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“Don’t go promising that. We all know how you are in particular, Misael. Just doing what I say and not stepping on toes will suffice.”
“Speaking of stepping on toes…”
Mr. Tyson’s voice almost made me jump, and he stepped forward from where he’d been standing near the door. I’d forgotten he was here. That he was the entire reason we were here.
Nathaniel’s gaze shifted to him, and his brows drew together. “What the fuck else?”
Annoyance hung heavy in his voice, and I had a sudden urge to punch Mr. Tyson in the face—or at the very least, slap my hand over his mouth to stop him from talking. We’d just barely scraped by with our lives after Nathaniel found out about the cause of Flint’s death, and I already owed both Muse and Mr. Ward favors to be collected at some unspecified time in the future. I wasn’t sure I had any bargaining chips left to diffuse Nathaniel’s anger at the fight the guys had gotten into with Eli.
“I told you Eli Parks is a new student at Slateview, and that he’s been throwing his weight around, bragging about being employed by Luke Carmine, yes?” Mr. Tyson asked, coming up to stand beside us in front of Nathaniel’s desk.
“Yes.” The man’s brows drew together.
“Well, these three”—he jerked his head toward the boys—“decided to try to shake him down for information about Luke, looking for info on Cora’s father. I found them all brawling outside the school.”
“Fuck.”
The single word settled on the room like a hammer, and Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed.
“That was my reaction too,” Mr. Tyson said with a wry smile, and I glanced from him to Nathaniel, trying to decipher the relationship between them. There was some deference in our teacher’s voice as he spoke, but a familiarity and ease too. These men knew each other well.
“How is Eli? Alive?” Nathaniel shot a pointed look at the Lost Boys, and Kace grunted.
“Yeah, he’s alive. He’s a little banged up, but he’ll fuckin’ live.”
“Good.” Nathaniel turned back to Mr. Tyson. “Keep an eye on Eli. Make sure he doesn’t stir up more shit. Carmine will be pissed as fuck if we find a way to get Van Rensselaer out of prison when he clearly wants him there. And that’s fine by me. But I don’t want to start a war until we’re ready to fight.”
“Understood.” Tyson dipped his head.
“Thank you, brother.”
My eyebrows almost shot up, and it took all my self-control to keep my face impassive as the word spilled from Nathaniel’s lips.
Brother.
Well, that explained the familiarity between them, and how a teacher at Slateview had ties to a crime lord. Their features weren’t overly similar, although now that I was looking for it, I could see how their eyes shared a certain intensity, and how their noses were both straight and narrow.
Half-brothers, maybe? That would explain the different last names too.
The Lost Boys were eyeing both men with surprise too. It made me a little nervous to think that they’d been going to school at Slateview all this time, with no idea that one of the teachers was connected to Nathaniel. I didn’t like that secrecy on their boss’s part, although I wasn’t entirely surprised by it.
Nathaniel Ward might have a softer side that rose to the surface occasionally, but he was still ruthless and sharp, and he’d probably seen a benefit in keeping Mr. Tyson’s role as observer quiet until it became necessary for the boys to know.
And in a way, his plan had paid off. If the three boys had known Mr. Tyson had any connection to Nathaniel, they definitely would’ve dragged Eli off campus for their interrogation, and I had no idea what the outcome would’ve been if our teacher hadn’t intervened.
Nathaniel turned to the boys, his expression grim. “Did you hear that? I can forgive you stepping out of line to stand up for your girl once, but you keep doing it, and I’m going to start thinking she’s a liability. Understood?”
They all bristled slightly, but they nodded anyway. I shivered. Nathaniel had seemed truly disgusted to hear what Flint had tried to do to me, and the impression I’d gotten of him made me think he wasn’t the type of criminal who made a habit of harming women or children.
But I didn’t want to push him or put that to the test.
“Good.” Nathaniel took another drag from his cigarette. “Now, all of you. Go. Before I decide this is a bad idea.”
We didn’t have to be told twice. We all left, filing out of the study as Josephine propped her hip on Nathaniel’s desk, turning to face him. Before the door closed, I caught a glimpse of her leaning in to kiss him. His arms banded around her, hauling her into his lap, and I glanced away hurriedly. I knew what it felt like, from my experience with the Lost Boys—that unquenchable craving for another person. But I felt awkward watching them, like a voyeur peeping into the little bubble they’d created.
Once outside the room, Mr. Tyson spoke for the first time.
r /> “Now that that’s settled, a couple of extra ground rules for how things are going to go at school,” he said. “Stay away from Eli. And, on the off chance that you have to interact with him, keep your involvement with anything that has to do with Nathaniel out of his ear shot. Be fucking smart. Please.”
