Faithless: A High School Bully Romance (The Privileged of Pembroke High Book 3)

by Ivy Fox

  Detective Gomez called a few minutes earlier to tell me that Snow—along with my baby sister—had barged into her precinct earlier this afternoon, telling her some lame-ass story to get her boyfriend off the hook. I was pissed, to say the least. But when she added that Snow had fainted, after yelling in her face, and that they had to call the paramedics to take her to the hospital, well, then my anger quickly became an almighty suffocating worry.

  The minute I see my sister’s weepy face standing outside a room, I know we’ve finally found Snow.

  “I’ll talk to you later.” Ash points to our sister as he storms into the room. Elle at least has the decency to look ashamed.

  When we walk in and see all the different machines at our girl’s bedside, none of them ease my heart any. It makes me realize that Snow’s fainting spell is more troublesome than I could have ever predicted. Ash freezes at the foot of the bed, his fury completely succumbing into utter fear.

  I go to Snow’s side, trying to pull her attention on me and not the panic swimming in my twin’s eyes.

  “Hey,” she murmurs to me, her voice thin and so unlike her usual musical tone.

  I bend down and kiss her dry, cracked lips, planting my temple on hers just to have this small moment alone with her.

  “You have got to stop doing this, baby. My heart can’t take it,” I susurrate softly, worried out of my mind.

  “Sorry,” she hushes so low that it barely compares to a whisper.

  I lean back up, and tilt my head to Ash, ordering him to get a grip and come to our girl’s side. But my twin stands ramrod straight, looking at her as if he doesn’t know whether he should hug her or throttle her. He finally walks over to the other side of the bed and grabs her hand, gently beginning to stroke her fingers.

  “You are the most stubborn woman I have ever met,” he lulls in pain, placing a kiss to her open palm with care as her wrist has an IV inserted.

  “Sorry,” she repeats once more, but her words are faint and far too weak for my liking. Her lids start to shut, too heavy for her to keep them from falling.

  “Not as sorry as you’ll be when I punish that ass of yours until my handprint is branded on it—nice and red—after you get better,” Ash teases, hoping that it might brighten her spirits and keep her alert.

  “Geez, Ash, do you have to be such a Neanderthal, right now?” Elle interjects, appalled by Ash’s promise of spanking our girl into submission, who looks completely out of it right now.

  No use in telling Elle that Snow doesn’t mind my brother’s specific type of foreplay. However, it’s probably the last thing on her mind at the moment.

  “Don’t you dare start with me, Elle. You deserve a good spanking, too. Maybe I should ask Chad to do it for me. Or would you rather I get his sidekick to do it instead? Saint seems like he’d be up to marking you. Actually, I bet ‘choir boy’ Chad would, too. Maybe they would like to take turns in swatting some sense into you because it’s damn fucking obvious you can’t take an order for shit.”

  “Oh, bite me, Asher!”

  “Eat me, Eleanor!”

  I roll my eyes because they are both too headstrong for their own good, and if I let them, they’ll wage war right here in this hospital room to keep from facing what truly has their guard up—Snow’s failing health.

  “Guys, shut it, will you? We’ve got more important things to talk about. What did the doctor say?”

  I turn to my girl, who looks to have lost all color to her cheeks at hearing my question. Snow lowers her eyes to the blanket, either because she doesn’t want to meet mine, or she is too damned tired to keep from slipping into her slumber any longer. Whatever the reason, my anxiety levels are at DEFCON 5 right about now.

  “Snow? What did he say?” Ash asks, his voice trembling with caution as he softly brushes her white cheek with the back of his hand.

  “Her kidney is shot. She’s on dialysis. That’s what that machine is, right there,” Elle explains hoarsely, pointing at a loud, ugly machine.

  Elle bites at her thumbnail, worry lines creasing her forehead, as she uncomfortably watches how Snow continues to look incapable of forming words together, unable to explain anything.

  “Dialysis? Why? What are you girls hiding from us? Out with it!” Ash orders, making Elle jump at the force of our brother’s rage.

