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“Is that a fact?” Bishop finally asked, his voice even and measured despite the tension still choking the air.
“It is, in fact, a fact,” Eli said easily. “So maybe keep that in mind while you try to lord over this school.” He leaned to one side, cocking an eyebrow as he glanced at me over Bishop’s shoulder. “Be seein’ you around, Cora.”
With that, the new boy turned and strolled away, leaving Bishop and me behind. There was a strange silence before Bishop turned to me.
“You alright?” he asked, clearly trying to force calm into his voice. I nodded.
“He didn’t do anything to me. He was just annoying and inconvenient.” I settled my hand on his chest. “Are you alright? What’s going on? He works for Luke Carmine? Who is that?”
“No one we’re gonna talk about here, but he’s not a friend of ours.”
There was a finality in his voice that told me Bishop was done talking for the moment. Whatever this was about, it wasn’t something he could discuss openly at school—just like the boys never discussed Nathaniel here. Jessica and Liam knew, and I was sure some other students had figured it out, but no one ever mentioned it.
I nodded, shoving my things into my locker. “Okay. We’ll talk later?”
“Yeah.” A muscle in Bish’s jaw twitched, but he threaded his fingers through mine, lifting my hand to his lips to kiss my knuckles. “Come on, Princess. I’ll walk you to your next class.”
“Thanks.” I tightened my grip on his hand, letting his touch soothe me.
As we headed down the hall, I noticed Mr. Tyson’s door close softly, the latch clicking into place with a dull snick.
A little bubble of concern rose in my chest.
If it were any other teacher at Slateview, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. But like Jessica had said, Mr. Tyson was more invested and observant than most of the people who taught here.
My head turned slightly as we walked past, trying to peer through the small window in the door, but I couldn’t catch sight of him.
Shit. How much did he hear?
Six
As soon as we left school that day, Bishop explained to me that Luke Carmine was a rival of Nathaniel’s. They each controlled about the same amount of territory in Baltimore, and generally speaking, they stayed out of each other’s way. But the relationship between them was definitely antagonistic, and knowing that one of Luke’s lackeys was at Slateview seemed to put all the Lost Boys on edge.
The drive back home was tense, and I wished there was something I could do to ease the lines of stress etched into their faces. On top of everything else that’d happened, on top of worrying about Flint’s death being discovered, they didn’t need another thing to worry about.
But I didn’t know what I could do to help. I was in over my head in all of this, treading water and slowly learning to swim in this strange, vast ocean I’d been thrust into.
I was barely keeping myself from drowning, but I sure as hell wouldn’t let the Lost Boys go down either.
My hand found Bishop’s on the center console, and I squeezed it once before reaching for the door handle. “I’ll see you later?”
“Yeah. See ya later, Coralee.”
Some of the tension melted from his face as he gifted me with a smile, and I glanced into the back seat to say my goodbyes to the other boys before slipping out of the car and heading inside the house.
> I dropped my school bag on the couch and headed into the kitchen for a snack, but my footsteps slowed before I could reach the fridge.
“What the hell is all of this?”
My voice rang out in the empty room as I stared at the small pile of envelopes on the kitchen table. They all bore the same return address: the state prison where my father was incarcerated, waiting for his trial. All had been opened, rather messily.
Sinking down into one of the wobbly wooden chairs, I picked up several of the letters and read through them. They were all from Dad, and the tone of each letter seemed to grow increasingly irritated. There had been several times that he had tried to have visits organized, and it sounded like every one had fallen through.
This was news to me. Mom hadn’t said a word.
“What was that, Cora?”
Mom emerged from her room a few minutes later, proving that she had, in fact, heard my question. She had a slightly annoyed expression on her face, and she cocked one brow at me. It was perfectly penciled in, which meant she had spent some time doing her make-up today, which meant she had plans.
