Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
DRAKE
I cut through undergrowth with an impatient swat of my hand, getting onto the footpath just in time to duck into hiding again as a carload of teens pull to the kerb.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I stifle a curse. When I lick my lips, I taste Cadence on them and want to forget what I have planned, returning to her side to finish the job I started.
“Arlington,” a thin voice warbles from the opposite side of the road. “I can see you hiding in there.”
I check both ways, then hurry across to meet Travis. A buddy from boot camp who’s always got a clear spot in his calendar when there’s something destructive planned.
“You got the equipment?”
“Everything’s organised,” he assures me, patting my arm like I need soothing. “All I need is you to take care of the cameras and we’re good to go.” His eyes narrow as his gaze sweeps across the suit I wore, an attempt to impress Cadence. “And, just as an aside, what the ungodly mother of fuck are you wearing?”
“Keep the sweet talk for your DMs.” I melt into the shadows at the sound of a car engine, but it continues around the curve to the main road, and I relax. “You said five minutes, yeah?”
“Thereabouts.”
“Five minutes.”
He rolls his eyes but gives a hum of agreement. I lean against the opposite neighbour’s fence while working to disarm the system. I grabbed a patch last night and feed it into the recording now, to make it look like it’s live.
“We’re good.”
Trav slinks across the road, blending into the darkness of the driveways surrounding Gretchen’s while I stay alert for trouble, adrenaline pumping.
In less than three minutes, he returns, giving me a high five and slipping me a remote-control device before continuing back to his car.
That’s why I love the guy. I could leave a year before speaking to him again but the moment I call, he’d respond, and I’d do the same.
Once the security system is back online, I erase any traces that could point to me, then head into the reserve, fighting back to the spot I left Cadence.
Except the tree only has my tie hanging over a low branch, no sign of the girl in question.
CADENCE
No matter what curses I spout in connection with Drake’s name, it doesn’t help me free my bonds. I’m not the most coordinated person at the best of times and being unable to see what I’m trying to undo is an extremely unhelpful feature.
When I hear footsteps coming towards me through the reserve, I feel a rush of gratitude. “Drake?”
“Sure, if that makes you feel better,” a boy responds, yelping, then swearing as he walks into something, getting close enough to make out details.
He stops a metre short, blinking rapidly as he takes in my situation. “Cadence?”
“Ben.” I send a silent prayer of gratitude to the heavens as Hudson’s younger brother inches a little closer. “Could you help untie me?”
“That depends on who tied you up.”
“Blaine.”
“Ah.” He wrinkles his nose, walking behind the tree where my hands are secured. “And this isn’t some horrible game where he’s lurking nearby, ready to pounce if I set you free, is it?”
“No. This is him tying me up and walking off because he’s a thoughtless arse.”
Ben snuffles out a laugh, working on the knot. “Sounds familiar. I have an arsehole for a sibling, too. Perhaps you’re aware of him?”
The bond releases and I rub my wrists, tugging the back of my dress where it wrinkled against the trunk. “Thank you.”
“Yeah. Maybe hold off on the thanks until the night is at an end.”
I squint at him, trying to work out what he means, but he ploughs through the ring of flax bushes near the lawn, bursting from the foliage with a laugh of relief before turning to check I made it out, as well.
“Why were you sneaking in the back way?” I ask, trotting to keep pace. “Are you and Hudson fighting?”
“The answer for that one is always yes. The only time we reach a truce is if it’s mutually beneficial.” He appears nervous, tugging at his ear, then the collar of his T-shirt. “Listen, for what it’s worth, I think Hudson deserved everything he got.”
My feet slow. “How do you mean?”
Ben’s lips twist. “What you did to him at the movies.”
My eyes open wide, appalled. “I had nothing to do with his tyres being slashed.”
He leaves a long pause. “Not that,” he says, looking miserable. “It’s… when Mum got us access to the camera footage from the mall, he tracked Blaine, thinking he’d done it.”
I frown, still on the defensive. “But he didn’t. Hudson already told us that.”
“Yeah, but he saw Blaine follow you into the bathroom.” Ben has his hands on his hips, stepping aside as two drunken girls stumble past in their stockinged feet, heels dangling from their fingers. “My brother’s no saint but that was just cruel.”
