by Mae Doyle
“For us,” I responded, whispering back. “Please tell me that you’ll do anything for us.”
◆◆◆
I wasn’t together with all three of my rogues again until after dinner. Jackie and Kaleb walked me to voice and Brett picked me up so that I wouldn’t be alone on my way to dinner, but he told me that he didn’t want to talk about his mom until we were all together again.
So I waited.
And I picked at the hem of my jacket.
I pushed my food around on my plate.
And when the four of us were finally in my room, the door shut and locked, and me on the bed surrounded by all three of them, we finally talked.
Chapter 20
I’d gotten good at waiting over the years.
After my dad died, I had to wait a long time before I felt like I could breathe again.
When I came to Taylor Prep, I needed to wait to reconnect with Brett.
But just then? Surrounded by my rogues, who I loved more than anything? I thought that if I had to wait one more second that I might fall apart. I didn’t think that I could wait any longer to hear what Brett had to say.
He cleared his throat and reached over to take my hand. Jackie slipped his hand into Brett’s free one and Kaleb took mine. We were all linked together. All in this together, all waiting to hear what was going to happen and how we could make our lives together as good as possible.
“Is it a lot?” I finally asked, unable to hold back my curiosity any longer. “I’m sorry, Brett, I just have to know. Did you talk to your mom?”
He nodded, first not looking at me, but then he took a deep breath and looked me in the eyes. “I did, Rose. I talked to her, and at first she didn’t want to tell me the truth. She was afraid that if I knew everything that I’d be in even more danger.”
A flush ran through my body. It was insane to me for her to think that we’d be in more danger. Did she not know what lengths they were willing to go to in order to protect themselves?
Brett took a shaky breath and squeezed my hand. “But she told me, finally. Two hundred a year.”
Jackie coughed. “Two hundred a year? That makes no sense, that’s not enough to make a difference – ”
He probably would have kept talking but Kaleb interrupted him. “Not two hundred, Jackie. Two hundred thousand, right, Brett?”
Two hundred thousand?
My head swam at that ridiculous sum. It made absolutely no sense for the council to not only have that much money, but to be willing to give it to someone just to get me out of school.
“That’s right,” Brett agreed. “It’s a ton of money, but it’s what they promised him to…look the other way, I guess. Mom made it sound like there was more that he had to do to hold up his end of the bargain, but she didn’t seem to want to get into it, and I didn’t want to push her.”
“I understand,” I told him, leaning on his shoulder. I was disappointed, sure, because I would have loved more information about what the council was planning as well as Mr. Taylor’s role in everything, but Brett had found out more than I could have hoped for.
At least now we knew that we were up against a group that had basically unlimited funds and that they weren’t going to stop until I left Taylor Prep, one way or another.
It was terrifying, to be honest. Knowing that there were people who were willing to work against me like that? Scary. I was just so grateful to have my rogues.
“Any other news from the driver?” Jackie leaned over to look at Kaleb, who shook his head. He looked so upset and worried by everything that I couldn’t help but lean over and give him a kiss.
“It’s going to be okay,” I told him. “We’re going to get through this, I promise.”
No sooner were the words out of my mouth than there was a loud banging on my door. The four of us froze, none of us sure what we should do. Slowly, I stood up, but Kaleb grabbed my arm.
“Not a chance, Rose,” he whispered, keeping his voice down so that whoever was outside my door didn’t hear him. “You don’t need to be the one answering the door right now.”
I paused and looked at him, then let my gaze slide over my other two rogues. It was amazing that they wanted to protect me, but I couldn’t let them constantly put themselves in danger over me.
It was obvious that the council wanted me, and if I would just go…my rogues would be fine.
I took a deep breath and pulled out of Kaleb’s grip, but Brett beat me to the door. He leaned against it, his shoulder braced into it, and sighed. “Who’s there?” He asked.
Even thought it was obvious from the look on his face that he was terrified, he did an amazing job keeping his voice steady. We probably all had guesses on who was on the other side of the door, but Brett wanted to make sure that they had no idea how scared we all were.
Nobody answered.
My palms felt sweaty and I wiped them on my bed, not even caring if my rogues noticed. I was scared, plain and simple, but more than that, I realized suddenly that I was angry.
My entire time at Taylor Prep involved me running scared.
It was exhausting.
Before I could even think about what I was doing, I was up and crossing the room. Jackie called my name, but I ignored him and pushed Brett out of the way of the door. He must not have seen me coming, or I caught him off-balance, because there wasn’t any way that I could have normally just moved him out of the way like that.
There was a part of my brain that was screaming at me to stop what I was doing and to have some sense, but before I could slow down, I unlocked the door and threw it open.
Honestly, I didn’t know who I expected to see on the other side of the door.
I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the entire council standing out there.
Luckily for me, and for my rogues, that wasn’t who it was.
“Mrs. Cox?” She was literally one of the last people that I ever thought would be standing outside of my door, especially when it felt like the shit was really going to hit the fan. She cleared her throat and pushed her hair over her shoulder while she looked at me.
