Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
Heath
“Where is she? Why isn’t she here?”
“She’s at a boarding school,” Mom says, curling her long blond hair around her finger.
My eyes widen. “WHAT?!”
My nostrils flare as I listen to my parents talk about Cecelia like she’s no longer with us. Like she’s dead and buried, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
“It is for the best,” Dad says, running his fingers through his dirty-blond hair.
“Bullshit,” I growl. “You sent her away.”
“Heath …” Mom sighs. “Please, don’t fight about this.”
“When were you going to tell me you sent away my goddamn sister?” I make a fist with my hand, staring at the coffee in front of me. I thought they invited me over to the house to catch up on things, but this … this is a bombshell I was not prepared for.
Mom sighs, pouting her rosy lips. “We couldn’t. Not until after she’d already left and—”
I slam the table with my hand. “No! Cecelia loved it here. She never wanted to leave. She told me she wanted to go to Spine Ridge University too, and now you’re telling me she’d leave without telling me? No. I don’t fucking believe it.” I scoot my chair back. “You shipped her off to some boarding school, fuck knows where!”
“Heath, stop,” my father growls. “You don’t get to talk to your mother like that.”
“Where is she?” I respond.
He keeps his mouth shut, biting the piercing in his lip as if that’ll keep him from telling me the truth, but it only makes me laugh. “Really?”
“If we told you, you’d drive over there today,” Mom says.
“Damn right, I would,” I say, shoving the coffee aside. “I’m done here.”
“Heath … please. Talk to us,” Mom says as I get up.
“No, I’m done here. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her. You can kiss your early Thursday morning coffees every week with the family goodbye.” I march out the door before they can say anything else to convince me to stay.
Cecelia was always there for me when I needed her. I couldn’t wish for a better sister. But this? This is a backstab.
It can’t be fucking true. It can’t.
As I rush to my car, I pull my phone from my pocket and message her.
Me: Is it true? Are you really at some boarding school?
Me: Where are you?
There’s no response.
Me: Cece, did they fucking ship you off?
Me: Tell me right now if I need to come and pick you up.
Me: I swear, I’ll come get you. Just say the word.
I start the car and race off before my parents come out yelling at me to come back into the house and talk. I’m not interested in whatever the fuck they have to say. Not today.
I light a cigarette from my pocket, taking a few deep drags.
Goddammit. This is too much, even for me. She always, always told me when she was up to something. Whenever she’d go on vacation, she’d let me know first. And now I have to find this shit out through our parents? Things are not adding up.
I race down the streets, not giving a shit whether it’s a red light. I know how to pay attention, and the faster I go, the more alive I feel. What are the police going to do, fine me? Let them. I have enough money to do whatever the fuck I want. I don’t need anyone’s permission, and I definitely don’t need my fucking parents keeping shit from me.
I take another drag of my cigarette and race up the mountain back to Spine Ridge University, completely fucked out of my mind with rage. I park my car near the Skull and Serpent Society house and jump out, taking another big drag of my cig. The kick just doesn’t do it anymore, but when I spot a particular brown-haired girl biking through the main gates, I stop and gawk. She’s wearing a blue skirt that barely fits her, a short black top, and high heels that are surely hard to walk on. Yet she chose this outfit specifically for her first day back after her punishment. That’s definitely a statement.
She’s headed right for Max, who’s casually reading one of his study books for an upcoming test on a bench outside.
“Well … this should get interesting,” I mutter to myself, chucking the cigarette aside.
I fish my phone from my pocket and PM him.
Me: Thief headed your way. Look up.
He grabs his phone and freaks out… Right before she steals the book from his hand and stares him down, fiery eyes and all.
And I’ve suddenly forgotten just how enraged I was.
I guess this is going to be a fun day after all.
Max
“What the—”
“Come with me,” Ivy growls, holding my book hostage.
Oh shit.
I grab my bag and follow her as she struts off. “Hey! Wait up!”
She doesn’t respond, and I can barely keep up. Man, this girl can walk fast. How does she do this? I have to actually run to catch up, but I don’t want her to run away with my book. I literally have a test tomorrow that I can’t flake out on.
“Give that back, please,” I say. “I have a test.”
But she still ignores me.
When I try to snatch it from her hand, she expertly throws it around from one hand to the other, avoiding my grip each time until we’re already inside the Spine Ridge University main building and headed up the stairs.
I attempt to grab her, but she keeps evading me, always one step ahead. She’s like a mad fox dashing from left to right, faster than I can keep up. She enters a hallway on the second floor and disappears into a door with tape all around it. This part of the building is under renovation since it’s old, and it’s probably not safe to be here.
