But Vivian’s hand latched onto my wrist, holding it out of reach. “Don’t.” She took it from me, crumpling it into a ball in her tightly clenched fist. “You’ll get this when you actually hold up your end of the deal,Silk.”
He bared his teeth and winked at her. “Smart girl.”
She spun on her heel and walked away. The rest of the girls slowly filed after her. I hung back for a second, just to see what he’d do.
“Remember what I said, pretty Maiden,” he sneered. “Lies catch up with all of us, eventually.”
My stomach turned as his mouth twisted into a smirk.
“Secrets, too.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Later that evening, I sat in Camelot Courtyard with the other Ladies while we celebrated our escape.
“I can’t believe you almost handed him the garter belt.” Izzy laughed, and Morgan snorted into her lemonade.
“She’s our trusting little outsider baby,” she cooed. “Of course, she did.”
“But seriously, you should be a private investigator or a secret agent. I still don’t know how you put that together from his tattoo!”
I shrugged. “What? You guys don’t know what a garter snake is? They don’t have those in Camelot Court?” When they shook their heads, I rolled my eyes, hiding my smile. “Don’t tell me that’s another poor person thing onlyIwould understand?”
They shared a look.
“Oh, definitely,” Izzy said, feigning seriousness to tease me.
“Those stay on the wrong side of the tracks, for sure,” Morgan added, nodding solemnly.
That made all three of us laugh, and I appreciated them making light of what Elaine had thrown in my face. Because sitting there with them, I didn’t feel like an outsider at all.
I saw myself becoming good friends with both of them. Which was a strange thought to have when you’d had one best friend all your life. But Gia had already hit it off with Izzy, and she’d love Morgan, too. I could tell.
“Safe to assume from here on out, I won’t trust anyone with a ten-foot pole when it comes to the challenges. Hey, speaking of which, do we know the results of this one yet? How were we even scored?”
“No idea.” Morgan set her glass down. “But it’s got to be pretty close, right? Especially since we all won the last one?”
“Maybe they’ll come tell us tonight.”
At Izzy’s hopeful thought, we shared another look and burst out laughing again. Clutching my stomach, I lifted my head right as Vivian walked by.
“Hey, Vivian. Thanks for your help at the end there.”
She bristled, glancing around Camelot Courtyard. “I didn’t do it to help you.”
“Well, obviously, Vivian.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “And I don’t think anyone thought that was the case, but still. It helpedall of us, so…thank you.”
Izzy and Morgan were the opposite of subtle as their eyes jumped from me to Vivian and back to me.
“Yeah, well, Ben Devereaux is a liar, so you can’t trust a word he says. Plus, it’s obvious by now they’re twisting the truth to throw us off.”
I nodded. “The truth seems to be a loose term around here.”
My attention drifted across Camelot Courtyard and landed on Elaine. She stood in the corner with Angela, who wore a deep frown on her face as Elaine chattered in her ear about something.
Morgan followed my gaze and snorted. “Case in point.”
Angela extricated herself from Elaine’s soul-sucking presence and came over to our table, playing with the ends of her hair. “God, I can’t with that girl.”
