One by one, they all shook their hands.
“Not even Ellie or Gina or Luke?”
Again, they all shook their heads.
“Now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing Isach today,” Whitney said.
There was a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Give me your phone,” I said to Whitney. When she handed it to me, I dialed Isach’s number and put it on speaker.
“Took you long enough,” Isach said.
At the sound of his voice, Abby cringed and turned away, as if not seeing the phone would somehow make it so she didn’t hear him at all.
“It’s Chloe. What the hell is going on, Isach? Why did you break up with Abby and then ditch school? And why did you talk to your dad when we all agreed you wouldn’t do that?” Fury laced my words, but I didn’t care. He had a lot of explaining to do.
“Her mission is to watch me.” And then Isach ended the call.
I stared at the phone, eyes wide. Then, my heart took off like a racehorse. Tension filled the room, and I sat stunned. Why would Rector ask Felicity to follow his son? And if her job was to follow Isach, why was she watching me? Why had she appeared in the road in front of Trent’s truck? Isach hadn’t been with us. He’d been with Abby.
Confusion quickly morphed into terror as realization seeped into my pores. Felicity must know that Isach was with Abby, which meant Isach probably broke up with her to protect her. It wasn’t because he didn’t love her—it was the opposite. He loved her enough to walk away, to ensure she was safe.
But if Felicity knew about Abby, then Felicity must also know that Isach has been hanging around with us, and that meant Rector knew, too. He had to know Isach was working with us, planning to betray the Zoya. Did Rector know about me, though?
“Can we kill her now?” Jax asked.
“Yes,” I said, meeting his gaze.
CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Trust Issues
“WE SHOULD GO,” ABBY SAID, STANDING. Her face was splotchy, and her eyes were bloodshot from crying so much. She looked emotionally drained.
I nodded and headed for the front door.
“Chloe, wait.” Trent clutched my elbow. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
I glanced at Abby, who shrugged.
“Go ahead,” Whitney said, draping her arm around Abby. “I want to talk to Abby anyway.”
With a sigh, I turned and followed Trent into his room. My head was starting to throb, and all that dessert I’d eaten at the diner was now churning in my stomach. Trent closed the door and stood in front of it.
“Look, I’m really sorry about today. I didn’t mean to make you worry,” I said.
He laughed and shook his head, his expression amused. “I was actually going to apologize to you.”
“For what?” I asked.
“For freaking out like I did. I hope you know I don’t expect you to tell me where you are all the time,” he said, stepping away from the door and closing the distance between us.
“I know.” I slipped my arms around him. “But you were right. With Ivy and the Zoya and now Felicity… I need to be more careful. And I will. Promise.”
“Thank you.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over mine. “And I’m sorry about Colt. He has no right to talk to you that way.”
Groaning, I eased away from Trent’s embrace and crossed my arms. “It’s obvious he doesn’t like me, and that’s fine. Whatever. But to accuse me of leading Jax on?” My gaze met Trent’s. “You know I’m not doing that, right?”
“Yes,” he said without hesitation.
I shifted on my feet. “Was Colt right? Are you and Jax still fighting because of me?”
Trent rubbed the back of his neck and moved around me to stand near the window. “Not as much as we used to.”
I dropped my arms to my sides and let out a heavy sigh. “Trent,” I said, my tone full of frustration.
“I don’t trust him,” Trent said, his back still to me. “I know you love me, and I know you’d never hurt me.” He turned to face me. “But I don’t trust that he won’t try to convince you to do exactly that.”
“If you trust me, none of that should matter,” I said. “You should trust that I wouldn’t do anything. That I wouldn’t allow Jax to convince me to do anything.”
Trent sighed. “I do trust you, but I know my brother.”
Shaking my head, I took a step closer. The very last thing I wanted to do was stand here and convince Trent he could trust me. I believed he did, and I was going to continue to believe him. Eventually, he’d realize he was wrong about Jax. At the moment, I was more concerned with Colt and how seemed to hate me.
What had I ever done to him? I could honestly handle Colt hating me, even if that would make future family gatherings difficult, but I couldn’t handle knowing he was probably saying things about me to Trent. They’d been spending a lot of time together. For all I knew, Colt could be trying to get Trent to leave me—which would certainly explain Trent’s sporadic behavior the past couple of months.
“What’s wrong with us lately?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, ever since Colt got here, things between us haven’t been… normal. You’ve been spending so much time with him, which is fine. I’m glad you can. But we hardly ever see each other outside of school anymore, and when we are together, either everyone else is around, too, or you’re distant.”
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to shut up before I said anything else. I’d probably already said too much, and making Trent feel bad for spending time with his brother was not the purpose of this conversation.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled when Trent didn’t speak. “I guess I just miss the way
