Kings of Linwood Academy - The Complete Box Set: A Dark High School Romance Series
Page 60
Then something shifts in his expression, and his eyes harden like twin pieces of amber.
“Fuck. I know that name too.” He looks at River. “Bring that. We gotta get out of here.”
20
It’s a risk, taking the document with evidence connecting Judge Hollowell to a criminal drug ring. But I don’t trust a picture on a phone—although we each take one as backup. I’ve seen how easily that kind of evidence can be deleted with the swipe of a finger, and I feel better having something solid in my hand.
We put everything back in order, careful to leave no evidence of our presence. Then we slip downstairs and crowd into the large bathroom on the first floor.
I glance in the mirror as we pass by the sink, and it feels like a lifetime ago that I let the water run from the tap while Judge Hollowell waited outside. The evidence of my tears has faded from my face, although I still look haggard and exhausted.
The guys lower me down first, then crawl out the window one by one before boosting me up to pull it closed. It’s harder to get it tight this time, but I close it as much as I can, gripping the glass with my fingertips. Finally, there’s just a small sliver between the window and the frame.
All told, we were inside Judge Hollowell’s house for just over two hours, but it’s the last few seconds of sprinting across his lawn that are the most terrifying. We make it over the wall and return to Lincoln’s car, and as soon as we’re inside, he guns the engine and peels out.
His face is a mask of concentration as he careens around a corner. He’s driving too fast, definitely over the speed limit, but none of us tell him to slow down. I’m having flashbacks of the first time I left Hollowell’s house, of rounding a snow-covered corner at breakneck speed.
“Holy fuck.” Dax shakes his head. I’m sandwiched between him and Chase in the back seat, with River up front next to Linc, and I can feel his body shaking with latent adrenaline. Mine is too. “I can’t believe Hollowell’s in bed with these fucking guys.”
“It makes sense.” River’s turned sideways in his seat so he can watch both us and Linc. “Being tied up with a drug trafficking ring may not be as bad as murder, but I can see how it’d be a motive for one. If Iris found out and mentioned it to the wrong people, it could’ve ruined his career. Ruined his life.”
“So he killed her,” I murmur, pity for my old nemesis rising in my chest. “I bet she had no fucking idea the kind of person she was involved with. I wonder if she even knew what she knew. Maybe she didn’t think anything of the name. I didn’t recognize it, why the hell would she?”
“Yeah, but Hollowell wouldn’t take that chance,” River says starkly, and a sharp blade of fear slips between my ribs.
No. He wouldn’t. He didn’t.
He’s the kind of guy who likes things wrapped up in a neat little bow, no loose ends.
And the second we broke into his house—hell, even before that—we all became loose ends.
Chase leans up toward the front, sticking his head between the seats to peer at Linc. “Hey. How the hell do you know that name, dude? Niles D’Amato?”
“My dad.”
A new kind of shock almost stops my heart, and my gaze flies to Lincoln. He catches my horrified stare in the rearview mirror and shakes his head.
“Not like that. Thank fuck. Dad’s an asshole sometimes, but he’s not mixed up in that kind of shit.” He shifts his eyes back to the road, but I can see tension drawn in every line of his shoulders. “I told you guys my dad donated a shitload of money to Hollowell’s election campaign. He’s still trying to come up with ways not to get totally screwed when the divorce and his blackmail situation come to light. He donated to the campaign because Hollowell promised him a major coup—that having his name associated with the campaign would save his reputation.”
“What? How?” My brows knit together. I’m not seeing how this has anything to do with the receipt River found.
“Hollowell promised that the greatest accomplishment of his political career would be taking down the drug ring run by Niles D’Amato.”
The car goes silent at that, nothing but the screech of tires filtering into the small space as Linc speeds up to cut through a yellow light.
My heart presses up into my throat, and I can’t tell if it’s because of Linc’s driving or the words he just said. Or maybe this whole damn day.
“Holy fuck.” Chase finally lets out a low whistle. “So not only was he in bed with these guys, he’s planning to betray them.”
