Page 91 of The Broken Note

“Eep!” She lets loose a girlish squeal. “I can’t believe Dutch Cross is calling me!”

“How have you been, Vi?”

“Good.” She sounds giddy.

Zane makes a circular gesture, indicating that I should hurry it up.

I clear my throat. “Vi, remember that favor you promised us?”

“Mm-hm,” she says eagerly.

After we helped her out with her makeup tutorial, Viola swore up and down that she wouldn’t forget our kindness.

I glance at Finn and then at Zane. Heart pounding, I tell Cadence’s sister. “I’m going to need to cash in on that favor.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

CADENCE

“Wake up. Cadey, wake up.”

Someone is bouncing on my bed and if they don’t stop in the next five seconds, I’m going to karate kick them into the next bedroom.

“Cadey!”

“Urg, go away,” I mutter unintelligibly.

The weekend is the only time I’ve got to sleep in, and I’m exhausted. It didn’t help that I couldn’t fall asleep until two a.m. this the morning.

Jarod Cross’s accusations kept running circles through my head.

Dutch? A drug dealer?

It’s so far out of left field I could laugh, but the more I think about it, the less ridiculous it sounds.

He’s frightening enough to pull it off. None of the teachers would tell him anything, even if they caught him red-handed. He’s cold and careless. He doesn’t give a damn about the people he’s hurting in the process.

But, for all his brutality, I thought he had lines he wouldn’t cross.

Was I wrong? Did I let my guard down, let mysisteraround the type of man I hate the most?

“Cadey!”

I moan and fling an arm over my face to keep the sunlight from scraping past my eyelids. The golden light is barging in anyway, making my head hurt.

Viola shakes my shoulders. “If you don’t get up now, I’ll start singing.”

“Don’t!” I shoot to a sitting position.

Viola laughs, pretty brown eyes glinting. It’s my first time seeing her smile that wide since mom came back. Immediately, the exhaustion clears from my body.

I smile back. “Why are you in such a good mood?”

“Because it’sfinallySaturday. The weekend tookforeverto get here.” She sits on the edge of my bed and the mattress bounces with her weight.

“Saturday is cleaning day.” I rub my eyes.

“Come on, Cadey.” She pushes out her bottom lip and takes my hand. Swinging it back and forth, she coaxes, “Can’t we go out and do something fun today?”

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