Surviving In This Filthy World As A Novel Villain

Chapter 180 - 180: Tricked

Eric imagined it clearly: the girl, Riley, sobbing gratefully as she collapsed into his embrace. 'So innocent, so pure...Holding her close would feel incredible.'

It was an easy decision to make.

An empty room was perfect. No witnesses, no need to hide. He could finally focus entirely on the treatment... Eric eased the door open and carefully shuffled inside.

He forced himself to take small steps, wincing. He could feel the tell-tale dampness spreading beneath his pants, his stitches must have ripped open again. 'Thank God for the thick gauze,' he thought grimly, 'or I'd be leaving a trail of blood.'

His eyes swept the room,

...

Later...

"A prescription, you say?" Alex listened to the report over the phone, one hand steady on the car steering wheel. He glanced towards the bright lights of the university library as he spoke, then ended the call and immediately texted Riley.

His message was brief: "Which dorm building?"

Riley had just walked into her dorm room after a long shift. She stared at the phone, her heart jumping. Behind the familiar large glasses, her eyes widened in surprise, then panic.

'He wants to come here? Now?' She looked out at the dark campus, then shook her head with a small, nervous laugh. 'No way. Impossible.'

Another message popped up almost instantly: "Quick. Downstairs now. Got you something. Lots of your classmates around."

'He was really here? Right downstairs?' Riley's mind raced. She felt trapped, she couldn't possibly refuse him, could she? He wouldn't take no for an answer, not him.

Heat rushed to her face, her pulse hammering in her ears. Taking a shaky breath, she typed out her dorm number and hit send.

She had no idea Alex was actually still wandering near the university library, cynically soaking up the 'scholarly atmosphere'. Only after her message arrived did he retrieve a shopping bag from his car and start heading casually towards her dorm.

Thankfully, Riley's dorm building was on the opposite side of campus from Sera's, minimizing the risk of an accidental encounter between those two.

Not that Alex feared confrontation. That kind of messy, emotional drama was for the heroes, the protagonists.

He was the villain, complications were dealt with, not wallowed in, especially when relationships, for him, were purely physical transactions.

Alex was more concerned that Riley wasn't quite... ready yet for emotional things. Sera was mostly there, but Riley still needed work.

Now wasn't the best time for them to know about each other... No, more accurately, it wasn't the right time for Riley to know about Sera.

At the very least, he had to mold her into the kind of person he wanted first. He didn't understand relationship drama, but he knew a thing or two about handling two women at once.

It was nearly ten at night. The campus was quiet, with only a few students around, mostly those heading back from late-night studying in the library, or couples returning after finding some privacy in grassy areas or little groves.

There weren't many students on the paths, but the lights were still on. When he arrived downstairs at the dorm, the dorm supervisor walked him into the girls' building.

Female students passing by looked surprised to see a man there, but they only glanced briefly. It wasn't unheard of for male Supervisor to check girls' dorms, and it was around nine o'clock, the usual time for checks.

Still, they'd never seen such a handsome Supervisor at the school before! The dorm supervisor went back downstairs after he reached the right floor.