Page 89 of Off the Rails

I hadn’t realized that they’d had sex outside of Fright Night, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. We hadn’t had this problem with any of the other girls.

None of the other girls were Tess.

Shaking her head, Blade’s voice came out strained. “It wasn’t like that, Tess.”

But Tess stepped back before Blade could get within arm’s reach. “I know exactly what it was like. I see it now, why you didn’t tell me. You — you were all just going to use me again. Play with me until you got bored and then dump me on my own. Again.”

I frowned as it dawned on me, for the first time, that perhaps life at Heirs of Promise hadn’t been so pleasant for Tess after all.

Cyrus wasn’t much inclined to sympathy though. Especially not when it came to Tess.

“Please.” She groaned, leaning back against the Cadillac. “For once in your life, stop acting like you’re a victim.”

“I was a victim!” Tess seethed, eager for a sparring partner who would fight back. “You didn’t even tell me where you were going! You just disappeared. Do you have any idea what happened after you escaped?”

We didn’t, actually. We’d read in the news that Heirs of Promise got shut down. But I’d never stopped to consider what that might have looked like.

I opened my mouth to ask her what had happened, but Cyrus was too fast. “Oh fuck off! You didn’t want to come with us. You loved it there. Not our fault they shut down your little heavenly empire. If anything, you can thank yourself — you were the reason we had to leave anyway.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Tess growled.

Cyrus’ eyes widened briefly — she’d said more than she meant to. From the way Blade’s shoulders tightened, I could tell she knew as well as I did what Cyrus was getting at.

But Tess glared on, impatience tugging at the corner of her lips.

She has no fucking clue.

Cyrus’ backpedal was nearly instantaneous. “You were fine. You were safe. Nothing happened to you.”

“No,” Tess frowned. “That’s not what I asked. What did I h⁠—”

“I couldn’t stand another day in that place with you, okay? You and fucking Rubin and your pious pick-me bullshit.”

Cyrus shoved off the car, throwing her hands up in the air. “We all decided we’d rather take our chances in the woods than deal with your sanctimonious crap for another day. And clearly we made the right choice. Everything’s been worse since you got here.”

“Cyrus,” I glared. She was talking out of her ass — hoping that if she hit a nerve, Tess would drop it. But dragging Blade and I into it was low. Especially when it wasn’t the truth.

Why won’t she tell her?

Lying was what had gotten us into this mess in the first place. If we could just clear the air, we could end this. I had half a mind to tell her the truth myself — and from the conflicted look in her eyes, Blade was thinking the same.

But was this our battle to fight?

Before I could make the call, Tess let out a strained scoff. “You think I liked Heirs of Promise? That I was ‘sanctimonious?’ I did what I had to do to make it out of that place in one piece.”

My heart ached at the thought of poor, scared little Tess. Even Cyrus’ eyes glinted with something like guilt. She wouldn’t show her belly, though.

Instead, she growled, turning away from Tess. “If you think Promise was bad, you never would have survived out here.”

“You have no fucking idea what I’ve survived!” Tess called after her, voice tearing from her throat like glass. But Cyrus was already storming off into the park. And Tess was turning on her heel, tears streaming as she ran off into the apartment.

Reeling in the aftershock, I turned to Blade. “What the fuck…?”

“Cyrus is feeling extra ‘Cyrus’ today,” she frowned. “I can go after her.”

“I’ll take Tess.” I swallowed hard. But before Blade could run off after Cyrus, I grabbed her shoulder. “Heirs of Promise... what do I tell her?”

Blade thought for a moment before shaking her head. “Nothing.”