Chapter 11: Two Birds, One Stone

Adrian's POV

‎Blake had called me late last night to ask where I was, but I kept the details brief. I just told him I had left the party early, and left it at that.

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‎After the girl walked out of my place this morning, I didn’t bother attending my early classes. Instead, I spent the morning bouncing between secure phone calls, giving directives to the soldiers overseeing our incoming shipments. Making sure the supplies crossed their respective checkpoints without raising red flags was my standard Monday morning routine. It was how I had operated since I first stepped foot at Ravenwood.

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‎Keeping the business running perfectly smooth was the only way to get my father off my back about my choice to attend college and play hockey. I had highly competent men on the ground, and they never gave me a reason to worry.

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‎That was my burden until I graduated, after which my father expected to hand the entire territory and its operations over to me. He wouldn’t stop talking about it, and the pressure had gotten worse since last year, when his old ally Gabriello stepped down and handed the reins to his son.

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‎I wrapped up business around 11:10 AM, forty minutes before Blake and Marcus showed up at my house. We immediately booted up the console and started playing NHL.

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‎When a sharp knock sounded at the door, I didn't even turn my head from the screen. Marcus was right on my ass in the third period.

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‎"Come in," I called out.

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‎I only paused the game when I caught the pure confusion flashing across Blake’s face. I turned to look.

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‎It was the girl from last night.

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‎"You forget something?" I asked, genuinely confused.

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‎"You know you could have just left me, right?" she snapped, storming into the room. "You could have just left me alone on the curb when you knew associating with you comes with massive headaches!"

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‎"Hey, you need to calm—"

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‎"The headlines would have just been 'Girl Sleeps Off Alcohol at Party', and that's if it even makes it to blog!" she yelled, her chest heaving. "Not this annoying garbage that’s plastered everywhere that puts me on the board for every obsessed fan of yours to shoot their arrows at me. Put your freaking fans on a leash and tell them to leave me the hell alone."

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‎I could see the shock on Blake and Marcus’s faces. They couldn’t hide it.

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‎I picked up my phone. I didn't follow the campus gossip blogs—most of the guys on the team didn't, because the pages were always trying to start drama or turn teammates against each other. It made sense why we were completely clueless that I was trending for all the wrong reasons.

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‎"I apologize for the inconvenience. I was only trying to help, not create chaos," I said, keeping my voice level once she finally took a breath.

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‎I turned to Marcus and Blake, who were now scrolling rapidly on their own phones. "Who can we talk to? Let's get this taken down." I ran a hand through my hair, thoroughly frustrated. I ve had fans snoop around the house for autograph and other stupid reasons just to get close but this narrative?, is just not right.

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‎"Woah. Bro, this is not good," Marcus muttered, his eyes glued to his screen.

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‎"What is it?" I asked, snatching the phone from his hand.

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‎It was a rival blog. This one had a completely different picture. It was a dark, grainy shot of her standing in the shadows, not too far from my bedroom window.

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‎The caption read:

'Ravenwood Blindsided. This has been going on way before last night. Hockey King Adrian and Scholarship Student Caught Lurking.'

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‎A cold, heavy anger spiked in my chest.

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‎"So you knew about this," I said, my voice dropping an octave as I looked up at her. "This is all drama."

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‎"Knew about what? What are you talking about?" she asked, her eyes widening.

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‎I wasn't buying the fake confusion. "This was all a setup, right? You've been following me. But I guess it turns out it didn't go exactly the way you planned?" I shoved the phone toward her so she could see the photo, then tossed it onto the coffee table in disgust.

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‎She looked genuinely stunned, but my patience was entirely gone. I assessed wether she fit the frame of the person that had sneaked into my room a few days ago and tried to attack me but she looks too fragile for that, if she was the one I had shoved away the way I did, she couldn't have recovered early, let alone attend a party.

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‎I started pacing the room, my mind spinning into strategy mode. I had way too much on my plate right now—a territory to manage, a father to appease, a hockey team to lead and final year research project to commence and a hitwoman to find. Worrying about mistaking obsessive fan girls trying to force their way into my life for the hitwoman was the absolute last thing I needed. I don't want them to keep coming around, they could mess up my investigation. I had to handle this efficiently, once and for all.

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‎The best strategy was to steer the skid. Keep the narrative going. If we played the couple, I killed two birds with one stone: the obsessive girls on campus would finally back off, and I could keep a close eye on this one, saving her clueless ass from the backlash she created for herself.

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‎"I..." she started to say, staring blankly at the phone on the table.

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‎"I'm going to make you the scapegoat," I said flatly. "You kill a bee to keep the rest of the swarm away."

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‎"What? You—"

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‎"No," I interrupted, my tone leaving zero room for argument. "I'm the one talking now. You listen."

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‎I stopped pacing and looked right at her. "We keep the narrative. We both play the role. You don't even need a script, you're already good at this."

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‎I took a step closer. "Until I graduate and leave Ravenwood in less than a year, you play that role. As my girlfriend."

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‎"Wait, what?" she sputtered, taking a half-step back. "That doesn't make any sense."

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‎"Compared to the stupid stunt you just pulled to get close to me, it makes a lot of sense."

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‎She stared at me. The panic in her eyes shifted, cooling into something darker, something I couldn't quite read. She went completely quiet for a long moment, staring at the floor, weighing her options.

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‎"Okay," she finally said, looking back up at me with dead-calm eyes. "I'll do it."

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‎" It's not like I'm giving you an option" I said stretching my phone out to her " Your digits"

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‎She collected the phone and put in her digits

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‎"The name is?" I asked

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‎"Scarlett" she said as she turned and headed for the door.

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