Ashes & Roses

Chapter 12

Carsin Saint Clair

'Sin'

The fraternity house glowed obnoxiously against the darkness from where we sat, looking like someone had thrown up neon paint and decided to charge admission. I kept the driver's side window cracked, resting one arm against the door while smoke curled slowly from the cigarette between my fingers. From this far away, the music was nothing more than a distant, rhythmic thud, but the house itself was impossible to miss. Green and blue lights flashed through the windows, shadows moved behind the glass, and every few minutes, someone stumbled out onto the lawn before disappearing back inside.

Luca shifted beside me for what had to be the twentieth time. I didn't look at him. He sighed heavily, and I took another drag from my cigarette.

"He uses parties as a guise so we can't possibly hurt him," Luca muttered, staring straight through the windshield. "He's a pussy."

I exhaled slowly, smoke drifting through the crack in the window as my eyes remained fixed on the fraternity house. Zaelen had always understood one thing about me: I didn't care how many people were around when I wanted something done. But what he also understood, apparently, was that I wasn't stupid enough to give him exactly what he wanted tonight. A crowded party meant witnesses, witnesses meant questions, and questions were the one thing neither of us could afford.

Luca shifted again, his fingers tapping impatiently against his knee.

"Even Cinnamon has more balls than Zaelen."

That earned the smallest reaction from me. The corner of my mouth twitched before I could stop. The cigarette had burned almost entirely to the filter by then, so I took one final drag before flicking it through the cracked window and watching the orange ember disappear against the pavement.

"Let's go," I said, reaching for the door. "Get the bag."

Luca leaned forward to look over his shoulder toward the backseat, where the red duffle bag rested beneath the shadows.

"See?" he said as we climbed out of the car. "You were worried for nothing."

I shut the door and pulled my hood over my head.

"I still think black would've been more practical."

Luca grabbed the duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder.

"Oh, does this clash with my outfit?" I glanced at him. He smirked.

"Look, if we roll in there with a black duffle bag, that's suspicious. This?" He lifted the bag slightly. "This blends right in."

I looked at it again. The school emblem stitched onto the side made it look harmless enough, like any other bag someone might carry onto campus. Nothing about it suggested there was half a million dollars sitting inside. I nodded once.

"Fine."

Luca's smirk widened as we started toward the house.

"See? I have good ideas occasionally."

The closer we got, the louder the music became. By the time we reached the front lawn, the bass was vibrating through the ground beneath my boots. Students crowded around the entrance, already drunk enough that nobody seemed particularly interested in who was coming or going. A fraternity brother stepped in front of us before we reached the door.

"Hey," he said, holding out a hand. "All bags stay up front."

Luca stopped, his eyes immediately finding mine. I stared at the fraternity brother, and he stared back, the duffle bag hanging from Luca's shoulder between us. For a few seconds, nobody moved. Then I gave Luca a single nod, permission.

Luca didn't look happy about it, but he understood what the gesture meant. He moved toward the front of the house and disappeared through the doorway while I remained where I was. A few seconds later, he came back empty-handed.

"Happy?" he muttered.

"No." I replied.

We entered the house, and the inside was even worse. The lights had been dimmed until the entire place existed beneath shifting neon colors, with glow sticks hanging from railings and wrapped around people's wrists and necks. Someone had lined the kitchen counters with glowing cups. Bodies moved through the darkness in uneven clusters people dancing without any rhythm, stumbling into one another, and shouting over music that was loud enough to make conversation nearly impossible. I had no interest in any of it. Luca followed beside me as we pushed through the crowd.

"Where is he?"

I didn't answer because I was already looking, and it didn't take long. Zaelen stood in the kitchen near the counter, talking to a girl. His posture was relaxed, his smile easy, and one hand rested casually against the counter while the other moved as he spoke. He looked exactly like the person everyone else believed him to be: charming, confident, and harmless.

I stood there watching him with narrowed his, he hadn't registered my presence and I contemplated if it was intentional. Finally, his eyes lifted and landed on me. The smile disappeared. It wasn't dramatic, and nobody around him would have noticed it, but I did. His entire expression changed. The girl was still talking when Zaelen stepped away from her.

