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“Did I deprive your body of the air it needed to breathe while I fucked you? Edged you? Yes, Aspen. That was me.”

“Oh my God. Fox is being questioned about that night right now!”

“I know, Aspen. He was near the rotunda. He saw me climb in and out of your room.”

“But he won’t say anything, because the police think he’s mute, and he won’t throw you under the bus because he’s living in your house!”

“He won’t say anything because there is nothing to say. We ran out of time on the Larch. All the things we wanted to do to you… do with you. We needed more. We all did.”

“What if they charge him with a crime?”

“Such as?” Eli challenges, eyes flaming like chocolate whirlpools, all but that tiny fleck of blue-gold in his left that glows like an orb.

“They won’t charge him; they can’t. I was masked, so was he. No one can identify us, definitely not each other. You have nothing to worry about. Do you honestly believe I’d let anything happen to one of your other fucking paramours? Even after he fucked up my face, I’m sure you’d lose your shit if Fox was locked up.”

“Because he would feel trapped. The foster system did more damage to him than the frostbite or losing his family. Did you factor that in while you were sneaking into student windows and fucking them as they slept?”

Eli’s eyes narrow as his brow knits. “There were no others, Aspen, only you. If you think I’m in the habit of breaking, entering, and fucking before leaving, then I gave you more credit for common sense than you possess.”

“Is that no others… yet, Professor? Because you just moved back and all. The last time you and I were alone, you were paddling my bare ass with your palm.”

“What the fuck?” I intervene.“You did what?”

“You were there, Jack.”

“I was not fucking there, Elijah!”

“Dean Grundy knocked just after Aspen came—hard.” He smirks at me, his forearms intertwined across his chest. Smug bastard. Aspen’s cheeks are the sweetest, rosiest pink, telling me everything about the punishment. Was Eli punishing her, or himself, though?

“Circling back to the topic at hand,” she says, pulling us out of our entranced state. “Who constructed that hiker’s cabin? Or hunter’s cabin, whatever you want to call it.”

“My family did,” Elijah offers.

“Interesting. And did they hide away a tiny key safe in a shower frame? A frame painted the same color as the metal to camouflage it further? A safe that opened with the combination of numbers on the back of the necklace my mother wore, that now hangs around my neck… Who in your family knows about that?”

Elijah shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know, Aspen. I truly don’t. The last time I visited the cabin was years ago. You forget I lived in Europe until recently.”

“But someone was maintaining it. There were towels and blankets and a prepared fire. Plus, the packaged food.”

“There is a botanical group that uses it occasionally. Maybe they do? Or any hunter that passed through and used it might have gone back with supplies to cover what they ate. It’s not the only cabin in those woods, so I guess staff from one of my father’s businesses had it in their job description to maintain them. I never gave them much consideration.”

“Okay,” she whispers, contemplating, digesting. None of this makes sense, but then again, it never has.

“Can I borrow a car, please?”

Her question catches us both off guard. “You need a car?”

“I want to go down to the station and support Fox. If he didn’t drive himself there, he’s going to need a ride back. Luk took another car to go check on his dad, so Fox is our priority right now, until we hear from Lukaz.”

“You are not driving down the mountain by yourself; we’ll come with you,” I say, worried sick about her being on her own. The four males she lives with are not her biggest threat, and only Elijah and I are aware of that, for now.

“Fine. We’ll all go. Do you want some concealer for your face first, Professor? What will you say if the police ask how your face got so beat up?”

Eli leans against the fireplace, arms still crossed, not moving for anyone. “I’m not wearing makeup.”

“I was trying to help…”

“No. It’s fine, you should see the other guy…”