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“I can’t. I wish I could, but I have to get home.” She gives me a final squeeze. “I hope you’re feeling better.”
“I am, thanks to you.” I grin. “I’ll see you at lunch. We’re eating together, right?”
Her whole face lights up again, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like I might’ve actually done a nice thing. It was odd. Good odd, but still odd.
When I get out of the shower, wearing Gabriel’s clothes that I plan never to take off, the guys have put on a Marvel movie. Noah and Eli sink down next to me, while Gabriel meets his concierge at the door and carries in even more food – pizza, fries, Chinese food, tubs of cherry-flavored ice cream.
By the time the first Stan Lee cameo plays, I’m already asleep. Just as my eyelids droop closed, I imagine I hear Eli whisper, “I swore to protect you once, and I failed. I’ll never, ever let that happen again.”
Noah
Mackenzie’s head droops on my shoulder, and in minutes she’s asleep. Her breathing steadies, and occasionally she lets out these snorting noises that make my chest feel tight. With her hair freshly washed and fanned over her shoulders, and her face soft and free of tension, she looks… peaceful.
Beside me, Eli watches me allow my arch-nemesis to drool on my shoulder. His expression says exactly what he thinks about that. “What happened out there?”
My hands curl into fists as I tell them the whole story – how I went to visit Alec in the hospital, and how I let him talk me into being part of his revenge stunt. How we jumped Mackenzie as she strutted into cheerleading trials and put her in the trunk of Alec’s Shelby Cobra.
“Alec said we were going to drive her into the desert and leave her for a couple of hours. Scare her a bit. But she was screaming – this horrible, inhuman scream. The longer we drove, the angrier he got, and by the time we pulled her out, he was ready to…” My fingers tighten around Mackenzie’s arm at the memory. “He wanted all of us to have a go at her, starting with me.”
A cold shiver runs down my spine as I recall that feral look in Alec’s eyes as he leaned over Mackenzie. A feral hunger fueled by rage.
I couldn’t watch any longer. I snapped.
Do I look like that? Am I so consumed by hate that I wear it as a second skin? It’s been so long since I felt anything but rage that I don’t remember who I am without it.
I saved Mackenzie from Alec today, but I also helped shove her in that trunk in the first place. It’s my fault she was even out in the desert. Shame burns in my cheeks. I hope you can’t see me now, Felix. I really fucked up.
“That’s dark.” Gabriel stares at his drink. I notice he hasn’t taken a sip.
“I know. What the fuck was he thinking? The others were too chicken shit to say anything. They were just going to stand around like idiots while he raped her. I said no fucking way, and a couple of them backed me up, but then Alec went for her, and I snapped.”
“You laid him out?” A grin tugs at the corner of Eli’s mouth.
“I hurt him pretty bad. That doctor of his is going to have a time rebuilding his face. Again.”
I can feel Felix in the room with us, sucking all the air away as he flaps his angel wings and shoots me a disapproving look.
I’m just so angry.
Mackenzie snorts, her head burrowing into my shoulder. My fist rests on her back. I watch – detached, with no control over my limbs – my fingers uncurl, becoming a flat palm that rubs reassuring circles on her back.
This is fucked up.
Eli folds his arms. “Alec and Cleo can’t get away with this. We have to do something. Tell the school what happened to Mackenzie and George. Call the police. It’s assault.”
Gabriel glances at me, and I know what he’s thinking. If we report Alec, I’ll go down with him. I’ll kiss my college acceptance goodbye. Yet another thing Mackenzie Malloy has taken from me.
I don’t care.
I’m not sure I see it that way any longer.
My fingers brush her warm skin, and I catch the faintest scent of my brother in the air.
“Reporting them won’t do any good,” Gabriel says. “Alec will just get his dad to pay off the school. The whole thing will be hushed up, and we’ll never hear about it again. No, this is personal, between us and them. This is war, and I’ll take the Ice Queen’s shilling.”
“Are you really going up against Alec over me?”
Mackenzie lifts her head. Her cheeks flush, and she runs her fingers through her hair, pushing the golden threads away from her face.
