by K. A. Linde
“Sam?” I raised an eyebrow. “The Sam? The guy from campaign?”
“Oh, shut up, Penn.”
“I didn’t know he was back in New York.”
“He is. But we’re not…” She bit her lip. “We’re not getting back together or anything.”
“Sure, you’re not.”
“That is not why you’re here!”
“You’re right. But we should talk about the Sam later.”
Lark snorted.
“Think she’ll let me talk to her?”
She nodded. “You above anyone else.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. That was how it had always been.
I pushed open the emergency exit and was surprised that it didn’t ding or anything. Must have been turned off. The exit was nothing more than a metal fire escape. Katherine leaned forward against the balcony, barefoot. Her heels dangled in one hand as she stared off into the alleyway. It wasn’t the beautiful view from the windows of Trinity. This was New York City as it really was without all the glitz and glamour. Just like Katherine right now. Stripped down and bare to her core.
“Hey,” I muttered.
She didn’t turn around, just sniffled. “What are you doing here?”
“Checking on you.”
“Shouldn’t you be with your girlfriend?”
“Not when I saw you crying in there. When was the last time you cried, Ren?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Goose bumps rose on her arms as a breeze blew through the street. I removed my jacket and slung it around her shoulders.
“Why are you being nice to me?” she asked half-desperately. She tilted her face and stared up at me as I leaned my hip into the railing next to her.
“Because you’re my friend, and you’d do it for me.”
She snorted. “I would do anything for you. It’s hardly a comparison.”
“Seems fitting to me.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Talk to me, Ren. What’s going on?”
“I can’t.” She trembled, and there was something manic in her eyes. As if, if she expressed whatever she was holding in, then it might explode out of her. Never to return again.
“You knew Camden was cheating with Fiona.”
She huffed. “Obviously.”
“You don’t normally care what anyone thinks about you. The pictures were embarrassing, but they shouldn’t have hurt you.”
“They shouldn’t have,” she agreed easily.
“And yet, you’re out here, crying.”
“Yes,” she whispered. She glanced down and then back up into my baby blues. “I’m going to sound insane.”
“It’s eating you up, whatever it is?”
“Camden,” she breathed. “It’s Camden.”
My eyes darkened. “What did he do? Does this have to do with the welts? Is he hurting you?”
“No,” she said once despairingly. She reached out and touched my hand. “I…I’m in love with him.”
My eyes widened to the size of saucers. “You…what?” I shook my head. “With Camden Percy? The same Percy douche bag we’ve known our whole lives?”
She bit her lip and faced the railing, sniffling again. “It’s awful. I know. It’s just horrible. The worst thing I could have done. But something just…happened. I don’t know how to explain it, Penn. I wish I didn’t. It would make everything so much easier.”
She could not have shocked me more. I stood rooted in place, trying to blink away the reality of her words.
“Stop looking like that,” she gasped. “I can barely stand it. I don’t want to see you thinking about it, too.”
“So…that’s why you’re upset about Fiona.”
She nodded.
“And why the arranged-marriage part stings now. Because it started out that way…but it’s not that anymore.”
She dipped her head again. Sniffled again. Scrubbed the tears from her cheeks.
“Wow, Ren,” I whispered. “I mean, you couldn’t have chosen worse, but at least it’s somebody.”
She choked on her laughter and then pushed me. “Shut up, Kensington.”
“It’s not the end of the world.”
“It is. I can’t go back in there. Not after running. Everyone laughing at me. Camden still talking to Fiona. The pictures, the marriage, and all the fucking girls who are here that I hurt.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What girls?”
“Like everyone I have ever hurt is here today. I’m sure that’s a product of your little girlfriend. And you thought I couldn’t choose worse.”
“You think Natalie invited people here to get to you?”
Katherine snorted. “Oh, I know she did. It’s something I would have done in her place.” She narrowed her eyes and muttered, “Bitch,” under her breath.
“You think she…”
“What the hell do you think she’s been doing since January, Penn? Taking the spotlight, stealing my designers, my clothes, my friends. And now this? She’s fucking won. She has it all. Even you. Even Camden,” she spat. “You had to have seen it happening, or are you just blind to her?”
And then it all hit me. What had been happening. I’d seen it. I’d seen it all happening. But I hadn’t seen it. Not really. Not for what it was.
“Katherine,” I said softly, “I didn’t know.”
She sniffled again and then threw herself into my chest. Her sobs racked her chest, and I gently put my hands around her shoulders. She had been holding this in for so long. And she wasn’t a good person. What she’d done to Natalie was atrocious on so many levels. And I knew Natalie didn’t forgive her for it. I hadn’t forgiven her for it. But this…this was something else entirely. A new level of deceit. Right under my nose.
The door to the fire escape opened, and I turned to say something to Lark but was shocked instead to see Camden Percy standing there.
His eyes took in the scene in one sweep. He sighed. “I should have guessed.”
Katherine jerked away from me so hard that I stumbled back a step and had to catch on to the railing.
