She bites her lip. “I called my mother. She told me to call a cab and not to worry about the cleanup.”
Of course she did. Adeline Grim—sorry, Montgomery—was nothing but a loving mother. Not. I sigh when I see the vacant look in Lena’s eyes as she tries to tune out. She was building up her walls again, and it was making me feel powerless.
“Hey,” I place a hand on her shoulder gently, “none of this will get out.”
“I know.” Her voice is detached. “I know the power The Society has, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it.”
A black car pulls up, I’d text my father’s chauffeur Lewis the second I heard Sam’s screams, knowing that we’d need to make an escape soon. I hold open the door and guide Lena into the back seat where she stares at her hands in silence.
Scream. Fight. Rage. Please. Don’t shut down, I beg in my head as I sit next to her, my leg pressed against hers so that she knows I’m here if she needs me.
The house party disappears in the rearview window as she whispers, “I’ve changed my mind. Don’t send me home yet. I can’t—I need to…”
I nod and tell Lewis to take us to my house.
Seeing Lena in my room is strange, not because I don’t want her there, but because I do. I’ve thought about nothing but her for months, and for years she’s always been in my mind, lingering on the periphery. But this didn’t feel real, like I had conjured her up. Raw and bloody, barefoot and standing at the foot of my bed. The dark grey walls making her stand out even more, it was an image I wanted to capture, something I wanted to paint later. Her sharp green eyes are hazy as I direct her to my en-suite bathroom and show her the wet room I had installed a few years ago.
“Here,” I say, handing her a dressing gown and a towel. “While I am digging the look, killer queen and all of that, I can’t imagine it feels very nice.”
We both look at the rusty-colored smudges that are starting to flake and crack. The corner of her mouth twitches. “Of course you’re still hitting on me, not even blood deters you.”
“Get in the shower, we can talk about us later,” I say with a wink as I turn on the water.
“Us? I’m not sure Serena will like that,” Lena muses as she begins to unbutton her dress. As a cheerleader and ballet dancer, she doesn’t seem to have the same hang-ups about her body that other girls do. And as she strips down to her underwear, I’m so fucking grateful for that.
“There’s that jealousy I love so much,” I say, as I close the lid on the toilet and sit on it, crossing one leg over the other, leaning back to watch as she moves to unhook her bra.
She stops, flipping me off with a smile. “Fuck you, Douchbag.”
“Anytime, Princess.” And I mean it. I would take her sassy attitude and name calling over the strange silence of earlier any day.
Crossing her arms, she stares at me for a minute. Raising her eyebrow, she hisses, “Get out.”
“Fine,” I sigh and reluctantly leave.
She closes the door behind me, but doesn’t lock it, not that I’d barge in anyway. She was going to come to me. Keeping an ear out for the shower turning off, I ring Atlas and check in with the others.
“Was he dead when you found him?” I ask quietly as I dig a pair of shorts and a T-shirt out of my wardrobe for Lena to wear after she was done getting rid of all traces of that fucktard Sam.
Atlas laughs down the line. “Pfft, no. Just passed out. What a pussy.”
“Is he dead now?” I say, trying to keep the anger out of my voice. I don’t want him to know how tonight’s little episode had my blood boiling because while Atlas is on our side, everyone only ever acts in their own self-interests in this town. I’m happy that he’s there for us today, but next week he could be the one cutting our throats, and that’s just the world we live in.
“Of course, I can’t believe you’d ask.” I can imagine his smug face as he says that. Murder is nothing to him—he sees a problem, he takes care of it.
“I just had to check.”
“Is Elena okay?” His voice is softer, and I know that he’s genuinely concerned on one level. Elena is the ultimate good girl, and she always has been. Growing up, she’d always tried to do the right thing, to behave as her father expected her to, and while the rest of us rebelled and did what we wanted, she lived in her gilded cage like a songbird that had its wings clipped. Not for long though.
“She’ll be fine,” I reassure him.
“She did a fair bit of damage. Sam’s face looked like a smashed-up pumpkin. I didn’t think the class president had it in her to be so vicious.” The admiration is clear, and I feel a bristle of pride. I was forcing her out of her shell.
Smirking, I reply, “We only see what she wants us to see. And if that doesn’t sum up The Society, I don’t know what does.”
He laughs again. “True that. Money and power, corruption, murder, and secrets. Man, we’ve got it all.”
The background noise from the water running suddenly stops as I whisper down the phone, “Shit, I think I just heard the shower turn off. I gotta go.”
“She’s at your house? Naked?” I hear Quinn shout from the background, fucker must’ve had me on speakerphone.
“Bye, guys,” I say with a chuckle as I hang up.
Elena comes out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam, and I swear it’s like something out of an
