Page 135 of Always Us

“Did Katherine sign the papers?”

“Yes, so we’re officially divorced.”

“Shit, that’s awesome. I never thought this would happen.”

“Don’t mention it to Lilly. We aren’t going to tell her until after the holidays. Katherine will be staying at the house until the end of the year. Garret, I have people waiting outside my door for a meeting so I need to hang up. Good luck with your finals.”

“Thanks. Bye.”

I slide my phone in my pocket and grab my backpack and keys. I need to go to the library and study. I have two more finals today, and with everything going on I feel like I haven’t studied enough. I’m doing well in my classes, so it’s not like I have to get all A’s on my finals but a mix of A’s and B’s would be good.

When I get to campus, my phone rings as I’m walking to the library. I stop when I see it’s Kiefer calling. What the hell? I told him to leave me alone. I consider not answering, but I do because I don’t want him to keep calling.

“You can’t call me,” I say when I answer. “If they found out—”

“I’m telling them no,” he says, his voice frantic. “I can’t do it. I can’t be part of this. And there’s no way that man’s getting my daughter.”

I move off to the side, away from the people that were around me. “Did you tell them yet?”

“No. I’m going to as soon as we hang up. Did you talk to your father?”

“Yeah, but he can’t help you.”

“Did he say what the punishment would be?”

“He doesn’t know. It’s not up to him.”

“Oh, God, they’re going to kill me.”

I don’t deny it, because truthfully, they might actually kill them. I thought they might keep him around for his movie-making skills, but like my dad said, Kiefer knows more than he should. He’s been given information he can’t have as an outsider.

“I have to go,” I tell him. “I need to study for my final.”

“Of course. I’m sorry I bothered you.” He pauses. “I just wanted you to know, because I know how much you and Jade love Harper.” His voice cracks. “She’ll be safe if I do this, right?”

Shit. Why is he asking me this? How the hell would I know the answer to that? The organization does what they want. They make up their own rules.

“I really need to go,” I say.

“Tell me she’ll be safe!” He yells it. “Please. Just tell me she’ll be safe.” His voice cracks again. I think he might be crying.

“I can’t,” I say quietly. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. You need to fix this, Kiefer, and leave me out of it. And you need to stop calling me. I can’t help you. I’m sorry.”

I hang up and he doesn’t call back. I wasn’t trying to be mean to the guy, but he can’t keep calling me or showing up here. He’s putting me in danger and it pisses me off. What if they’re tracking his calls? I don’t want them knowing I’ve been talking to him.

I go to the library and open my laptop and the Internet pops up with an ad for Kiefer’s next movie. Like I need yet another reminder about Kiefer. I’m trying to get him out of my head so I can study. But now, all I can think about is how they’re going to punish him. If he agrees to never tell their secrets, maybe they’ll leave him alone. Yeah, that won’t happen. They love to punish people to show how powerful they are. I just hope they only punish Kiefer and not the rest of his family.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

32

JADE

“So what do you think?” I spread my arms out, showing off the apartment. Sara and I just got here and the landlady stepped out in the hall to make a phone call.

“I love it.” Sara smiles really wide as her eyes dart around the room. “It’s so big. I’m not used to all this space.”

The apartment has two bedrooms so Sara and Caleb can each have their own room. The place looks kind of dated, but it’s clean and there aren’t any loose wires anywhere. I don’t see any mold, and the water coming out of the faucet is clear, not brown.

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