Yet I can’t help but follow her inside.
It’s dark in here, with only a sliver of sunlight peeking through the closed blinds. A couple of chairs and tables still inside have been thrown over, and the paint is chipping off the walls in this room.
“Damn,” I mutter to myself.
Suddenly, the door is flung closed behind me, and before I know it, she’s gripped me by the shoulders and shoved me against the door. A knife is shoved under my throat, and I lean back into the wood, gulping.
“You tricked me.”
That doesn’t sound like a question.
“Admit it.”
“With what?” I ask, confused.
“Don’t play coy with me,” she grits, obviously upset, but all I can look at are those deep, dark eyes I just want to drown in. Shit, I can’t even focus on what she’s saying.
“You only invited me to that sandwich shop to catch me in the act, didn’t you?”
“What? No, I—”
“Don’t lie to me,” she hisses, pushing the blade even further. “I’m not afraid to use this.”
“I’m sure you aren’t,” I reply, raising my hands. “I really wanted to take you out on a date. That’s it.”
“Right. That’s why that money was marked. That’s why Silas and Heath came after me. That’s why they marked me.”
My heart begins to bleed.
I can’t tell her.
I can’t say the words out loud.
I was there.
I watched and wished I was the one licking her off instead of Silas.
But what kind of messed-up guy would want that?
“I didn’t know they marked that money, I swear,” I say, swallowing with the metal pressed to my skin. “Heath forced me to take it. I didn’t know what it was for. Or that you were going to steal it. Why did you?”
“That’s none of your concern.” She grabs my shoulder and flings me away from the door. “You thought I’d be an easy victim? That I’d play along nicely?”
I shake my head, but while backing away, I bump into a chair and fall. The knife immediately meets my throat again. And I’m not gonna lie, it’s kinda hot.
“Answer me,” she growls.
“No,” I say. “I never thought you were easy. I never thought you were anything but … perfect.” Her eyes flicker with interest. “I’ve been nothing but enamored with you ever since I first saw you. You have to believe me.”
She tilts my chin up, forcing me to look her in the eyes, and my God … I’m blinded by her beauty.
She inches closer and closer, her warm breath fanning my skin, and I can barely resist leaning in. I want to kiss her so badly. But would she let me?
“You were the one who found me last night, weren’t you?”
I should lie.
But I also shouldn’t tell her this.
Heath and Silas would kill me if they knew.
“Yes.”
Fuck.
Ivy
My lips shudder as I suck in a breath, looking down at the boy who fell into the chair while his puppy-dog eyes are permanently glued to my face. “How did you know where I live?”
There’s a reason I didn’t go back to my house, and then this fucker suddenly pops up like he already knew where I lived.
“Are you sure you want to know?” he asks.
I nod, the knife still firmly lodged into his neck.
I can’t trust him. I don’t. Yet … something about the way he looks at me, like he would bow at my feet, keeps me intrigued.
Keeps me wanting to know more.
“Tell me.”
He gulps.
“I’ve been following you home … ever since I first saw you.”
Wow. But that feels like ages ago.
“The first time, I came in through the window.”
My eyes widen.
He’s … been stalking me?
That means I wasn’t dreaming when I felt like someone was watching me that night I came home to Cora wandering out of bed.
“It was you,” I murmur.
So I was right all along.
He knows where my house is. It’s too late to hide. Too late to save Cora.
“I promise I won’t tell a soul where you live,” he says. “I also brought your bike back after I took you home. I put the wheel back on and fixed it.”
What is this? A plea for forgiveness?
My grip on the knife tightens. “How did you get into my home?”
He gulps. “I stole a key the first time I came into your home.”
Damn. I should’ve hid them better.
“Why? Why did you do it?” I ask.
“I couldn’t help it. I had to see you. Over and over again,” he says, straining against the chair like he’s trying his very best not to lean in to the knife. “It’s never close enough.”
I have to say, it’s kind of a kick to have a guy like him, with the power he has and the frat house he belongs to, practically fawn at the idea of being close to me.
And even though I’m angry as hell that he knows where I live and sneaks into my house … I really want to know where this could lead.
If I could take back some of the power those boys have siphoned off me.
“I’m addicted,” he murmurs.
“How addicted?” I hover so close to his face I can practically taste his desire from the air he breathes. “Show me.”
His dimples show up again as his lips part, and a tongue dips out to lick the top of my lip. And for a second, I just look down at him fawning over me, those caramel eyes taunting me, pushing me over the edge. And then I return his lick with a kiss.