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The tablet we were given earlier started ringing, drawing my attention. “Fun times over.” I winked at Keegan as I walked away.
“Hawke, let’s go,” Lux said.
We made our way back into the underground and to our seats. There was no need to debate or even count. We’d successfully caught twenty-nine, seven of whom came from our school. Harry made his way in, but only one of his members was with him.
“You two?” Lux asked.
I leaned back and propped my feet up, waiting to be called. “Touched something that wasn’t theirs.”
There was no need to explain any further. Lux nodded, and right on cue, the cages were pushed inside.
“Hey, Corpse!” Hawke shouted and waved at Keegan.
If it was possible, she glared at us even more. “You’re going to make her hate us.”
Hawke laughed. “Can you imagine the hate sex?”
I groaned. I, in fact, could. Licking my lips, I nearly missed when we were announced the winners.
“Kings of Press Prep.”
We stepped up as we were declared the winners. I winked at Keegan, who was still glaring from the cage. She didn’t know it yet, but she already belonged to us. If she thought this was bad, she was in for a rude awakening come the first day of school.
“Oh,goody Kee you haven’t left yet.” My mother swayed into the kitchen, looking ready to go to a country club or something.
She’d never been, at least not before Richard came along. Man, it was insane how different the woman who stood before me looked from the mother I’d grown up with. She stood amongst the granite countertops and white cabinets with gold finishes as if she’d always lived her life lapping at a gold spoon.That will never be me. I’d never give up who I was just because some guy came swooping in.
“Why?” I asked between bites of my breakfast sandwich.
If there was one reason I was happy about being dragged away from my life, it was the chef Richard employed. Elanor was the best and never sneered at any of my comfort food choices. In fact, she’d perfected my breakfast sandwich. It was the best I’d ever had.
My mom jingled a key fob in my line of sight, stealing my attention from my food. I quickly swallowed the bite and stared at the keys and then at mom. “Why are you showing me a key?”
Richard probably got her some fancy car to add to the mountain of gifts he’d bought her. If Richard thought he was buying her love, he didn’t know my mother very well. She’d give it away for free to any man who looked her way. He was wasting his time and money, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. If he wanted to go broke buying my mom crap, then so be it.
She rolled her eyes. “They are yours.”
She grabbed my hand and placed the fob down. Her smile was huge as I glanced down at the key and then at my mother’s face once again. I could practically see the attached strings to the gift. The urge to throw the key back at her was hard to shove down.
Mom took my silence for excitement or ignored my clear distress. It was probably the latter. “Richard got you a car for the first day of school. Isn’t that amazing?” Her smile stretched from ear to ear.
For a split second, I could almost pretend she gave a damn about me, and this was some type of makeup for all the years of neglect. I shook my head before I fell down the rabbit hole and got stuck in the webs of my mother’s manipulation.
“More like suspicious.” I attempted to hand the keys back over to her, but she quickly hid her hands behind her back.
“Kee, you should be happy. All the seniors at your school will be driving or being driven.”
“I’ll bike,” I said.
The look of horror that came over mom’s face was hilarious. I could almost believe she wasn’t also from the streets.
“No daughter of mine will bike,” Richard said, walking into the kitchen.
What the fuck is he doing here?The top of my lip curled in disgust. They were both determined to ruin my breakfast, the one meal they normally never attended. Just my damn luck that today was the day.
“Good thing you don’t have a daughter.” I stood up and gathered my plate to scrape the rest of my sandwich into the trash. I’d apologize to Elanor later, but there was no way I could eat now.
“Kee, Richard and I are married now, and he is—”
