Logan said, “Nothing. You’d better have the latest and greatest on Seb-ass-tian.”

“I do.” Nate leaned forward as I eased out of the parking lot.

The Elite formed in a small crowd outside the door, but I didn’t think they would do anything against Sam while we were gone. Heather was there. It was Sam’s parents’ wedding and Mark was her stepbrother now.

Logan saw the group, too, and met my gaze. We were thinking the same thing.

I murmured, “She’ll be fine. Mark will step in if he has to.”

“He better.”

Nate was talking, but he stopped and looked between us. “What?”

“Nothing. Can you start over? I wasn’t listening,” I said.

“Yes.” He started as I drove away, “Sebastian was allowed to buy a house off campus, but their place is only a block away.”

Logan cursed. “Let me guess. All his roommates are the same douchebags from his fraternity house?”

“No.”

“No?” Logan’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s surprising.”

“Campus stepped in. They thought the same thing, so they set a rule in place that no more than five members of their fraternity could live in the same place. If they have more, they’re violating the rule and can be expelled. No clue if that’s legit or not, but if they want to be students there, I guess it’s allowed. They can have non-students live there or guys who weren’t members of the fraternity.”

“How many are in the house?” Logan questioned.

“They’re allowed three, and have two more guys who weren’t members of the fraternity.”

“Well,” Logan snorted, “that’s something.”

“They’re a block off campus?”

Nate nodded. “None of the members are allowed to live on campus unless they’re in the dorms.”

I knew the rules. I’d been there at the hearing when they were instated, but Sebastian had connections. He had money, too. Those rules could’ve been bent from last spring until now.

“Good,” I said. This was good. Cain U was enforcing their policies.

Logan was watching me. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking Sebastian is waiting for us to come back. He’s getting all his ducks in a row, and when we’re in place, he’ll start again.”

“You think?” Nate was looking between the two of us, his hands dangling over the sides of our seats. “So much damage has happened.”

Not to me. That was the bottom line.

I shook my head. “Sebastian wants to hurt me, and it hasn’t happened yet. He hit Marissa in the hit-and-run and when they jumped me, I hurt them more than they hurt me.”

Logan grunted. “Prick. Prick. Prick. He’s a super prick…in my asshole.”

Nate and I paused, glanced at Logan, and then skipped over that one.

I said, “Sebastian always gets his way. He pushes people around to do what he wants, and I didn’t do what he wanted. He wanted to control me, and I said no. Every time he’s tried to hurt me, it hasn’t worked.” I sighed. “I don’t want Sam to be a part of this. At all.”

Logan and Nate gazed at me.

Nate nodded, saying, “Fine with me.”

Logan frowned, narrowing his eyes. “She is a part of this.”

“Not this. Not this war. She’s out.”

“He’ll go after her anyway.”

“We can’t include her in this. That means all talk about Sebastian, anything we do against him—she can’t know about it. If she’s involved with anything, we’re giving him an excuse to hurt her. I know it sounds ridiculous, but if we separate her from this, he might not focus on her as much.” I was wishing, but I had to try something.

I gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. My brother had no idea how dangerous this would be for her. “This will be her freshman year. I want her to have some semblance of a normal year. New friends, dorm room, feeling lost—that bullshit.”

A grin teased at the corners of Logan’s mouth. “Sometimes I forget how much of a softie you are inside. If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do, but first, can we stop at that liquor store? I really do want to get some booze.”

I pulled in and he went inside. The conversation was dropped, and when Logan came back with enough liquor for half the wedding, his whole attitude was gone. The rest of tonight was about having fun.

Tomorrow we were heading to Cain University.

SAMANTHA

It was College Move-in Day and the day I used to dream about.

It was the epitome of freedom to me. Freedom from my mother’s tirades. Freedom from the unhappiness in the house. Freedom from her highs and lows. Freedom from her. Even when we’d first moved in with Mason and Logan, I’d still longed for when I could go away to college. That was the last link in the chain. Mason and Logan protected me from her, but I hadn’t been physically free from her until James took her to a hospital. College was the final breakaway from her, and here I was.

I was free. Finally and for real.

Mason and I walked past a mother and daughter hugging each other with tears in their eyes. That wasn’t me. I was on cloud nine. Malinda offered to come, but I didn’t want her and David to wait one more day for their honeymoon. They deserved to be happy, and with Mason beside me, this was my happiness.

This day was finally here. Literally. We were at my dorm room.

Mason opened the door and went inside to put my bags on the nearest bed. He stood back and watched me come inside.

My dorm room was one large square. Behind the door were two dressers. The beds were pushed up against the far wall, set on top of each other, and a window was in the corner. A desk was next to it, along with two dressers against the third wall. The second desk was right next to the door.

I nodded to the bed where Mason already put my bags and put my bag on the desk by the window. I wanted that corner area for myself. I wanted the window view, looking out over a quad surrounded by sidewalks and trees. A group of guys were throwing a football around, and two groups of girls were laying out, already reading books or studying.

It was my little corner of home.

Mason asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to live with us?”

I ran my hand down the desk, feeling the wood and the little indent of someone’s initials carved into it. I shook my head. “No. I want this year.”