Page 53 of Take My Place

“What did you just say?”

“Enough, Romy.” I pull his arm and this time he listens to me. “Let’s just go home. Leave Lucas in the gutter where he belongs.”

“Yeah. Stay on your knees,” Archer says. “You’re not fit to be anywhere near Ivy.”

“Come on, guys,” Declan says. “Ivy’s right. We should leave him here. He won’t be bothering anyone anytime soon.”

Declan, Archer, Romy, and I walk off together in the direction of the Academy to get our ride home, leaving Lucas behind.

Hopefully, he’d take the hint and transfer out of all of my classes. The boy is trouble, and I want nothing to do with him.

Chapter Sixteen

There is another Bomber Derby scheduled for the weekend and I am really looking forward to it. It has been one of the worst weeks I've had since my father brought me to King Town. All my teachers were piling on the work and I feel like I am falling behind in every subject, even music. The only good thing is that Lucas has been off school all week. Maybe he’d been more badly hurt than he seemed. If so, he deserved it. I am not one to usually wish ill of anyone, but Lucas is a creep. If he did anything to jeopardise my engagement, it isn’t just Romy and the boys he’d have to worry about. He’d have me to deal with me, and I am a bitch when I’m angry.

This Bomber Derby is in the Dauphin district this time and Declan has promised us a particularly tricky route. For now, I am not making a big deal about not being allowed to compete. Once Romy and I are married, it would be a different matter.

Romy roars up to the meeting point. Loud music is playing and there seems to be more people than normal gathered to watch the race. Most of the crowd seems to be milling around one particular area, and after Romy has parked his bike, he takes my hand, and we go over to see what is going on.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Romy gasps when he sees what everyone is so fascinated by.

Lucas is standing by a Kaisaki Ninja H2R, arms stretched wide to address the crowd.

“This bike does 0-60 in 2 seconds,” he is saying. “It has a top speed of 248.5 mph. My very generous benefactor gifted it to me because he wanted to make a statement to you all, which is move over, slow coaches. There’s a new champion in town.”

I don’t stick around to hear what else he has to say. Just the sight of him makes me sick. I don’t like to think about how much my father must have spent on that bike, but it is another sign there is definitely something going on behind the scenes and it is killing me that I have no idea what it is.

“Hey, Ivy. You okay?” Milly sees me walking away, and she comes over. “Lucas’s bike is pretty cool, isn’t it?”

“It’s okay.” I shrug. “But we all know that it’s the rider, not the bike, that counts. Romy’s going to check out the route now, but Declan’s territory is filled with windy country lanes. All that horsepower won’t do him much good when he’s trying to go round a number of hairpin bends.”

“Lucas seems pretty confident though. He was saying earlier he is going to get back at the ones who sabotaged him in the last race.”

“Good luck with that.” I snort. “Neither Romy, Archer, nor Declan will let him get anywhere near the finish line. He can throw as much money as he likes at his vehicle. He’s never going to win.”

“I hope you’re right. Quite a few people are betting on Lucas taking the crown this time.”

My stomach clenches at the mention of betting. It reminds me of what Lucas . I haven't talked about it with Romy. I don’t want him to get into trouble for fighting and I know he’d go nuts if he heard what Lucas is claiming. I’d thought about asking Declan if Lucas is telling the truth. He is the one person I thought could trust to tell me without getting angry about it, but I decide against it in the end. Who can I really trust in this place?

I hang around with Milly, wanting a bit of normalcy. All anyone want to talk about is Lucas and his bike and I can’t care less.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Milly asks.

“Of course.”

“And you promise you won’t tell anyone, especially not Archer?”

“I won’t tell a soul, particularly not Archer.”

“I’ve started dating.” A shy smile spreads across Milly’s face.

“Really? Who’s the lucky guy? Anyone I know?”

“He’s not at the Academy,” Milly told me. “I met him at Coffee, Coffee, Coffee. He saw me sitting by the window and said he had to come in and talk to me because I intrigued him. We’ve been seeing each other in secret, but I can’t let Archer know because I’m not supposed to date anyone without running them past my parents first.”

“Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.” I mime zipping my mouth shut, locking it and throwing away the key. “Tell me more about this mysterious stranger.”

“His name is Carl, and he’s 24,” Milly says. “He works in IT and he has nothing to do with any of the Houses, so my dad would hate him, but I really like him. He’s so sweet and considerate.”

---