Page 99 of Raise Hell

I scramble to think of something that might trip him up, push him further than he is willing to go.

“Might be hard to get in touch with me when you don’t even have my phone number,” I comment, subtly leaning away from him.

To my surprise, Drake doesn’t even blink.

He unlocks his phone with a thumbprint and holds it out to me. “Go ahead. Send yourself a text.”

I resist the urge to go through his photos. Drake wouldn’t be stupid enough to hand me a device with anything incriminating on it.

One of the first things I did before coming to St. Bart’s was memorize Olivia’s cell phone number. Like most people, I have her contact information in my phone but didn’t know her number by heart.

It would be a major problem if I tripped up and gave him a number with a Detroit area code.

I’m a little disappointed when I plug in Olivia’s number and it shows up as a new contact. It would have been nice to catch him in a lie.

Someone at Havoc House knew Olivia. They knew her well enough to lure her into a trap.

I type some asshole into the text box and press send.

The answering vibration in my pocket tastes like defeat.

Drake glances down at the screen when I hand the phone back. He chuckles before putting it away. “Asshole or not, no avoiding me now.”

He spends the rest of the lunch period with his arm around the back of my chair, alternating between flirting with me and joking with his friends. When the conversation turns to an upcoming lacrosse game, I tune them out and turn to Felicia.

“You cool?” I ask.

“Of course.” She seems surprised at the question. “It’s nice not be eating alone anymore.”

“Be careful. These guys don’t always play nice.”

The warning is pointless. Every time one of the guys tries to address Felicia directly, Drake finds a way to distract him with a question or by changing the subject. He acts subtlety enough that I doubt they notice what’s happening. But his effort to keep any of them from getting too close to his sister is more than obvious to me.

I’m having a hard time reconciling the guy who works so hard to defend his sister with the one who might be involved with what happened to mine. It’s hard not to feel a little guilty about trying to use Felicia to get close to him.

The Drake who gently teases me and laughs off my attempts to goad him isn’t real.

Eventually, the mask he wears to hide the monster will break.

I just need to get what I need before it does.

* * *

I fully expectedeveryone to find out that Drake and I slept together.

But instead of crowing about his conquest and making me out to be the whore of Babylon, he’s doing something even worse.

Treating me like his girlfriend.

Not only does he make a point of sitting with me in class and at every meal, we’re spending so much time together that it’s rare for anyone to see us apart. It doesn’t matter that neither of us has actually said it’s official, because everyone at the school already assumes we’re a thing.

I hate how much I like spending time with him. In another reality, the two of us might actually be able to make this work.

But all I can let him be to me is a means to an end. Which means I can’t push him away without losing the little bit of progress I’ve made at St. Bart’s. If I want to have any chance of finding out what happened last year, I have to stay close to him and his friends.

Except, even with all the time I’m suddenly spending with him, I’m no closer to figuring out what happened to Olivia.

The Havoc Boys keep their personal shit locked up tighter than Fort Knox, both literally and figuratively. Casual conversation never turns to the events of last year, and there isn’t any way for me to bring it up without sounding crazy.

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