Page 15 of Heartless Legacy

“I was still eating. Why didn’t you wait for me?” Eloise asks, as she comes to stand beside me.

Maybe Finn was on to something. I’m fighting the urge to pretend I don’t see or hear her. She’s the one who thinks we need to show up for everything together. I’d just as soon leave her behind, which I’ve been doing. It’s like she’s got spies out looking for me, because the minute I think I’m getting a break from her, here she comes, running up behind me. Instead of answering her question, I ask my own. “Why didn’t you tell me you invited someone to sit at my table?”

“Rachel is a friend of mine.” She says, like it matters.

“Is that supposed to mean something to me? Because it doesn’t. Now answer the question.”

“I’m allowed to have friends sit with me, Pax.”

I advance on her. “Last time I’m gonna say it. Answer. My. Fucking. Question.”

“I didn’t tell you, because I don’t have to. It’s my table too, and I can have friends sit with me. Holden said so last year.”

“Heneversaid that.”

“Oh, but he did when he said it was okay for the psychotic little trash whore and her friends to sit at the legacy table.”

She folds her arms across her chest and smirks at me, as if she’s won this round. So I remind her of the rest of his statement. “If I remember the rest of that conversation, it was something along the lines of him rewarding Thea for how well she handled his cock.” I pull out my phone. “Shall I get him on the line and let him know you’re putting in a request?”

The smirk falls from her face. “That’s not funny, Pax.”

“Am I laughing?”

The overly confident tone is missing from her next words. “You can’t do that. I’m your fiancé.”

“Let’s get one thing straight, Eloise. Right now, you’re just a name on a piece of paper going through the vetting process. The League can decide to line it out and put someone else’s name in its place. The only thing that’s confirmed is your designation as my companion. Now, unless the rules have changed since my last companion, then that means you’re here to make my life easier. Picking a fight with me doesn’t make things easy. Neither does intentionally trying to piss off Finn, your last companion and fiancé.” I open my hands wide, palms out, in supplication. “Now, if you have a death wish, by all means, fuck with him.”

“You won’t let him hurt me. It’s your job as my companion to protect me.”

“Mmm. Yes, but you’re also a Wren on an opposing team, which makes you our competition. There are no rules that supersede that.”

With that final thought, I walk off towards the parking garage. I need time away from campus. On my bike, I can slip through alleyways and narrow lanes where she can’t follow. When I’m racing or going fast, the noise quiets in my head and I feel invincible. Like I can truly outrun all my problems.

Chapter 9

Deacon

Igive a curt nod, acknowledging the fighters who greet me as I make my way through the gym towards my office. I toss my duffel bag on the floor by my desk and drop into my seat. Another trip, and I’ve returned empty-handed, much to The League’s disappointment.

The guardian program lost another five candidates this month. They dropped off the grid, and nobody has any idea how or why. They’re losing candidates faster than they can replace them and looking for people to blame. A lot of that blame is falling at my feet because I’m the one who hasn’t landed a single recruit in the last two months.

It’s kind of hard to serve up bodies when I’m distracted. Not even the threat of losing my gym is enough to motivate me. Tank’s been taking care of it all summer. If it weren’t for the fighters and members who train here, I’d have already told The League they can have this place. Being here is a depressing reminder of the girl who I initially refused to train.

Thea’s gone. She left without saying goodbye to anyone and didn’t bother taking anything with her. LJ helped her parents clear out her dorm room. They found her passports, fake IDs,and a stack of cash and credit cards in the safe. She left her car in a parking lot in Palm Springs.

For the first few weeks, we assumed she was just decompressing after final exams and a strenuous challenge season. Then LJ suggested she added on a few more days because of Pax going public with Eloise. That only makes sense if she caught them together, since she didn’t show up for the league meeting where the announcement was made.

After three weeks, everyone decided Thea ran, like she’d been threatening to do from the beginning. I don’t buy that, and neither does Sasha, who also hasn’t heard from her. She insists that while it’s possible for Thea to vanish into thin air, she wouldn’t do it without letting Sasha know she’s alright. It’s some kind of safety protocol they set up. I didn’t ask why they need safety protocols and she didn’t volunteer the information.

If the one person I know Thea trusts most in the world says her absence is suspect, then I’m inclined to agree. As far as The League is concerned, I’m on recruiting trips, but what I’m really doing is looking for my girl.

Sasha is doing some digging with her computer friends, and I’m boots on the ground in the other cities where Guardian training camps are located. The League may have let Thea pledge, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have sent her off for survival training with the Guardians at their equivalent of summer camp, and not to tell anyone about it.

Wherever she is, I’ll find her. If it turns out she ditched us all, that’s fine. That’s her choice, but she’ll need to tell me to my face. Until that happens, I’m operating off of what she told me. That whatever the future holds, she wants me there too.

I hit ignore on my phone. Nothing Dean Gibson has to say will convince me to come back to school this semester. I thought I would go back, but as June turned into July with still no leads on Thea, I realized I couldn’t focus on anything else. I alsoknew I might take my frustrations out on the students. Taking a sabbatical was in everyone’s best interest.

I change my clothes and go for a long overdue workout. By the time I’m done with my shower and get back to my office, I have two more missed calls. Those are from the football coach and basketball coach. I ignore them both. I don’t have shit to say to them either, especially if they’re only calling because the dean put them up to it.

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