Page 67 of Wicked Games (Fallen Royals 2)

“Because we put my name in the letter and Coach interrogated me about it,” I say. “You saw it. The whole school did. So what if Caleb didn’t go to tryouts? He’s still on the team.”

Riley and Sav exchange a glance.

“Well…” Riley shrugs. “I guess. Eli didn’t go, either. Then again, he had a good excuse. Family emergency and being out of town.”

“Is he back?” I ask.

Riley blushes.

“Ooh,” Sav teases, elbowing Riley. “Spill.”

“He came over yesterday.” She shrugs. “I don’t know. Sometimes he’s nice and sometimes he’s…”

“A bully.” I raise my eyebrow.

She laughs. “Yep. How’d that happen?”

Savannah grimaces. “Will has a dark streak, too,” she murmurs.

“Seems like we all fall for the bad guys,” I say. “And now we need to do homework.”

Robert pops his head into my bedroom. His gaze goes around the room, then lands on me. He’s been hovering more since Caleb and I walked into class together on Friday.

And speaking of Caleb… I can’t believe I got in his face. Admitted the things I did. Got the answers that I did.

He knows who Unknown is, I can just feel it. And he won’t help me.

“You girls having fun?” Robert asks.

“We were just about to start homework, Mr. Jenkins,” Savannah says.

He smiles. “Good, good. Margo, don’t forget about your painting. It’s due before Christmas break.”

Less than a month to go. And only a few weeks of classes in December, then we’ll have holidays and the new year, and suddenly we’ll be into the spring semester. Time flies when you feel like your foster parents aren’t going to eject you from the home.

Caleb tried to get rid of me and failed.

“Earth to Margo,” Riley calls.

I shake my head. “Yeah, sorry. I’m going to work on it next weekend.”

He nods and retreats, closing the door behind him.

“Where’s your mom?” Sav asks. “Er, foster mom.”

“She had a business trip,” I say. “She forgot about it and left on Thursday. I think she’s coming back tonight.”

“What does she do, again?” Riley pulls books from her bag.

“Some sort of corporate liaison for merging companies.” I lift one shoulder. “She explained it once, but it kind of went over my head. There’s a lot of legal stuff she deals with, but also I think she acts like a therapist for the CEOs losing their jobs.”

“Did she work with Caleb’s dad’s company?” Sav asks.

I blink. “Huh?”

“When his company was bought out. Was she the one who helped negotiate the Ashers’s jobs?”

“I’m sorry, Sav, I don’t really even know what happened with that.” But it might be useful.

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