“No!” I shout. “I just brought him a meal, it doesn’t mean anything more than that! Why are you guys looking at me like I’ve stripped naked and run screaming through a church? Luke never asks for anything. He sacrificed himself today. He’s out there breaking his back fixing Junior’s ride and nobody asked him to be that nice. So I brought him dinner because I thought he might be, wait for it, wait for it, HUNGRY! Big whoop! It’s just food, it’s not a marriage proposal. Give me a fucking break!” I storm inside, look around and find everyone staring. Even the one cat we have, Tickles, is looking at me.
Can’t remember exactly what I just said, too upset to know, but by the looks on everyone’s faces it didn’t come out how I meant it to. Too much interest shifting into worried glances passed around by the elders.
Ducking my head I take quick strides to get the fuck out of here, find some privacy. The rest of the house is quiet, and I know how to lock a door.
Mom’s voice drifts into the hall like it’s chasing me. “I think we’ve got a problem.”
CHAPTER 15
L UKE
A s soon as I enter the house I know something’s up. It’s way too quiet. “Something I missed?” I ask Scythe, the only Cipher on the couch, and the game is oddly on silent.
He eyes me from under his brows. “Your sister come get you?”
“No.”
“She was supposed to.”
Stepping around to face him, I ask, “What’s the deal?”
“Talk to your parents.”
My pulse quickens as I head away. If he’s making me get information only from my immediate family, we have an issue for sure. What I want to know is if anyone’s hurt. My first thought goes to Celia because of the trouble we’ve had, and suddenly I’m positive the cops have come for her.
The sitting rooms bring me more of the same—talk to your parents.
Now I’m freaked.
My footsteps are showing it.
Hurried.
Impatient.
Mom and Dad aren’t in their room. Sage and Atlas aren’t either.
As I search it dawns on me that if this was about Celia I wouldn’t need to hear it from my folks, since she’s not my sister. And I know Sage is okay…Scythe said she was sent to get me.
Oh shit, it’s Atlas.
Something’s happened to my brother.
I bang on their door, clawing at it. “Soph! Open up!”
Celia cracks it, “Luke…”
“What’s goin’ on? Nobody will talk to me. Soph, you in there?! Soph!”
Celia opens the door to show me, “She’s not here, Luke.” I can tell she’s not supposed to tell me, but our years of friendship demand it. “They’re sending you away.”
“What the fuck?! Why?”
She peeks down the hall and meets my eyes to whisper, “They know something happened with you and Sofia.”
Now I’m even more confused. Soph would never tell them what I said to her out there tonight. No way in hell. So what the hell is their problem? Are they mixing me up with Atlas? Someone see something, his long hair with hers, mistake it as mine? The thought sickens me on every level.
Celia gently touches my arm, “And you shouting her name at her bedroom door at night doesn’t look good.”
“Fuck, thanks,” I mutter and run to the stairs, heading to the one place I haven’t looked.
Exploding onto the front porch, I freeze, and slowly close the door, scanning the faces of Dad, Mom, Sage, Jett, and Luna. I come to stand before them. Atlas and Sofia aren’t here, that’s the first thing I notice and dammit if jealousy doesn’t spike all over again. It fuels my anger as I growl, “What’s this I hear about being sent away?”
Jett’s frown gets deeper, “Who told you that? Sofia?”
“Nah, and I’m not snitching on who did. But I can tell you one thing, if I had seen Sofia Sol I know for a fact that she would have told me, unlike the rest of these turncoats.”
Dad rumbles, “Nobody’s betrayed you, they’re just doing as we asked.”
“Why the big secret? You want me on a job, send me! Or is there something else I should know about?”
Sage is staring at the porch like I’ve already been hung.
Our father stands up. “Luke, you and Sofia Sol crossed a boundary. Broke a house rule. Gave in to your baser instincts—”
Luna interrupts, “Just to satisfy the need for rebellion you both have.”
Jett grates, “And of course you didn’t tell us about it.”
Mom is upset as she finally speaks up, “We had to hear it from your brother!”
I lean forward like I didn’t hear her. “What did you just say?”
Dad squares off with me. “Atlas told us you and Sofia had sex.”
Confused beyond any feeling I’ve ever known, I croak, “What?!”
He rubs the bridge of his nose like his head is killing him. “He told us about the sex, Luke.”
“There’s no way Atlas said that to you!”
Mom nods like she understands. “Because you expected him to keep your secret? I’m sure this must be very hard for you to understand, but he did the right thing. We saw through Sofia’s tirade tonight and it was obvious something had happened between you two. We questioned Atlas after Sofia Sol vanished, and he was reluctant, but he felt it was best for the Ciphers as a club, that he tell the truth.”
I want to shout, the truth about him not me!
But that’s not how I’m made.
I stand here, beaten up more than I’ve ever been in my whole life, realizing that Atlas not only made me the scapegoat, but he also got rid of me so he could win Sofia while I was gone.
He removed the competition.
Biting back cuss words, I shake my head and control myself. “So, you need me to go, just like that? You think that’ll solve it?”
Jett stands up. “The two of you need space, Luke, that’s all we’re asking.”
I turn to him. “You worried there’s something you can’t control?”
Luna flies from her chair and slaps me across the face. “Watch
