There were too many questions floating around my head, and even though I’d always been told to keep my wandering tongue silent, I still wanted to ask him more. I wanted him to elaborate. What history did they have? Why did Bain want Isaiah to get expelled from St. Mary’s? But I didn’t say a word because just as soon as my mouth opened, the library doors flew open, and Cade’s glare traveled over each and every table until he landed on us.
“Ever think about checking your phone?” Cade looked agitated as he walked over with his set jaw and slight scowl.
Isaiah slowly looked back to see Cade, who had his hands pressed to his hips. His chest was heaving. Did he run here?
I watched as Isaiah pulled his phone out of his pocket. His eyes scanned whatever it was that he was reading, and then a feral growl left his mouth. “You don’t know where he went?”
“No. And the car hasn’t moved.”
“Who? Bain?” I asked before I could stop myself. I almost shrunk back into the chair from past experiences of speaking out when I shouldn’t have, but that wasn’t me anymore. I didn’t have to stay quiet to stay safe. I wasn’t going to get punished for asking an innocent question.
Cade’s mouth flung open as he snapped his gaze back to Isaiah.
Isaiah shot him a look that I couldn’t put my finger on, and then his features softened a little as he looked over to me. “Tutoring is coming to a sudden halt.” Isaiah pushed himself from the table, his tall stance looming over me like some type of enticing nightmare. His inky hair fell onto his forehead, and the blue of his eyes that were warm seconds ago turned glacial. “If anyone asks…”
“I know. I know. We were here, tutoring together.”
His lips twitched so subtly that I doubted he even knew he did it.
Before Isaiah left, I asked, “Should I go back to my room? What if someone comes in here and doesn’t see us sitting here? Like someone on the committee?”
“I don’t think anyone is actually going to come in here. All the teachers who are a part of the SMC dip out right after school unless they have hall duty.”
A leery feeling of unease settled over me. “Are you sure?”
Isaiah sighed as he ran his hand down his face feebly. I could be his alibi like he wanted, but if someone actually came here and asked where he was, what would I say? It was one thing if they asked me the next day. It was another if they were standing here looking at an empty chair.
Cade mumbled under his breath as he looked away, too, clearly thinking of a new plan. Silence fell over our group as I sat in the chair with the new phone in my hand and my laptop pushed to the side as Isaiah and Cade both stood above me with a tenseness in their shoulders that even I could feel.
My fingers grasped the phone tightly. “I’ll just text you if someone comes in here. I’ll say you ran back to your room for a book or something.” I paused. “Unless you are leaving school grounds?”
Cade spoke this time, looking at Isaiah. “The car hasn’t moved. He didn’t leave the school—yet.”
Isaiah’s brows knitted together as he gripped the back of the chair he was standing above so tightly his knuckles began to change color. His gaze pierced mine once more as he said, “Text me if anyone comes in here. And I don’t just mean a teacher. If any other student pops in here, don’t trust them.”
A chill flung to my limbs as Cade let out a grunt. “Stil
l think your plan of showing Bain that Gemma was yours the other day was a good idea? Because now he’s really unpredictable.”
“Did I have a choice?” If looks could kill, Isaiah would be a cold-blooded murderer right about now. But so could Cade. He had those dreamy, all-American-boy features, whereas Isaiah had dark and dangerous ones, but when he narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw? Thunder rolled. Watching them stare at one another was like watching a hurricane brew over an ocean. “I saw the way he looked at her after our initial conversation when I’d asked her to tutor me in the first place, and then at the claiming?” He shook his head with rising anger. “Bain isn’t stupid, Cade. You know that. It’s either I keep my distance from her and act like she’s nothing more than a piece of fucking dirt on the bottom of my shoe”—Ouch.—“which I fucking can’t because she’s my…”
“Tutor,” I answered, inserting myself to the conversation so they’d both remember that I was sitting right here even though they were acting like I wasn’t. A piece of dirt on the bottom of his shoe?
“Exactly.” Isaiah’s voice was tight around every single word, and my stomach flopped. “She and I are being thrown together no matter what, so it’s either I keep a close eye on her, or…”
Cade sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Or nothing. You’re right. We know how Bain gets when he becomes…centered on something.” I slowly raised my chin and looked at Cade. His sentence threw me off course because the anger that was just radiating off him was no longer there, but instead, there was anguish. His big brown eyes deepened as they found the ground. His shoulders dropped. His breath was unsettled.
“I’ve seen him looking at her too,” Cade said. “But is it because of you? Or because…”
Isaiah huffed. “Probably both.”
Silence encased us all again as they stared at each other, obviously sharing a silent conversation that made me feel pretty damn insignificant.
Pride washed over me as I opened my mouth. “Is anyone going to fill me in? Because it sounds like you two are talking in code, and I don’t like to be left in the dark.” A simmer of anger began to brew right after pride. I’d been in the dark my entire life. I’d been lied to, forced to keep my mouth shut, and physically thrown into a dark basement so I was “protected” from certain things. Being unaware of your surroundings or things that were going on around you was nothing less than dangerous. I deserved to know what was going on. I’d always deserved to know what was going on around me. It had just taken a while to realize that.
“There isn’t time right now.” Isaiah shook his head and began typing something on his phone. “Cade is going to walk you back to your room when I give the go-ahead.” He glanced up at Cade briefly before beginning to walk away. “She shouldn’t be alone if we can’t find him. I don’t trust him. If anyone comes in here asking why you’re here, just say it’s a group tutoring session or something.”