“Sable is right,” Hadrian says. “If even the cockroaches are fleeing Bellthorn, this place is about to go nuclear. We need to find out what she wanted to tell Sable that was important enough for her to make a detour before she left.”
“Is she a cockroach or my half sister?” Sable asks with a wondering tone, and he gives her an apologetic smirk.
“If the four families are watching us, they already know what we are up to, so leaving won’t help the way we hope it will.” Her confidence usually makes her irresistible to me, but right now I could throttle her for it.
I shake my head, trying to impress a point to them that I’ve been making since Arabella’s body disappeared. “I still don’tthink itisthem. It doesn’t match with everything they’ve done so far. I have a lifetime under their thumb, Sable, and they don’t need cameras to control.”
“But someone is watching us,” she says. “And who it is matters less than how we protect ourselves.”
“Whoever is responsible for this got Cillian packing his bags, and now we can’t even ask what he knows,” Hadrian says, raising a rather good point. Cillian has been playing a dangerous game with me for years. He has to have solid nerves, but whatever this is has sent him packing.
“Cillian is a jealous fucker.” Orion shrugs. “The chances are he did what he did because he hated us and our power. Now he doesn’t have anything left to protect himself, so he’s running scared.”
“He’s more than that,” I disagree. “He led Sable to Arabella assaulting Soren. He knew it was going to happen and brought her there so she could see. He did that for a reason.”
Sable flinches as if the mention of it hurts her, and I wish I didn’t have to bring it up, but after what she told me, the truth cannot be denied.
“I think he’s a jealous asshole, and if Arabella told him to bring you around to fuck with us, he would. That doesn’t make him a criminal mastermind,” Parker argues.
“Someoneis watching,” Soren starts, his eyes far away. “Someone who took Arabella, someone who might have tipped Cillian off to leave. Someone who filmed while she…” He shakes his head, as if trying to sort his thoughts. “I don’t think it’s the four families either, but I’m not going to pretend they are innocent.”
“Let’s go to the journalism department, like Nina said then!” Sable oozes exasperation. “Why are we waiting here?”
“Because someone is watching who wants to keep us in the dark, someone who wants to hurt you,” I say, hoping she’ll seemy side of things. “And you’re not going to risk yourself by investigating anything right now.”
“What?” she demands, crossing the room until she’s standing in front of me, her mouth pressed in a thin line. My gaze is soft, begging for her understanding, but I’m not getting any.
“I swam up that river, Lex. Me. And I killed that fucker. I’m not going to be kept in a bubble. I’m not a damsel in distress.”
I know she’s not, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll ever feel okay risking her. Life without her was not for me, and I’ll do anything I can to avoid that pain.
My palms raise, and when she stays still, I lay them over her shoulders. “We can go do that for you and bring everything back. I promise.”
“I want to do it myself,” she says, but I feel her body shaking beneath me. She’s inches from a meltdown, and I can’t blame her. She went from being the last Briarwick to having a half sister awfully quick.
“I can do it,” Soren says suddenly.
My eyes shoot to him, and I’m not sure what to say. It’s hard to reconcile everything I’ve feared with the truth he told us. I want to be softer to him, but that’s not our relationship, and I just don’t know how.
“I’ll go too,” Orion offers.
I look at Sable waiting to see what she’ll decide. She seems torn, stubbornly insistent on going herself, but she has to see how badly these brothers need to spend time with one another again.
“Will you bring everything you find directly to me?” she asks, defeat lining her brow.
“Of course,” Soren doesn’t leave room for argument, and I actually believe him.
Finally, she nods, and we all breathe a sigh of relief. Soren and Orion leave right away.
“I need to see if anyone in the medical department knows more about Cillian,” I say, knowing there’s no use in all of us sitting around and waiting.
“We’ll take her,” Parker says. “I already have a plan for her anyway.”
CHAPTER 64
PARKER
Sable,Hadrian, Lex, and I leave the dorms behind. We split off when we reach the door Lex needs, and the rest of us continue back to the place I’m most comfortable, the gym. Sable holds my hand, but her thoughts are far off. I’m not sure if they’re with Soren and Orion or with her fake best friend, who actually turned out to be her half sister. I’m still wondering if “Nina” meant to tell her or not. There have been so many secrets between all of us that I can’t wait for everything to be finally laid bare. I walk them directly into the locker room.
