Page 5 of Fly's Path

“When is your next one? I need to make sure I leave my schedule open,” the dealer pushes.

It would be so easy to just take this kid out and move on.

“I don’t know.” Vandal plays his part well. “I’ve been throwing a lot of parties. Maybe I should go out of town for the weekend. Soak up some rays. Hit a few waves.”

“What if I invite a few people? Make sure you have all the fun…Let’s say Friday night?”And who is getting desperate? Yes, introduce him to some other people. People who can lead us to The Ghost.

“I guess so.”Vandal sounds so bored. It’s impressive how apathetic he can be about something so important. “But it better be amazing.”

“You’re going to lose your mind. It’ll be the party of the semester.” A drug dealer saying that really isn’t surprising.

What exactly is he going to do to make it that big? We need to get more eyes in there. Eyes that can’t be easily identified as the bikers who are trying to take them down…Maddox is going to hate us so much.

Too Easy

Vandal

When did this become so easy? Volunteering to step back into my old life was the scariest decision I ever made.

But that…how natural it felt to just become the thing I hate the most. The man I was born to be. Vaughn Linckester should never have been born. Linckesters don’t have second-born sons. An heir and a spare only counts when it comes to kings, not when you rule the world from the shadows. You don’t need the battles a spare can cause.

Not that I caused battles. The only demons I fought were my own until Vaughn Linckester died and Vandal came to life.

The idea that I can so easily flip back to that person shakes me down to my core.

This should be hard. I should be fighting to stay in character.

It turns out being a self-centered, arrogant jerk comes naturally to me.

“Whatever it is you're going through can’t be as bad as it feels,” a soft voice from beside me says.

She’s got to be talking to someone else. Before I can pretend to look away, she slides into the seat across from me with a cup of coffee in one hand and a massive piece of cake in the other. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to talk to strangers?”

Her lips tilt up into a small smile. It’s like her lips are hiding secrets. “Once or twice. But I’m not good at following directions.”

“Why don’t I believe that?”

“Seriously, I’m not at all good at it. I’ve gotten lost four times on the way to my dorm. And that was only last week.” She slides the cake forward.

Don’t smile.

Don’t encourage her. The last thing you need is some cute, innocent little thing falling for you. Wouldn’t Fly just love that? He would literally lose his mind if he saw me talking to the girl. I should say something rude so that she walks away. “That must make getting to class challenging.”

“You’d think. Thankfully, I have friends that walk with me. Otherwise, I would probably just end up living in the library, which doesn’t sound so bad.” She pokes the fork into the cake and breaks off a chunk. “I mean, who couldn’t live in a library, especially one with a snack bar inside? It’s like this college decided to create the most perfect place on earth. The library is the reason I picked this school. What about you?”

A drug dealer isn’t a reason that I can share with her. What lie do I give?

“Surely the reason isn’t that embarrassing?”

No, but a logical lie hasn’t come to mind.

Her soft pink lips open as she slips the piece of cake inside.

Don’t stare at her lips…think of a lie, not if they’re more like a baby-pink or cotton-candy color. Definitely cotton candy. My favorite treat.

“Mmmmm.” Her eyes close as she savors the bite.

What would it be like to kiss her—