Chapter 46 #2
“Because we have no other choice,” Felix, Silas’s dad, grits.
“Why not? You did it once before,” Silas says, shrugging.
“Because my grandpa stopped working there as head of the police force, didn’t he?” Melody says, looking up at her dad, Alistair, who nods.
“He was your inside guy,” Aspen mutters.
“They’ve been coming down on us hard ever since he left,” Felix mutters.
“As payback? That’s not fair,” Cecelia says.
“We gotta beat their asses in a brawl one of these days, maybe that’ll teach them not to mess with us,” Apollo says, making a fist.
“No,” the adults in the room respond, almost collectively.
“Well, for one, I agree with him.” Heath shrugs. “Beats sitting around here doing nothing.”
“No one’s beating anyone’s ass,” Caleb, Heath’s dad, says.
“Why would we let them waltz all over us?” Silas says, playing with his knife again.
Felix rubs the bridge of his nose. “I’m going for a cigarette.”
Everyone looks at him as he puts on his jacket and waltzes out of the room.
“What’s his problem?” Nathan, Sunny’s dad, asks.
“Beats me,” Levi muses. “He’s always grumpy as fuck on campus.”
Lana nudges him with her elbow. “Hey. Don’t talk about your uncle like that. He’s just trying to do the best he can.”
“You guys used to rule this fucking town. What happened?” Silas mutters, distracted by his own skills as he flips the knife up and down in his hand.
“Us,” Max mutters, and everyone looks at him, while the parents look flustered as hell.
“What do you mean?” his brother Elliot asks.
“It’s because we were born,” Max adds.
Maybe that’s it.
We all thought the dean was trying to hold us back, scolding us at every turn. But maybe … he was just trying to protect us.
“When I got pregnant,” Lana mutters, “Felix and I decided it would be safer if we all stopped the random murders. So he made a deal with the Bones Brotherhood.”
The jaws of all of us kids drop simultaneously.
“We would stay out of their business, and they would leave us alone,” Lana adds.
“Holy shit, so it’s true, you made a deal,” Silas says, flabbergasted.
“But everybody hates the Bones Brotherhood. Why would you make a deal with the people who can’t be trusted?” Elliot asks.
“It was the only way to protect you all,” Xavier’s mom, Penelope, says. “We were vulnerable. Babies are an easy target. We didn’t want to risk it.”
I swallow. “So you guys pretended they weren’t wreaking havoc in the city.”
“We retreated to our safe havens, our homes, to protect our kids,” my mom says. “Felix made that deal for all the right reasons.”
Everybody looks at him now, while he’s squeezing the palms of his hands like it’s annoyed him all this time that he’s had to carry the weight of this decision all by himself. “I fucking hate them too, but it was the only option.”
“With my dad gone from the corps,” Melody’s dad says. “There was no one from the police force we could trust. We needed to reduce the targets on our backs.”
“So that’s why you guys let Foley parade all over campus like he owns the place,” Apollo says.
“It was them, or the Bones Brotherhood. Take your pick,” his dad, Ares, says. “We made a choice. We live with the consequences.”
“Well, I’m grateful,” Cecelia says, smiling. “We’re still alive, thanks to you.”
Penelope and Felix share a burdened look.
“Some of us …” Aspen mutters, and Penelope grabs her hand in solidarity.
Atlas casually walks in with his hands in his pockets, and both Xavier and I look up at him.
“Where’ve you been?” his mom, Crystal, asks. “I texted you half an hour ago that it was time.”
“Sorry. I got caught up.”
I narrow my eyes at him as he sits down beside me. “Right … you sure you weren’t getting drunk with some girls at an after-party?”
He just smirks at me. “No, of course not. I’ve been busy studying.”
I lean in to whisper, “Is that why you suddenly disappeared after the wedding situation?”
He just throws me a weird look.
“I went inside the venue and calmed some guests who got suspicious after José didn’t come back, and there was a lot of noise,” he whispers back. “Otherwise, they would’ve found us.”
Hmm. Guess he was more helpful than I thought.
“Thanks,” I reply.
“No need. I fucked up before. Had to make up for my mistake.”
The doors to the courtroom open, and Sunny’s mother clears her throat. “It’s time.”
The moment she’s brought into the room by the guards while in chains feels unreal. Everyone’s looking at her and taking pictures like she’s some wild animal they caught.
They don’t realize how valuable she is, how special. And how much it would hurt this world if they locked her away.
She cleaned this precious soil of the filth that tried to run all over it. They should be grateful she took care of their dirty work.
“Where the hell is Atreus?” Xavier hisses at me.
I rub my lips together to try to stave off the nerves. “I don’t know.”
“He said he’d fucking help!” he whisper-yells.
Right before she’s scheduled to go on the stand, Atreus suddenly enters the courtroom with none other than José Martínez, who casually strolls toward the front, while Atreus winks as he passes us.
What the hell is going on?
Both the defense and the prosecutors approach the judge, and there are some heavy talks, before both return to their seats.
“Very well. I’ll allow for Mr. José Martínez to take the stand first.”
The man saunters toward his seat and flops down, sighing out loud, as he looks over the courtroom before settling his eyes on Atreus, who nods at him.
“I am here because I wish to confess the murders of Mike Smith, Carlo Ferreira, Paul Lockley, Jimmy Farrell, Perry Jones, and Bob Eizenheimer.”
And the entire room erupts into audible gasps, me included.