  “Fine. Just give me a minute, asshole!” Elle huffs out, seeming to choose her words, and hating that it falls on her to deliver us the news of what is ailing the woman we love. “Okay. So, from what I’ve been able to gather when that shitshow went down during the Christmas fashion show back at school, the doctor told Holland that this was going to happen. The exams showed she needed to start dialysis as soon as possible since her liver can no longer do its job without it. With all the crap our family has been dealing with lately, I think that Snow pushed it to the back burner, and her kidney paid the price.”

  “I don’t understand. What does that mean?” Ash croaks out, the underlying fear starting to creep out of him.

  My stomach is in knots because, while Ash wants Elle to explain, word for word, what we are facing, I already know. The minute Vivienne West outed Snow’s lupus, over breakfast last summer, I researched the hell out of the disease. I knew the risks involved, mainly because Snow has only one working kidney since the age of fifteen. I just never thought her health would degrade so fast. But I guess with everything going on, her body couldn’t cope with the chaos.

  “How long does she have before we have to find a suitable donor?” I ask my baby sister, knowing that time won’t be our friend.

  “Five years,” she replies sheepishly. “At least that’s what I heard the doctor tell her before he pumped her up with drugs.”

  Five years. That’s all we get with the woman we love before her body takes her away from us.

  “Ollie, please don’t go there,” Elle begs, walking over to me, hugging me at my side, sensing exactly the morbid thought that slashed up my heart.

  “I’m not.” I lie.

  Of course I’m going there.

  If we can’t find a matching donor, then all hope is lost.

  “Where’s the fucking doctor?!” Ash yells out, running to the door, ready to bring this whole hospital down if they are unable to fix the love of his life.

  I’m about to tell Elle to go after him, when I feel Snow lightly squeeze my hand, trying hard to fight the overpowering effects of the medication just so she can talk to me.

  “Go to him. He needs you,” she whispers, exhausted. “I’m just going to rest here for a while, Ollie. I’ll be okay.”

  Will you, baby? Because if you aren’t, then take me with you. A life without you in it isn’t much of a life.

  “Go, Ollie,” she repeats more forcefully, her perfect, gray eyes looking glassy and vacant.

  “Stay with her,” I order Elle, willing to leave her side, only to prevent Snow seeing me losing my own shit because of her weak and fragile state.

  Elle gives me a little nod, taking Snow’s hand in hers. I then run to find my brother, hoping that dealing with whatever antics he’s up to will distract me from the cold, suffocating feeling around my throat.

  When I finally find Ash, he’s already making a fucking ruckus as expected. His arrogant, rowdy mouth is just inches away from a nurse’s face, demanding the presence of the hospital director to tell him exactly what the fuck is going on with Snow.

  “Ash, stop,” I shout, pulling him away before he starts a fight.

  My twin has been doing so well with his anger issues, but I guess his therapy never prepared him to deal with this fucked-up scenario. He turns to face me, and even though all I can see is his nose flaring and his manic eyes opening wide, I can’t fault him for it because that’s exactly how I feel inside—boiling rage.

  “Come here, brother,” I order, finding a quiet corner, allowing us to talk without anyone nearby to witness us falling apart.

  Ash takes a breath i
n, and leans his head on my shoulder, his fingers grasping at my coat while I place both my hands behind his head to keep him grounded.

  “This can’t be happening, Ollie. I don’t think I can do this without her.”

  “You won’t have to. None of us will. No one is losing anyone. Do you understand?” I say vigorously, hoping to believe my own words as much as I need Ash to.

  “Fuck! How did shit get so screwed up?” he questions aloud, beating his clenched fist onto my chest.

  I hold the back of his head tighter to me, knowing that this moment of vulnerability it’s his coping mechanism. It’s Ash’s way of dealing with his own feelings and be able to go forward, taking on whatever we have to face next. He just needs this moment, and that will be the end of it. He’d never want Snow or Elle to see him at his worst. Not when he feels he has to fill in for the absent brother, who would have dealt with this shit with far better tact and a cooler head.

