Page 53 of Disorder (Elite of Elmwood 2)

“So you’ve finally come to your senses. Good. Thanks to you, the police came knocking on our door. Dad wasn’t too happy when he found out you were involved.”

Bastard. He would try to make me somehow responsible. Since he was so smug, I assumed nothing came out of the police speaking with him. Typical. I swallowed against the gloating in his eyes, forcing myself to keep going. “What is it you want me to do?”

He shifted closer to me. It was a struggle to not back away. “Are you still crashing at Brock’s?” he asked.

Nodding, I replied, “For the time being.”

His grin turned into a triumphant smirk. “Why are you exactly? Don’t tell me it is because of me?”

I snorted. “You aren’t that important.” But he was in all the ways that were bad about this world.

A crowd of kids weaved around us, but Carter ignored them. “Not like your fuck buddy, huh, but that’s where you’re wrong.”

My heart plummeted, but I refused to let it show. “Can we cut the shit? I don’t have a lot of time. They’re watching.”

“In that case, we better make this look convincing.” He shifted his stance so he was in front of me, using his body as a blockade, a maneuver that screamed Carter. He had a way of isolating someone even in an auditorium filled with hundreds of students.

The flutters of restlessness that entered my belly increased tenfold. “Do you want the fucking thumb drive you’re so obsessed with or not?”

Cater’s mouth flattened. “I’m not sure I can trust you.”

I expelled a ragged breath. “I know I can’t trust you. But you’re not giving me much of a choice here, are you?”

The last few stragglers made their way into the auditorium. Carter and I were running out of time. “The rules are simple. Get me the thumb drive. I want everything the Elite have on me,” he stated, like it was as easy as stealing candy from a baby.

I saw it then, for just a fracture of a second. Fear. “You’re scared. You’re afraid of them.” Of course, I knew Carter had every reason to fear them. With what they had, it could ruin a lot of people’s lives, including the reputation of the Academy.

That kind of information didn’t belong in the hands of someone like Carter. The safest place was right where it was.

“Get me the thumb drive,” he restated, his voice firmer this time. “And the passcode to his phone.”

“What do plan to do with it?”

“Not your business, sis.”

I had a sickening thought. What if Carter didn’t just want to destroy any evidence that could hurt him? What if he wanted to do some destroying of his own? Grayson said there was information on the Elite that could hurt the four of them. There was also information on Kenna, Grayson, and me, proving Angie had kidnapped me from the hospital.

I didn’t want him to see just how much fear the idea of him having that information caused inside me. I lifted a single shoulder, feigning indifference. “Whatever. Keep your end of the deal, and I’ll find out where the thumb drive is.”

“And Brock’s passcode.”

I gritted my teeth. “What good is the passcode if you don’t have the phone?”

His smile turns smug. “I don’t need his phone, just access to his cloud.”

“Fine,” I barked out as needles tiptoed down my spine.

He reached out and grabbed my elbow as I turned to leave. “You’ve got two weeks.”

I jerked out of his hold, my brows slamming together as I suppressed a shudder of revulsion. “Are you kidding?”

That stupid smirk was back plastered on his face. “It shouldn’t be too hard. You are fucking him.”

“After this, you never speak to me again,” I spat.

Carter tugged on his black-and-blue tie. “We’re family. We’re stuck together.”

Fuck. I was going to be sick—all over the Academy’s plush carpet in front of the entire school. I was due for a round of gossip. What better way to get the school talking about me again than spewing right before an Academy announcement?

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