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  The Hunt

A sexy standalone novel from New York Times and international bestselling author Elle Kennedy!

The Chase

Everyone says opposites attract. And they must be right, because there'southward no logical reason why I'm so drawn to Colin Fitzgerald. I don't usually become for tattoo-covered, video-gaming, hockey-playing nerd-jocks who recall I'm flighty and superficial. His narrow view of me is the first strike against him. Information technology doesn't help that he's buddy-buddy with my brother.

And that his best friend has a crush on me.

And that I but moved in with them.

Oh, did I not mention nosotros're roommates?

I suppose it doesn't affair. Fitzy has made it clear he'south not interested in me, fifty-fifty though the sparks between us are liable to burn our house downwards. I'chiliad non the kind of girl who chases after a human, though, and I'm non well-nigh to starting time. I've got my hands full dealing with a new school, a sleazy professor, and an uncertain futurity. And so if my sexy brooding roomie wises upward and realizes what he'south missing?

He knows where to detect me.

The Hunt

Briar U

Elle Kennedy

Contents

1. Summer

two. Fitz

three. Fitz

4. Fitz

5. Summer

half-dozen. Summer

7. Fitz

8. Summer

9. Fitz

10. Summer

11. Summer

12. Fitz

xiii. Summer

xiv. Fitz

fifteen. Summertime

sixteen. Fitz

17. Fitz

18. Summer

19. Summertime

20. Fitz

21. Summer

22. Summer

23. Summer

24. Fitz

25. Summertime

26. Fitz

27. Fitz

28. Fitz

29. Fitz

30. Summer

31. Fitz

32. Summer

33. Summer

34. Fitz

Sectional Excerpt: The Risk

Other Titles by Elle Kennedy

Author'due south Note

About the Author

1

Summer

"Is this a joke?" I gape at the five girls who are belongings me in judgment. They have various hair, pare, and eye colors, and yet I tin can't tell them apart because their expressions are identical. There'south a whole lot of smug peeking through the phony remorse they're trying to convey, as if they're truly devastated by the news.

Ha. They're enjoying this.

"I'm deplorable, Summer, merely it's non a joke." Kaya offers a pitying grinning. "Every bit the Standards Committee, nosotros take Kappa Beta Nu'due south reputation very seriously. We received word from Nationals this forenoon—"

"Oh really? You received give-and-take? Did they send a telegram?"

"No, information technology was an e-mail," she says, completely missing the sarcasm. She flips her glossy hair over ane shoulder. "They reminded the commission that every member of this sorority must uphold the behavior standards gear up by them, otherwise our chapter will lose its expert standing with Nationals."

"We have to remain in good continuing," Bianca pipes up, pleading at me with her eyes. Of the five bi-otches in front of me, she seems similar the near reasonable.

"Especially later on what happened to Daphne Kettleman," adds a girl whose name I tin't remember.

Curiosity gets the better of me. "What happened to Daphne Kettleman?"

"Alcohol poisoning." The fourth girl—I think her name'due south Hailey—lowers her voice to a whisper and rapidly glances effectually, equally if at that place might be a issues or ii subconscious in the antique effects that make full the living room of the Kappa mansion.

"She had to get her stomach pumped," the no-name girl reveals gleefully. Which makes me question whether she's actually thrilled that Daphne Kettleman almost died.

Kaya speaks upward in a brusque vox. "Enough virtually Daphne. Yous shouldn't have even brought her upwardly, Coral—"

Coral! Right. That'southward her name. And it sounds every bit stupid now as information technology did when she introduced herself fifteen minutes agone.

"We don't speak Daphne'southward name in this house," Kaya explains to me.

Jee-zus. 1 beggarly tum pumping and poor Daphne gets Voldemorted? The Kappa Beta Nu chapter of Briar University is obviously a lot stricter than the Chocolate-brown chapter.

Case in point—they're kicking me out before I'd even moved in.

