Page 25 of Twisted Legacy

“That’s an order, LaReaux.”

“Fine. I won’t need to, because I’ve got it handled, but if I do, I’ll call you.”

“Good, girl.”

I don’t miss the whimper from her end of the line. I give her a second to pull herself together before telling her, “I’ll work out a training plan for Breland. She can start next week.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. She’ll probably quit after the first session.”

“That’s a very real possibility. Every time I leave the gym, I’m a boneless, exhausted mess.”

“Good, because if you’ve still got energy left over, then I’m not doing it right.”

“No problems there. You definitely know your way around my body.”

“I don’t know about that, LaReaux. I think there may be a few things left to discover.”

Roger Dale, from the math department, walks into the gym, prompting me to wrap this call up. “I need to go. I’ll touch base with you later.”

I disconnect the call and shove my phone into my pocket. It’s a good thing I had to cut our conversation short. I had been trying to convince myself that I could do this. That I could continue to pretend like I see her the same way I see all my students. As a sack of flesh to mold.

That lie burned away the minute I heard her voice, and now I’m wondering how she would have responded to my comment about her body if the conversation would have continued.

Chapter16

Finn

Thea’s here. I’d gotten used to walking in class and seeing her seat empty, but today she’s here. A sling on her arm, her beautiful face marred with bruises so bad the makeup does little to cover them.

Thea was missing for three weeks. None of us could get any information on where she was. Not for lack of trying, but the administration office insisted they had no idea where she was or if she was coming back to school.

One minute we knew she was in Canyon Falls General, the next she’d vanished. It wasn’t until I overheard a conversation between Austin and his buddy Corey that I learned she was away and submitting assignments remotely.

I couldn’t very well demand to know how he knew that, because I’m not supposed to give a shit. Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself, because she’s been lying all along. But then I remember High Councilor Cox saying she’s part of a deactivated legacy family, and my father’s explanation of why that happened. Holden can’t dig into the rest of the story, so we’re trying to get our information the old-fashioned way. By attending dinners with our families and steering the conversation to Thea’s family. Although a quicker way to get answers is to demand she give them to me.

The look of disgust Thea gives me quickly squashes that plan. Okay, so we had a disagreement. Words were said. Assumptions were made. Isn’t twenty days’ enough time to be ready to talk about it? She’s the one who was lying to me. She owes me an explanation. I gave her my trust and let her play with my knife.

In his own little way, Holden started trusting her, too. Or at least that’s what I assume his little experiment with kissing her was all about. He never would’ve done that if he thought she was a threat.

Pax is the only one who never quite warmed up to her and doesn’t seem willing to change his position. Which makes what we’re supposed to be doing even more complicated. We’re trying to keep it a secret that we got into bed with Malcolm without the high council’s permission. We alienated her, and now we have to regain what little semblance of trust she had in us, and convince her we’re not that bad. The League’s attention is on her and us, this little house of secrets can come crashing down on us at any moment.

I steal a look at her. She doesn’t look sorry for lying. She doesn’t look like she cares what we think about her. Were the weeks we played our games, and that night at the Breland anniversary party the act, or is it this indifference?

She’s next to Austin, leaning in to hear what he’s saying. Her body language with him still seems the same. Making me even more confused. If she was attacked, shouldn’t she be tense? Or is Eloise right and Thea was a willing participant in whatever happened?

Holden is on the other end of the class, in his usual seat. He’s not letting her presence distract him. Lucky bastard. Few things let me hyper focus. Parkour, lock picking, playing with my knives, extreme sports, and learning a new language. Fun shit. Everything else is static and annoying. I breeze through my statistics assignment, then turn to stare out the window, fantasizing about doing a forward tuck through it and landing on my feet before walking away to do something else. My phone chimes with a text from Pax in our group chat.

Pax

I heard the troublemaker is back. We need to discuss next steps.

Next steps? The step we’re currently on is confusing enough. But he’s right. We need to decide what we’re doing and how to undo the devastation we caused after finding out Thea’s secret. If she was attacked, it’s because we gave the green light for people to torment her. I’m thinking, “oops, our bad,” won’t quite work in this scenario.

Class ends and Thea bolts from her seat. Austin is right behind her like a guard dog. I follow them, curious to see where they’re going. Coach Wolfe is at the other end of the hallway talking to Mr. Corbin. His eyes flick towards me, then Thea, before turning his attention back to the teacher.

Coach Wolfe is the one who found Thea. If he were any other teacher, I’d just go up to him and ask what he knows about that night. But I know he’s one of the few faculty members on campus who don’t give a shit about us or our position, so it’s doubtful he’d give me a straight answer.

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