Page 72 of Twisted Legacy

“I’mme, so the only expectations I’m following are my own.”

He steps towards her, and I watch her flinch. “You think so? Let me correct you on that. You don’t have a choice. You don’t get to decide what you’re doing. As long as you’re in this town, this is the way it is.”

“That’s an easy fix, isn’t it?”

Her insinuation isn’t lost on me. I stand rooted in place, watching her walk away, even though everything in me is screaming at me to run after her and smooth things over. It’s always about our reputation. Our appearance. Our unshakable bond as The Trium. I keep my face neutral so none of the people standing around know I’m ready to slit my best friend’s throat.

We head towards the class we have together. When we’re alone, I turn to him, “What the fuck is your problem? We’re supposed to be guiding her. Convincing her we want to be friends. Not giving her more reasons to run the other way.”

“She can’t run. League is in her blood. She’s a legacy.”

“We’re talking about Thea. The girl we didn’t know was a legacy until a few weeks ago. Thea, whose parents somehow made her entire existence disappear. Thea, the girl who’s been joyriding on your bike, broke into Holden’s room to rearrange his computer things, and happily bronzed my $650 knife. That Thea? The one who’s part ninja? You think she can’t vanish into thin air? She’s only here because she wants to be, not because she has any ties to anyone in this place.”

I can see he still doesn’t believe she’s the one who did those things and his answer is simply, “Her parents are here.”

Shaking my head at him, I say, “Refer back to the part where they hid her existence even from her, and lied about being her aunt and uncle. Those parents? She grew up without parents. You really think she’s attached to them?”

He scrubs a hand through his hair as my words sink in. “I know, man, I… she just knows how to piss me off. I said the first thing that came to mind. Her stubbornness is messing with the mission The League gave us.”

“I get that. I know we’re behind schedule, but we’re supposed to be a team, Pax. You need to act like it.”

“I am.”

“You’re not. It’s not just your status on the line. Holden’s and mine are too.”

“I know, and I promise I’m not trying to mess this up for us. Look, you and Holden handle Thea, and I’ll just pass along the updates.”

“You really want to do that? Be completely hands off after we ambushed her the other night?”

“That wasn’t my choice, either. But like you said, we’re all in this together and we can’t have her doing anything stupid. She and I antagonize each other, and we need her to stop fighting it. Work your magic, get her to accept her status, and she’ll be off our hands.”

I squint at him. “And you won’t interfere in the way we go about getting her compliance?”

I already have a few ideas. Ideas I know Pax would definitely not be okay with. But his word is binding, so once he figures out what I’m doing, he won’t do anything to interfere.

“Whatever plan you come up with, I’ll go along with it.”

Chapter43

Thea

Itake a deep breath before pushing through the doors to the lobby of the hotel. It feels like a lifetime since I was last here for work, but it’s only been a little longer than a month. I miss it.

My stomach clenches at the thought of what I had to give up when Moira and Scott’s lies came out. I walk up to the front desk and wait for some girl I don’t know to acknowledge me. When I worked here, I’d just go straight to Van’s office. Now that would just be weird.

“Thea?”

I turn and wave at Sam, the maintenance guy. “You here to see Van? She’s in the back. Come on by the shop when you’re done. I’ll show you the latest pictures of the puppies.”

“I um. Was just gonna wait to see if she’s free.”

“For you, kiddo, I’m sure she is. We’ve missed your face around here.”

So I don’t look like an idiot just standing around; I walk down the hall toward Van’s office. She’s standing in the doorway. “Oh, you’re leaving…”

“No, I saw you on the security feed. I was trying to decide if I should come out to the lobby. I didn’t want to assume you were here to see me or interrupt if you had plans with someone.”

“I’m here for you. I would’ve called, but I thought it would be better to talk in person. If you’re busy, I can come back.”

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