not Leighton or Aiden, we’re looking at everyone.” He kissed me. “You have to be careful, Val. This person followed you to the beach house and didn’t disappear like we assumed.”

“Maybe their next message will tell me what they want from me.”

“There won’t be a next message.” Ryder grasped my chin between two fingers. “I’ve got five cars. Take a different one every day and mix up where you park. Juliet and Hadley are by your sides at all times from now on. Kennedy hangs back.”

“I can do that. If this person is going to keep coming after me this recklessly, it won’t be long until they trip up.”

“They will. And I’ll be there with a bat to smash their heads in.”

A smile tugged at my lips. “My sexy, violent hero.”

“That’s me.”

I laughed. “There’s something else you can do to make me feel better.”

“Have the chef send up ice cream, put a movie on, and binge out with Adam?”

“Well... I was going to say sex, but that works too— Ah!”

Ryder leaped on top of me, smooshing my shrieking self into the pillows. So much for ice cream.

JAXSON

“What is it this time?”

“I have to open it to find out.”

Bianca rose an inch, peeking over her desk.

Paunch intercepted me in the hallway with another delivery. After the fifth one in two weeks, I concluded my mystery gift-giver was not my dad or a grateful band. I didn’t know who this person was.

I grabbed her scissors off the desk, slicing through the tape. Black tissue paper greeted me. I reached inside and pulled out a small, black box covered in gold embossing.

“Scotch-infused toothpicks.” I shook them at her. “See what I’m saying? Scotch toothpicks to go with the custom vinyl record, leather wallet, recipe book, wireless headphones, a new watch, keychain, and the pastries. I can’t help but think this stuff is going to the wrong Van Zandt.”

She gave me a wry look. “I’ve seen you knock back a scotch, minor. Don’t pretend you don’t like it. On top of that, Levi Van Zandt is well known, and he’s got his face plastered all over the building if anyone wants to forget. No one is mixing senior up