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He leans forward, mirroring the guys’ poses as he finally looks away from me, dropping his gaze to the floor, and I hug my legs tighter to my body, bracing for what’s to come.
“I’m in charge of taking the Seconds into The Games.” I feel the guys tense either side of me, but Nico isn’t finished dropping bombs just yet. “Which are now in six weeks’ time.” There’s silence while we process that. Ezra breaks it.
“This is why you wouldn’t join us?”
Nico looks back at me, even as he answers Ezra. “I wouldn’t have joined you anyway. I wanted Harlow as far away as possible.”
“Wanted?”
“Things have changed,” Nico says cryptically, and Sawyer leans forward onto the edge of the sofa, frustration bubbling over.
“Spit it out!”
Nico still doesn’t look away from me, even when it looks as if Sawyer might lunge for him. He wets his bottom lip before he answers.
“The Seconds took you the other night,” he says, directly to me. “I got you back.” My mind spins, barely having time to register the previous piece of information he gives me before there’s another, bigger piece landing in my lap. The Seconds took me? Why did he lie before and say he found me outside? I’ve been terrified of the unknown, and he hasn’t helped me when he could have.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell us?” Ezra asks, anger bursting from him.
“I’m telling you now.”
“As if that’s good enough.” Ezra practically growls, but again, Nico speaks to me to answer.
“I never would’ve told you if I had the choice.”
But... that’s not a good thing. He knew I was struggling with it; he saw my fear. He could’ve helped by letting me know what the fuck happened while I was out. The realization hits me, and I put my hand lightly on Ezra’s back. He turns to look at me over his shoulder, clearly angry, but softening his eyes toward me in question.
“Maybe that’s why he looked familiar,” I explain. “We might’ve seen him with Nico before.”
“What?” Sawyer asks on my other side. “You saw who took you?”
“I only remembered earlier. I was going to tell you.”
Sawyer nods, hopefully getting that this isn’t really the time to get all the details, and I face Nico. His jaw clenches, but at what, I don’t know—it’s his own people who did this shit, and surely, he already knows the truth.
“Why? What do they want with Harlow?” Sawyer asks.
“She was a warning to me.”
My brows crease for a second, but remembering what he told me at the door has me straightening them. I didn’t even have a chance to register what he’d said because he was so angry saying it, and now my chest aches at the whole situation. He did want me. The whole time I questioned if it was all one-sided, it wasn’t, and they’ve used that against him.
“What was the warning?” Ezra asks Nico.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says flippantly, his face a blank mask and his tone emotionless. But this Nico sitting in front of us now isn’t the one I’ve wanted for so long—the one I’ve known, worked with, studied with, for years. This one is empty and heartless and keeping so many secrets he’s a mystery to me. “But they know you exist, and they know you were planning on entering.” A shiver works its way over me as the room gets stiflingly tense. No one interrupts Nico with questions, waiting for him to deliver the next blow. “Now they want you working for the Seconds.”
“No fucking way.”
“Not happening.”
Both my guys jump to standing as if Nico is going to try and drag me out of here right now, but he stays seated, ignoring their outbursts and focusing on me. I hate that he keeps doing that. Like we’re still friends, toeing over into something more. Like he’s still Nico—myNico—and not part of the Seconds. As if we share a connection he’s trying to save while his words sever it. I look back down at the floor.
“You don’t really get a choice,” he says, and for the first time, sadness seeps into his voice. As much as I want to, I still don’t look at him. “When it comes to the Seconds, no one does.”
“Of course she fucking does. She’s her own person; she can make her own decisions.”
“He doesn’t give a fuck about that!” Nico bellows, finally losing his cool.
“Then make them see!” Sawyer yells back. “Harlow was joining to stop this shit, not to help the Seconds win.”
