Mr. Blackthorn smiled at someone over my shoulder. “Ah, boys. There you are. It’s good to see Kristin managed to get you all here. She had to…embellish the truth, as you can see. Miss Cruz is perfectly fine – I’m not holding her hostage. In fact, she was just about to leave, wasn’t she?”
I was stone. Steel. I felt like all the blood in my body had turned to ice. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, I turned my head over my shoulder to see Burn, Wolf, and Fitz standing there. They’d heard everything. Mr. Blackthorn made sure of it – he tricked me into saying it all in front of them. Burn’s eyes were deader than I’d ever seen them, devoid of all emotion. Fitz looked like he was going to be sick, his face white with shock. Wolf’s expression burned into me, dark and furious, like a midnight blaze.
Mr. Blackthorn set me up.
“Guys, listen to me,” I frantically scrabbled for words. “I didn’t mean any of that –“
“Oh, but you did.” Mr. Blackthorn said smugly. I ignored my burning rage towards him – I couldn’t let the brothers leave thinking the wrong thing.
“You faked it,” Burn said simply.
“It started out as spying, okay?” I pleaded. “But the more I got to know you guys, the more I liked you. I really, really liked you. All of you. Nothing about that was fake.”
Fitz dashed out of the restaurant, his face twisted.
“Fitz!” I called, and moved to go after him, but Burn’s huge arm flung across my chest, stopping me. He looked down at me, more soulless than a puppet.
“No. He isn’t your problem, anymore. None of us are.”
“Burn – Burn, I swear to you –“
He let go before I could finish, turning and walking out after Fitz. Disgust clawed at my every organ. I’d ruined it. I’d ruined everything – I turned to Wolf, and he loomed over me, his posture determined to be imperious and regal and above it all, but his face said otherwise. His face said he hated me, but he hated the wound I’d inflicted on him more.
“You let me believe - ” He said. “ - for a single moment, that I was normal.”
“Wolf –“
“All this time,” He interrupted me, snarling. “All the kindness you showed me – was because you wanted to keep your scholarship.”
“You were the one,” I managed. “You were the one who put it in jeopardy in the first place!”
“I told you – because I was scared,” He lashed out.
“Scared of what?” I shouted. “Of me? I don’t understand – why are you so scared of me, Wolf? What have I done to make you so afraid? You have to tell me! I can’t read your mind!”
“And now you’ll never have to try,” He said. He turned on his heel, and pushed out of the doors. I was going to throw up.
I couldn’t let it end like this.
I dashed out after them, into the parking lot. I was just in time to see Wolf get in Burn’s convertible. I blocked the driveway with my body, the headlights blaring into me. I couldn’t see their faces at all.
“Please!” I shouted. “Please, guys. Just hear me out –“
Burn laid on the horn, and wouldn’t let up. I tried to talk over it, but it was so loud. They couldn’t hear me, even if I did apologize. Hot tears prickled my eyes. Even if it was useless, even if they couldn’t hear me, I couldn’t let it end like this. They had to know how I really felt, even if they never spoke to me again.
“I was alone,” I shouted, the horn blaring me out. “Before I met you guys, I was alone! Completely! I wasn’t….I wasn’t happy, okay? And then I met you three, and – “
I inhaled, my lungs burning.
“I still wasn’t happy! But little by little –“
Burn held the horn down even louder, if that was possible. I had to scream, but it drowned in its own sound.
“I like you!” I declared. “I like all three of you – Fitz, you’re the only person in the world who’s got better jokes than I do! Burn, you’re the nicest person I’ve ever met! And Wolf –“
I swallowed, blinking furiously to clear my eyes.
“I’ve never had as much fun…as I had being enemies with you!”
The horn kept blaring. They didn’t hear me. Nothing I could say mattered, now. It was petty and childish to keep them from leaving. I stepped aside, watching the cement as they peeled away. I didn’t deserve to watch them leave. So I watched the ground, instead, and the dark, round spots of water that dripped from my cheekbones and left imprints there.
When the convertible was long gone, and my fingers and toes started going numb from the cold, Mr. Blackthorn came out. I heard his slow, even clapping, like he’d just watched a play.
“Delightful, Miss Cruz. I’ve never seen someone offered everything good throw it away as readily as you. Not only did you manage to lose your scholarship tonight, but you also managed to make the three boys - who perhaps trusted you the most of any woman since their mother passed – hate you. I’m astounded at your multitasking skill.”
I couldn’t say anything. My throat was raw and hoarse, my body was freezing. Everything was wrong, and cold, and painful.
“You are dismissed,” Mr. Blackthorn sniffed when I didn’t answer. “You may come to Lakecrest one last time, next week Monday, to fetch your things from your locker and return your uniform. I expect it washed and pressed. Farewell, Miss Cruz, and I wish you luck in your future endeavors.”
The heartless click of his shoes on the pavement dimmed, until all that was left was the sound of my own broken heartbeat.
Chapter 15
WOLF
“I can’t believe it!” Fitz bawls. “She – She was working for Dad the whole time? I thought – I thought I’d see it coming, but not her! Anybody but Bee!”
Burn is deathly quiet, but his knuckles on the steering wheel are ghost-white. Fitz sniffs wetly, burying his face in his hands.
And I watch the trees flash by.
I’m so numb I feel like I’ve been shot up with Novocain all over. I can’t feel the wind on my face, or the seat beneath me. I can’t smell anything – not the night air, not the exhaust of the convertible. Everything is muted and senseless, a harsh, buzzing static ricocheting in my ears.
She betrayed us.
She betrayed me.
“We should’ve known better,” I say. Burn looks up at me in the rearview mirror. “After Kristin we should’ve known Dad would try the same trick twice, but with a better liar.”