Can you pick her up tomorrow?
Massi
Fuck you.
Rory
Please? It’s Eva.
Massi
You’ll owe me.
Rory
Worth it.
The Devil
I expect you to begin working again when you return to classes.
And reporting on the team.
Do I need to enumerate the consequences of not returning?
Rory
You okay, Eva?
Call me when you get this.
19
EVA
My alarm shriekedat five-thirty in the morning, but I’d been awake for hours, staring at my phone screen until my eyes burned, ignoring the supportive messages of my friends. The carousel of photos mocked me—Cole in a tailored black suit, his arm wrapped possessively around a stunning blonde who gazed up at him in adoration.
She was everything I wasn’t—thin, polished, and rich enough to afford designer dresses and perfect highlights in her hair.
My chest constricted, heart hammering against my ribs in an irregular rhythm. I couldn’t move, couldn’t stop scrolling back to the image of his hand splayed across her lower back, the same way he’d touched me.
Stop.
He’d moved on. In less than a week, Cole Carter had found someone new to fuck. Someone who wouldn’t spy on his team or betray his secrets.
The thought shouldn’t hurt this much. Cole had made it clear what I was to him—a body to use. “Stress relief,” he’d called it.
I threw my phone aside and pressed my palms against my eyes. One shuddering breath after another, I got myself under control.
He hadn’t come with the team yesterday to visit me because he’d been with her.
Fuck him. So fucking hard. He doesn’t deserve my tears.
I rolled out of bed, palmed my morning dose of heart medication, and then stormed over to my closet, only for the sight of the clothes Cole had bought me to bring me up short.
I’d make him regret every fucking moment.
Cole would pay.