Chapter 55 #2
“No, we don’t all have the same package,” Darwin hisses at Squirrel as he continues to wrestle with me as I fight against him for air.
“That’s harsh coming from a training guard, calling a recruit a girl,” Squirrel scoffs.
“It’s not harsh if it’s true. G’s my sister,” Jeremy adds. While I struggle to remove my face from Darwin’s armpit, I hear a clatter followed by a loud thump.
Chris barks, “Darwin, take Jessica to her room. Skunk, Jeremy, get Squirrel to the clinic.”
Emily laughs hysterically over our video call. “Wait. Let me get this straight. You got sent to your room just for standing around your two naked brothers and a naked Skunk?”
I roll my eyes. “Pretty much.”
“I wish I was a fly on the wall when that happened.”
“You’re mean.”
“You know what I think? I think you should just show up to dinner as you. Screw it. It’s been almost a year.
You’ve been kicking ass, right alongside all of them.
I think it’s time that they see what they’ve been competing against. Besides, no one said that you had to be a boy to be in the recruit program, lucky bitch. You chose to do that all on your own.”
I scrunch up my nose. “I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t mind that all of the recruits think I’m a scrawny boy. If they find out I’m a girl… I don’t want things to change. I want to keep training like I have been with them.”
She shrugs. “The way I see it, I don’t think things will change much, other than giving you the mad respect that you deserve for taking their shit with grace.”
I wave my hand, dismissing her words.
“Don’t wave me off. You know I’m right. You took all of their shit—the pranks, the bullying, the jokes at your expense—and on top of all of that, you continue to stay in the top ten.
I’m pretty sure when they all learn that you’re a girl—the Princess, might I add—they’re all going to shit themselves.
I wish I could be there to see their faces. ”
“I wish you were here and having this conversation in person. I hate that you’re leaving me,” I confess.
“Trust me. I hate most of my classmates. I would rather be there with you and kicking Shadow’s ass than on this senior class trip. Oh, speaking of, any word since I last checked in?”
I frown and shake my head, “No. I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I whisper.
“Look, he’s crazy about you, and he loves his job. I’m sure there is a perfectly good explanation. I’m betting that there’s an issue within the family because I can’t even reach Troy, Trevor, and even that man-slut, Travis. So, hang in there. Okay?”
I nod.
“I have to get going before the bus leaves me behind. I love you, babes.”
“I love you, Em.” I end the call, missing her even more.
Almost immediately, she sends a group text message.
Emily: I have an idea. Go to dinner with your tits hanging out. Tell one of the twins to take a video and send it to his phone. That will piss him off, and he’ll show up as scary Shadow and threaten everyone who looked at you. There! Two problems solved. I’m a genius!
Me: I am not going to dinner with my tits hanging out.
Emily: But why??? You have the best tits ever! Yours are bigger than Sixes’s.
I snort. My phone buzzes with a text from Sixes. Sixes left yesterday for a business assistant internship with W his eyes scan down my body and back up to my face. He whips around to face the door. “Put on some clothes,” he grumbles.
I cross the room to my dresser and pull on a pair of joggers. “You didn’t answer me,” I snap.
He whips around, looking angry this time. “This whole time, you were a girl pretending to be a boy! This whole time!” he shouts.
“Keep it down! It’s not like everyone else knows.”
He lowers his voice. “I thought we were friends, but obviously, you didn’t trust me enough to tell me your secret.”
Odyssey and I aren’t exactly besties, but after spending time in the holding cell, we weren’t enemies anymore.
I took what he said to heart and made more of an attempt to make friends, not be so closed off.
But there were limits to how open I could be with everyone because I didn’t want them to find out I was a girl.
The more time I spent around all of them, I started to worry that they would treat me differently if they knew. I didn’t want them to.
As it was, the twins sometimes forgot and excluded me from exercises for fear I would injure myself.
Skunk, Owen, and Elijah always volunteered to take my place if they thought it was too much for me to handle.
I didn’t like it. I wanted to be treated as an equal, even if it meant I had to work harder and sometimes paid the price for it.
Pushing my hair back off my face, I finally make eye contact with Odyssey.
“How the hell did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Say all of those things without moving your mouth?”
