Milo sighed. “Then let’s start somewhere else. Why did you use the back staircase? That way out is strictly off limits, unless you are a friend of the owner.”
Pin-up stared Milo down as if she was attempting to peel the layers of his motivations back for her inspection. Whatever she thought she saw, she wasn’t impressed.
“Since when does a girl have to apologize for wanting a bit of fresh air? I had no idea you’d be back in a dirty alley playing some twisted version of The Godfather.”
She should have been pleading for her life, promising not to tell anyone what she saw. The fine tremor in her hands had even evaporated. I wanted to like her, but she was arousing all of my suspicions.
“Right, about that.” Emmett sat up. “What do you think that was?” His lips twitched like it was all some joke or prank, but even I could see the throbbing under his left eye.
“You were assaulting that guy. For whatever reason, you hurt him. And the reason has to be illegal for you to essentially kidnap me. Otherwise, you would have just let me go. Why don’t you tell me what you were doing?”
Milo surged from the coffee table, towering over her. His fists clenched and unclenched, cords in his neck standing out in stark relief. I hadn’t seen him lose it like this since…
I started to step forward, stopping when Milo stalked over to his desk, tossed open the drawer and pulled out a gun. Oh, shit. When death became a very real possibility, I didn’t want us to do it. We couldn’t go down for murder, and that was what this would be in the very real sense of the word.
Intercepting him, I pulled the gun out of his hands and shook my head. She wasn’t worth it, I tried to tell him with my eyes. He went over to the bed and sat down, propping his head in his hands.
A chime went off. Emmett pulled his phone from his front pocket, then opened his text with a genuine grin.
“Elise Stanton.” He looked up. She wavered before catching herself. “Beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” The words were sweet, his tone was hard.
With an unexpected burst of speed, she raced toward the door. I had moved away, but I caught her around the waist easily. She kicked her legs and screamed as I walked her back to the couch and sat down, bundling her in my arms with an iron grip. Her bravado was fading quickly. She had been so sure she was going to escape. Now we knew her name, we could find her anywhere.
Emmett sat up as he received another text. “Senior, new transfer this year. Off campus resident, no sorority affiliation. No connections that we know of.”
Infinity connections. If she had any family members in the business, the answer would be too easy. Tell her not to talk and wish her well with a pat on the ass. Without any of that, it was going to be significantly harder.
Even if we tried to play it off as a personal vendetta or some kind of random fight, she could still go to the police. I didn’t trust Fuckface as far as I could throw him at this point, and if the cops showed up on his doorstep, I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t talk. He was weak. Weak people snitched to the cops.
Milo appeared in front of us again, looking more composed with the exception of a slight flush in his cheeks. With light blond hair, blue eyes, and barely tanned skin, his anger was always easy to read. As he sat down on the coffee table, he looked to both of us with a question in his eyes. What do we do?
We had never hurt an innocent. Never hurt a woman. For all the years we’d been doling out pain for Infinity, the targets had always been male. It didn’t sit well with any of us that we might have to go against the last hanging string of our morals and hurt one now.
Elise started to tremble in my arms. Hanging her head, she clutched my arms where I hugged her against my chest. Her ass was snug against my crotch, and her hair in my face. She smelled so sweet. Too sweet to get mixed up with us.
“Okay. I can see now you all are serious. If you got my name that fast, you aren’t fucking around…” She trailed off. No one spoke as we waited for her to finish her thoughts. Well, those of us that could speak.
I used to be resentful, hating people and their petty comments. For years, I wanted to scream and rage at stupid fuckers that thought they were superior to everyone else, entitled to say what they wanted about whoever they wanted. But now, people avoided me unless they were my frat brothers. Even then, Milo and Emmett were the only ones that really knew me.
“I won’t lie, I know what you were doing is probably illegal as fuck. I’m not going to ask what happened for you to make that guy scream like that. What’s important is that you know I won’t go to the cops, or the university. I’ll stay out of your business, and you stay out of mine. Anytime I see you coming, I’ll go the other way. Scout’s honor.” She held up two fingers.
Milo shook his head regretfully. “That’s not going to work for us.” He looked toward his desk, doing his thinking thing. He was the thinker in our group. He put way more thought into everything than it probably needed. Now, he was using this particular talent to figure out a way for us to work ourselves out of this mess.
He continued. “This is what’s going to happen. You now have three shadows to make sure you don’t get into trouble. We’re what you might call your new best friends. When we know we can trust you, you can go back to your own life. Does that sound fair?”
She stiffened on my lap. “Seriously? That’s your grand plan? We’re besties until you decide you can trust me? I’m sorry, that’s a stupid plan.” She scoffed and leaned back against me. That was when I tensed. She relaxed into me like she wasn’t afraid anymore. Maybe since Milo’s words weren’t you’re going to die, she wasn’t. Either way, I didn’t make a habit of casually touching people. Or letting them touch me.
She wasn’t going to run. I didn’t need to hold her. A squeak escaped her as I stood, dumping her in the spot I’d been sitting. The other couch was calling my name, and Milo seemed to have this in hand.
Milo scowled. “Sorry, it’s either that, or kill you. What would you prefer?” he snapped, before scrubbing a hand down his face. She gulped, her gaze darting to the bed where the gun sat. It wasn’t loaded, thankfully.
There she went trembling again. She was going to give me whiplash. I hoped Milo knew what he was doing. There was no way to guarantee she wouldn’t tattle as soon as she had the opportunity.
Emmett brushed his black hair out of his eyes. “We aren’t so bad. In fact, quite a few people would even say we’re cool to hang with. Think of how many girls are going to be jealous because you just danced your way into the inner circle of Alpha Delta Omega.”
The front door slammed, bringing loud shouts and stomping up the stairs. The distraction gave Elise time to digest Emmett’s words. Her lips twisted into a disgusted sneer.
“Wow. Just, wow. So I should be thankful you’re giving me this opportunity for the entire campus to think I’m your group slut?” Her voice was rising with each word.
“Uh…” Emmett looked to Milo with confusion. I shook my head. He was completely clueless when it came to women. Unless it was to select and then reject them, he had no clue how women thought. Elise was no status chaser. That was clear in the five minutes we’d been having this farce of a conversation.
“What Emmett is trying to say is that we aren’t bad people. We aren’t going to hurt you, we only want assurances. Surely you can understand that.” Milo stood, going straight to the wet bar to pour a whiskey. “Drink?” He held up his glass.