Page 112 of Wicked Ends
“What are you going to do?”
“End this, once and for all. He’s my brother. I should have stopped him years ago. I need to finish this.”
“Be careful.”
“I will. You, too. Lulu is all that matters,” I said.
“You want to speak to her for a second?”
Emotion clutched my heart as I nodded, wordlessly.
“Auntie Arianna?” Lulu’s little voice met my ear, and I closed my eyes.
“I’m here, sweetie. How’s it going?”
I’d talked to her for too long, but damn it had felt good. It had reminded me of my reason for all of this. It was her. Lulu was an innocent in all of this, and I’d kill to protect her.
Now, I was waiting. Waiting to hear if Dale had found them. Waiting to see if he’d come back. Waiting and waiting.
My first class of the day was uneventful, except for the fact that Marcus was a no-show. That gave me pause, but I tried to put it out of my head. He was a busy guy, and Ihadasked him to stay away from me until the term finished. I could hardly be annoyed at him for following my wishes.
Still, I missed his face in class. Then, I glimpsed him at lunch. He was here, at school.
Didhe only skip my class?
His eyes didn’t stray to me once during lunch. Afterward, I left the lunch hall with Wade and Bill and saw him in front of me, walking down the wall.
“If you’ll excuse me, you guys. I’ll see you later,” I found myself saying and hurried down the hall to catch up with Marcus. My bruises twinged painfully as I moved. God, I still hadn’t gone and gotten anything checked out, because I didn’t have insurance right now, and there was no way I could afford it.
“Mr. Bailey, did you skip my class on purpose, or did you just get to school?” I called as I neared him.
His broad shoulders flinched at the sound of my voice, and he slowed, allowing me to catch up.
He was silent as I approached, leaning on the lockers in front of him and crossing his arms over his chest. It was an intimidating posture, honestly.
“Marcus?” I attempted.
He jerked his head up the hallway. “Are you sure you can leave your boyfriend on his own?”
“Sorry, what?” I asked, bewildered, and glanced up the hallway to where Wade and Bill were talking. “You mean Wade?”
“Oh, it’s Wade, is it?” Marcus said.
“Don’t tell me Beckett told you that he saw us having breakfast and you jumped to conclusions.”
“Breakfast? I thought it was just coffee,” Marcus mocked quietly. “Professor Casanova strikes again.”
I flushed. “Don’t be ridiculous. It was just coffee, and I drank a little and left.”
“I bet he was disappointed.” Marcus shifted against the lockers. He seemed so remote.
I had no idea what was going on with him, but the constant stream of students passing by around us wasn’t exactly prompting deep conversation.
“I called you over the weekend,” I said.
“Yeah, I know. I was busy,” he simply said.
“Oh. Okay.” I felt like an idiot. “Are you okay?”
