32

Oakley.
The bar Archer picked is heaving with kids, as it’s popular with the local college. Typical Archer always makes sure there are a lot of hot young college girls around for him to pick from.
Bly looks as uncomfortable as I feel as we step inside. “Is this the best place for us to grab a drink?”
I nod in agreement, glancing around. “It’s a little loud.”
Archer shakes his head. “Sorry, grandpa, but this is the hottest place in town.”
I glare at him. “In case you forgot, we’re teachers at a nearby school, not frat boys.”
He laughs. “Both of you need to lighten up.” He shakes his head and leads the way toward the bar. “It’s not like we’ll run into any of our students.”
Hopefully, he’s right. None of us are stupid enough to believe that students don’t sneak off campus. The students aren’t permitted to leave the grounds unless they have permission, but that wouldn’t stop them.
We’ve caught kids doing exactly that, but it doesn’t mean we’ll run into any here. There are another ten clubs in the town which makes the chances slim, even if this is the hottest place in town, as Arch put it.
“Usual?” Archer asks, glancing at me.
“Yeah, whiskey, neat.”
He laughs, shaking his head. “Never can change it up. Can you?”
“Why should I? I like whiskey.”
Archer orders my whiskey, a vodka for Blaine, and a manhattan for himself. He likes to think of himself as sophisticated, even though most of the time he’s an idiot, a loveable idiot, but an idiot all the same.
“Let’s find a booth, somewhere we don’t have to shout to hear each other,” Bly says, glancing around the room.
I spot a booth in the corner and point to it. “Over there.”
Bly nods and leads the way to the booth, shoving through the college kids crowding the place. Once we get to it, he growls. “This is the last time I let Archer pick where we go.”
I laugh. “Agreed.”
“What did you agree to?” Archer asks, slumping down on the far side of the booth with his drink.
“That this is the last time you choose where we go for a night out,” I say.
He shakes his head. “Both of you need to chill.”
I sip my whiskey, trying to forget about Eva Carmichael and the broken expression on her face after I kicked her out of my office. It’s impossible to erase the image, especially after how good it felt to kiss her, touch her. I ruined it all by telling her it could never happen again, which is what a man in my position should do, even if it’s not what I want.
“Oi, you’re here to unwind and not think,” Archer says, clapping me on the shoulder. “Stop thinking about the Carmichael girl!”
Bly’s brow shoots up at that. “Eva?”
I glare at Archer and then sigh. “Yeah, it seems the girl I intend to ruin to get to her parents is irresistible.”
Bly laughs. “She’s cute, for sure, but I wouldn’t have expected her to be your type.”
That irritates me as I sit straighter, staring at him sternly. “And what exactly do you think my type would be?”
He rubs a hand across the back of his neck, leveling his gaze at me. “Older than twenty-one.” He glances at Archer. “My two closest friends are perverts.”
Archer holds a hand to his chest. “How dare you?”
Bly laughs. “It’s true.”
I raise a brow. “Are you telling me you’ve never found a student attractive?”
There’s a flash of something in Blaine’s eyes, but it quickly disappears. “No, they’re too young, too immature.”
It’s what I would have said over a month ago. However, now I’ve met Eva, she’s all I can think about. “I thought that too,” I mutter.
“Has anything happened between you two?” Archer asks, suggestively quirking his brow.
I swallow hard. “I kissed her in my office.”
Bly spits his vodka out, but Archer looks unsurprised.
“You did what?” Bly asks, shaking his head. “I thought you wanted to ruin her family. How does that work if you ruin yourself as well?”
I narrow my eyes at Blaine. “Hence why I canceled all our one-on-one discipline classes and chucked her out of my office.”
“Sounds like you did one thing right,” Bly says.
I dig my nails into the palm of my hand, trying to quieten the darkness swirling beneath the surface.
“I’m not so sure. It’s clear that you like Eva, so why don’t you be the one to ruin her reputation?” Archer’s head tilts to the side slightly. “Or is it because you care for her?”
I grind my teeth, wishing that he wasn’t so perceptive, even if he acts like a clown most of the time. “Perhaps.” I shrug. “I’m not sure. All I know is she’s not what I expected.” I meet Blaine’s questioning glare. “She’s not a spoiled mafia princess.” I draw in a deep breath. “She nothing like them.”
“Are you forgetting what her parents took from you?” Blaine asks, almost sounding angry.
I know my two friends are invested in my plan, and they want to see me get my revenge on the two pieces of shit that burned my world to the ground. However, everything has become blurred and unclear ever since I met Eva. What once was as simple as anything is so fucking complicated, I can’t make heads or tails of anything anymore.
I knock back the rest of my whiskey and slam the glass down on the table. “Enough of this. I agreed to come out because I want to forget about it, not talk about it.” I wave a server over, and she takes my order for another round. “Let’s get drunk and forget about the Carmichaels.”
Blaine brings his glass up to his lips and sips, watching me cautiously.
Archer nods and knocks back the rest of his drink. “Here, here.” He smirks at me. “Let’s get drunk.”
Bly nods in agreement. “Sounds good to me.” He knocks back the rest of his vodka as another round arrives.
I signal the server before she leaves. “Keep them coming every twenty minutes and put them on my tab,” I say, handing her a fifty-dollar bill.
She smiles, batting her eyelashes. “Of course.”
Before I met Eva, I may have flirted back, perhaps seduced her after her shift, and taken her back to my cottage. The mere thought of taking anyone other than Eva there makes me sick to my stomach. It’s a very odd feeling. One I can’t understand.
There is no way I can ever take Eva back to my cottage, no matter how badly I want to. She’s a pupil, and I’m the head of a nationally renowned school. The mafia families are rather forgiving of scandal in the halls of SA, but a scandal involving a principal maybe something people can’t overlook.
If I let my obsession with Eva rule my actions, I may end up destroying everything I’ve built this time. There would be no one to blame except for me.