"I'll catch up with you, gorgeous," he said, leaning slightly toward her. "I'll show you my room later." She smiled, and Zaelen turned away. He didn't acknowledge me until he reached us.

"Sin."

"Zaelen."

Luca stood beside me with his arms folded, and Zaelen's eyes briefly moved between us before his smile returned, though it no longer looked particularly genuine.

"Come on."

He led us through the kitchen and toward the basement. The atmosphere downstairs was quieter, but somehow worse; the music was lower, replaced by smaller pockets of conversation and the occasional burst of laughter. People occupied the couches, leaning into one another in dark corners, while a few were openly doing drugs at one of the tables or sitting with drinks hanging loosely from their hands. Zaelen walked like he owned every inch of it. Maybe he thought he did. I stopped near the center of the room.

"We have your money."

"Straight to business? Oh, come on. Have a drink. Relax. Wanna smoke?" Zaelen turned toward me, his smile widening.

"I didn't come here to relax." I looked around the basement once. Luca let out a humorless laugh beside me.

"How about we get your money down here," he hissed, his patience finally snapping, "You f*****g count it, and we leave?"

Zaelen laughed, actually laughed, then lifted his drink and took another slow sip. I felt Luca tense beside me. He was never good at pretending he didn't want to hurt someone, especially Zaelen. And Zaelen knew exactly what he was doing, stretching the moment because he could, making every unnecessary second another reminder that, despite everything between us, he still believed he had control.

The music continued around us. People moved, drank, and laughed. And Zaelen stood there wasting our time. Eventually, he started back toward the stairs. I followed, and Luca came beside me, muttering something under his breath that I couldn't make out over the music. We had barely reached the main floor when the front door opened and several stacks of pizza boxes were carried inside. One of the fraternity brothers immediately approached Zaelen.

"They need to be paid."

Zaelen looked toward the front door, then back at us. I already knew what was coming when his smile returned.

"I've got to tend to my guests," he said. "Make sure everyone's eaten."

Luca stared at him. Zaelen started backing away.

"Stay for pizza."

Before either of us could respond, he was gone. Luca's jaw tightened.

"He is playing games."

"I know."

I scanned the room. The crowd had grown thicker since we'd gone downstairs, and fraternity brothers were scattered throughout the house, most of them pretending not to watch us but they were. I recognized it immediately: too many eyes, too many people close enough to intervene if Luca finally decided he'd had enough. I'd happily let him beat Zaelen unconscious, but tonight just wasn't the night.

"We're outnumbered," I said quietly. Luca's eyes shifted toward me.

"So?"

I looked at him, and he understood. His jaw clenched, but he looked away, and we stayed where we were. Zaelen carried the pizza boxes into the kitchen, handing them out while people immediately began crowding around the counter. Luca and I watched from the other side of the room.

That was when Zaelen disappeared toward one of the couches. I followed him with my eyes as he approached two girls sitting together the same girl Zaelen had been flirting with earlier was one of them, while the other looked distracted. Zaelen bent slightly toward them. The first girl agreed to something, but the second didn't respond. Zaelen tried again. Still nothing. Luca stood beside me, watching with mild curiosity. Then Zaelen reached down and touched the second girl's knee.

Everything happened at once. The girl jerked upright. Before anyone could react, the drink in her hand went flying directly into Zaelen. For one brief second, the entire party seemed to stop. Luca's mouth twitched, I looked at him, and he looked at me. A small smile pulled at his mouth, and mine followed because I couldn't help it.

Zaelen stood there completely drenched and furious while the girl stared at him in horror. Then people started whispering. She stood and ran, the other girl chasing after her. Zaelen stood there for another moment, his face darkening as his playful expression disappeared completely. He turned, and his eyes found us. I already knew he was pissed. He pushed past us.

"Upstairs," he growled. "Bring the money."

Luca's expression immediately changed. Finally. He headed toward the front of the house while I watched Zaelen disappear upstairs. Luca pushed through the crowd and reached the pile of coats and bags. He bent down, grabbed the duffle bag, and slung it over his shoulder. Then we headed upstairs.

