I turned him down, passing the help off. I could take care of myself.
I could take care of this.
I cuffed my arms. “I’m sorry about that,” I said to her, honest. “I did you bogus, and that’s on me.”
She nodded, but still gazed around the hallway. She was Legacy herself and still answered to these creeps. She started to leave, but I found myself going with her.
“I was actually wondering something, little rabbit—”
“Little rabbit?” she asked, turning.
I smiled a little. “Well, you do kind of run around here like your ass is on fire.”
Her face lit up, all that cheery brightness returning. I was surprised to find I missed it, her pep and happy. She hugged her books. “Little rabbit? Like a nickname?”
She said that unbelievably cute, and I laughed. “Yeah, like a nickname.”
Her grin widened. “I could be about that. Cool. Little rabbit.”
She tested the term out, as if awed to hear such a thing. Surely, she and her friends had little things they called each other? I smiled. “I was wondering how well you’re doing in our algebra class.”
This was a leading question. I could assume how well she was doing. She was a sophomore in a senior-level math class.
She shrugged, being modest. “I do okay. Why?”
“I could use a tutor,” I said. “I could be doing better.”
I did all right in class and could do better. But I also knew she was the only link I had to these boys. If I wanted to strike, find out something I needed to know more about who they were and how they worked.
This way of thinking was completely cheap I knew, but they hadn’t just gotten to me.
They’d gotten to Bru.
I didn’t even get to see my brother anymore he was so busy. Dorian Prinze had taken away the only thing I had and soiled my name on top of it. Hell, Dorian had done worse than that to my name.
He’d completely removed it.
Upon my proposal, Bow gazed around again. Really, us having any kind of open conversation like this could get back to her brother and his friends, but I had to take the risk. Dorian had gotten to my brother.
And I had to do something.
“I don’t know, Sloane,” she said, and I deflated, frowning. It was probably a dumb idea anyway, and using Bow, even dumber. She had been nice to me after all.
I lifted a hand. “Sorry. I know you don’t want to make waves.”
“I don’t.” She chewed her lip again but surprised me when she got out her phone. “What’s your number? You can probably come by after school or something…”
“Come by?”
She nodded. “I could help you with some of our assignments. Today would be good. I have a student council meeting until three thirty, but after that, I’m free. Let me give you my address.”
She was being serious.
This is what you need.
It did feel weird, though, giving her my number so she could text me her information.
“We can’t just meet at my place?” I asked. Being in the belly of the beast would be a good thing. I could poke around, get some information, but getting caught at a Legacy house was more than a bad idea. I could probably just pick her brain about her brother and his friends. I didn’t necessarily have to be at one of their houses.