  “I don’t know, Ash. What I do know is that we will deal with this, just like we deal with everything else that gets in our way. Together, brother. Together.”

  “Okay,” he concedes and then pulls back from our embrace to wipe his fallen tears with his sleeve.

  He then surprises me by taking my glasses off and cleaning them with the hem of his shirt, clearing my own leaked tears, which I hadn’t even realized I was shedding. He patiently waits for me to wipe my face clean before handing them back to me.

  “You good?”

  “I’ll be good when we get Snow a fucking working kidney,” he replies, leaning against the wall.

  “I was thinking the same thing. First things first—we have to find Snow’s doctor and tell him to run the necessary exams on us. Maybe we’ll luck out, and one of us is a suitable donor for her,” I state, excitedly hopeful.

  We’ve had so much bad luck lately that perhaps now someone up in the heavens will have pity on us and give us a fucking break.

  “I’ll call the Coens and get them to work on finding a way to run a few exams on Rome, too,” Ash adds, already making a list of all the people he needs to call to get the job done.

  “That’s a good idea. It’s a long shot, but maybe we can get some of the kids back in Pembroke to get involved, too. Elle is still on the fritz with Chad, which sucks since this is exactly the kind of thing he’d be up to rally support behind. If there is a kid back at school with a suitable kidney, then Chad would be the guy to sweet talk them into handing it over.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I’ll give him a call myself. He loves Elle, and he knows how much Snow means to her. No way would he let Elle suffer if he could prevent it. And right now, we need all the help we can get, so I’m not above doing a little emotional manipulation to get it.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I state.

  Elle might not like it that we are purposely going to play her former BFF like that, but in this case, the end justifies the means. If she doesn’t like it, well, right now, we could end up suffering worse things than my baby sister’s wrath.

  “But what if none of us is a suitable match? After we exhaust all possibilities, then what?” my twin questions, his panic beginning to take over once again.

  I place my hand on his shoulder, and looking him directly in the eye, I reply, “Then we go to Vivienne.”

  Ash lets out a nervous laugh, but I keep my serious gaze on him to show him I’m not fucking around.

  “Ollie, you can’t be serious? Snow’s mother won’t give her shit, let alone her own kidney,” he affirms, thinking I just lost all logic. But I haven’t. Not one bit.

  “She might. If the price is high enough.”

  “Money? That’s what you’re banking on that will get the Ice Queen to change her mind? Don’t count on it. As much of a money-hungry bitch that she is, Vivienne wants Snow gone, way more than any blank check we can give her. Snow losing her battle to lupus is the best thing that could have happened for the bitch. Clean break. No fuss,” Ash grunts out, picturing the satisfied look on Vivienne’s face when she finds out about her daughter’s declining health.

  Maybe. Maybe not.

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Deal?”

  “Yeah, alright,” he huffs out, unconvinced.

  “Ash, Snow can’t see us breaking apart when shit has just started to get real for her. You got that, right?”

  “Yeah, I got it, asshole. I told you I’m good, didn’t I?” He jokes half-heartedly, punching me on the shoulder.

  “Good, now let’s go back in,” I tell him, eager to get started with the quest to save Snow’s life.

  “You know what? Just give me one more minute,” he pleads, taking a long intake of air, followed by another. And then another, and another. “Okay, I’m good,” he says at last, looking more composed than he was when he bolted from Snow’s room.

  “I hope so. Snow doesn’t need little boys running scared at the first hurdle thrown at her. We did that once, and look at the shit that came out of it.” I cock my brow so we’re both on the same page.

  “Stop busting my balls, Ollie. I said I got it, didn’t I? Been there, done that. Got the therapy bill for it ‘n all. You don’t need to remind me twice.” He nudges me to get a move on.

  “Maybe I was reminding myself, asshole? Ever think of that?” I admit with a little less valor than I had a minute ago.

  “Nah, Ollie. You’ve been stronger than I gave you credit for, brother. Stronger than me, that’s for sure. I’m the one who let both you and Snow down. That let this family down when it was falling apart,” he mumbles under his breath, giving me another shove on the shoulder as we make our way back down the corridor.

