Anthony stopped, glaring at Catherine. She marched straight up to him, and when he spoke again, they were mere inches apart. “It was over a month ago. Get over it. And she does matter.”
He whirled around again, strutting across the quad, but Catherine followed along. “She’s not one of us,” she hissed. “All that we’ve worked for, all the time and effort we’ve put into the society, into our relationship, and you’re just going to throw it away for this Natasha.”
“Yeah, let’s talk about all that effort,” Anthony whispered back. He glanced around furtively, but none of the other Waverly students in the quad paid the bickering couple any attention. “We’re doing illegal shit, Cat. We’re hurting other people.”
“Oh, don’t start.”
“Don’t start on what?”
“You knew what you were getting into at the very beginning,” said Catherine, taking Anthony by the arm to slow him down. “You knew what it meant to be a part of this society. Three years ago, baby Anthony, wide-eyed and wonderful freshman that he was, didn’t balk at what the society asked of him. We were inducted together, completed tasks together, and you didn’t have a single problem with it until you met her.”
He shook off Catherine’s grip, ignoring the somber look she gave him in response. He’d fallen for the same look too many times before, and it had only ever gotten him into more trouble.
“We’re supposed to be together,” insisted Catherine. “You and me! Didn’t you ever think about it, Tony? What it would be like after we graduated? Because I do all the time. You could work for my father. We could have a house on Staten Island and one in the Hamptons.”
“And what if I don’t want that anymore?”
Catherine stopped so abruptly that Anthony was thrown off by her sudden absence. He made the mistake of looking back at her.
“This is how it’s supposed to be,” she said, her voice wavering. “Even your best friend knows it.”
Anthony gritted his teeth. “You and Harrison are talking about me now? Remind me to thank him later.”
“He’s worried about you.”
Anthony strolled back to Catherine, glaring down his nose at her. “You know what I think? I think you’re worried that if you lose me, none of the other Raptors are going to fall for your crap. You’ll be alone and second best next to your brother. Again. Orson will go down in BRS history, and no one will ever give a damn about Catherine Lockwood.”
Her answering slap resonated across the quad, startling a sparrow from the nearest tree and earning the pair more than a few concerned looks from passing students.
Anthony ran a hand over his raw cheek, but a smug grin decorated his features. “Hit a nerve, didn’t I?”
“You pretentious prick.”
“I want out,” declared Anthony, disregarding her insult. “I’m done with this shit. If you want to keep digging this damn hole, go ahead, but I’m finished.”
Catherine rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “You can’t just say you’re finished, Anthony. It doesn’t work that way.”
“It does now,” said Anthony, and once again, he attempted to walk away from her, praying that she was just as fed up with the conversation as he was. No such luck.
“Membership is for life,” she insisted, tailing his heels. “No one quits being a Raptor.”
Anthony shook his head in frustration. “You don’t get it, do you?” he demanded. “I can’t keep this up. I can’t keep mysteriously disappearing to the library every time the Raptors need something from me. There are only so many excuses I can come up with before someone catches on.”
“Someone?” asked Catherine in a dangerous whisper. “Or Natasha?”
Anthony stared straight ahead, determinedly avoiding Catherine’s intent gaze.
“That’s it, isn’t it?” she demanded. She increased the length of her stride to keep up with his long legs. “She’s started to figure it out. Has she been asking where you disappear to in the middle of the night? How terrible for her to wake up in a cold bed—”
“Leave her out of this,” he snapped.
Catherine’s black eyes twinkled with pleasure. “Oh, Anthony, you are so deep in shit that your eyes are brown.”
“Shut up.”
“God, I cannot wait to tell everyone else about this. Little Anthony’s fallen in love.”
In the shadows of a looming oak tree, Anthony seized Catherine by the sleeve of her shirt and pinned her to the tree’s trunk. “If you so much as breathe a word about her to the Raptors, I swear to God, you will pay.”
A smile touched her lips, and she arched her back to press against Anthony’s chest.
“Don’t mess with me, Catherine.”
She pressed a palm to her heart as if swearing under oath. “I won’t. I promise.”
Present Day
For the second time in a mere matter of hours, I stood on the doorstep of Eileen O’Connor’s quaint, peaceful home, except this time, I had the ashes of her murdered husband tucked beneath one arm. I couldn’t bring myself to lift the brass knocker. Instead, I stared vacantly at the porch swing teetering in the light breeze, lost in thought. The sun was on its way toward the horizon, allowing another level of chill to set in. Dusk was nigh, and it was an unfriendly reminder that my window of time to free Wes from the Raptors’ clutches was dwindling rapidly.
It turned out that we hadn’t needed Lauren’s friend from the rowing team to run tests on what was left of O’Connor’s body. The process would have taken too long anyway, and Lauren had managed to match O’Connor’s dental records to the remaining teeth in the makeshift urn. The ashes, without a doubt, belonged to him. Even though I knew that O’Connor was already dead, a heavy dread settled over me when Lauren showed me the proof. It was as if the knowledge finalized O’Connor’s passing, and the added anticipation of delivering the news to Eileen weighed on my shoulders like an anvil.
The tabby cat jumped up into the window, peering inquisitively at me and