Remembering my manners, I swung my door open. “Do you want to come in?” I wasn’t sure if inviting her in was a good idea, but I also didn’t think that leaving her out in the hall was very smart. “How did you get in here? Is everything okay?”
She brushed past me and glanced at Kaleb and Jackie on the bed before turning back to me. It was then that she saw Brett, and she sighed a little.
“I thought that you might be in here, Brett,” she said, reaching out like she was going to touch him. Instead, though, she let her hand drop back down to her side. He was looking at her like he hadn’t seen her before, and I thought to myself that he probably hadn’t – not in this state.
She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. When I’d seen her at Brett’s funeral, she’d been an absolute mess. Now she didn’t look like she’d been crying, but like she hadn’t slept. Mrs. Cox had huge dark circles under her eyes that she hadn’t even bothered to try to cover with makeup. Her blouse looked wrinkled, which was something I’d never noticed on her before, and she didn’t have any lipstick on.
“Can I help you?” I was dying to know exactly why she’d appeared at my dorm, but I wasn’t sure how to ask her without coming across as rude. It wasn’t until she slowly turned away from Brett to look at me that she smiled.
“You can. I think. Or, rather, I can help you, Rose.” This was the kindest that she had spoken to me since before the funeral. Even when my rogues and I showed up at her house to bring Brett back to Taylor Prep, she hadn’t seemed very happy to be dealing with me.
“Would you like to sit?” I motioned at my bed and both Kaleb and Jackie jumped off of it to give her space, but she just shook her head.
“No, this won’t take long. I know that you got a letter from the council, right?” When I nodded, she continued. “Okay. You can’t go to that meeting, Rose. No matter what you think you’ll be able to do or s
ay to convince them that you should stay here, you can’t go. It’s not safe.”
It felt like a blow to my stomach and I blew out a breath. “Why wouldn’t I go? And what do you mean that it wouldn’t be safe?” Even as I asked the questions, I had a distinct feeling that I wasn’t going to like what she had to say.
Even so, there’s no way that a group of adults would be violent towards a student, right? I mean, that was just ridiculous.
“Rose. You know that I wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t important, but you’ve been a friend to our family for a long time and now it seems like you are even more.” I blushed, but she didn’t seem to notice and kept talking. “Normally, I would not want to get involved with the business at Taylor Prep any more than I already have, but I’m the one who put you in their crosshairs.”
Brett spoke up. “It was as much my fault, mom. I’m the one who came to you and told you about Rose. If I hadn’t…” His voice trailed off when I reached over and squeezed his hand.
“I’m the adult, Brett,” she said, sadly. “I’m the one who should have handled things better, but I didn’t, and now we’re in this mess. So, Rose,” she said, reaching out to touch my shoulder, “I came here to help you, but I can’t if you won’t help yourself. Promise me that you won’t go to the meeting with the council.”
I felt torn. I wanted to make her happy by agreeing to what she wanted, but only because she looked exhausted. Instead of giving her what I wanted, though, I slowly shook my head.
“I can’t do that, Mrs. Cox,” I said slowly, letting the words sink in. “I have to go to them and see if I can finish out this year. If I can do that then we can all put this behind us.” The thought of getting to have a normal like with my three rogues was enough reason for me to do anything that the council asked right now.
Not only did I want to be able to finish out my year with the rogues that I loved, but I wanted to be able to have a future with them. Honestly, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to have either of those two things if I didn’t listen to what the council wanted now and give them what they needed from me, but I wasn’t going to just roll over for them.
Mrs. Cox shook her head. “That’s a terrible idea, Rose. They’re not going to let you stay. They may tell you that you have a chance, but it’s a lie.”
“How do you know?” Brett sounded angry, but more than that, he sounded worried. Both his mother and I turned to look at him, surprised. “How do you know for sure that they’re not going to give her a chance? Are you still working with them?”
The suspicion in his voice was obvious and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I didn’t want to be the reason that Brett and his mom were torn apart from each other, but his question was valid, and it scared me.
“I’m not working with them. I managed to find out through a friend, but that person isn’t going to pass me more information, okay? I’m doing my best, Brett, to make up for what I put Rose through.” The way she sounded like she was begging made me cringe.
“Then what are they planning to do at the meeting?” Jackie walked over and slung his arm around my shoulders, pulling me to him. I leaned into him, taking a deep breath and enjoying the light cotton smell that I associated with him. He was the strength that I needed just then, and, for just a moment, I relaxed.
“I’m not entirely sure. I just know that they’re not going to let her stay. They’re going to make her leave.” Mrs. Cox wasn’t look at me now. Her eyes were on her son like she was seeing him for the first time.
“They can’t do that,” Brett said, reaching back for my hand and squeezing it.
I looked over at Kaleb and jerked my head for him to come. He immediately came over and Jackie wrapped his arm around Kaleb’s waist. The four of us were united, not against Mrs. Cox, but against what she had come to tell us.
“We’ll be fine,” I told her, lifting my chin. “It doesn’t matter what they try to do to me, I have my rogues, and they’ll protect me.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, like what I was telling her hurt her to hear. “And who is going to protect them, Rose?” She finally asked.
