My body went cold, and then numb. This was about me?
Edan’s gaze shifted to me. Julian turned. His jaw twitched.
I couldn’t move. I was rooted to the ground. Don’t text her, Julian had said.
My phone—his phone—was suddenly heavy in my pocket.
Dorsey helped Edan up from the sidewalk and steered him toward the door of the hostel. Edan hesitated, his eyes meeting mine. Blood trickled down his chin.
“Dude, you’re bleeding everywhere,” Dorsey said. His lip curled as he cast a glance at Julian. “Come on.”
I nodded, telling Edan to go. The world felt like it was moving in slow motion. Edan let Dorsey push him inside.
Julian grabbed my arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
We’d taken several steps before my brain kicked in. I twisted my arm out of his grasp. He stopped short and reached for me again, but then seemed to think better of it.
“What are you doing?” My words came out as a gasp.
“We need to go,” he said, ignoring my question. His gaze flicked to my backpack. “Do you have all your stuff?”
“Are you . . . What is . . . ?” I’d lost my ability to form words. The dread uncoiling slowly in my stomach was swallowing up every ounce of sense that I had.
Julian’s lips were thin. He was obviously trying to keep his temper in check. I took in a slow breath.
“Why did you just do that?” I asked.
He looked away and said nothing.
“Did you read my texts? Last night, with Edan? Is that why you’re so mad?”
His expression was icy. “I told you that was a team phone when I gave it to you. It shouldn’t be a surprise that I monitor what goes on with it.”
My back hit brick, and I leaned into it, grateful I had something to hold me up.
He had said it was a team phone.
He had not told me he would monitoring it.
“You should have told me if you were going to be reading my text messages,” I said, my voice shaky.
“I wouldn’t have had to if you’d been honest with me!” Julian took a step closer to me, his tone low but furious.
“Honest with you about what?”
“About Edan! You said you would stop being friends with him. And then you immediately broke your word. Not even twenty-four hours later. I can’t trust you, so this is what happens.”
“How can I trust you, when you’re the one reading my texts?” I shot back.
“Do you want to see my texts? Fine.” He grabbed his phone from his pocket and shoved it at me. “Take a look. You won’t find any secret midnight text sessions with some other girl. You won’t find me discussing our relationship with a girl I know you hate.”
I tried to swallow around the lump lodged in my throat. He sort of had a point about that. The tiny sliver of doubt felt like relief, like I could excuse him violating my privacy in a pretty horrible way and forget he’d just assaulted Edan. It would be easier, to forgive him and carry on thinking he was the guy I wanted him to be.
But he wasn’t.
I looked down at the phone he still held between us and then back up to him. The words this is over were on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to throw the phone he’d given me in his face and stomp away dramatically.
But Noah’s angry face flashed through my mind. There were more important things happening here besides my relationship with Julian. I took a deep breath.
“OK,” I said. “Open it. Let me see your calls and texts from last night.”
He blinked, clearly taken aback. “What?”
“Show me everything you did last night and this morning. Everyone you called, emailed, texted. Let’s see it.”
“Why?”
“You just said I could.”
“I was making a point.”
“Do you have something to hide?”
Neither of us spoke for a moment. He did not open his phone.
“Did you hear Grayson was arrested?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I heard you stopped them before they left and asked where they were going.”
He was silent.
“And then the cops showed up. Is that a coincidence?”
He looked away from me. For all of Julian’s talents, lying was not one of them.
“And I’m the one who can’t be trusted? What did you do, Julian? Why are your parents here? Did you have something to do with us being kicked out of the hostel? Why are you so against Grayson going after MDG?”
He shushed me, casting a glance over his shoulder at the recruits loitering on the sidewalk a few yards away. None of them were watching us.
He stepped back, jerking his chin to indicate I should follow him. He walked around the corner and into the alley. I went slowly, part of me reluctant to leave the safety of the street.
He moved close to me as soon as I rounded the corner, so near our chests were nearly touching. “It’s complicated,” he said quietly.
“You did it, then? You called the cops on Grayson?”
“I did it for his own good. These MDG guys have no qualms about killing him if he gets in their way. I saved him.”
“How do you know what MDG was going to do?”
“Like I said, it’s complicated.”
“How is it complicated?”
“I know some things because of my dad’s association with MDG.”
My brain started buzzing. “Your dad is part of MDG? Did you know that the team was walking into a trap yesterday? Is that why you pulled me out?”
He said nothing.
“Julian, they could have been killed. Mia was killed,” I whispered, horrified.
“Clara, listen,” he said in a rush, putting a hand on my neck. “Grayson doesn’t fully understand what MDG is doing. He doesn’t get the scope of it. We want to be on their side.” His eyes burned into mine. “Trust me.”
I jerked away. “What does that mean? Why would you betray your best friend like that?”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. I didn’t betray him.”
“You betrayed the whole team. You let them walk straight into MDG’s trained scrabs. What is
