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Following the example set by their respective bosses, Nathaniel and Luke, the boys and Eli left each other alone. That didn’t stop the new kid from strutting around the school like a damn peacock, and heavy tension hung in the air anytime he or one of the boys passed each other—but luckily, there hadn’t been a repeat of the incident on his first day.
Since our altercation by my locker, I had avoided him as completely as I could, even going so far as to arrive late to US History to make sure I could choose a desk that wasn’t next to his. He’d never approached me again, but I couldn’t help but feel that a lot of the time, he was watching me. There was definitely something unnerving about it.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost jumped when Bishop’s cell rang. He kept one hand on the wheel while he swiped his screen with the other and brought the phone up to his ear.
“Yeah. This is Bish.” That was all the greeting he gave, then he listened intently for a few moments before nodding. “Yeah, sure. We’ll head over soon.”
I looked over to him, head tilted, as he hung up and dropped the phone in the cupholder in the center console.
“What’s up?”
“Nathaniel wants us in on another job,” he said tersely. I could tell that, even though they wer
e getting more money for the work they were doing, the amount of pressure was causing a bit of a strain. I couldn’t tell if it was just because they were taking on more demanding jobs for Nathaniel, or because they were waiting for someone to uncover information about Flint. Maybe it was a bit of both. Except for the night we’d all spent together the previous weekend, I still wasn’t sleeping very well, my dreams still constantly overtaken by nightmares.
I frowned a little, looking back to the other two before glancing at Bishop.
“Can I come with you?”
Bish actually hit the brakes hard, jolting us before continuing on smoothly and pulling into the Burger King parking lot.
“Fuck no,” he said immediately.
“I want to come,” I insisted.
“Why?”
“Just to see.”
Bishop’s brow rose, and he shot me a quelling look.
“I don’t think so, Cora.”
“It does sound like a bad idea,” Misael threw in, poking his head between the seats from where he sat in the back. “I mean, it was one thing when it was Flint coming to the warehouse and all, but after everything that went down… We need to keep you and anything that has to do with Nathaniel as far away from each other as possible.”
I sighed. Of course none of them wanted me to come. They all wanted to protect me, and the easiest way they could think of to do that was to keep me far away from the world they’d become a part of.
But what they didn’t understand was that the idea of losing them, of any of them being in danger, hurt worse than the thought of my own death. They were trying to protect my body, but I was trying to protect my heart.
“Please, let me,” I insisted. “I just… I don’t know. I think it will set my mind at ease a little if I just meet him and see that’s he’s not a bad man.”
Bishop turned to me, a deadpan expression on his face. “He’s literally the leader of a criminal ring and orchestrates illegal activity.”
“Yeah, and you work for him, yet I can see past that to who you are as a person. I know you, and I care about you and trust you,” I countered. Then I softened my voice. “Please? Just this one time?”
Bishop considered this, and I could tell an internal debate was raging inside him. I peeked into the back seat and found Kace and Misael with similar expressions on their face. None of them wanted to let me do this, and I could understand that. But there was an inexplicable need burning in my chest, one that had been growing in me ever since their promotion.
A little voice whispered in my mind that if I met him, put a face to the name that had been haunting my dreams, it would put my mind at ease. Then maybe I would be able to trust that, at least for now, they were safe in Nathaniel’s hands.
After a long, quiet moment, Bishop sighed. Kace grunted, and Misael reached through the seats to brush his knuckles down my arm. My gaze bounced between all three of them, ending on Bish—none of them had spoken, but as if they’d all communicated telepathically, they seemed to have come to the same conclusion.
“Fine. You can come.” Bishop shook his head, his grip tightening on the wheel. “But I’m gonna regret the fuck outta this.”
We got our food and ate on the way, and a little under an hour later, we were in a… surprisingly nice part of Baltimore. I didn’t know the area, but the sights that surrounded us were more familiar to me than those I saw in the neighborhood Mom and I lived in now.
We drove up a street bordered by posh houses and manicured lawns, and my head swiveled back and forth.
It honestly surprised me. I wasn’t sure why, but I had almost expected Nathaniel to operate out of someplace shoddy, maybe an abandoned warehouse of his own. The image I’d had in my mind was based on the way Hollywood tended to portray the lairs of criminal masterminds, all low lighting and dingy, run-down buildings.