It was.
My face drains of colour, thinking how Hudson must have felt to see that on a mall camera. It wasn’t something I instigated, but it also was a shitty thing to do.
“I didn’t know he’d seen it.”
“Hudson’s even better at hiding shit than I am.” Ben rubs the back of his neck, the moment growing increasingly awkward. “But I guess you already know that since you found out about the betting racket.”
My face throbs with shame as I nod, not trusting myself to speak.
I contrast the awfulness of my behaviour at the movies with the reminder that two boys attacked me because of Hudson. That for the past few weeks, everywhere I went, boys were hitting on me, discussing me behind my back. And all the time, he smiled to my face, held my hand, feigned an interest he obviously didn’t feel, and for what?
To claim prize money he doesn’t need, winning a pointless game.
But it doesn’t erase me cheating on him in a mall bathroom. It was inexcusable behaviour, and two wrongs don’t make a right.
Drake appears in the doorway, darkness silhouetted against the strong house lights. I duck my head before Ben sees me staring, keeping track of his movements from the corner of my eye as he slowly advances.
“He’s well mad at you for obvious reasons, but you seem kind of cool. For what it’s worth, I told him not to do it, but Hudson insisted.”
Drake’s low growl makes Ben jump. “Insisted on what?”
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
I think nothing of it, then notice a girl nearby taking out her phone, and the girl opposite, and the boy sitting with his arm around her, and the couple standing closer to the braziers, and the ones sitting on the grass.
Everywhere I look, people take their phones out, staring at the screens.
“Don’t look,” Drake says but I can’t help it. I need to know.
My heart pounds as I click the link sent to my phone, the video auto-playing.
The back of my neck prickles as I feel everyone stare at me. On their phones and in real life.
It’s Hudson’s house. The day he stopped for me, and I got all muddy playing the game.
My blood turns to sludge in my veins. I’m ice cold from head to toe.
The video shows me in their shower.
“I’m sorry,” Ben whispers, giving Drake a wide berth as he speeds towards the safety of the house.
I can’t tear my eyes away.
Judging from the angle, the camera must have been mounted in the showerhead. The spray obscures part of the image.
Not enough.
And everything is on view as I turn off the water, drying myself inside the cubicle because I felt exposed being naked in a stranger’s house and thought the steamed glass walls offered protection.
Drake tugs the phone from my numb fingers, turning off the auto-repeat.
“I’ve taken care of it,” he assures me in a muted whisper. “It won’t stay up for more than ten minutes.”
My ears pick out snorts of laughter from the partygoers, a few snarky asides, some drunken mumbles. Nothing much but it’s just getting started.
“My man!” a boy from my English class calls.
I turn in time to see him give a high-five to Hudson, who smirks at me, giving an elaborate low bow while acid burns the back of my throat, wondering how I ever thought he was a nice guy.
“Don’t look at them,” Drake orders me, pulling my head into the safe comfort of his chest. His large fingers splay over my hair. “We’ll leave and by Monday, it’ll be old news.”
“Will it?” My voice verges on hysterical. “Because it seems more likely, the video will have spread everywhere, and no one will ever let me forget it.”
“I’ve already broken the link,” he assures me. “I promise you, on Monday, everyone here will have something far more exciting to gossip about.”
“Oh, yeah. What?”
Then I straighten. Muscles stiffening.
I smell lighter fuel and don’t know if it’s a flashback or real as my system swings into red alert, pushing against Drake, my internal alarms blaring. “Do you smell that?”
“Fire!” a girl screams.
A second later my nostrils burn with the scent of petrol and acrid smoke. More people shout, feet thundering towards us. The party turns into pandemonium.
Beyond them, a plume of smoke rises into the air.
“Has anyone called emergency?” Drake yells, his deep voice commanding instant attention. His eyes lock to mine for a second, then he shakes his head, turning to intercede Gretchen as she comes screaming past us. “Phone and get a fire crew out here.”
“Hudson?” Rox sprints out of the house, scanning for her target. “Hudson, quick. Your car’s on fire.”