“Thanks,” I smiled. “I appreciate that, but I’m okay.”

His eyes danced along the profile of my face. “You didn’t seem okay last night.”

“I was just sad. We’re all sad. This situation sucks.”

Michael put his arm around me and then Adam and Julian did as well. When the stairwell door opened, all three of us looked up. The only one who ever came to our floor was David.

But it wasn’t David that was standing in the open door, it was Rob.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him in surprise.

All three guys got to their feet and the air of jealousy and protectiveness radiated off of them. Rob could tell too as he put his palms up in front of him to show that he didn’t come to start a fight.

“I didn’t come to start trouble,” he said as he walked slowly toward us.

I could see that he had a handgun tucked into the waist of his jeans, though.

“What did you come here to do then?” Adam said.

Rob stared at each of us before he spoke. “I came here to help.”

None of the guys trusted him. That was very apparent. But for some reason, I did.

“There’s something going on here on campus and I’m betting that all four of you know about it. Lisette looks scared out of her mind, you three look like you’re ready to kill someone, and the entire student body looks like they’re hopped-up on hallucinogens. Even just on my way here, I saw a guy talking to his own hand in the men’s showers. You need to tell me what this is all about.”

“We don’t need to tell you anything,” Julian said.

“Lisette, please,” Rob said as he tried to appeal to me again.

“Rob you need to go back down to your floor,” I said.

I wasn’t going to get in the middle of this here, not in our own space with the rest of the guys. He looked over at me with a pleading expression, but as Michael started walking toward the door to escort him out, Rob took it upon himself to just leave and not escalate the situation further.

“That guy is really starting to piss me off,” Adam said after Rob had left.

“He’s just trying to help,” I said.

The three of them looked at me with jealousy flaring in their eyes and I rolled my own. “Seriously, it’s nothing. He’s just trying to help. And I’m just doing what I need to do in order to keep him from discovering the truth and keep David from having one more reason to kill us or throw us back inside that stone room.” I got up from the couch to go get ready for work.

“Where are you going?” Julian asked.

“Well if things are as bad as they sound,” I said. “It seems the situation is worsening on campus and David’s drugs are making people do all sorts of crazy things again. We need to go see what’s going on.”

I went to go get ready and by the time I came back out again, the guys were ready to go as well.

“Okay,” Michael said as all three of them were starting to tighten up around me again. “We meet back here every two hours from now on no matter what. If one of us doesn’t show up, then that’s a sign that something is wrong.”

Everyone was in agreement. Things were starting to get more and more out of hand. The Winter Gala was coming up and that meant the deadline for David’s game would be coming soon. And there was an undercover cop who was closer than he knew to getting involved in something truly dangerous. We all set the alarms on our phones to go off in two hours and then went to our separate floors to do an assessment and damage control for whatever the rampant spread of drugs was starting to cause.

When I got down to the third floor, I could see immediately what Rob had been warning us about. It was just like the last time, except this time the students didn’t even seem to see their surroundings. It was like they were walking around inside of their own head, bumping into walls and tables, talking into the air in front of them as if they were having a conversation with absolutely nothing. I could see Rob running from person to person, trying to keep them from doing anything dangerous or stupid. He looked over at me with a look of complete bewilderment and I wish I could have shared the look, but I already knew what was going on. I felt badly about not telling him.

“We need to secure them somewhere,” I said to him as he looked to me for some suggestion as to what to do.

“Secure them how?” he asked.

“Got any rope?”

Rob’s face went blank, but he followed my lead, not knowing what else to do. We worked together without talking as we got each and every one of the students back into their dorm rooms and secured their doors and windows shut until the drug wore off and they came out from under their hallucination. When we had finished, Rob sat down on the couch and shook his head.

“I’ve seen and had to do a lot,” he said. “But whatever that was really takes the cake. They were drugged, weren’t they?” he asked. “At the very least just tell me what caused what I just saw.”

“Yes,” I answered. “They were drugged.”

“Figured as much,” Rob sighed as he nodded his head. “I’ve seen people on hallucinogens before, but never like that.”

“I’m going to make us some tea,” I said as I walked to the kitchen.

But, I really just needed a minute to myself as I stood by the stove and watched the steam rise from the kettle.

When the kettle started to whistle, I moved it off the burner and turned around to pull some teacups down from the cabinet. As soon as I turned back around, Rob was there.

I don’t know if he had just walked in or had been standing there the entire time, but when our eyes locked, he pulled me toward him, and I couldn’t stop myself from kissing him. I pressed my lips against his and pushed my tongue into his mouth as he wrapped his arms around me. I leaned into him and he stumbled backward against the wall of the kitchen as he held me and pulled me toward his body until I could feel the racing of his heart against my chest. I felt his hands move down my back and behind my hips, until he was pulling me tight against him and pushing his throbbing cock into my pelvis. I ran my hands along his chest and up to hold his face to mine. I had tried to stay away from him, but I couldn’t.

And now it was time to tell him the truth.

When we finally let each other go, it wasn’t because we wanted to stop. It was simply because we had to deal with the situation at hand. Rob reached for my face and wrapped his fingers behind my head as he pulled me closer for one more lingering, sultry kiss before we knew we had to take a breath and deal with the whirlwind of what had just happened.

“I’m sorry,” he said while he kept one hand on my cheek as if he didn’t want to let go. “There’s just something about you and I just couldn’t stay away.”

“I know that feeling,” I said as I leaned forward to kiss his lips one last time in the kitchen. “I think it’s time for you to come with me.”

When I brought Rob up the stairwell with me and out into the open area of our dorm room, I didn’t let go of his hand. I knew the other guys wouldn’t be happy about it, but I had to be honest with them and we all needed to be on the same page now.

“Fuck,” Adam groaned as he saw my hand in Rob’s.

Julian just shook his head and flopped down into one of the chairs as he waved over to Michael and asked to join him with a whiskey pour. “I told you guys,” he said. “No one wanted to believe me, but I told you.”

Michael just looked at me from the kitchen as he pulled enough glasses down for everyone, including Rob. He brought the entire bottle out and set it on the coffee table and then filled each glass in turn. Adam and Julian reached for theirs, and Michael brought a glass over to hand to Rob. I was impressed by how well he was taking it to be honest.

“Trust me,” Michael said when Rob hesitated before taking it from his hand. “You’re going to need this.”

First, I fessed up about my feelings toward Rob, and although they weren’t as strong as the feelings I had with the other guys, it still wasn’t something I could just ignore.

“Wait,” Rob said as he looked around at the guys. “You’re all in love with Lisette?”

Adam laughed and lifted his glass in the air. “Drink up, my friend,” he said. “Welcome to the pack.”

I looked over at Rob with a bit of remorse on my face. I probably shouldn’t have allowed him to be dragged into this situation, but I couldn’t help it. He tilted the glass back and knocked the contents back with a sigh as the burning liquid tingled his throat.