Page 75 of Alluring Darkness

The sadistic smile that curls his lips in response sends a cold shiver down my spine. There really is something wrong with this guy.

“Kaden.”

My heart does a tiny flip at the sound of the voice, and I glance towards the source of it. I had expected, or maybe hoped, that it would be Eli. But it wasn’t. It was Rico.

Standing there next to Jace, he shakes his head once in a clear order to knock it off. Eli still isn’t even looking in our direction.

Kaden glances towards Eli anyway, and then at last takes his forearm from my chest. I draw in a breath now that the pressure on my chest is gone, and then I brush my hands down my slightly rumpled shirt.

“Well, that was informative,” I say.

Kaden, who hasn’t sheathed his knife and is instead twirling it beside him, narrows his eyes at me as if wondering what that means. I just flash him a wicked grin and stroll towards the doors.

This conversation about fear gave me an idea. Now, I know exactly how to snap Eli out of his indifference and how to make sure that I will always be his target number one.

Kaden, Jace, and Rico watch me as I walk across the sparring room and towards the doors. But none of them stop me as I slip out into the corridor, and they don’t follow me as I make my way through the building.

And good thing they don’t, because halfway to my destination, I run into the person they can never see me with. Connor.

My brother jerks back and blinks in surprise as we almost crash into each other while rounding a corner.

“Raina,” he says.

I just take a step to the side so that I can walk around him. But before I can, his hand shoots out and he grabs my elbow. I turn to face him and then shoot a pointed look down at his hand. Hesitation flits across his features, but he releases my elbow.

“Look, I’m sorry about what Mom said,” he begins, his voice soft.

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.” He holds my gaze, a serious expression in his gray eyes. “You’re not messed-up in the head.”

“Most of the world would disagree with you.”

“I don’t care. Because I know you’re not.”

A small smile tugs at my lips.

He mirrors it tentatively. Then he goes and ruins the moment by saying, “I still don’t think you should be here, though. I’ve got things under control, so you don’t need to—”

I roll my eyes and abruptly start walking again.

“Raina,” he snaps.

But I only continue striding down the hall.

“You might think you’re stepping up, but you’re not,” he calls after me. “Mom is right. You’re only ruining our family name by being here and failing at everything. So just leave this to me and I promise… Raina!”

Ignoring him, I round the next corner and stalk out of sight.

Yes, I might be embarrassingly bad at everything else at this university. But there is one thing that I am good at. And it’s time I start taking advantage of that.

30

ELI

Distancing myself from Raina is only partially working. I still can’t concentrate properly when she’s not in the room and I still sleep less than I normally do. And she still consumes all of my attention and makes my head go quiet when she’s near.

After burying another two bullets in my target, I steal a covert glance at Raina.