"This isn't personal," Kaya continues, giving me another fake consolatory grin. "Our reputation is very important to us, and although you're a legacy—"

"A presidential legacy," I point out. So ha! In your face, Kaya! My mom was president of a Kappa affiliate during her junior and senior years, and and then was my grandmother. Heyward women and Kappa Beta Nu go together similar abs and any male Hemsworth.

"A legacy," she repeats, "but we don't attach as strictly to those ancestral bonds the fashion nosotros used to."

Ancestral bonds? Who says that? Did she time-travel from the olden days?

"Equally I said, we take rules and policies. And y'all didn't go out the Brown chapter on the best of terms."

"I didn't get kicked out of Kappa," I argue. "I got kicked out of school in general."

Kaya stares at me in atheism. "Is this a betoken of pride for you? Getting expelled from i of the all-time colleges in the country?"

I answer through clenched teeth. "No, I'1000 non proud of information technology. I'm just saying, technically speaking, I'1000 still a member of this sorority."

"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean you're entitled to live in this house." Kaya crosses her arms over the front of her white mohair sweater.

"I see." I mimic her pose, except I cross my legs too.

Kaya'southward envious gaze lands on my blackness suede Prada boots, a souvenir from my grandmother to celebrate my admission to Briar. I had a good chuckle when I opened the package last night—I'thousand non sure Nana Celeste understands that I'm only attending Briar because I was expelled from my other schoolhouse. Actually, I bet she does, and just doesn't care. Nana will find any alibi to get her Prada on. She's my soulmate.

"And you didn't think," I proceed, an edge creeping into my phonation, "to let me know this until after I packed up my stuff, drove all the style downwards here from Manhattan, and walked through the forepart door?"

Bianca is the just one who has the decency to look guilty. "We're actually sad, Summer. But like Kaya said, Nationals didn't get in bear on until this morning, and and so we had to vote, and…" She shrugs weakly. "Sorry," she says again.

"So you voted and decided I'm non allowed to live hither."

"Yes," Kaya says.

I glance at the others. "Hailey?"

"Halley," she corrects icily.

Oh, any. Like I'1000 supposed to recall their names? We literally just met. "Halley." I look to the next girl. "Coral." So the next girl. Crap. I legit don't know this one. "Laura?"

"Tawny," she bites out.

Swing and a miss! "Tawny," I echo apologetically. "Yous guys are sure about this?"

I get 3 nods.

"Cool. Thanks for wasting my time." I stand up, push my hair over one shoulder, and start wrapping my carmine cashmere scarf around my cervix. A fleck likewise vigorously peradventure, because it seems to badger Kaya.

"Stop existence so dramatic," she orders in a snarky voice. "And don't act like we're to blame for the fact that you burned down your onetime firm. Excuse us if nosotros don't want to live with an arsonist."

I struggle to keep my atmosphere in check. "I didn't burn anything down."

"That'southward not what our Brownish sisters said." She tightens her lips. "Anyhow, we accept

a house meeting in x minutes. Information technology's time for you to go."

"Another meeting? Expect at yous! A packed schedule today!"

"We're organizing a New Year'south Eve charity outcome this night to heighten money," Kaya says stiffly.

Ah, my bad. "What's the charity?"

"Oh." Bianca looks sheepish. "Nosotros're raising money to renovate the basement here in the mansion."

Oh my God. They're the clemency? "You amend get to it, then." With a mocking grinning, I palpitate my fingers in a careless moving ridge and march out of the room.

In the hall, I feel the showtime sting of tears.

Fuck these girls. I don't need them or their impaired sorority.

"Summer, wait."

Bianca catches up to me at the front doors. I quickly paste on a smile and blink abroad the tears that had begun to well upwards. I won't let them run into me weep, and I'yard so frigging glad I left all my suitcases in the auto and simply came in with my oversized purse. How mortifying would it have been to lug my bags back to the machine? It would've taken multiple trips too, because I don't travel light.

