As much as I wanted to ask her what she and Grayson talked about, I had another matter on my mind. “That’s actually not why I called. What do you know about what happened two years ago?”
Silence greeted me from the other end of the phone.
“Mads?” I prompted, glancing at my screen to see if we’d been disconnected.
“I’m coming over,” she proclaimed.
“Now?”
“Do you want to know or not? It isn’t something I feel comfortable talking about over the phone,” she explained.
I stared at the ceiling. Yes, I was bone-tired, but something told me this was important. “Come around to the back of the house to the stairs that lead to my balcony,” I told her.
“I’ll be there in ten,” she replied, ending the call promptly.
Rolling out of bed, I flipped on my balcony light and unlocked the door. I was already in my pajamas and didn’t have it in me to change. My hair was still damp from the bath I’d managed, so I just slipped on some fuzzy socks and wrapped my ankle in an ice pack one of the kitchen staff brought up to me. As much as I protested living in this house, the staff was a fucking godsend. Particularly since I couldn’t rely on my mother to take care of me. They would all be getting Christmas gifts from me this year.
I sat impatiently on the bed, when what I really wanted to do was pace as I waited for Mads. So instead, I tapped my thumb over my phone.
Almost ten minutes later, a small knock rapped on my glass sliding doors and they slid open, a head poking in. “Hello?” a soft voice whispered into the dimly lit room.
“Over here,” I whispered from the bed, waving her in.
Mads stepped over the threshold, closing the door quietly behind her. Kicking off her shoes, she padded over to the bed and climbed into the other side. Her gaze went to my wrapped ankle perched on top of a pillow. “I can’t believe that bitch had the balls to push you.”
The venom in her voice caused me to blink. “You know who did it?”
In a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt, Mads leaned back against a pile of pillows, her gray eyes gleaming. “Of course, she can’t keep her big mouth shut about it. Ava is going around telling everyone that you fell into her hand. I swear she has an empty hourglass for brains. Why the fuck would you brag about something like? It’s like she is begging to be caught.”
Perhaps, or she is hoping that I would tattle on her so she’d have another reason to despise me. Banging Brock wasn’t enough for her little hateful heart. “I’ll deal with Ava eventually, but Fynn mentioned something that happened two years ago. I want to know what it was.”
The expression on her face shifted. She’d been annoyed on my behalf a second ago, but now she was guarded, watching me with careful eyes. Then she sighed, her shoulders dropping. “I’m not surprised it was Fynn. He has a soft spot for you. Micah too, but I suspect Micah is just hoping you’ll sleep with him.”
I snorted. “Do I need to put out a bulletin that says I don’t sleep around? If either of them had a soft spot for me, they have a funny way of showing it.”
“Maybe,” she agreed, her lips in a thin, thoughtful line. “But it might be the same reason they all feel protective when it comes to you.”
She had my interest now. “And what reason is that?”
“Because you remind them of Kenna,” she stated in a voice that almost sounded pained, but then she forced a smile, tucking her legs underneath her on the bed. “It’s more than your resemblance. There’s something else. Something in your smile and your personality too.”
“Who is Kenna?” I was afraid I already knew, but I didn’t want it to be true. It was obvious from the way Mads spoke that they all cared about this girl, so did that mean she was a standby girl? No. She was definitely something more. A girlfriend? A lump of emotion clumped in my throat. Brock’s girlfriend?
Mads gaze met mine. “She’s Grayson’s sister. Twin sister, actually.”
I swallowed, relief allaying my fears. Not a girlfriend. “His twin sister?” I echoed. “No one mentioned he had a sister.” Let alone that she was his twin.
“And they wouldn’t. They don’t talk about her. Ever.” She averted her eyes, but not before I caught a glimpse of sadness, and unless my ears were deceiving me, her voice had cracked as well. “Kind of like Sawyer. It is too painful.”
“Okay,” I said, taking a moment to make heads or tails out what she was telling me. If I’d never heard of Kenna after attending the Academy for nearly a month, something was up. “Where is she?” I asked, doing my best to be sensitive because this seemed like a difficult subject for her. My first thought was she had an accident like Sawyer.
“It’s a long story, and before you jump down my throat, I need your word this stays between us,” her eyes implored mine. “I don’t like to meddle in Elite business, and if Brock found out I told you, he would fucking have my head. He went to a lot of trouble to keep Kenna safe, and talking about her here, well, let’s just say it’s a really stupid and risky move.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t. Not yet, but you will. Is Carter here?” Her gaze went to my closed door before returning to my face.
I nodded. “But he is asleep. The pain meds knock him out,” I assured. “And he is basically bound to the bed for as long as the staff will dote on him.”