Her eyes were wide when she looked at Percy. “Camden.”
“And here I thought, we were over this.”
“Over this?” she whispered and then glanced at me. “Oh god, Camden, no. We aren’t…it’s not…I didn’t.”
Camden held up his hand. “Bravo, Katherine. You’ve succeeded in getting back into his arms. You orchestrated this whole thing just to get back to him. It never stops with you, does it?”
“Camden,” she said frantically, reaching forward.
He took a step back in disgust.
“It wasn’t like that, man,” I said at once.
Camden glared at me. “Keep your fucking mouth shut, Kensington.”
“Cam,” Katherine whispered, “I promise…”
“And your promises mean nothing.” He looked her up and down like she was scum on the bottom of his shoe. “Maybe I’ll take Fiona up on that offer after all.”
“No, no, no,” she breathed.
She reached for him again, but he stepped back.
“Find your own way home,” Camden said and then strode away.
Katherine stared after him in shock. Her hand hung out in midair. One arm of my jacket was slipping off of her shoulder, and she didn’t even seem to notice. She was suspended in that moment. Having lost the one thing she had just told me she inexplicably loved.
Chapter 35
Natalie
Camden Percy came out of the back hallway like his clothes were on fire. My eyes widened in shock. I hadn’t even noticed him go down there where Katherine, Penn, and Lark were having their little powwow. Now, he was running to get away from it.
What the fuck? What had happened that made him run away?
My heart jerked in my chest. Whatever it had been…it couldn’t be good.
I excused myself from the conversation I was having. I wasn’t going to wait around and find out what the hell Camden had just seen. I trusted Katherine about as
far as I could throw her. And while I didn’t think that Penn would do anything, I could see Katherine trying to get back at Camden. Fuck.
I hastened my steps and nearly ran directly into Penn. Katherine was behind him, speaking urgently to Lark.
“What the hell happened?” I gasped. “Camden tore out of here like he’d seen a ghost or something.”
Penn frowned. “Let’s talk about it later.”
“Why is she wearing your jacket?” I asked instead.
“She was cold,” he said calmly. “Come on. Let’s go back to the party. Katherine is going to go home.”
I narrowed my eyes at the pair of them. “What exactly were you doing that made Camden tear out of here?”
Katherine finally looked up at me. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her makeup was messy. Her liquid dress was now wrinkled. She looked beaten down. She looked like she’d lost everything. Just like I’d wanted. So, why wasn’t I celebrating at the sight?
“He didn’t like seeing Penn and me together,” she said with hate in her dark eyes. “You might be familiar with the emotion—if you have any left.”
“Katherine,” Penn pleaded. “Don’t do this right now. Just go home.”
“Come on. We should leave,” Lark cajoled.
But Katherine barreled on. “She can stand there like a fucking innocent fairy princess after ruining my life, and I should just walk away?” She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“I ruined your life?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “Looks like everyone was tired of putting up with your shit.”
“It would look like that. That’s exactly what you wanted.” Katherine stepped closer to me. “It’s amazing. I never thought the mirror would show me with fake Hollywood silver hair, but it seems to be so.”
I snorted. “I can’t help it if Karma is a bitch.”
“If she is, then your ass is next.”
“Katherine. Natalie. Could we not?” Penn asked. “There are a lot of people here. You don’t want to cause a scene. This is an important night.”
“You’re still defending her?” Katherine asked. “Just ask her, Penn. Ask her about the shit that she’s pulled. About stealing Elizabeth Cunningham and my designer clothes and my ticket to Fashion Week. About how she stole my friends and my status and turned everyone against me.”
“I didn’t have to turn anyone against you. Everyone already hated you,” I snapped.
“Natalie,” Penn growled.
“Oh god,” Lark whispered.
“It’s true,” I said, stepping into Katherine’s personal space. “You ruin lives and play god. You pick and choose who is in and who is out. You treat everyone as if they’re beneath you. You destroy their lives without a second thought, and no one has ever held you accountable. No one has stood up to you and put you in your place. Welcome to a taste of your own medicine.”
Katherine laughed softly. “Fine, Natalie. Take my throne. Let me just tell you it’s cold, hard, and lonely up there on that pedestal. So, fucking take it. I can’t even deal with you anymore. You won. Is that what you wanted to hear? Does it make you feel good?” She looked me up and down, and when I didn’t respond, she sighed. “I didn’t think so.”
Then she brushed past me, passed Penn back his jacket, and strode out of the club with Lark on her tail. Somehow, Katherine still got the last word. Even when she was the broken one leaving in disgrace.
Penn was aghast. “Natalie, what were you thinking?”
“What was I thinking?” I asked. “Katherine has done nothing but torment me since I came to New York.”
“Yes, and while part of that is my fault, it doesn’t mean that you have to kick her when she’s down.”
“Why not? She does it to everyone else,” I reminded him.
He blinked as if something was finally settling into place and he didn’t want to see it. “Did you do it all on purpose?”
“All what?”
