He wasn’t wrong. I actually already felt like I had lost a few brain cells from the encounter, and it had only been a few minutes. I didn’t want to imagine spending an entire day in Maddox’s presence. “I’m starving.”
Atlas and Paisley grinned. “I just bet you are.” Atlas smirked, opening the restaurant door. “For some Corvo trouble. Not that I blame you. Maddox’s ass is edible.”
Paisley snorted as we walked in and waited for the hostess to seat us.
Atlas pursed his lips. “Tell me I’m wrong. Even you, Miss Ice Queen, can appreciate what a fine pair of gluteus maximus is on him.”
“What did I tell you about using big words around me?” Paisley replied dryly, holding three fingers when the hostess asked us how many.
“There’s more to life than lattes and cappuccinos, isn’t that right, matcha?”
“Did you date one of them?” I couldn’t refrain from asking Paisley.
Atlas laughed. “Date? That’s hilarious. My girl, Paisley, doesn’t date. And not because she doesn’t have any offers.”
“It’s a choice,” she said as we followed the hostess, weaving through the restaurant, the smell of garlic bread and marinara hitting my senses, and my stomach growled.
We slid into a booth with a window view. Paisley sat beside me, and Atlas scooted in across from us. “But you’ve been to one of their parties?”
“Crew parties are—” She paused, searching for words. “They’re not for people who don’t know the rules yet. And even when you know the rules, they’re still a bad idea ninety percent of the time.”
“I haven’t been to many parties,” I admitted, fumbling with the rolled napkin on the table in front of me.
Our server came by and dropped off a basket of bread on the table. She took our drink orders.
“You’re not missing much,” Paisley said after our waitress left. “I much prefer getting drunk at home instead of at some creepy church where you have to worry about someone slipping shit into your drink.”
“Why a church?” I reached for a breadstick because I was starving.
Atlas shrugged, plucking one from the basket after me. “It’s where the crew hangs out. I think their dad owns the place.”
“Crew?” I asked, taking a bite.
“Yeah, your crush, Maddox, he’s like the boss’s son. A bunch of the kids at Public are Raven spawns, born into the crew. Mason, Maddox, Hudson, Levi, Torin?—”
I coughed, nearly choking on my breadstick as I processed what Atlas was telling me. “Mason and Maddox are in a gang?”
Beside me, Paisley nodded, picking her bread apart into pieces before popping one into her mouth. “Their father is the head of the Ravens. He is not a man you want to cross.”
These two were a wealth of information. I wasn’t sure what to do with all that I’d learned today.
Our server came back and set down our drinks. We hadn’t even opened the menus yet, so she gave us a few more minutes to decide. None of us reached for the menus. Paisley angled her body slightly in toward me, lowering her voice. “Last year, there was this girl who transferred to Public in the middle of the term. She lived with Mason and Maddox, which in itself created quite the stir at school. One day, she stopped showing up, and everyone speculated she was the next girl to go missing until she showed up at school again.”
Holy. Fuck.“What happened to her?” I asked, almost afraid to know the truth.
Paisley shrugged, unwrapping the paper from her straw. “No one knows.”
Atlas leaned forward, a piece of his auburn hair falling into his eyes. “And now she’s dating their older brother, Kreed.”
I blinked. “They’re dating?”
Atlas nodded, reaching to take a sip of his drink. “Kreed and Kaylor graduated last year, but their relationship was the hottest topic at Public—the girl who finally captured Kreed Corvo’s dark heart.”
My breadstick paused halfway to my mouth. “And you think the Corvos might be involved with these missing girls?”
Atlas’s expression lost all traces of the lightness he’d carried earlier. “I think they know more than they are revealing. Six girls gone in the last year that we know of.”
That we know of.