"Heed," Bianca says, her voice then quiet I strain to hear her. "You should consider yourself lucky."

I enhance my eyebrows. "For beingness homeless? Certain, I feel blessed."

She cracks a smile. "Your last proper name is Heyward-Di Laurentis. Yous are not, and will never exist, homeless."

I smile sheepishly. Can't argue with that.

"But I'm serious," she whispers. "You don't want to live hither." Her almond-shaped optics dart toward the doorway. "Kaya is like a drill sergeant. Information technology's her start twelvemonth every bit Kappa president, and she's on some crazy power trip."

"I've noticed," I say dryly.

"You should've seen what she did to Daphne! She acted like it was the alcohol matter, but really she was just jealous because Daph slept with her ex-boyfriend Chris, then she made Daph's life miserable. Ane weekend when Daphne was abroad, Kaya 'accidentally'"—Bianca uses air quotes—"donated every piece of her clothing to these freshmen who were collecting stuff for the almanac clothes drive. Daph somewhen quit the sorority and moved out."

I'1000 starting to think that alcohol poisoning was the best affair that could've ever happened to Daphne Kettleman, if it got her out of this hellhole.

"Whatever. I don't care if I live here or not. Like y'all said, I'll be just fine." I put on the cavalier, zero-in-life-ever-ever-gets-to-me voice that I've perfected over the years.

It's my armor. I pretend that my life is a cute Victorian house and hope that nobody peers close enough to see the cracks in my facade.

Just no affair how convincing I am in forepart of Bianca, there's no stopping the massive wave of anxiety that hits me the moment I slide into my motorcar five minutes later. It stilts my breathing and quickens my pulse, making it difficult to think clearly.

What am I supposed to do?

Where am I supposed to go?

I inhale deeply. It'south okay. It's fine. I accept some other breath. Yeah, I'll effigy it out. I always practice, correct? I'chiliad constantly screwing upwards, and I always find a mode to unscrew myself. I just have to buckle downwardly and think—

My phone blares out its ringtone rendition of Sia's "Cheap Thrills." Thank God.

I waste matter no time answering the call. "Hey," I greet my brother Dean, grateful for the interruption.

"Hey, Boogers. Just checking that you lot made it to campus in one piece."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Gosh, who knows. You might've run off to Miami with some hitchhiking wannabe rapper y'all picked up on the interstate—or what I like to call a recipe for becoming a series killer's skin-arrange. Oh wait! You already fucking did that."

"Oh my God. Get-go of all, Jasper was an aspiring country vocalizer, not a rapper. 2nd, I was with ii other girls and nosotros were driving to Daytona Beach, not Miami. Third, he didn't even try to bear on me, allow alone murder me." I sigh. "Lacey did hook upwards with him, though, and he gave her herpes."

Incredulous silence meets my ears.

"Dicky?" That'south my childhood nickname for Dean. He hates information technology. "You there?"

"I'thousand trying to sympathize how you think your version of the story is in whatsoever way more palatable than mine." He all of a sudden curses. "Aw fuck, didn't I hook up with Lacey at your eighteenth birthday party?" A pause. "The canker trip would've happened before that party. Dammit, Summertime! I mean, I used protection, simply a warning would've been overnice!"

"No, you lot didn't hook up with Lacey. You lot're thinking of Laney, with an 'N.' I stopped existence her friend later on that."

"How come?"

"Considering she slept with my brother when she was supposed to exist hanging out with me at my political party. That'due south non cool."

"Truth. Selfish movement."

"Yup."

At that place's a sudden blast of dissonance on the line—what sounds like wind, car engines, and then a avalanche of honking. "Sorry," Dean says. "But leaving the apartment. My Uber's here."

"Where are you off to?"

"Picking up our dry out-cleaning. The identify Allie and I get to is in Tribeca, but they're awesome, so worth the expedition. Highly recommend."

