I shake my head. “I’m not doing that.”
“Dude, you know if you don’t, he’ll just have one of his minions track you down.” Finn presses me with a look while sliding his hands into his back pockets.
He’s right. But that doesn’t make it any easier just to go. I know he’s going to bother me about dating Maddy. I’ll just need to stay firm and not allow him to push me around.
Easier said than done. My father is an extremely wealthy and powerful man, which makes it simple for him to find ways to force people to obey him.
Grimacing, I shake my head. “Fine, whatever.”
Silence settles between us.
“Has anyone heard any updates on when we can return back to the academy?” Maddy breaks the edgy stillness in the air.
“Tomorrow, actually.” Finn removes his hands from his pockets and checks his watch. “That’s what Noah told me, anyway. He said he has a connection in the office that told him the system was fixed. The academy hasn’t sent out an official notification yet, though.”
“I’m kind of relieved to go back,” Maddy says, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “But at the same time, I’m a bit nervous, considering what was going on. And then there was that rando running at me in the hallway when I was evacuating.”
“That was weird,” I agree. “But it was probably someone from the society. Not that it makes it any better.”
“Speaking of which”—Finn points a finger at me—“Remember, you and I have to attend a society meeting tomorrow.”
I’d rather drink toilet water, but if it means keeping Maddy safe, I’ll deal with frat boy drama for a night.
“I’ll be there.” I glance at Maddy. She has a frown on those pretty lips of hers that should never be frowning—I want to make her smile all the time. “Should we head out and get your stuff? Do you think that guy will be gone?”
“Wait, what guy?” Finn interrupts, his face creasing in confusion.
“We’ll explain on the way.” Maddy’s eyes are filled with worry. “The later we are, the more sketchy things will get.”
“We’ve been to northside at night, Mads,” Finn reminds her with a cocky smile. “We can handle it.”
“You’ve been to street races on northside,” Maddy stresses. “You haven’t been in the neighborhoods at night. It’s a completely different game. One you won’t be able to win over with your charming smiles. In fact, that’ll probably get you into more trouble.”
Finn searches her eyes, as if seeking a sign that she’s joking.
She appears one hundred percent serious, and that causes worry to flashes across his face.
And he should be worried.
What we’re about to do isn’t something to take lightly, something Finn has a hard time doing.
He needs to know the danger we’re in.
How bad things could get.
CHAPTER 34
MADDISON
About twenty minutesafter Finn agrees to help me move out my stuff, the three of us are sitting in a massive SUV with tinted windows, driving in the direction of northside. While River and I waited for Finn to change his clothes, Lily wandered out of her room and asked me if I was still planning on attending the club, something I had completely forgot about. I told her I couldn’t make it, so she moved it to tomorrow despite my protest of not having to rearrange her schedule for me.
“It’s totally fine,” she kept saying. “We can just go tomorrow.” After like my tenth protest, she added, “Wren and I really want to spend some time with you so we can get to know you better.”
I wanted to tell her that she didn’t want to open that Pandora’s box but decided against it. She’s been so nice to me that the least I could do was go and hang with her and Wren.
“Okay,” I’d agreed.
She responded by clapping her hands and squealing. It made me feel upbeat, but that feeling is slowly dwindling the closer we get to northside.
