With her second class finishing up, Adalyn wondered if Angel even realized she had taken the ring—he had given her no indication all day. She had at least expected a side-eye, but she hadn’t even been given that.

She and Lake were the last ones to leave the class. Even their professor had beaten them out for lunch.

“Do you mind if I speak to Adalyn alone?” Angel asked Tom when the girls exited.

Oh God, he knows.

Tom gave him a hard stare before nodding.

“Thanks. We’ll catch up with the rest of you in the cafeteria,” he reassured him.

When Lake seemed worried, hesitating to walk away, Adalyn tried to give her own reassurance. Truthfully, however, on the inside, she was beginning to shit bricks.

Biting her bottom lip for several minutes as they watched Tom and Lake walk away, she wondered why he hadn’t said anything yet. It wasn’t until they fully disappeared that she realized why he had waited.

Angel firmly grabbed her by the waist, dragging her backward into the empty classroom.

“Wh-what are you d—”

He spun them in a one-eighty, throwing her back against the door and knocking the breath out of her. Trapping her against the now closed door, Angel pressed his hard body against hers.

“Where is it?” he snapped.

“I don’t know what you’re—”

He raised a long, tatted finger to her lips. “Lying to me does you no favors.”

This was a very dangerous man before her, one who she had to remember was trapped and capable of snapping at any point. But he is still a dick.

“Now, tell me where the ring is.” He moved his finger to her jaw so she could speak.

She smiled, sweet as pie. “Up your ass.”

He moved his hands down her body, going through her coat pockets, then her jean pockets, and then going around to her ass to check the pockets there.

“I’m not stupid enough to carry it on me!” She tried to shoo him away, but he seized her wrists, then plastered them against the door behind her. “Lucca will kill you when I tell him what you’re doing to me.”

“Probably.” Bringing down her wrists, he pulled them roughly behind her back so he could easily hold her in place with one hand. With his now free hand, he lightly gripped the back of her neck, his hot breath caressing her face as he said, “But you won’t because you’re enjoying our little game too much.”

“That’s not—”

“Now you’re lying to yourself, sweetness.” Angel gently grazed her jawline and neck with his lips. “I knew from the second I saw you look at Lucca’s that you’re just as fucked up as the men you like. You just don’t realize it yet.”

Adalyn hated herself for knowing he was probably right. That he was right. The way he made her body scream out for affection told her that. She was barely grasping her control, wanting to beg him for one kiss.

He now hovered his lips over hers, promising that kiss. “Tell me where the ring is.”

Fuck. She desperately wanted to feel his lips on hers, but she couldn’t. For once, she finally had Angel right where she wanted him.

“Somewhere you’ll never find it.”

Clearly losing his patience, he tried again. “That ring doesn’t belong to you or me. It belongs to someone very important to me. If you don’t give it back, I won’t care what I’ll have to do to get it.”

“I’ll give it back to you,” she promised, “when you’re nicer to me.”

The hand around her neck tightened slightly as he pressed his body harder into hers. “Are you sure you wanna do this, sweetness?”

As she smiled up at the mad man before her, every hair on her body stood straight up. It was a sign anyone else would have had when they were frightened, but to her, it was a sign that she was enticed, a sign she had been waiting for.

“Oh, yes.”

* * *

Angel sat quietly a few tables away, watching the girl who was starting to cause him a lot of trouble eat her lunch. She was turning out to be exactly how he had thought she would when he had witnessed her eyes lighting up at the sight of Lucca.

There was only one fucking problem …

He was starting to like exactly that.

She might be really, really, really stupid, but she had balls, and he could tell her word meant something to her. It was going to suck when he had to get rid of her, but she knows too much.

He wondered if that glint would still be in her eyes if she saw the real Lucca, the boogieman. If that glint would be in her eyes the moment before he slid the knife in her back. It would be a shame if it was; if she appreciated the true darkness and the fucked-up bits of a man.

It was a trait hard to come by, since men like him had only two choices. They either hid that part of themselves, or they were lucky enough to find someone just as fucked up as them.

Ding.

Angel pulled out his phone, looking at the text he had received.

It was a shame about Adalyn, but the fact remained that they both were already taken. The sick part about it was, they both wanted people who didn’t want them. Adalyn’s heart wanted the boogieman, and he wanted a girl who was in love with his twin brother. A girl he had to hide his true self from.

Still looking down at his phone, he read the message again.

Where are you? I miss you.