“That was my thought too,” Linc says. “We don’t know what his exact connection to them has been, but obviously a good amount of money changed hands. Fuck, it’s even possible they financed his rise to prominence as a judge, wanting to have someone in place who’d let them walk if it came down to it.”
“But now Hollowell wants more.” River nods. “He wants to advance politically, and throwing them under the bus is the best way to achieve that. If he has some inside knowledge of their organization, he’d be positioned well to bring them down.”
“Holy fuck,” Chase repeats, scrubbing a hand down his face. “This shit is bonkers.”
“Yeah.” Linc snorts, glancing at his side mirror as he passes a slow moving Honda. “That’s one word for it.”
“So what the hell to we do?” The bronze-haired boy peers out the window at the passing landscape. “And where are we going?”
“I don’t know.” Lincoln shakes his head, slowing the car slightly. “I just wanted to get the hell away from Hollowell’s house.”
He glances in the rearview, scanning the area behind us as if he’s making sure we haven’t been followed, then turns off the larger main road and onto a side street. He pulls over and puts the car in park, but leaves the engine running. Then he turns to look at all of us.
“Hollowell’s been two moves ahead in the game this whole time. He’s powerful and connected enough that he’s managed to control this entire thing—pinning Iris’s death on Harlow’s mom and making sure Low won’t say anything about it. We could take this to Dunagan, but there’s no guarantee that Hollowell won’t use the dirty cops in his pocket to find a way to bury it. And he’ll sure as shit find a way to bury us too.”
A sick feeling of dread fills my stomach. Everything I’ve done for the past several months has been with the singular aim of getting my mom out of prison. She saved my life when I was a kid, and even though that’s a debt I can never repay, I wanted to give hers back to her.
But what if all my meddling, my poking around and peering into dark corners, has only made things exponentially worse?
A horrible thought occurs to me, making my stomach drop like I’m on a rollercoaster: even if Mom gets out of prison early, she might no longer have a daughter waiting for her on the outside.
Is this what she would’ve wanted? Or would she have told me to take Hollowell’s deal, to take the leap of faith and hope that he’d actually hold up his end of the bargain? To back off, letting her take the fall for his crime?
That is, if I had told her about any of this.
But I didn’t. I wanted to protect her, and now I’m in so far over my head that I can’t even see a hint of fucking daylight through the murky waters around me.
“So, what?” Chase gestures up to the front, where River still holds the dry cleaning receipt. “We just sit on that? Pretend we don’t have it?”
“Hollowell will notice it’s missing eventually,” Dax adds, resting his hand on my knee as he leans forward. The touch is warm and solid, an anchor in the chaos. “Maybe not today or tomorrow, but sometime. It probably depends on how soon he notices the window was tampered with.”
“And when he realizes it’s missing, it’s an easy jump to figure out it was us,” I say softly.
I feel like I’m sinking into quicksand, like I’ve been trapped in it ever since the night we saw Iris murdered. And every time I struggle, every time I try to escape, I just get sucked in deeper.
We’re not getting out of this
. We’re in too deep.
“So what the fuck do we do?” Chase bangs his fist against the car door in frustration.
“We bypass Dunagan.”
It’s River who speaks, his voice quiet but firm as he gazes at each of us.
“What do you mean?” Dax asks, shaking his head.
“We… bypass Dunagan.” I repeat River’s words slowly, rolling them around in my mouth as if trying to taste them. “We don’t take this to the cops. We take it to the only people who might actually step up and stop Hollowell. The only person in Fox Hill more powerful than him.”
River nods. “Niles D’Amato.”
“What?” Chase’s eyebrows fly up to his hairline.
My heart is tripping over itself, beating so fast it’s like a hummingbird in my chest. It’s hard to believe that somewhere across town at Linwood Academy, seventh period is starting up. Savannah’s probably fawning all over Trent in the halls. Kids are laughing and gossiping and talking about their weekend plans.
