Cleo purses her lips. “You and I will make our own fun.”
Gabriel fake-yawns. All around him, our classmates hide their sniggers. “I don’t know what nonsense my father’s filled your empty head with, but you and I ain’t happening.”
She flips her hair. “You’re not as stupid as he thinks you are. I know you’ll see sense. But you’re running out of time. You need me a lot more than I need you, Gabriel. Especially with the company you keep.”
I shove my desk forward and leap to my feet. My fingers grasp for the knife tucked into my sleeve. “You want to come closer and say that, bitch?”
“Claws.” Noah’s hand closes around my arm. I’ve no hope of twisting out of his grip. Damn him and his oversized, glorious muscles.
“Yes,Claws. We wouldn’t want you to do something illegal, now would we?” Cleo smirks as she smooths her cheerleading jacket. “Run along back to whoring yourself out to the entire track team. Gabe and I are having a conversation.”
“We’re really not.” Gabe stands and moves beside me. His arm snakes around my waist and he bends me backward over his desk, claiming my mouth with his. Students wolf whistle as his fingers tangle in my hair and he kisses me with all the wanton cockiness of a rockstar. When we come up for air, Cleo’s gone.
Gone, but not forgotten.
After everything she’s put Gabriel through, I’m determined that Cleo’s party will be a night to remember, but not for the reasons she thinks. We need to know what happened in that hotel room. And Cleo needs to suffer for her part in it.
On the way to my next class, Tiberius passes me in the hall and slips something into the pocket of my cheerleading jacket.Great. What now?
I slide into my seat at the back of the classroom and hand the envelope to Noah. “What do you make of this?”
He turns the envelope over. It’s made of thick black cardstock, edged with gold, and sealed with wax. Noah taps the seal. “It’s an eagle.”
Constantine.I swallow. “You don’t think it’s a bomb or something?”
“Anthrax-lined envelope, more likely.” Noah holds the envelope up to the light, but it’s impossible to penetrate its blackness. “I think you’re safe. I doubt Constantine intends to scatter his new fiancee into a million pieces.”
Then what does he want?I slide my nail under the seal and snap it open, pulling out a single piece of black cardstock. Constantine has invited me to meet him at a restaurant in Tartarus Oaks tonight.Come alone, the note commands.
Yeah. Right.
“You want to get out of here?” Noah asks.
I glance up at the front of the classroom, where Mr. Ross is setting up a film. I guess he knows it’s hopeless trying to get anyone to work today. “Sure.”
Mr. Ross watches us leave, his lips pursed like he’s biting his tongue. This school is ridiculous – he’s supposed to be the one in charge, but he knows better than to mess with Noah’s family or the Malloy ghost. We stop by my locker to grab my things. I smooth down my cheerleading jacket over my uniform. I like wearing it even though I’m still on leave from the team, mainly because I know it pisses Cleo off. “Do you think I should go home and change?”
He shakes his head. “Let Constantine see that you don’t doll yourself up for him. You got your knives?”
I pull down my sleeve to show him the blade tucked inside. “The other one is in my boot.”
“That’s my girl.” Noah drags out his phone. “Should we tell the others where we’re going?”
“Text George. Tell her if we don’t check in at seven to send out a search party.”
In the parking lot, we climb into Noah’s Lamborghini. He speeds out of school, chasing the bitter wind toward the coast. He drives with one hand on the wheel, the other leaning against the window like we’re two teens on a casual road trip. Even though we’re crossing the Acheron into the other side of the city, the side his father would like to snuff from existence, he’s completely at ease. Gone is that tight-wound mask of fury he wore like a second skin. I can’t see the senator’s son who tried so hard to be good. For the first time in his life, Noah Marlowe knows exactly who he is – and herevelsin it.
We park up along a strip of restaurants and bars near the boardwalk. The place is hopping with people – couples and groups of friends talking and laughing, oblivious to the invisible chess game playing out on their patch of contested earth. We have time to kill, so we walk along the beach. It’s freezing out and my bare legs turn blue. Noah pulls me close.
“You don’t have to burn the world for us,” he tells me.
“Huh?”
“I see what you’re doing, Claws. Going after Cleo for Gabriel, threatening my father, helping Madeline, promising Eli you’ll help him rescue those animals. You have nothing to atone for.”
“This isn’t about atonement,” I say. “It’s about justice.”
“Is it? All the justifiable violence in the world won’t bring your parents back. It won’t erase the wrongs Brutus did to you.” Noah’s voice is gentler than I’ve ever heard him. “Just like owning my father won’t bring my mom or brother back.”
