by Elle East
He opens his mouth to speak but then a series of deep coughs comes out instead. He lays back, completely spent from the effort. His chest rattles disconcertingly.
“I’m ok,” he says weakly. It’s a weird sight to see such a strong man look so weak.
I then realize what he said when he first woke up. “Nightingale. I’m surprised you know that reference.”
“What? You think I’m an idiot?” he says with a laugh, but that just causes him to have another coughing fit. I hate watching him like this.
When he finally settles back down, I say, “No, I just didn’t think a lot of people knew that, and you don’t really seem to be very into school so I was surprised you knew.”
“I like to read.” He shrugs very slightly, but that’s still enough to make him wince—and I subconsciously wince too.
“I wouldn’t have guessed that about you. Alec likes to read too.”
“Yeah, when we are stuck on long stakeouts together that’s what we talk about to pass the time. He gives good book recommendations. I wasn’t really into reading until he got me into it. My whole life everyone told me I was dumb, so I never bothered doing stuff like that. Thought it was a waste of time because I wouldn’t be able to understand it anyway.”
“Who told you that?” I feel a sudden surge of protectiveness towards him.
“Family. School. Everyone.” He shrugs again, forgetting about the pain then wincing.
“Well, I don’t think you’re dumb,” I say honestly.
He looks at me and his gray eyes, which usually look so cold and distant, look almost happy. I realize this is the most he’s said since he was shot and I want to keep talking, but I don’t want him to use up all his strength.
“Do you need anything?” I ask, breaking the moment between us.
His eyes revert back to the closed-off look they normally have and I regret ruining it.
“No, I’m all right.”
I finish wrapping his wound in new gauze and then say, “Ok, get some rest. I’ll check on you in a bit.” I turn to leave, but then pause for a second. “Sorry for making that assumption about you. That was wrong of me.”
“Don’t worry about it, Nightingale.”
25
“How’s our patient?” Brax asks when he comes over that evening.
“I think he’s doing better. He was talking more today. I think he’ll be fine eventually, just might take a couple more weeks,” I answer. “He’s sleeping right now.”
Brax nods. “Well I won’t wake him up then. Just came to give you guys some stuff.”
He hands over a couple grocery bags full of food and medical supplies. He then turns to go.
“Wait,” I say and he pauses. “Hang out with me for a bit?”
His eyes narrow in suspicion. “Why?”
I throw my hands up in exasperation. “Fine. Whatever. Don’t hang out with me if you don’t want to. It’s just that I’m going crazy down here. I haven’t been outside in days and I pretty much only have Olivia to talk to—who is also driving me crazy. We are just waiting down here and we don’t understand what’s going on and we know there are things you guys aren’t telling us. Do you know how frustrating this all is for us? I just need someone to talk to to keep me sane—but that’s fine. If you don’t want to hang out with me, I’m not going to force you.”
“Are you kidding me?” And I’m surprised by how exasperated he sounds. After days of showing no emotions except for concern for Theo, it’s shocking to see. “You’re the one who blew me off after we kissed, Highness. I kept trying to talk to you but you didn’t want anything to do with me. Turns out it was a good thing you blew me off, but still…”
“Why was it a good thing?” I ask.
He waves me off dismissively. “Nothing, never mind. I gotta go.”
He turns and walks up the stairs and out the door before I can even react.
I snap into action and chase after him. I’m not letting him get away with hiding anything from me anymore. I’m tired of living in the dark. I need to know.
I barge right past Alec’s mom who’s standing in the hall.
“Who the hell are you?” she screeches at me, but I ignore her and storm out the front door after Brax.
“Talk to me!” I yell and he stops halfway to his car. His entire back is tensed up. “Why was it good that nothing else happened between us?” I stomp up to him. “Why did you all stop talking to me all of a sudden after forcing me to hang out with you for so long? Why are you guys protecting Olivia and I? Why aren’t you telling us anything?!”
Brax turns around and his dark eyes are like ebony fire. All the emotions he’s been holding back are clearly evident on his handsome, angular face.
“Because you fucked Alec.”
I’m caught off guard and I stop short a couple feet away from him.
He rakes his fingers angrily through his silver hair.
“You knew I liked you,” he says.
“I didn’t,” I say quietly.
“Well then, you’re fucking oblivious. I liked you. I like you—and that’s a problem. Because I’m not the only one.”
