Page 61 of Her Devil
“Don’t be so dramatic. Nobody hates you.”
I raise one eyebrow.
The tension was palpable when Wyatt, Taylor and I finally made it back to the house last night. I skipped dinner and hid out up here, grabbing some snacks later on instead of stirring the pot with the rest of the guys.
“He knows it was my idea, knows it was just an accident. These things happen.”
He. Not they.
No, because we aren’t talking about the other seven people that live here, we’re talking about Leopold Windsor. The man that seems intent on getting with my girl, or my brother.
“Sure.”
“Hey, you were the one that wanted to come here and do this. You can’t bail out now. It’s barely started.”
“That was a leap,” I comment. “Projecting much?”
“Whatever.”
“I’m not skipping out of anything. I’m just giving everyone a bit of space and getting ahead with this work. In case you hadn’t noticed, this schedule is pretty hard going.”
“Okay, I get that,” he admits, dropping the book on the table as I wince—there’s really no need for that. “Ooh, I learnt something this morning. It turns out that not everyone knew about The Sect before we turned up in the church.”
That gets my attention as I tilt my head, waiting for him to continue.
“I was talking with Emmerson at breakfast and he was grumbling about the fighting and whatever, but yeah, he said it was ridiculous that we had no idea about any of this stuff before we were dumped in the thick of it.”
“Well, we don’t.”
“Well, we at least knew we’d been requested before we turned up here. Sure, we’re figuring the rest out as we go, but we were one step ahead of some of these guys, apparently.”
“That’s something, I guess.”
“I thought so.” He shrugs, throwing the stress ball at me.
“What are you hiding up here for?” I ask.
“I’m checking on you.” He rolls his eyes. “Not hiding.”
The bell rings, signalling dinner as I throw it back to him. “I guess that means it’s time to face the wolves,” I grumble.
“Give over, it’s not that bad.” He chuckles, following me out and down the hall. Almost everyone is there as we take our seats, just in time for the food to be served.
“Is George not coming?” Jasper asks, looking at his empty seat.
“I can’t see why he wouldn’t be,” Emmerson replies. “He’s not in a class or anything from what I can remember.”
“Is he in the games room?” Leo asks, looking around. “He wasn’t in the den.”
“Master DeLuca won’t be joining you,” one of the cooks states from the doorway.
“Why?”
“He’s been removed from the challenge.”
“What?”
“This can’t be right,” Emmerson says, standing and making his way out and up to their room. We all wait, the food going cold on the table as his furious steps thunder through the house. “It’s… gone. Everything is gone. His clothes, books, stuff. It’s like he was never here in the first place.”