  “Water under the bridge, brother.” I lightly punch his side to show there are no hard feelings for what has passed.

  My eyes are solely focused on the future, not stuck to the past.

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Not let’s kick lupus in the ass,” I roar, gaining a chuckle out of him.

  “God, you’re lame.”

  “Good thing that I’m the one with the looks then,” I tease, pushing my glasses up to the bridge of my nose.

  “Keep telling yourself that, asshole.” He smirks, and I see that he’s officially back to being good old Ash.

  “And the brains.” I wiggle my brow.

  “You fucker,” he goads, getting me in a headlock to show me how my mockery is dealt with.

  “Sorry to interrupt the bro-fest, dickwads, but Snow’s doctor just came in. Move your asses, will you?” Elle yells out at the door threshold, waving her hand for us to get a move on.

  We go back into the room, and the doctor begins to tell us the details about Snow’s condition. Since she only has this one kidney, a donor is her best chance, so we all sign up to get tested. Ash gets on the phone with our lawyer to see about Rome, as well as sneaking off to call Chad with Elle being none the wiser.

  Snow’s doctor seems optimistic, at least, confirming that time is still on our side. I don’t have the heart to tell him that we have gone through too much to know that nothing is that cut and dry. Misfortune tends to follow us everywhere we go.

  Ash calls it the Grayson curse—it took our mom away, it took our asshole of a father, then Rome, and now it’s trying to take Snow away from us, too.

  Too bad I don’t believe in all that mumbo jumbo. I’m a man of logic. And in the privileged, ruthless world we live in, there’s one thing that we can always rely on—greed.

  I believe greed is capable of moving mountains, so I’m counting on Vivienne’s to perform the miracle we need to save her daughter, should everything else fail.

  After a solid hour of detailed explanations, the doctor leaves us alone to care for Snow, now that she’s a little more lucid. Elle immediately crawls up the bed and lies down next to our girl, looking much too small and innocent for my fearless little sister. As much as she doesn’t want to admit it, I guess she’s as scared as we are.

&nbs
p; “Okay, ladies, we need to have a serious talk,” Ash announces, sitting on the foot of the bed and massaging Snow’s toes over her blanket.

  “Told you they would bring it up sooner or later,” Elle murmurs, disgruntled.

  Snow brushes the tip of my baby sister’s nose with her own, grabbing my heart in her fist and making it bleed out for her.

  “Good thing we’re in a hospital then. They can’t make too much of a scene, now can they?” Snow giggles, tightening my insides once more.

  “Funny. Very funny,” Ash groans. “Now seriously, what were you two thinking of, going to the cops like that?”

  “Uh, duh, moron! We thought that if Snow came forward, they would have to release Rome. What else?” Elle exclaims, rolling her eyes as she leans on Snow’s shoulder.

  “But that didn’t happen, now did it?” I retort, crossing my arms over my chest, giving them my disappointed head shake.

  “No. They didn’t believe us. They said we were making it all up, and they could arrest us for obstruction of justice. We yelled and pleaded, but in the end, not one of them believed a word we said about our father,” Elle mumbles, pissed, as Snow runs her hands on Elle’s back to comfort her.

  “Good thing, too,” Ash adds with a scowl of his own.

  “How is that a good thing?” Snow questions, seemingly horrified.

  “Because if they believed your story, then you would have been cuffed to this bed right now, under police custody. It was an unwarranted risk for you to take. Did we or did we not tell you we had this covered, babe?”

  “But—”

  “No buts, Snow. Just answer the question. Did we or didn’t we tell you repeatedly not to go to the cops? Did you not hear those words from all of us?” Ash accuses, gently massaging her calf to take the sting out of his words.

  “You did.”

  “So, if Rome, Ollie, and I say we got this, then for the love of God, believe us. We got this shit!”

  “But every juror believes Rome did it,” Elle shouts out, straightening her spine to confront my brother head-on, in defense of Snow’s actions.