“This, Natalie,” he bit out. “Did you take Elizabeth from Katherine along with her socialite status and her friends? Did you invite people she’s hurt to this party? Did you do it all to hurt her?”
“I, uh…” I muttered, seeing his anger boil up that he usually kept on a short leash. “Yes. I mean, I couldn’t let her get away with hurting me. You knew that, Penn. You knew that I wanted her to pay for what she’d done to me.”
“So, you hurt her instead?” He gritted his teeth. “And I knew that you wanted to survive here, Natalie. I didn’t know you were going to ruin her life.”
“She deserved it,” I snapped before I thought better of it.
“Jesus Christ,” he growled low. “I saw what was happening. I saw your growing popularity and your new friends and all the time party-planning. I saw it, but I didn’t open my eyes at all. I swear, it says something about what my own sense of normal is that I didn’t realize how fucking far you had fallen.”
“Penn,” I muttered.
But he didn’t stop. “You’re charming. Everyone likes you. Honestly, even Katherine liked you when she first met you until she realized you were a threat. I just thought that, once you got in with the right crowd, you’d rise quickly. That you needed to stay away from the crew and find your own people here. Man, was I wrong.”
“You weren’t wrong,” I gasped. I could see him slipping. See the edges fraying. And his judgment falling into question. It terrified me. “That did happen all on its own.”
“Is there anything else I should know? Trust me. I know this world. My eyes are open now. There’s always something else,” he said, mirroring the words he’d said to me about Lewis over Christmas.
I opened my mouth. A lie formed on my tongue. But then I killed it. I couldn’t lie to him. Not with it all out there in the open. Not when he was barely controlling his anger. If he found out later, it would be the end of us. The end of everything. I could see it clearly.
I shuddered. “Lewis.”
Penn narrowed his eyes. “What about Lewis?”
“After your attorney couldn’t get the restraining order, I, uh…used one of Jane’s contacts to tip them off about his business dealings.”
His eyes rounded. “How did you even know about that?”
“I just…remembered some stuff from when we were dating and put the pieces together.”
“And you thought the New York Times should know?” he asked, his voice rising.
I glanced around to see who was looking at us, but that only seemed to set him off more.
“This is unbelievable, Natalie. I told you to let me handle Lewis. Not to go do something you’d absolutely regret later.”
“You weren’t handling Lewis,” I reminded him. “The restraining order was never going through. He had the judge in his pocket. There was nothing keeping him away from me unless I stopped him and showed him there were actual consequences to his actions.” I sighed and bit my lip. “I never anticipated the stuff with Nina. I never wanted to hurt her.”
“That’s the thing about this world. We never look at the real consequences of our actions,” he said sharply. “I thought you of all people would have realized that one.”
“Penn,” I whispered.
But he just turned his face away from me. As if he couldn’t bear to look at me.
My heart constricted. I stepped forward as if I could find the words to explain. All the words that I’d been telling myself for months. That they needed to pay. That they’d earned their punishment. That they’d destroyed my life and had no consequences. That, if no one else would put them in their place, then I sure would.
But all the arguments died on my lips. Penn was siding with them. With the crew. As he always had.
Finally, his eyes slid back to mine. I was sure I didn’t want to hear what he would say next.
That minute, the lights switched off.
And everyone screamed.
Chapter 36
Natalie
“What the hell?” I muttered in the chaos.
Penn rea
ched out and gripped my arm. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, but what’s going on?”
“I don’t know. But we should find out.”
People were pulling out cell phones all over the room and shining the flashlight feature around the darkened interior. A second later, the floodlights flickered on overhead. The panic diminished a fraction, but we were all still looking around, wondering what the fuck had happened.
Penn pulled me toward the staged area where we’d been planning to hand the charity an enormous check for the evening. It seemed as good as any place to try to get some crowd control. And hopefully find out what was going on.
But when we got in there, my mouth dropped open. Jane Devney stood with her hands behind her back. A police officer was slapping a pair of handcuffs on her wrists. I started forward, but Penn stopped me. And that was when I saw that it wasn’t just Jane, it was Court, too.
“You’re making a huge mistake,” Court snapped at the officer.
“You have the right to remain silent,” the officer began.
“That’s not his forte,” Penn said, but his tone was one of dismay.
Jane, however, didn’t say anything. She was just blankly staring forward. She was cooperating, but she lost something in that moment. The spark that had always made her Jane.
The cops were pushing people back from the area and trying to keep the perimeter clear. “Please, scoot back. The party is over. Trinity is closed.”
I stepped forward, and Penn couldn’t even stop me then. “What do you mean, it’s closed?”
“Please step back. We have to shut down and secure this location. Everyone, please head to the door. The party is over,” he repeated, using his team to push people away from Jane and Court.
“That’s my brother,” Penn said, stepping in. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing I can say at the time. You’ll have to come down to the station,” the cop grumbled. “Please, stay out of the way.
“Yes, sir,” Penn said.
I couldn’t even believe this was happening. Jane and Court arrested? Trinity shut down? What the hell had caused this?