Dean and his girlfriend Allie live in the West Village in Manhattan. Allie admitted to me that the expanse is mode fancier than she's used to, but for my brother it'due south actually a stride down; our family's penthouse is on the Upper East Side, making up the top 3 floors of our hotel, the Heyward Plaza. But Dean'south new building is near the private school where he teaches, and since Allie has a lead role on a tv show that shoots all over Manhattan, the location is user-friendly for both of them.

It must be and so nice for them, having a place to live and all.

"Anyhow, are you squeamish and settled at the Kappa house?"

"Non quite," I confess.

"For fuck's sake, Summer. What did you exercise?"

My jaw falls open in outrage. Why does my family ever assume that I'one thousand in the wrong?

"I didn't practise anything," I answer stiffly. Only so defeat weakens my voice. "They don't think someone like me is good for the sorority's reputation. One of them said I was an arsonist."

"Well," Dean says non so tactfully. "You kind of are."

"Fuck off, Dicky. It was an blow. Arsonists intentionally set fires."

"And then you're an accidental arsonist. The Accidental Arsonist. That'southward a great name for a book."

"Awesome. Go write that." I don't care how snide I audio. I'g feeling snarky, and my nerves are shot. "Anyway, they kicked me out, and at present I have to figure out where the heck I'k going to alive this semester." My throat catches on a lump that appears out of nowhere, and a high-strung almost-sob squeezes past it.

"Are you okay?" Dean asks immediately.

"I don't know." I eat hard. "I… This is ridiculous. I don't know why I'm upset. Those girls are awful and I wouldn't have enjoyed living with them. I mean, it'due south New Twelvemonth'south Eve, and they're all on campus! They're doing some charity fundraiser matter instead of partying! That's so non my scene."

The tears I've been belongings at bay are no longer controllable. 2 fat drops slide down my cheeks, and I'm so glad Dean isn't hither to witness it. It's bad enough that he tin can hear me crying.

"I'm sorry, Boogers."

"Whatever." I angrily swipe at my wet eyes. "It doesn't affair. I'one thousand non going to cry over a few mean girls and an overcrowded house. I won't allow it get to me. Would Selena Gomez permit it go to her? Admittedly not."

There'south a confused beat. "Selena Gomez?"

"Aye." I jut out my chin. "She'due south a symbol of class and purity, and I try to model myself after her. Personality-wise. Plain, when it comes to style, I volition forever strive to exist Coco Chanel, and I will forever fail because nobody tin can be Coco Chanel."

"Patently." He pauses. "Which era Selena Gomez are we talking most? Justin

Bieber or The Weeknd? Or Bieber part two?"

I pout at my telephone. "Are yous for real right now?"

"What?"

"A woman isn't defined by her boyfriends. She'southward defined by her achievements. And her shoes."

My gaze lands on my new boots, courtesy of Nana Celeste. At to the lowest degree I've had not bad success in the shoe section.

The remainder of it, non and so much.

"I guess I can inquire Dad to call the housing people and see if there's availability in any of the dorms." Once again, I feel defeated. "I really don't desire to do that, though. He already had to pull strings to get me into Briar."

And I'd rather not live in a dorm if I can help it. Sharing a bathroom with a dozen other girls is my worst nightmare. I had to do it in the Kappa house at Dark-brown, just the private bedroom made the bathroom state of affairs easier to swallow. No way will there exist whatever singles left in the dorms this far into the school year.

I moan softly. "What am I supposed to practice?"

I take two older brothers who never, ever laissez passer up an opportunity to tease or embarrass me, but sometimes they display rare moments of compassion. "Don't call Dad nevertheless," Dean says gruffly. "Let me run across what I can do get-go."

My forehead wrinkles. "I'm not sure you lot tin do anything."

"Just agree off on calling him. I've got an idea." The squeal of brakes fills the line. "One sec. Thanks, bro. Five-star ride, for certain." A machine door slams. "Summer, you're coming back to the city this night anyway, correct?"

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