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I shrug. “I guess as good as they can be.” I try not to think about her threat to set Nataniele on me. “I can’t see us ever getting back to the way we were, though.”
A wave of sorrow sweeps through me. I’ve lost so much over the past twelve months. My mind instantly bounces to the Devils. Have I gained something, too? No, this…thing…has no potential to last. We’re just having fun; that’s all. Using each other to our own gain.
She gives a small smile. “You’ll find your way back to each other. Maybe it won’t be exactly the same, but you may find yourselves with a new kind of respect for one another.”
“When did you get so wise?” I ask.
“I’ve been there, remember? I think I was about twelve when I realized my father’s”—she makes little quotation marks in the air with her fingers—“import and export business wasn’t the same as other people’s parents’ jobs. There were always strange men in and out of the house, and my mother would get anxious when these men had meetings with my father. We kids would get hustled into the living room and told to be quiet, or else. I kind of thought that was how everyone lived, but then the government started taking interest in my dad and his business, and all of a sudden it was all over the news. Kids at school were talking about how he’s a gangster, and then my friends’ parents suddenly wouldn’t let me play with them or allow them to come over to my house. I had no idea what was going on, and I asked one of my brothers. He laughed at me and said the men who were in our house all the time were criminals, and that Dad was one too. I called him a liar, and he told me to Google some of the names of the men, and ours, too. I did, and that’s when I realized he was telling the truth.”
“Shit, Camile, that must have been hard.”
She shrugs. “I felt humiliated. I hated that everyone else already knew, and I didn’t. They said they were trying to protect me, because I was young, and a girl, but it didn’t feel that way.”
I offer her a consolatory smile. “I know exactly what you mean.”
She continues to walk and talk. “But I get it now. I’m an adult. I wouldn’t want little kids to know the ins and outs of this business either.”
I guess that’s the difference between us—I’m an adult, but no one had trusted me with the truth.
I take a sip of my coffee, appreciating the warmth and the caffeine. I probably shouldn’t be drinking it this late in the day, but I haven’t been sleeping great anyway, so I can’t see what harm it’ll do.
“And how have you been feeling?” she asks. “No more seizures?”
“No, I’ve got everything under control.” Is that really the truth? “I’m feeling much better.”
“Good. Let’s keep it that way.”
I clear my throat, trying to work up the courage to ask the question that’s been burning away at me ever since I saw her with the Vipers in the hall.
“How about you?” I ask. “How’re things?”
“Same as usual. Nothing too exciting goes on in my life.”
“You sure? I thought I saw you earlier with those twins from West House.”
Her cheeks flare pink. “Yeah, Louis and Mattheo Laurant. They were just giving me shit. They do it to everyone.”
I cock an eyebrow. “They stick their hands up everyone’s skirts?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Have they been hassling you in particular, though? Do you want me to see if Dom and the others will talk to them?”
Her head snaps toward me. “God, no. The last thing I want is to become some little tug toy between all of them.”
The thought of being a toy makes me think about how the Devils keep referring to me as their doll, and now it’s my turn for my cheeks to color.
“Okay, I understand. It was just an offer. But you’ll say something if anything gets worse, won’t you? Dom’s the dean’s son, after all. He does have some sway in this place.”
She gives me a half smile. “That’s cute, Mackenzie. Like he’s going to be able to tell the Vipers what to do. You think the Devils are bad…well, let’s just say no one wants to mess with these guys either. You know the type of people who come to Verona Falls. Everyone here comes from some kind of criminal background. None of them take kindly to being told what to do.”
Her words fall around me like leaves.
On the other side of the chain link fencing, something moves.
My heart jolts, and I draw to a halt. “Did you see that?”
Camile stops with me. “See what?”
