Still Jaded (Jaded #2)

Leah shook her head. "How do you do it? You sound so sure? Like you know exactly what you're doing, what needs to be done? It's not that simple or easy."

I considered everything I'd been through. Marcus. Losing Bryce. Losing Corrigan. Getting them both back again and now losing them once more. Losing my family. Losing two girlfriends that I'd hoped would stick it through… I sighed. "If someone's coming at me, trying to destroy what I have, then I know exactly what to do. I understand what they're trying to do. Now, crazy people, I have no idea what makes them tick. I don't even know what makes me tick most of the time, but someone threatening my family—that's a cakewalk for me."

Leah murmured, "Then consider me down for whatever you have planned. I want in."

I smiled. I was starting to like this girl.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I said that I'd head to the hotel, but I went to their sorority house instead. I'd gotten an invite to one of their earlier parties, and the address wasn't hard to find. It was the only four-story house on the block with a pink sign that read Zeta Gamma Phi in front of it.

It was risky. I knew that, but I remembered that Corrigan mentioned how his none of the guys in his fraternity liked to carry their keys, so they left a pledge behind. They wouldn't have to lock the doors.

I hoped the girls were as lazy.

I parked around the corner and went to the back door. I held my breath, tried the knob, and found I was in luck. Apparently the Zetas did have the same theory as Corrigan's house. The only problem was that I didn't know how many pledges were at home. And I didn't know where they were.

The back door opened to the kitchen, which was huge and shiny. The floor looked like it had been waxed recently, and I felt like I was walking on water. I heard sounds from a television and headed down a back hallway. Slowly, I crept past the room where the noise came from and found a stairway.

Rather than open every closed door, I only wanted to find Cadence's room. Since she was the head bitch, I assumed she'd have the biggest room. Something told me it'd be at the top. When I got as high as I could in the house, I started to poke my head around. The first three rooms weren't hers. Then I opened a door and found another set of stairs. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Of course they'd have a secret stairway.

The house was a freaking maze.

As I went up, I was in luck again. I'd found her room. It spanned the entire fourth floor. It looked like a small apartment with a kitchenette in one corner and couches set up in the middle. The living area was immaculate. She hadn't even left a magazine out. Next, I looked around her bed and dresser. Other than a pledge pin with my name on it, nothing stuck out as weird or obsessive. So far, the room wasn't matching my mental image of Cadence. The room seemed normal. There were no signs of the psycho that was hidden deep in her soul. Then I opened her closet and my eyes got wide.

Pictures. Pictures. Pictures.

There seemed to be a thousand photographs taped to the walls of her closet. Even if I tried, I didn't think I could know enough people to get that many photos. I looked closer and saw that each one was of Cadence with another person. Some were celebrities, some looked like politicians. One caught my interest and I grabbed it. Bryce smiled back at me. He was in his soccer uniform from Spain with his arm around her. She was beaming. Bryce looked like he'd just played a game. His hair and uniform were both soaked in sweat.

When the hell had this been taken?

Then I spied another picture. It was of Denton and he had his arm around Cadence like in Bryce's photograph, except he wore a black tuxedo and they looked like they were toasting to something with their drinks.

I grabbed both photos and then finished my search of her room. I didn't really know what I was looking for, but I figured I'd know it when I saw it. And I knew I'd found it when I moved a pillow and discovered Cadence's diary. It didn't look like much, just a small brown leather journal. I put it in my back pocket and turned to leave.

As I went downstairs, I peeked where the television was on and saw two pledges sprawled on the couches. One was snoring and the other had her head nestled underneath the cushions. I turned to go, but a picture on the wall stopped me. It was a house photo of all the sisters. Dated for the previous year, I skimmed over the names and recognized a few from my classes. One name I saw that I didn't expect was Dorothy Rossi. I matched the name to the face and gasped when I saw it was the waitress from Sparky's.

The one who loathed all things Greek.

She had the same red braids but was dressed in the same red dress as the other sisters. She looked happy, glowing even.

I didn't even want to guess what changed her.

Abruptly, the television shut off, and I left before I was caught. I didn't dare look inside the room again to see if the pledges had woken up or not. I didn't care. I needed to get the hell out of there. When I got outside, I cut across the backyard and through the gate.