Page 122 of Brutal Kingdom

Logan’s already here. He looks up as I enter the room. His heated gaze burns me alive. It’s gone in a flash, but I see his teeth sink into his bottom lip before he turns his attention back to his phone, dismissing me. For my part, I scowl at him as I walk towards my usual seat.

Wehave tokeep up appearances. Especially now, since I’m closer to my goal. I lower myself into my seat, placing my phone on the table. It buzzes with a message. I pull up the notification from support@prospectus. It’s a heart emoji.

I have my hearing date

Baby, that’s great news. We should celebrate.

No. It’s too risky

We’ll head off campus. Nobody will know.

I’m telling you so that you’ll understand why it’s more important than ever that we don’t make Bella suspicious about us. Or more suspicious since she says she heard us at the beach house.

She thinks she heard us. But Simon covered.

Simon was the shadow at the door, but Logan swears he left before anything happened.

I don’t respond to any more messages. That’s just asking for us to get careless. But it’s nice to know he’s excited for me when my stomach’s twisted in knots. I’ve been wanting the case to move forward, but not knowing what to expect makes me wish they’d stalled a little longer.

Bella starts the meeting and I listen as she hands out assignments for the booths that need to be manned. I volunteer to do face painting. She has no choice but to agree, since the only other person here with an artistic streak is Logan, and he’ll be glued to her side as she runs around “supervising” things.

* * *

“Jordanna?”

I jump when my mom squeezes my shoulder. “Oh, hey, mom.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

She sinks onto the couch beside me. “You’re sure?”

I hand her the letter I’m holding. She reads it, then looks at me with understanding and compassion.

“I don’t know what to do, mom. It was easy to ignore Penn and his lawyers. Now they’ve got victims sending me letters, asking me to help.”

“Why is helping with this hard for you?”

“It’s not. I want to help. I just don’t wanna talk to him.”

“Why not?”

“Because…” She waits for me to say the words that will damn me. Prove that I’m not a nice person as much as I try to be. Or try to make people think I am. “Because talking to him helps him, too. He’s only offering to tell them where the money’s hidden because it’s beneficial to him. He had three years to do this mom. But he didn’t, now he’s using it as a bargaining chip.”

“And you’re mad about that.”

“I’m pissed that he’s putting me in the middle of it.”

She pulls me into a hug, kissing the top of my head. “Me too, sweetheart.”

And I’m pissed that I can’t be with Logan. That’s not Penn’s fault, but then again, it sort of is. We’re in this town because of him. I cling to my mom’s warmth and love. Enveloped in the safety of her arms and our home, I drop my defenses, allowing myself to be vulnerable the way I can’t be at school.

“How about we try to find a way where you can help and not give away too much of yourself before you’re ready.”

I pull away, thinking about how I could do that. “Mom, you’re a genius. An absolute genius. He wants to talk to me, but I don’t want to see him. Maybe I can talk to him on the phone.”

“I think that’s an excellent idea.” She kisses my forehead. Then stands. “I’m gonna shower and get out of my work clothes. You feel like starting dinner?”

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