Free Guilty Secrets (Campus Love and Murder Sorority Eyes Romance Book 1) by Ciara Christie Page B

killer. But I figured without being forearmed with their secrets, then there was no point in attending the Knights' ball.
    Inside the house, Jason Drake leapt out at me and grabbed both my hands. He dragged me into a large room heaving with skimpily dressed women and men in jeans and t-shirts. All were gyrating to the thumping dance music.
    I had to admit he was a great dancer and intuitively guided my two left feet away from that invisible line beyond which lay the graveyard of all tragic dance moves. We looked so good together that people stopped to gawk at us. This was so not what I planned.
    As if he was psychic, Jason put his hands on my shoulders and gently but firmly guided me off the dance floor to a marginally less rowdy bar.
    "What's your poison?"
    I don't drink and told him so. He was quite the gentleman and handed me an alcohol free bottled beer. His choice was a premium European lager straight out of the bottle.
    "So Robyn, how's your first week?"
    This could be a long night. "Would you excuse me for a moment, I need to freshen up."
    His eyes almost imperceptibly narrowed like a crevasse of ice closing for a split second before flickering back to their usual warmth. He pointed to the stairs for the first floor.
    "Bathroom is first door at the top of the staircase."
    I thanked him and left my drink with him. I carefully weaved through the mass of people until I reached the foot of the stairs. As I took the first few steps and apologized to a couple making out on the stairs, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck jolt to attention.
    I glanced back across the room to the bar. Jason's cold narrow eyes stared hard at me for a long moment before a blond girl tripped into his arms and he caught her.
    I hurried up the stairs and ignored the bathroom. In the semi-darkness I bumped into another couple making out and asked them if they'd seen Brad.
    The girl told me to check his room on the top floor.
    "Which one?"
    "Red door. Can't miss it."
    I thanked them, but they had already returned to exploring each other’s tonsils and other body parts.
    Before long I found a red door and knocked three times. I listened for any response but none came. I took a deep breath, turned the door handle and as the door creaked open, I entered the room.
    The room was minimalist in style. A hard wood floor was scrubbed clean. My fingers couldn't resist the soft sensual feel of the crisp white Egyptian cotton sheets adorned a large four post double bed in the center of the room.
    Beneath a large circular window with a view of the edge of the woods sat a functional old antique desk with unlocked and empty drawers. On top of that was a laptop. There was a ceiling high bookcase of engineering books and ancient medieval history. I ran my fingers along the top of the black marble hearth of the fireplace. I glanced at my fingertips. Clean.
    I stood by the second door. I tapped and listened. No reply. I opened the door that led to a clean white en-suite bathroom. The place smelled of lemons and sandalwood.
    Clean. Functional. Masculine. No wall mounted pictures to conceal safes. No creaking floor boards concealing secret spaces. In fact, not anywhere remotely likely to conceal any secrets. I began to panic that the entire mission was a total waste of time.
    I took a deep breath and turned to face the room. Then I glanced at the fireplace once again. It was too clean. Surely with autumn marching onward, there was a need to light a fire?
    I knelt and placed my hands on the floor boards. They were warm. So the place had underfloor heating hence no need for a fireplace. I wondered if...
    I quickly crossed to the fireplace and knelt before the hearth. I reached up inside the chimney and with one hand flush against the inside of the flue I felt back and forth along. After a few seconds my fingers scraped something jutting out from the brickwork.
    Steadying my balance with my other hand I dug my fingernails under the object and prised it off the wall. It