I smiled when I saw how much David hated to admit that there was law enforcement sniffing around his trail of corruption.

“Well that ought to be a lot of fun,” I taunted.

“Sneer all you’d like,” David warned. “But if things go badly for me, you can bet that they will go doubly as bad for your three doting lovers.”

Again, my hands were tied, and I was put into a position of compliance in order to keep David from threatening the lives of the three guys I cared about.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked reluctantly.

He nodded, as if satisfied with my compliance. Which made me dream of multiple ways to kill him while he slept. “I want you to keep an eye on him, find out as much as you can about him, and keep him from finding out the truth.”

“What, is that all?” I asked sarcastically. “You don’t want me to sleep with him too and have his firstborn?”

David snickered. “Well now that part is up to you, I suppose.”

“I wasn’t being serious,” I said flatly.

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter if you were or not. If that’s what I need you to eventually do, you’ll do it to protect your boys. Remember that. I know your weakness. So, just do what I said. Keep him out of trouble and find out what he already knows. He seems to like you; use it to your advantage. Let him take you on a date and then find out what he’s really doing here.”

I can’t wait until you’re dead. “Fine,” I said.

David started to say something else as I was walking away but I was honestly so sick and tired of it all that I just ignored him and kept walking. As luck would have it (or maybe it wasn’t luck at all but rather the fact that he’d been watching me), Rob arrived at the dormitory entrance at the same time I did.

“Hey,” I said when held the door open for me. “How are things going? Are you adjusting to campus alright?”

“Yeah,” he smiled.

God, he has an incredible smile.

His voice pierced my thoughts. “Thanks for asking. Hey, I was wondering if I could talk to you about a few more things pertaining to the school?”

For an undercover agent, he really wasn’t that subtle. “Yeah sure, what would you like to know about?”

It’s kind of a lot,” he said as he laughed it off casually. “Maybe I could take you out for a bite to eat and we could talk about it all over dinner?”

I was getting ready to say no, but then I remembered what David had told me to do. I also thought about something else, though. Something the boys surely wouldn’t like.

“Wait, like a date off campus?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said slowly as he looked confused at me about why going off campus would be such a big deal. “Unless you don’t want to.”

“No, I do,” I said quickly before he changed his mind.

I realized that probably came out sounding way too eager on my end, but I was scrambling to try and do this on the fly.

“Perfect,” he said with a smile. “Well, since I don’t know what floor you live on, how about you come pick me up at my room at seven? Then I’ll drive us to dinner.”

“Sure, sounds good.” I smiled.

Rob got onto the elevator and I headed for the stairwell, wondering how in the world I was going to explain this to the guys without them freaking out entirely.

Or giving away the game David kept holding over my head in order to keep them protected.

9

“A date?” Julian yelled completely flabbergasted. “See? I knew it!”

“Calm down, Julian,” Michael said from the kitchen. Although he was pouring a way-too-big glass of whiskey indicating that he was every bit as stressed about it as Julian, he was just doing a better job of hiding it.

“Why are you going on a date with him?” Adam asked.

I sighed, figuring I could tell them at least partially what was happening. “Because David told me to. He told me to get close to him and find out what he was really doing here and to keep him from finding out the truth about what is going on at the campus.”

“How close?” Julian asked.

I held up my hands. “Look, I promise I wouldn’t have even agreed to it if David hadn’t made me. I won’t be gone long and I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’ll take my phone with me in case I need you guys, okay?”

“Does David know that this guy is taking you off campus?” Michael asked.

“No,” I said. “But he told me to let Rob take me on a date and that’s what I’m doing. He can’t have it both ways.”

Michael took a long swig of whiskey and then walked around to give me a kiss before going into the bedroom. “Call us if you need anything,” he said.

“I will,” I assured him.

“How can you be so calm about this?” Julian asked Michael.

“It’s not like we can do anything about it,” Adam said as he threw his hands in the air. “Just be careful,” he said as he eyed me before he went and got ready to go into the kitchen and get some food. “We’ll wait up for you.”

I smiled as Adam kissed me too.

But, Julian let out a big sigh and I went over to hug him.

“I just wish we could leave here,” Julian said as he buried his face in my hair. “Remember when we would talk about going to Asheville? We could find a cute little cabin tucked into the side of a mountain and disappear from the rest of the world. You could start a garden with one of those cheesy little garden gnome statues and we could take hikes up the mountains to watch the sunset.”

“That all sounds very lovely,” I said as I held him close. “I would like to do that with you someday.”

“Why don’t we just go do it now? Let’s just leave Lisette. Let’s run out of here faster than David or anyone can catch us and go hide somewhere safe together.”

I could see Adam listening to him from the kitchen. He didn’t say anything, but the solemn look on his face said it all. He empathized with Julian because Julian was saying what they all wanted to say.

We all wanted to get out of here.

“We can’t do it now,” I said as he lifted his head and I looked into his big eyes. “But we will do it someday, I promise.”

I kissed Julian on the lips and let our noses touch even after we pulled our mouths away.