I purse my lips but finally ask, “What does it mean?”
“Only good things,” Patrick reassures me. “I told you if you need it, I’d buy you a house. Billy is why.”
Lachlan pulls me hard against him, arms lacing over me like fleshy armour. “Could someone tell me what’s going on?”
Patrick doesn’t even glance at him, still focused on his uncle. “If you try to send her to prison, it won’t end well.”
Miracle of miracles, Creighton’s the one who concedes. “Someone has to take the blame.”
“Could that be the someone who possessed the drugs?” Patrick says with amusement. His eyes twinkle as they briefly rest on me, then he finally looks at Lachlan. “The someone whose nose seems a bit out of joint.”
Lachlan’s voice whispers in my ear. “Why didn’t you tell me you worked for him?”
I don’t know what to say.
Because I enjoy the job and hate arguments?
That’s near the truth but sounds awful. Like I don’t trust him enough to be honest and that’s not the case. I’ve told himthings I’ve never confessed to anyone before. Trusted him with the dark secrets I locked away in my heart.
Because you hate Patrick, but I like him?
Even worse. Like I’ve been sneaking around with another man behind his back and, believe me, I see the irony, but I don’t know that Lachlan will.
“I prefer not to speculate on why she didn’t tell you,” Patrick says, saving me, wearing his smoothest grin. “Just like I prefer not to speculate on why she needed a job to begin with.”
And suddenly, I’m the one on the back foot. Lachlan’s tension comes more from the latter half of that sentence than the former, and I don’t even know what Patrick means.
I burst out laughing. Jokes on both of us, then.
“Little liar,” Lachlan whispers into my hair and I decide if he wants to give me a nickname, I don’t hate it.
“If neither of you are volunteering,” Creighton says in a low rumble. “Then pick a student. We need to give the head a name.”
Carrod springs to mind. I twist my neck about a hundred degrees to glance at Lachlan, but he’s staring out the door where, over Patrick’s shoulder, Kari is lurking. She has a hard set to her eyes and one hand rests on her hip.
The kind of expression a girl wouldn’t want to see approaching her in a dark alley.
“Is there CCTV?” I whisper to Lachlan, though my reduced volume probably isn’t a match for the room occupants’ interest levels. Both Creighton and Patrick have their heads tilted, ears alert for every sound.
“The better question is are you on it?” Creighton mutters.
“Not in the hallways,” Lachlan answers. “The entrances, exits, and common areas are monitored.”
Common areas like the stairs? Because I used those to get to Kari’s room.
Something Carrod’s defence team would soon find out.
Creighton stares at me through narrowed eyes. “If you’re the one who should take the blame, you should also be the one to pick. It’s your time they’ll do, after all.”
“Jesus,” Lachlan murmurs. “George didn’t bring those pills into the school.”
“No,” Kari says, standing in the doorway, leaning casually against the side. “I did.”
I stare, perplexed, as she sashays into the room, pushing Patrick aside to stand in front of Creighton, her chin jutting out in a dare.
“Pity we’ve already had a student clear you,” he says lightly. “Try again.”
“Who cleared me?”
