“Fuck. What if they figure out it was us?” Carly whines in the back seat.
“They won’t,” I say with confidence. “Don’t worry so much, Carly. We took all the right precautions. No cameras, no witnesses, this isn’t even our car?—”
“You’re returning it, right?” Carly interrupts.
I sigh in annoyance. “Of course I am. They won’t even know we took it. Unless they keep track of mileage, but it was, what, two miles at most?”
Samantha tugs at her mask but doesn’t pull it off yet. “I hope it was the right car,” she says.
“Even if it wasn’t, who the fuck gets a vanity plate that saysGod Loves Me?” I shake my head. “Only an arrogant dick. How presumptuous!”
Samantha shakes her head, but she’s weirdly silent.
I pause at a stop sign and look at her. “Hey. You were amazing. I’m really proud of you.”
She breathes out slowly. “Yeah,” she says, cracking a smile, though it fades a few seconds later. “I don’t know if that was worth being proud of. Maybe if it had beenEzio’scar.”
I clench my hands on the steering wheel. “Well, y’know. Car damage wouldn’t be enough there. He’s going to get something far worse.”
A destroyed car is a minor inconvenience. Insurance and a body shop will fix it right up. Anybody who attends Dyschord can afford to get their vehicle fixed.
No, Ezio’s fate is going to have to match Zayden’s.
Be worse than Zayden’s.
Considering I sawed off Zayden’s limbs while he was still alive, I’m going to have to be very, very creative with Ezio.
I will not be inviting Samantha and Carly along for that one.
19
BLAZE
“It’s fucked,” Holden says to me. “You know it’s fucked. Keegan didn’t?—”
I glare at him, and he shuts up. “If you say he didn’t deserve it… Because I can think of somebody else who didn’t deserve what happened to them.”
Holden makes a disgusted noise. “Yeah. Fine. Keegan’s a dick. But so’s your girlfriend.”
I can’t argue with that. I lean back in my chair. The classroom has emptied out by now, and it’s just me and Holden still here.
“If you leave Pandora alone, she won’t retaliate,” I say.
I think.
Holden flexes his hand. “You’re supposed to cover for us, not your girl. Loyalty to your brothers above all else, etc.”
“Etc,” I mimic. “Seriously, Holden? If somebody messed with your girlfriend, you’d stand by and let it happen? That’s fucking cowardly.”
“Maybe, but I also wouldn’t be fucking a girl who sleeps around with other guys. You’re fucking whipped.” Holden grits his teeth. “You don’t need to punch me for that comment.”
I laugh harshly. “I should, though.”
I try to remember how much Holden did during thegym. I remember him writing on Pandora. Mostly he stood by and watched.
Like me, except not half as bad becausehehadn’t been the one to lure Pandora to the gym. He hadn’t organized it all.
Maybe Pandora should be sending videos of me for the world to see.
