Carter brushed off invisible dirt from the front of his shirt. “Look at the company you keep. Besides, I’m not the only one with secrets to spill. Isn’t that right, Kenna?” Carter sneered. His shifty blue eyes pinned my sister.
Wrong move.
Micah’s hand struck like a viper, wrapping around Carter’s throat, and pinned him further against the locker. “Don’t fucking say her name. Ever. Is that clear?”
I hadn’t thought about Kenna when I confronted Carter. Was this the first time she’d seen him up close? I know that she had worked her schedule out with her Academy counselor to make sure she didn’t have any classes with Carter.
My gaze slid to my sister, concern knocking into me. She looked like a deer frozen in headlights.
Mads came to her side, putting a protective arm around her cousin. “Come on, let’s go. We need to get to class.”
Kenna obeyed, eager to get far away from Carter. I shook my head in disgust at my former stepbrother, my head scrambled. It was difficult to believe anything he said. He was the only one who made sense. It had to be him.
Why do you care so much?I asked myself. I didn’t know the answer, other than I hadn’t fully dealt with my feelings for Angie. There was still too much hurt, pain, and anger to get to the deep stuff. It was like I only scratched the surface and had a million more layers to peel away before I got to what was real.
Grayson and Micah stayed behind, for what, I didn’t care. I let Brock pull me away, following Mads and Kenna down the hall. The warning bell rang, signaling we only had five minutes to get our asses inside our classrooms. My first period was on the other side of the school and up a level.
“It wasn’t Carter,” Kenna said softly as we approached the stairwell. This was where we divided up, but at the sound of Kenna’s voice, we stopped.
Mads studied Kenna, worry lines creasing her forehead. “You can’t believe anything he says.”
I placed my hand on the railing as Kenna lifted her head, our gazes colliding. “I’m not sure, but I think it might have been your dad,” she concluded, sounding as if she surprised herself, having just fit the missing pieces of the puzzle together.
I blinked. “My dad,” I heard myself repeat. Confusion mixed with the fast beating of my heart. “What? Why would you say that?”
She nibbled on her lower lip. “I didn’t think much about it the other day when he came to the house.”
“Easton?” I clarified. “He came to the house? When?” I demanded, my thoughts racing a mile a minute.
She thought back, her concentration making her nose squint. “It must have been Friday after you went to work. I was getting ready to go out with Mads.”
The night Brock’s car caught fire. They had ended up stopping by and seeing me before my shift ended at Lazy Ray’s. Brock had shown up right after them. “He never said anything to me,” I muttered.
“I didn’t know who he was at first and almost didn’t let him through the gate. I told him you weren’t home, but he said he wasn’t here to see you. He wanted to speak to Mom and Dad.”
I breathed hard through my nose. “Oh, my God. He didn’t.”
She nodded. “Dad wasn’t home. Shocking, right,” she said snarkily. “But Mom took him into her office. I know I shouldn’t have, but I was curious about him and what he wanted. I couldn’t believe he showed up at our house.”
“You listened to their conversation,” Brock guessed, as if it was something Kenna did often.
She scrunched her nose at him. “Whatever. It’s a good thing I did, or we’d be sitting here with no explanation. Anyways, as I was saying, I was curious, so I listened in, expecting him to ask Mom for money or to apologize.”
“My dad… Easton…,” I corrected, because this parent-not-parent shit was getting fucking confusing, “would never ask for money. He isn’t Angie. The man has pride and self-respect. And he didn’t know what she had done. He’s just as hurt by this as the rest of us.”
Kenna moved out of the way to let a guy and girl rush past down the stairs. “You’re right. Not that my opinion matters, but I like him. He seemed… genuine. Anyway, they mostly talked about you. He did apologize for what Angie had done. Once her name was brought up, the conversation drifted to how Grayson and Josie learned about the truth. Easton said it was karma that Angie got the life she always wanted but at the price of her past being exposed. Their voices grew quieter, and I heard a shuffling of paper. He left with a file in his hand. I didn’t think much of it, but now….”
“He has the evidence,” Brock supplied. Evidence that Grayson and I had given Liana.
I shook my head, my thoughts spinning. “I need to talk to him,” I said, my hand moving on the banister.
Brock's expression turned stern as he stepped in front of me. “Firefly.”
“I can’t be here right now.” My eyes pleaded for him to understand. Inside, I was a bomb of emotions waiting to detonate, and anyone around me would risk getting hit with shrapnel. The stone and bricks of the Academy felt as if they were pressing in on me.
“You guys go to class,” he instructed the others.
Kenna looked like she was about to argue, until Mads pinched her under the arm and then dragged Kenna down the hall. Grayson and Micah forked off, each heading to their first class. They had no idea how grateful I was for a moment alone.