Zaelen's office was exactly what I expected it to be: obnoxious. A large desk occupied most of the room, positioned like he was the CEO of something important rather than the president of a fraternity. Papers were scattered everywhere, empty bottles sat on shelves, and clothes had been thrown over one of the chairs. It looked less like an office and more like a teenage boy's bedroom that someone had attempted to make professional. Luca glanced around the room.

"This is embarrassing." Luca remarked

Zaelen ignored him. Luca stepped forward with the duffle bag in his hand, but before he could offer it to him, Zaelen snatched it from his grip and placed it on the desk.

"What the f**k is your problem?" Luca snapped.

I looked over at him and gave a slight shake of my head. Not worth it. Luca clenched his jaw. Zaelen unzipped the bag, then stopped. For a moment, I thought nothing of it. Luca and I stood on the other side of the desk with our arms folded, waiting for him to count the money. Zaelen slowly looked up, then laughed quietly.

"Oh," he said, nodding his head. "You guys are good."

"What?" Luca frowned.

Zaelen stepped around the desk. His eyes stayed on me, and I didn't move. He came closer one step, then another until he was standing directly in front of me. I remained completely still.

Then his fist connected with my face. My head snapped to the side. Luca shouted something behind me as Zaelen grabbed the front of my hoodie.

"You think this is a game!"

That was enough. I shoved him away from me with enough force to send him stumbling backward several steps. I wiped at my mouth and looked down at the blood across my knuckles.

Luca crossed the room and went straight for the desk, pulling the red duffle bag closer before digging through it himself. His movements were quick and increasingly frantic as he shoved aside the handful of clothing inside. Pink fabric. A pair of shoes. More clothes. Nothing else.

"The money was in there," he said, tearing through the contents of the bag.

"We counted it ourselves." He stopped and so did I. Pink fabric covered the desk. I stared at it. Luca stared at it. Zaelen laughed again, and I let out a dry breath.

"Your i***t, brain-dead friends told us to leave our bag in the front," I snapped, dragging the back of my hand across my mouth. "I wouldn't be surprised if one of them pocketed the money. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if you did it yourself and decided to turn this into some elaborate f*****g scheme to make us pay another five hundred thousand." Zaelen shot me a deadly look.

"This elaborate game you're playing is pathetic. I want my f*****g money, Sin."

I stared at him. Behind me, Luca was still digging through the bag, as if the money might somehow materialize beneath a pink shirt if he looked hard enough.

"It isn't a game." Zaelen took a step toward me, and I stepped toward him too.

"That isn't our problem," I snapped. "We brought your money. Someone within your fraternity stole the money."

I shoved him away from me again harder. Zaelen stumbled back, then came right back, his fist connecting directly with my eye. The impact sent me stumbling backward, pain flashing through my face, but I barely registered it before I swung. My fist connected with Zaelen's face hard enough to throw him backward against his desk. Papers scattered across the floor, and something glass rolled off the surface and shattered. Zaelen looked stunned for half a second. Luca immediately grabbed the duffle bag from the desk and moved back to my side.

"That's fine, Sin," he said, recovering from the tension with a humorless edge in his voice. "Who needs money?" A scoff left me, and I turned toward the door with Luca following.

"The sight of seeing your trash ass go to jail for murder is priceless."

I stopped. Every muscle in my body went still, and Luca stopped behind me. Slowly, I turned around. Zaelen stood near his desk with blood coating his teeth. Smiling. I stormed back toward him, and Luca didn't try to stop me because he knew better. By the time I reached Zaelen, I was standing close enough to see the satisfaction in his face.

"You'll get your f*****g money," I hissed. His smile widened. "Since we're such great buddies, I'll give you one week."

Zaelen nodded. "And you can come to my pajama party." I stared at him. His smile became more obnoxious.

"PJs are required."

For one second, I considered punching him again. My hands curled into fists at my sides, and Zaelen noticed that was exactly what he wanted. I took a slow breath through my nose, stepped back, and turned toward the door. Luca was already moving with me, and neither of us said anything as we left the office.

The music swallowed us the second we stepped back into the hallway, and behind us, Zaelen started laughing. I kept walking until I was out of that God forsaken house. One week. Somewhere outside that house, half a million dollars had disappeared, and I had exactly seven days to find it.