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A few minutes later, we’re walking into the kitchen where Riley, Crew, and Neo are sitting at the round, oak table. Leave it to Neo to speak up first. “Hope you didn’t loosen her up too much for my boy Crew over here.”
With a balled fist, I punch him hard in the shoulder. In the past, I wouldn’t have even thought twice about doing such a thing, but Neo is learning quickly that I fight back.
He snarls at me, then returns his attention to the center of the table. I expected some more cruel words or maybe a wrist grab, but it seems things really have changed. For instance, Neo makes claims time and time again that he hates Crew and Jagger—two guys who are supposed to be his best friends. But during his jabs at me, suddenly they’re his boys again. I know it to be true. Neo just has a hard shell.
“What’s this big news?” I ask, pulling out a chair and sitting down between Crew and Riley.
“Riley’s convinced it’s a student,” Crew says, pushing three or four papers into the center of the table.
“And you’re not convinced?”
“A student?” Crew huffs, leaning back in his chair and stretching his arms out on either side of him. “How the hell would they get past us? We can’t be that naïve.”
“It would explain their access to us. Regardless, it’s obvious this person knows their way around The Academy fairly well.”
“No shit,” Neo chimes in. “The Becketts are trained to hate us from birth. Wouldn’t surprise me if they were watching last year, too.” His gaze casts on me. “Probably just waiting around for Scar to make her appearance.”
Ugh.The thought makes my skin crawl. “Or maybe he wasn’t watching you all, and he was watching me back home.”
“But why?” Riley asks. “That’s what I can't figure out. Why you? I mean, it’s no secret the Becketts hate us, but to single you out? There has to be something we don’t know. Some sort of past between the Sunders and the Becketts.”
I chew on my nail, racking my brain and trying to think of anything my parents may have mentioned that didn’t click at the time but would now. Or even my grandparents. I remember the day my grandfather passed away. He was so sick for so long and my family gathered around his bedside, Dad holding one hand and my grandmother holding the other. With his last breath, he looked at me and said, “Scarlett. You were exactly what we didn’t know we needed in our lives.” I took it to mean, I might not have been planned for, but, to my family, I was a blessing. Even if my birth did cause a ripple in the family. My mom fell in love with her stepbrother and in the eyes of The Society, they sinned.
“Scar?” Riley nudges me, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Huh?”
“I asked if you’re ready?”
“Oh yeah. Sorry.”
Looks like it’s showtime. The guys devised a plan and had Melody leave the creep his own little note. He was instructed to meet her at the river with the assumption that she wants to help him destroy us all due to her own vendetta against The Blue Bloods. Now, we get to stand back and see if he takes the bait.
“Whoa.” I take a step back, hands up in surrender, when I see Neo sticking a gun into a holster beneath his shirt. “What are you doing with that?”
“Protection. What else? You can’t really think we’re gonna go out there and try to bring this psychopath down without protection?”
“I suppose not.” This is turning out to be much more serious than I could have ever imagined. I hope like hell it’s just a scare tactic, and he doesn’t intend to use it.
Jagger comes down the stairs and hands me a solid black hoodie. “Put this on.” Then he pulls a similar one over his head. Crew comes down the stairs, and what do you know, black hoodie.
“I missed the memo where we all have to match,” Neo says, waving his fingers between us. “Or is this some sort of cute couple shit?”
“Fuck off. It’s cold,” Jagger tells him. “Not to mention, we need to be inconspicuous.”
“Inconspicuous would be camouflaged. Not black.” Says the guy wearing a black leather jacket and black jeans that are shredded in the knees.
Once we’re all ready, we head out for the long walk to the river. Even if we could use the guys’ sleds, they’re too loud, and we’d give ourselves away. So here we are, stuck walking with Neo. Well, he’s walking behind us, but when the hood of my sweatshirt pulls down, I know he’s closer than I’d like him to be.
“Quit it,” I snap at him, pulling it back up.
He does it again, laughing. “Fucking with you is so fun.”
I pull it up, again. “Would you grow up?”
At least he’s not tripping me or shoving my face into a pile of snow. Progress has been made, but we’re still far from being okay with each other.
I slow my steps, letting Crew, Jagger, and Riley go ahead, while I stay back and walk beside Neo.
