Page 113 of Crew Princess
I frowned. “They’re still a crew?”
He shrugged. “Who knows. I don’t. I’m out, been out since Taz.”
Pain sliced over his face, and he closed his eyes. “I’m so sorry for what I did to her. Shit went south. It went north, sideways, east, west. It was going all around, and I couldn’t get a handle.” He gulped, his voice thickening. “I should’ve gotten a handle. I ain’t bad, not all the way.”
He pressed that bottle to his chest, hugging it. “I got bad parts, good parts. I’m trying to have more good than bad. I’m trying, Bren. I really am.”
I took another step toward him, but I was tentative. My insides were on full alert, yelling at me to leave.
“Alex.” I sighed. What could I actually do? “What’s going on? Just tell me.”
“Drake.” He looked down. “It’s been all about you, and you never knew. You were supposed to be there. They were supposed to arrest you, but you weren’t. Or if you were, you got away. You hid. You messed up their plans.”
God. This didn’t sound good.
My phone was buzzing. That would be Cross, wondering where I was, but I couldn’t respond. This. This was important. If I pulled out my phone, it would break whatever this was. It was delicate, like thin ice. Any wrong move, a wrong word, and Alex would close up.
It buzzed again.
I ignored it.
It started ringing, and I shifted my hand to my clutch and silenced it. I did it with as little movement as possible.
“Alex,” I urged. He had to keep going.
“Crew Princess. That’s you. You’re the glue.”
My eyebrows bunched. “What does that mean?”
“That party when everyone was arrested? They only wanted one person.”
His eyes were gleaming, suddenly sober, though I knew he wasn’t.
“They only wanted one person, but they couldn’t find you, so they took everyone else.”
“The District Weekend party? But—”
“Plan B.” He hiccupped, swinging the Jim Beam around before tipping back and taking a long drag. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he added, “That was plan B. Arrest everyone else, make ’em sign that sheet. The cameras were plan B, but you were plan A. You were first priority.”
“How do you…” My head was swimming. It wasn’t making sense, any of it. “How do you know this? Why did they want to arrest me?”
“So they could lock you up, hurt the crews. You stabbed Neeon. He got vengeful, started hating you, your crew. His daughter had a breakdown. She’s in some mental facility now. That added to Neeon’s anger, enough to make him motivated.” Alex started out hot, but slowed down, his words getting lost.
“Alex! Snap out of it. Tell me the rest.”
God, please. Tell me the rest.
His eyes blinked, bulged, and then settled back. “Yeah. Um...yeah.” He was thinking, remembering. “You’re the glue. You. Channing’s the king. You’re his sister. They wanted to hurt you, put you away, hurt your brother.” He stopped again, flinching from some invisible pain. “Hurt your dad.”
“What?” My dad?
“Red Demons took over in Frisco. They can’t sell in Frisco if the Demons are there.”
Who wasthey?
The Red Demons were a motorcycle club, and my brother had battled them not long ago. We’d been a part of it. Our dad joined their club, but he was in prison—had been this whole time. All of this was coming out of nowhere. I knew it had happened, but Channing protected Roussou. I never thought any of that life would come into school, intomyschool.
“I thought the documentary was about putting the spotlight on the crews?”