It was just a handful of words, but every single one of them dropped into the pit of my stomach like a rock.
Honestly? I hadn’t considered it.
I hadn’t considered it because it never crossed my mind that someone would need to protect them.
It never crossed my mind that they may be the ones in danger.
I should have thought about that, though.
They were willing to pretend that Brett was dead.
How far was the council really willing to go to prove their point and get me to leave?
Chapter 21
“What I don’t understand is why Taylor Prep doesn’t just make up a bogus excuse for why I can’t study here any longer. Why go through all of the trouble and drama of the council taking care of things when they could just…kick me out? Raise tuition costs so I couldn’t afford them? Something?” Even though I knew that I was being a bit ridiculous, I couldn’t seem to stop myself. Pretty much anything would be easier than what I was going through.
“Drama much, Rosita?” Jackie called me out on it and slipped a soda into my hand. I took a long sip of the cool bubbly drink and sighed. Taylor Prep didn’t keep soda in the cafeteria, so I was sure that he had snuck out to the bunker at some point to bring this back for me.
“Maybe so, but don’t you think that would be a lot easier? We wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not I should go to the meeting, I wouldn’t have to deal with the shit looks that Amelia gives me all the time, none of it. Just, boom. Gone.” I took another sip and leaned back so that Kaleb could wrap his arm around me and pull me to him.
The four of us were back in my room, which is where we retreated to study and spend time together after classes and after dinner each day. Even though we’d spent a long time talking about what we should do about my meeting with the council, we couldn’t come to an agreement.
Well, that wasn’t true.
The rogues all came to an agreement about what I should do much faster than I was able to. They all voted for me to stay as far away from the meeting as possible and even offered to spend the night with me to keep me safe.
I didn’t agree. The past two weeks had been hard enough without worrying about what would happen if I skipped the meeting. No, the best thing to do was to face it head-on.
The last thing that I wanted to do was run from my problems any longer. I was tired of it, but more than that, I wasn’t going to let them hurt my rogues.
Brett frowned at me from his perch by my feet. He’d been rubbing them, which felt amazing, and I kept reminding him with gentle kicks to keep rubbing whenever he stopped. “You know that we’re going to do everything possible to keep you safe, right, Rose?”
I loved all of my boys and normally I would want to do whatever they asked of me, but just then I knew that I had to take steps to keep them safe.
Sighing, I sat up. Kaleb kept his arm around me, which made me feel safe, but right then I didn’t want to feel safe.
I wanted to tear apart everything that the council had built, and all of the things that they had planned for me.
“Next week is the meeting, Rose,” Kaleb reminded me, gently landing a kiss on the back of my neck. “I know that this month has been hell, but pretty soon it will all be over, okay?”
“You guys don’t honestly think that if I just skip the meeting that everything will go back to normal, do you?” It sounded ridiculous to me, but as I looked around at my boys, I realized that – even if they didn’t really think that – they all hoped it.
They wanted this to just disappear.
“Sometimes, Rosita,” Jackie said, “things work out.”
I shook my head at him. “Not this time.” Stretching, I slipped off of my bed and started to take off my jewelry. I still hadn’t worn earrings since Amelia had pulled them out of my ears, but I loved my bracelet and necklac
es. My rogues watched as I slowly got ready for bed.
Brett stood up and walked over to me, grabbing my wrist out of the air. “You aren’t planning on anything next week, are you?” His voice sounded low and gravely. I flicked my eyes up to meet his gaze and the passion I saw there took my breath away.
“I think that I have to. No, I know that I have to,” I told him, pulling my wrist back. He let me go, but he didn’t move away from me. Just being that close to him was hard for me. I could feel my body starting to ache for him and I had to force myself to take a step back.
Not that I would have minded falling into bed with him…or all of my rogues, for that matter, but I had to keep my mind on what I had planned for tomorrow.
“Then at least tell us what you’re going to do.” Brett reached out and took me by the shoulders, gently turning me so that my back was to him. I shivered as he carefully unhooked my necklace and lifted it over my head. My skin was covered in goosebumps from his touch.
“Really? You really want to know?” Turning around, I glanced at my rogues on my bed, then took Brett’s hand.
Kaleb sighed and slid off of the bed to take one of my hands. “Rose, we’ve always wanted to know what you were going to do. We’ve always been happy to be there to help you out, no matter what that meant for us. So, yes, we want to know what you’re planning.”
“It’s obvious that you’re up to something, Rosita,” Jackie piped up from the bed. “We agreed that if we couldn’t talk some sense into you and get you to back down from taking the council and the harpies on by yourself that we would be there to help you. It’s been a long few weeks, honey, let us help you.”
The thought that I wouldn’t have to go through with my plan by myself gave me a burst of hope. It wasn’t that I was afraid, not really, but having my rogues with my and knowing that they had my back gave me hope.
“Okay.” I squeezed Brett and Kaleb’s hands and smiled at Jackie. “I’ll tell you guys, but you have to promise not to say anything until I’m all done, okay? Don’t interrupt me and don’t try to stop me.”
