Page 18 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)

“Don’t finish that sentence.” His voice is gentle, but the threat…

There’s a current underneath his words. Mom always used to marvel at the connection I had to Liam. How we could read each other’s body language almost like we were reading our minds. “A connection forged in fire,” Mom would say under her breath.

We weren’t friends.

Just neighbors.

He was my confidante for a short while, but Jake and I had the better friendship. He was my age. Nice, even. When they moved next door the year before high school, I thought my world was ending. Not one cute boy, but two. One brooding, one friendly.

One with a savior complex, and the other…

I press my lips together and shake my head.

“I can familiarize you with assault, Buckley.” His gaze travels up and down my body. “Did you think about me after I left?”

No, I want to lie. But I did. I laid in bed and couldn’t stop thinking about every last detail. The way he held my wrists, my throat. The sting of his teeth in my ear. His fingers… I had to finish the job myself just to get some relief.

Maybe he senses where my thoughts drift, because the smirk returns.

He chucks me under the chin lightly, then returns to his friends.

What the hell?

I’m more confused than anything—but I have a feeling dissecting his behavior will get me nowhere. This is a boy who fights for money. He built a reputation for being cruel in the circle. Everyone at Howl who went up against Liam was trying to prove something to themselves.

I wonder if I’m trying to prove something to myself by going up against him.

He was infamous before my video blew him into the spotlight. He carried that same energy in high school, the sort of easy swagger that made everyone fall in line. His friends had it, too. They were kings. Why would college change that?

I spot one of the girls in Whitney’s friend group. She’s in my next class, an environmental economics class that has so far proven to be interesting, if not a bit off-the-cuff.

“Taryn,” I call.

She pauses at the door and grins.

“Hey, Skylar.” Her attention goes over my shoulder. “Were they giving you trouble?”

“Nah. Liam just wanted to, um, ask about something from our math class.”

We head upstairs together.

“The campus is buzzing,” Taryn says. “There are rumors that RJ and Colt are trying to get Howl going again. I shouldn’t tell you, because… well.”

I force a laugh. “Right. I learned my lesson.”

Did I?

“They probably wouldn’t let me within a hundred yards of the place,” I joke.

She grins. “Yeah. It’s a bit too violent for my taste, but it was fun to see Liam that one time.”

“He hates me,” I inform her. “I’m pretty sure if I was dying in an alley and he was my only hope, he’d just leave me there.”

“Those fighters…” She shivers. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to be on their bad side.”

Tell me about it.

We get to the classroom. She usually sits in the front, but today she follows me to my usual back corner.