And the five of us are crammed into Lincoln’s car, holding onto a piece of incriminating evidence and considering bringing it to a group of dangerous criminals.
What the ever-loving fuck is my life?
“Hollowell hasn’t been scared this whole time. He’s been confident he’s got everything in hand.” Linc nods once, rolling his shoulders. His hands are still planted on the steering wheel, their grip tight. “If we do this, we can get him running scared. It’ll take him off our backs while we figure out what to do about Harlow’s mom. He won’t be able to cover his ass on both fronts at once.”
“So we just walk into a drug lord’s business front and tell him we know Hollowell’s planning on betraying him?” Chase asks. “Then step back and let the fallout happen?”
He looks like he still thinks we’re all crazy. But he must be crazy too, because he used the word “we” when he spoke, and he actually sounds like he’s considering the pros and cons of this insane plan.
“We shouldn’t all go,” I say, the words sticking in my throat. I hold out my hand to River. “Give it to me. I’ll do it.”
River doesn’t even hesitate, pulling the paper back and out of my reach. Dax and Chase both stiffen beside me as Dax’s hand tightens almost painfully on my knee, and Lincoln growls.
“Like. Fuck.”
I lean forward from the middle seat, glaring at the dark-haired boy. “Like fuck, nothing! This is about protecting my mom. I’m the one who pushed us into this, who got us in this far. I didn’t mean for everything to get so messed up, for this to get so dangerous, but I don’t have to let you—”
“Let us?” Linc’s amber eyes blaze with anger, and I can’t tell who he’s mad at—me or himself. “We forced you to come with us to a strip club where you saw Iris get killed. If you hadn’t been with us that night, Hollowell wouldn’t be blackmailing you now. We started this, Low. We’re gonna fucking finish it.” His lips press into a line. “Without you.”
“Are you kidding me?”
My voice rises in pitch and volume, but no, he’s not kidding. Still leaving the engine running, he thrusts open his door and steps out, letting a blast of cool air fill the car. A second later, he wrenches open the back driver’s side door and reaches for me.
“Sorry, Low.”
Dax’s voice is quiet and subdued as he grabs me around the waist, lifting me as Chase unclips my seatbelt. The three boys move with the coordinated precision of a machine as they grapple me out of the car despite my struggles. Linc sets me on my feet outside, and I make a move for the still-open door, but he steps in front of me, blocking my way.
I hit his chest instead, shoving against him with all my might. “Goddammit, you bastard. No. No!”
“Yes, Harlow. I’m sorry.” He grabs my wrists, wrestling my hands behind my back as I continue to try to shove my way past him, through him, to get back into the car. The door is still open, and I can feel the others watching us.
“No!” I shake my head vehemently. “You keep acting like this is something you guys caused, like you’re to blame. And I did blame you at first—I was so fucking pissed.” I push against him again, yanking at his hold on my wrists. “But you didn’t make this happen. And even if I hadn’t seen Iris die, Hollowell would still have framed my mom. He did it because it was convenient, because he knew where she’d been that night and it was easy to pin on her. This isn’t your fault, so you don’t get to go all noble and try to go off on your own and fix it!”
My breath is coming in sharp gasps. I haven’t shed a single tear—I don’t think I have any left after this morning—but my heart feels like it’s broken into four jagged pieces.
“Oh, but you do?” Linc growls, and this time, the anger in his eyes is directed at me. “A second ago, you were all ready to leave us behind and go charging off on your own, all alone, into a dangerous situation. And we were supposed to just be okay with that?”
“Yes! You were!” I tear my hands free and shove against his chest again, opening up a few feet of space between us. “Because if something happened to any of you, it would fucking kill me! I love you assholes!”
Lincoln freezes.
I glare at him for several seconds, my chest heaving and my hands clenched into fists… until it dawns on me what I just said.
Oh.
Jesus fuck.
Of all the times I’ve almost said it, have thought it and then pushed it back down, have convinced myself that it wasn’t the right time—this is really, truly the stupidest possible moment to make that declaration.