Can he hear my thoughts? Did that big ball of whatever make him telepathic? What the hell is happening to me?
“You made me like this? You gave me magic?” He whips his head toward the door. “Someone’s looking for the Princess. Why would the Princess be here?”
My door opens, and Darwin pokes his head in my room. “Uh, there’s a guy in front of the building, insisting to see you. You might want to hurry up and get over there. He’s drawing attention, and your brothers are ready to pummel his ass.”
I glance toward Odyssey, and Darwin pushes the door open wider and finds Odyssey on the opposite side of the door. I slap a hand over my face. I don’t have to read Darwin’s mind to know what he’s probably thinking. The strong urge to run away tickles my spine.
Pushing past Odyssey and Darwin, I make a run for it. Odyssey grabs my arm. “I think you should put on some shoes and a shirt,” he says, pointedly looking down at my feet. I can feel the heat rise in my chest and face. Darwin raises an eyebrow at me, but he doesn’t say anything.
“It’s not what you think,” Odyssey grumbles.
Hurriedly, I shove my feet in my favorite pair of shoes and grab a zipped-up hoodie and rush out of my room with both Darwin and Odyssey hot on my heels.
Tension fills the air as we near the front entrance of the building. Most of the recruits stand around, listening to my brothers snarl at some stranger I can’t see. I push my way through the gathering crowd, as confused and strange glances turn my way.
Elijah and Skunk stand near the front doors behind the twins, who block the entrance. “I’m not going to ask you again. What the hell do you want with my sister?” Jeremy bellows.
“I need to speak to the Princess, and I am not leaving until I see her!” the stranger shouts.
This guy has a death wish. Facing off with my brothers is one thing, but facing off with Skunk, Elijah, and the gathering recruits is just plain suicidal.
Even though most of them don’t know who I really am, just hearing ‘Princess’ is enough to put them on guard.
They are trained to protect the royal family.
Finally making my way to the front, I wiggle past Elijah and Skunk.
Skunk grabs me and holds me back. “Zip up your damn jacket,” Skunk growls in my ear.
I stiffen when I look down at my chest. I quickly pull the tab up.
What the fuck is wrong with me today? In my rush to leave my room, I never fastened it closed, exposing me to everyone.
“You won’t see her unless you tell us what this is about,” Justin explains calmly. Sensing me behind them, the twins step in closer together, blocking the stranger’s view into the building.
“It’s important! It’s a matter of life and death, and I need to speak to her, only her.”
Life and death? Who is this guy? I try to stand on my tippy toes to get a look at this stranger, but I can barely see past the twins.
“Listen. I don’t have time. I need her help. Just tell her that Reggie is here to speak to her. She’ll know who I am.”
My heart starts to race. Does he know what happened to Tyler? I rest my palms on my brothers’ backs and emit a small current of electricity. They jump and separate.
I push myself between them. “Reggie?”
He wears a black hoodie with the hood pulled up over his head. His face is encased in shadows, not that I know what he looks like. I only spoke to him on the phone for a few minutes on my birthday.
He hunches over, with one arm crossed over his midsection, gripping his side. The energy around him feels desperate and scared. A slight breeze blows in, and a sweet, coppery odor wafts through the air. He smells like blood. The hand gripping his side squeezes, his knuckles turning white.
I look back up to his face, pale and sweaty. What the hell happened to him? My heart races. “Did you drive all the way here from Territory Five?” I ask.
He nods. “Are you the Princess?”
Shit. I really didn’t think this through, in my rush to get down here and away from Darwin and Odyssey. Squaring my shoulders and lifting my jaw, I hold his eye contact. “Yes. I’m Princess Jessica Langhlan. Where is my guard? Where is Shadow?”
A brief look of relief crosses his features, but then he moans and bends forward at the waist. Drops of blood splatter on the concrete.
I take a step toward him, but a large hand holds me back.
“These men came and took him,” Reggie mutters before falling to his knees.
When he holds his hand out in front of him, it’s covered in blood.
“Help,” he whispers, collapsing to the ground.
“Skunk!” I scream, rushing forward. Glancing over my shoulder, I bark an order for someone to find the Leads.