I’m dumbstruck.
I just stare at him open-mouthed and he throws up his hands in exasperation.
“Are you serious? Are you really that clueless? I’ve never seen Daire act this way about a girl before. I don’t want to be in a fucking—fucking—love triangle.” He says “love triangle,” with true disgust like he can’t believe he even has to say something so lame. “Again!”
I’m too shocked to say anything.
“And you fucked Alec! You kissed me and then went and fucked him. Why?”
He doesn’t let me answer, but I don’t think I could form words at this moment anyway. He looks so hurt it makes my heart ache.
“It doesn’t matter,” he continues to rant. “Do you have any idea what happened between him and me last year with Cherry? It almost destroyed the crew. I almost lost my best friend—I almost lost all my best friends. I’m not letting you get in between us.” He says the last part as if he’s trying to convince himself. “I hate what you’re doing to us.”
He storms off down the driveway, but then stops. Without turning back around he adds, “We were ordered not to tell you, but I think the crew is falling apart anyway so I’m just going to fucking say it because I feel like shit about it.”
“What?” I ask in a whisper. I can barely form words.
“Your dad hired us to protect you and your sister.”
I need to sit down.
Brax slowly starts to walk down the rest of the driveway and gets on his motorcycle. In a few seconds he’s speeding down the road and out of view.
26
I feel so numb. I don’t know how long I’m standing there for but I can barely feel my body when I walk back into the house. I barely hear Alec’s mom asking who I am. I just walk right past her and downstairs, locking the door behind me. I barely hear her pounding on the door.
Olivia is sitting in the main room, texting. She looks up when I come down and says, “Hey”, before turning back to her phone, but then she does a double take when she sees my face.
“What the hell happened to you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
In a voice that sounds very far away even though it’s my own, I tell her that I just found out our dad hired the Vicious Crew to protect us.
“What?!!” she shrieks, and Alec’s mom pounds harder on the door at the sound.
She asks me about a million follow-up questions but I say I’ve already told her everything I know. We talk about it for a bit, but I’m a million miles away, thinking about the other stuff Brax just told me.
Olivia and I can’t figure out how my dad was able to ask the Vicious Crew to protect us. How did he even know them in the first place? How did he know we’d end up at Marter High? And if he knew all this—and he cared enough about us to want us safe—then why didn’t he and mom take us or give us money or something?
Nei
ther of us can figure it out and Theo is asleep so we can’t ask him. Olivia wants to text Daire or Alec and demand answers. Maybe they know where our parents are? But I don’t want to text them because Brax wasn’t supposed to tell us. He only did it as a favor and I don’t want to get him in trouble for doing the right thing.
The whole time we are talking about him I can’t stop thinking, “Daire likes me.” I never would have guessed it. He acts like such a dick to me all the time—he even told me he hated me—so I still find it hard to believe that he likes me. Brax must be mistaken—but Brax knows Daire better than almost anyone.
I feel so lost. This was all too much to process.
We end up talking for a long time, but I eventually look down at my phone and that’s when I see I’ve got a text from a number I don’t have saved in my contacts. Immediately, for some reason I can’t explain, I get a bad feeling and dread fills me.
I open it and I feel like my heart stops.
There’s a blurry picture of a guy tied to a chair. There’s a rag in his mouth and blood running out of his nose. One of his eyes is purple and swollen. His black t-shirt is ripped. His combat boots are tied tight to the legs of the chair. His heavily tattooed arms are tied behind him. He’s staring at the person taking the picture with a mixture of fury, defiance—and clearly pain.
It’s Brax.
The text beneath it says, “Give us Olivia and Addison otherwise we kill him. You have 24 hours.”
To be continued…
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Also by Elle East
Cruel Riches (The Kings of Crestmoore, Book 1)
They have all the power in the world, and they are using it to make me suffer.
My best friends are dead. They’ve been replaced with these cruel, gorgeous monsters.
Archer, Brett, and Grayson—I don’t recognize them anymore.
Powerful. Rich. Vicious.
They rule the school and everyone in it. Everyone except me.
I didn’t want to come back here. They didn’t want me to come back either and are determined to make my life hell until I leave.
But I can’t. To save my mom I need to get close to them again. I need to find out what secrets they are hiding. I need to betray them.
Dean is the only one keeping me from going insane but I don’t know how much more I can take.
They want me to break.
They want me to run.
They want me.