It feels like my heart stops beating, hanging motionless in my chest, as Lincoln stares at me. The three boys in the car all match his stare, and even though River can’t see Lincoln’s side of the conversation because Linc’s back is to him, he had a perfect view of my lips as I blurted the truth I’ve been trying for too long to keep contained.
I love them.
It may be stupid, it may have been forged in fire, and it may be way too fast.
But none of that really matters when held up against the simple fact that I love them. I couldn’t unlove them if I tried.
“You what?”
Linc’s face is still too still, his eyes slightly narrowed. He looks like a fucking panther, a predator who might lunge at any moment, who might eat me alive.
“You heard me.” I glance away, suddenly feeling too vulnerable, too exposed. I’m not just gonna stand here and say it over and over again.
Because I’m looking away, all I catch is a small flicker of movement before Linc’s body slams into mine, his arms wrapping around me so tightly it’s like he’s trying to literally envelop me.
His head drops, and he buries his face in my hair as my arms move instinctively to clasp him back.
He’s… shaking.
Linc’s entire body is shuddering as if from the cold, but I know it has nothing at all to do with the temperature. I can’t even feel the cold air right now, and I doubt he can either.
All I feel is him.
His firm chest pressed against mine. His breath stirring my hair. The coriander scent of him, sharpened by the winter air.
“Fuck.” His voice is a whisper, and it sounds like it comes from the very root of his soul. “I love you too, Low.”
Those words shift something monumental inside my heart, and I know it will never go back to the way it was before.
“Yeah?” I whisper.
“God, yes. And I’m not the only one.”
He draws back, grasping my chin in one hand, his fingers splaying over my jaw and the arch of my cheekbone. I could swear real flames burn in his eyes as his gaze drops to my lips.
Then he kisses me.
It’s both harder and softer than any kiss we’ve shared before. Both sweeter and more desperate.
There’s a relief in knowing that we have each other. That we all belong to each other. But it’s terrifying in a way too. As if finally speaking our feelings aloud has made us even more aware of what we could lo
se.
My hands cling to Lincoln’s jacket, pulling him closer to me as I kiss him back. Then, finally, he draws away, his gaze still intent as he stares down at me.
“I’m coming,” I murmur. “I’m coming with you, whether you like it or not. And if you try to leave me behind, I’ll fucking hitchhike back to Chase’s car and drive there anyway. We’re in this together, Linc. The five of us.”
His expression hardens, and for a second, I think we’re about to start this fight all over again—which, hey, fine by me; I’ll go another ten rounds if I have to—but then he lets out a sharp breath through his nose, closing his eyes like he’s warring with himself.
“Fine. Together.”
The knot of tension wrapped around my chest loosens, and it occurs to me that I was more scared of letting the guys go see Niles D’Amato without me than I am of the man himself. Maybe that’s stupid, and maybe it means I’m lacking some kind of basic survival instinct, but I can’t let the four boys I love do this alone.
I nod, and Lincoln releases me, stepping back as his mouth settles into a hard line. We turn back toward the car, and he slaps my ass before I crawl back into the backseat. It’s an affectionate gesture, but it’s also hard enough to sting, and I think he actually means it to be a bit of a punishment. He might’ve agreed to let me come, but he still fucking hates this.
Linc slides into the front seat as I crawl over Dax to resume my seat in the middle, and the second I’m settled between them, the twins both touch me. Dax’s warm palm finds my thigh again while Chase’s hand moves around my waist, their bodies crowding close to mine.
They don’t speak, but it’s okay. I don’t need to hear them say any words right now. There are better times for this sort of thing, and I don’t want them to feel like they have to say it just because I did.
I glance up toward the front of the car as Linc pulls away from the curb, and my gaze collides with stormy gray eyes. River is turned partway in his seat to face us, and the look on his face captivates me. His expression is so open it’s like I can read every emotion he’s feeling, as if his thoughts are a book written just for me.