Page 53 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)

She snorts. “I was hoping to catch you here. Can I come in?”

I wave her in, and she says hello to Whitney’s parents. They both visibly brighten at Taryn, and I suppress a grimace. It isn’t her fault they don’t like me.

“It’s almost November,” she says to me. “We need to start planning our project.”

We had outlined it the day we became partners, but other than that, the class has been busy with other things. And truth be told, I had forgotten.

“Right,” I groan. “When is it due?”

“The class begins presentations the beginning of December, so we need to do the hands-on part probably this week. And then we can write the paper.”

“What kind of sadistic professor assigns three separate things all balled into one for a final grade?”

She follows me into my room, where I pull on a sweatshirt and slip my feet into boots. “Where are you going?”

I shrug. “Anywhere but here. Maybe a breakfast place. Want to come?”

“With you and Jake?”

His conversation with Whitney’s parents drifts into my room. He’s charming, but he’s the only friend that stuck with me through the transition to college. Sure, there’s Riley, but she’s in New York City with her best friend. I couldn’t help but feel temporary in that situation.

She helped me get through senior year, though. Her and Parker.

Parker is in London, living her best exchange-student life. I guess if you have cancer as a kid, it opens some scholarship doors.

“Taryn?” Whitney is in the doorway, her hand outstretched. “Thank you so much for coming over.”

I roll my eyes and turn away. “We can meet up this weekend.”

“Sure.” She goes to Whitney, and they disappear back into the bedroom. The door clicks shut.

“Ugh.” I tug on my jacket and find Jake. “Come on. Breakfast on me.”

He doesn’t miss a beat, nodding emphatically. “My favorite kind of breakfast.”

We walk in silence, but his nervous energy is radiating off him in waves. I consider him in my peripheral vision. He’s much less stoic than his brother. More open, but not necessarily easier to read. He tends to lie convincingly, unlike Liam.

So I consider what I know.

One missing girl, one dead. Boston isn’t yet on edge, but we’re all collectively heading toward it. The school, however, is taking this much more personally. The locked gates as an immediate response, a press release, the police presence.

Two girls isn’t a pattern.

It’s barely anything except coincidence and bad luck.

Yet it drew Liam out of the woodwork and sent him my way. The boy who, up until a few weeks ago, I was pretty sure didn’t give a fuck about me.

And now Jake is here.

She’s only been gone a few days.

The longer she stays missing, the tighter the noose around the city’s throat gets.

“Why did the police captain stop the detective from questioning me?” I muse aloud.

He tenses. It’s subtle, a flush up the back of his neck, his muscles tensing. What has everyone scared shitless?

I don’t see it.