Page 180 of The Devil We Crave
Chief Cross smiles. “Well, if you change your mind, please call.” She hands me her card, which still lists her as “Hawthorne Hollow Police Department - Head Detective”.
When she's gone, I head inside to shower and quickly change, because at this point, I’m running a little late.
Half an hour later, my heart skips and my lips pull into an involuntary grin when I walk into the student parking lot near the faculty buildings and find him leaning on his Range Rover, waiting for me.
“Sorry I’m late,” I blurt as I rush over to him. “I?—”
He turns to smile at me, and when my eyes land on the purplish bruise around his left eye, the whole thing with Jude comes rushing back.
“Achilles!” I rush over to him, my face caving with worry as I reach for him.
“It’s fine, baby,” he growls, taking my hand and entwining his fingers with mine. “Looks worse than it feels.”
My brows furrow. “What the fuck happened between you and Jude?”
Achilles’ jaw tightens. “So, he did go to you,” he growls. “Let me guess. I’m the big bad boyfriend who stuck his nose into Jude’s business and got what was coming to me.” He smiles grimly. “And he’s worried about you spending time with me given myviolent tenancies.”
I blush as he wraps his arms around me and pulls me against his body.
“More or less word for word accurate,” I mumble.
Achilles glowers, then sighs. “What about you? Areyouworried about spending time with me?”
I smile and shake my head. “Of course not. But…seriously…Jude?”
His jaw grinds. “Can we just drop it? I shouldn’t have gotten involved.”
I look up at him and kiss his chest through his shirt. “Please tell me?”
He sighs heavily. “Jude’spersonal businessinvolvesmycousin Selene.”
My brow arches. “Wait, are Jude and Selene?—”
“Little prey.” I shiver when his dark eyes drop to mine as he lifts my hands to his mouth and kisses them. “I don’t want to talk about anything tonight but you and I. How does that sound?”
I grin. “Sounds perfect.”
Achilles starts the engine of the Range Rover as I climb into the passenger seat, and I grin when Tom Petty’sFree Fallin’ starts to play on the sound system.
“How do you always know what’s inside my head?”
He grins. “Superpowers.”
I roll my eyes. “I mean it. Whenever I’m with you, everything is…” I shake my head. “Like, this is one of my favorite songs ever.”
He chuckles. “You caught me. I’ve been hooking you up to a mind-reading machine while you sleep. I planned this whole playlist so when you got in the car, you'd hear your favorite song. What are the odds that it would be by some wildly unknown artist like Tom Petty?”
I give him a look and stick out my tongue. “Ha ha ha. Screw you.”
Obviously, he’s joking. But itiscrazy how well he knows me. Yeah, maybe the fact that one of my favorite songs is aninsanelywell-known, well-loved, and often played pop song doesn’t make itthatcrazy. But when I’m around Achilles, there’s always stuff like this.
Like at the dining hall the other day, when I got to our table,exactlywhat I wanted for dinner was already waiting there for me.
When we get to the front gates, with the option of turning left to head into town or right to drive up toward Griswold Hill, Achilles stops the car.
“Just how hungry are you?” he growls in a low, rough tone that sends a shiver straight to my core.
I can feel the heat flickering over my cheeks as I turn to him.
