I looked over my shoulder at Adam, who looked as though he had just swallowed something sour. “I understand.”
I had no idea what the “vetting process” was, but I could tell by Adam’s reaction that it wasn’t going to be something to look forward to. Regardless, it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was gaining entry into Lineage. I could deal with the rest later. Leaving Goldshire wasn’t a big deal either. If the transfer was approved, the two schools worked out the arrangements for having all the student’s possessions sent over and literally wanted nothing to do with the transferring student again.
I’m sorry, Julian. I hope you can forgive me.
Once someone deserted, it was as if they had never existed in the eyes of their original college. Grades would transfer, records would transfer, and that would be the end of it. All the rules would be reversed to the opposing school, and I would no longer be welcome on the Goldshire campus, which posed a bit of a problem with Julian, but I’d figure that out somehow too. I would feel a little bad about what I was doing, simply because it meant so much to my mother to see me graduate there but avenging her death and bringing Lineage down meant much more. Besides, I had no one left at Goldshire who would miss me or even care, except for Julian. It would be as if I had never existed in my former life.
We stood in awkward silence as we waited for Marta to deliver her decision.
“Fine,” she said finally with a giant sweeping motion of her hand that indicated how much of a burden this decision would be on her if it ended badly. “But if things don’t work out between the two of you, Lisette will be thrown right out on her ass. And I hold you fully accountable for all of her actions here starting right at this exact moment.”
Adam lowered his head toward her in a single nod of gratitude.
“Thank you,” he said. “I will gladly accept responsibility for her, you have my word.”
I felt doubly bad as he made his promise.
If Adam only knew what I was planning to do, he wouldn’t be so eager to accept any responsibility for me at all.
Marta dismissed us, and Adam took my hand as we turned to leave her office.
“You can’t go back to Goldshire again now,” he whispered as we walked out. “Not even once to get anything or see anyone. You have to stay here now and wait for your initiation to start.”
I nodded. I hadn’t really given any of this thought ahead of time. I guess I was too sure that my plan would probably fail and that I’d end up trudging back to my own campus later tonight in defeat. If I had thought it through, then I would have said something else to Julian before I had left that morning. There wasn’t any kind of chance of reaching him and telling him anything. Even my cell phone would be monitored, and one mistake would bring the whole ruse collapsing down. There was a whole lot more at stake besides just me. My actions would affect what happened to Adam and Julian too, and I couldn’t bear the burden of guilt if I was the reason either of them got hurt or expelled. Not even Adam.
“Where are we going now?” I asked him.
He tugged me along. “Let’s go back to my apartment.”
“But what about—”
“Michael,” Adam finished my sentence as we both looked up to see Michael walking into the building toward us. Michael glanced down at our interlocked hands, and his entire face turned a burning scarlet.
Guess I don’t need your phone after all, asshole.
9
Adam’s apartment looked like a war-zone by the time Michael was done throwing things up against the walls and smashing things against the table. When Marta said he “wouldn’t be pleased,” it was a drastic understatement. Michael was absolutely outraged.
Adam stood there calmly, though, watching him have his temper tantrum and not letting go of my hand. He kept his body squarely between Michael and me, however. And eventually, Michael spun himself out and flopped down onto the couch with a rage-filled pout.
“Are you done?” Adam asked.
I was hoping that he would tread lightly so that I didn’t wake up dead in the morning, but he seemed to have other plans.
“You don’t love her,” Michael scowled at him. “What a stupid thing for you to have said. She’s conning you, can’t you see that?”
For a second, I got nervous that Michael could see through my ambitions and was going to call me out, until Adam changed his mind.
“I can get a different apartment,” Adam said as he ignored Michael’s accusations. “If that’s what you’d like me to do.”
“What I’d like you to do,” Michael sneered, “is to get rid of her.”
He shook his head. “That’s not going to happen.”
The two of them stared at each other for a few moments in a battle of wills.
“You’re not getting a different apartment,” Michael finally said when it became obvious that Adam wasn’t going to cave.
“What about Lisette?” Adam asked.
“Well, since you and my mother have left me no choice in the matter, I guess she’ll stay here in this apartment with us. We can both keep an eye on her.”
Adam seemed satisfied with that arrangement, but the terribly wicked grin that Michael gave me made me feel totally disarmed.
“Of course,” Michael added. “She has to make it through the vetting process before any of this arrangement becomes permanent.”
I looked at Adam, and he tipped his head toward his bedroom in a signal to follow him.
“Enjoy each other,” Michael called sarcastically as we left. “At least, while you can.”
“What is the vetting process everyone keeps talking about?” I asked after Adam had closed his bedroom door, and we had a moment alone.
He walked straight up to me and put his hands on the sides of my face and kissed me before I had a chance to take a breath in.
“What was that for,” I asked after he had pulled away.
