Page 12 of Eat. Prey. Love.
“Thank hell.” Dolly tugs on the dragon’s hand, pulling him forward as she strides towards the front steps. “I hate talking about my stupid naïve first few months at Apex and how ridiculous people are. I refuse to let that shit live rent-free in my head.”
“Good on you, Angel,” Chess says as we climb the old stone staircase. “That’s healthy—no thanks to that nasty body snatcher and her sessions.”
The Raj steps to the front of the group, opening the door for us. “We’ll deal with her once she arrives and not a second before. Farley is coming with the blustery badger and the bear, so we can discuss our least favorite carrion nibbler then.”
“Do you think she’s gotten me slated for her stupid sessionsagain?” Dolly says with a groan. “There’s no way I’m going to have time to do the clue hunting, catch up to this place, spend time with you guys and my friends, revamp the team,anddeal with her shit. That’s a burnout waiting to happen. My eyes hurt justthinkingabout it.”
I scratch my chin, considering her question for a moment. “She might if she knows about Bruno. The violent death of your fathercertainly gives her leverage,petite lapin. Getting her to back off will be a hard sell if she brings that into the conversation.”
“Again, I suggest we kill the cunt,” Fitz growls. “Two birds, one very satisfying torture session. I’ll even let the rest of you help.”
My mate pinches the bridge of his nose. “As much as I want to, Fitzgerald, we’ve discussedad nauseumwhy we can’t yet. That woman cannot be fully dealt with until we track down every damn sentence or recipient of that book in progress so she can’t humiliate people from the grave.”
Dolly wrinkles her nose, looking thoughtful as we walk into the grandiose atrium. “Maybe I should just get over that? I’ve already been the target of a social media smear and right now, I’m kind of riding on good PR from the Yule Ball Battle. If we kill her and someone releases what she’s got, it’ll only look silly. Right?”
“Depends on what she says and how your mother reacts,” Chess reminds her. We walk down the long marble hallway to the double doors to the office—the one easily locatable room in the damn building—together as he continues. “If Lucille spins it poorly, you could end up being an even bigger pariah. It might make people come after you if she’s done a good enough job spreading her filth everywhere.”
Stopping at the doors, our girl leans into them and bonks her head on the wood. “Why me? I didn’t do anything to this chick. She’s just butt hurt that I declined her offer of friendship and guidance because I figured out she’s fruitier than a nut cake. Surely I can’t be the first person that’s noticed her self-centered, lazy ass appropriation of others’ lives or work in her books? I can’t be the only one who got creeped out by her wanting to leech off of them?”
“You’re fucking brilliant, Baby Girl!” Fitz yanks her away from the door and puts his hands on her cheeks as he looks at her. “We need morevictimsof her bad behavior. They have to be out there; you’re right. I’ll start searching, but we can tell the lawyer when he gets here, too.”
The plan washes over me and I smack my forehead. “Merde. We should have thought of that by now. Instead of pushing her away and issuing threats, we needed to find more evidence of her destroying others for her own gain. Showing the world who she really is will make it impossible for her to refute your claim.”
I’d do anything to keep the light that just went on in our bunny’s eyes there forever.
“Watch out, Rockland. We’re coming for you,” she says with a bright smile.
Hell yes we are.
Once Dolly gother big welcome box, she pulled the most relevant things out—her schedule, the map, and the booklet with her assigned areas. As a triple threat sophomore, she has lockers in all the sections where she’ll need them for class, access to private studios to practice, and a room in the Theater dorm. Her nose wrinkles at that, but she downright glares when she notes that there are two notes in the folder that are solely for transfers. The first is a typical welcome letter blathering about the college, but the second is a list of forms and releases she will have to fill out.
“This place needs a fucking tech upgrade in the worst way,” she mutters as she looks at Fitz. “Everything I have to do is on paper. I’ll die before I finish all this stupid shit.”
He chuckles. “They have me focused on the Pred team and the comp sci program, Baby Girl. No one asked me to bring them out of the Dark Ages. Sorry.”
“Damn,” she grumbles. “Let’s track down these classes, then we can head for the dining hall before I get hangry.”
She hands me her schedule and I squint at it. They have her stuffed to the gills and this is going to be very difficult. “They have you packed from eight am to five pm almost every day—mostly inAlexandré and Shirdal. Looks like the witch only snuck in one session, but my guess is she’ll push for more.”
Felix growls low, taking the schedule from me. “You’re in all artsy classes, Princess. None of us have you as a student save the grumpy dragon for your work study period. I don’t like it.”
“Did you see it?” she asks me, her eyes still on the tiger as he looks over the document. “I’m waiting for him to?—”
“What the ass reaming fuck?!” The Raj throws the paper at his brother as he roars. His tiger shimmers over him in fury and I blow out a slow breath.
Ididsee it, but I was hoping we could avoid the topic until later—fat chance of that.
“Holy shit! This dude is our fuckwitcousin,” Fitz says as he grips the schedule in his fist. “He’s a goddamncreeper.”
“That explains the seven hundred pound problem we’re about to have,” Chess mutters. “Felixhatesall of his male relatives. They’re far too much like Taka— which was intended.”
Aubrey blows two large smoke rings as his jaw locks. “You mean we got rid of the stupid MacLachlan girlandthe Politics professor only to be saddled with yet another of your dad’s shitty spies? It’s like fucking Whack-A-Mole with that dick.”
“I wish someone would whack his dick,” Fitz mutters. We all stare at him and he waves his hand dismissively. “In the not fun way, of course.”
Our girl giggles, shaking her head as she threads her arms through his. “I wasnotvolunteering as tribute for that assignment. No fucking way.”
Felix snarls from where he’s still working to get his cat under control. “Never.Never.”