Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(63)

With a light laugh, I shrugged. “Why not? You can stay, obviously. To be honest, I’d much rather watch you win from the audience.”

Bee reached out, her fingers closing around my elbow. “No,” she said firmly. “You can’t leave.”

I stared up at her, surprised. “Bee, I know you wanted us to do this together, but it’s not really my thing, and I need to talk to David—”

Her fingers squeezed tighter. “I thought y’all broke up.”

Shaking off her hand, I stepped back. “We did. Kind of, but that’s not—Bee, are you honestly mad at me because I don’t want to finish the pageant?”

The lights backstage outlined her in soft blue light, her dress twinkling and shimmering in the gloom. And then I realized she was trembling.

“Bee?” I asked, and then it hit me.

Pop Rocks exploded in my stomach, racing through my veins, my whole chest tightening.

Gasping, I leaned forward, one arm banded around my waist. “I have to go,” I said, panicked. “David—”

But Bee only grabbed my elbow again, and now she wasn’t so much trembling as shaking. “No,” she said, her voice wavering. “You have to stay.”

I tried to shake out of her grip again, but she was holding on too tight, and my Paladin powers were no help against hers. “Something is wrong with David,” I told her, reaching out to pry her hand from my arm. “That’s a lot more important than a freaking pageant, Bee.”

Looking up, our gazes met, and just like that, I understood. Bee wasn’t holding me so that I wouldn’t leave the pageant. That wasn’t what this was about.

Tears pooled in her big dark eyes. “I’m sorry, Harper,” she said. “But I can’t let you go.”





Chapter 32


I FROZE. If it had been anyone else, I wouldn’t have hesitated. But this was Bee. I couldn’t just start swinging fists.

But apparently Bee didn’t have any reservations on that front. Placing her hands firmly on my shoulders, she shoved, hard.

It was enough to send me stumbling backward, and I heard a delighted gasp from behind me. “I told you what pageants were like,” someone said, but I was already regaining my footing and taking off after Bee.

I stumbled over cables in the dim light, barely able to make out the blue sequins on her dress flashing as she dodged behind one of the curtains.

One of the stage managers gave a startled cry as she pushed past him, and he may have used a four-letter word when I did the same.

Bee was right against the back wall of the theater now, a giant fake oak tree blocking her path.

She turned to face me, wearing an expression I’d never seen before. One that, to be honest, I never would have thought Bee was even capable of. She was practically snarling.

“I trusted you.” It was the only thing I could think to say, the only words that seemed to be pounding inside my head, and they hurt coming out of my mouth. They hurt maybe more than anything else I’d ever said. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t have been wrong. Not about Bee.

“Trust me now, Harper,” she choked out in reply. “This is the only way.”

I reached out and yanked a branch off the fake tree. The crack was probably loud enough to be heard in the audience, but I didn’t care. “By letting the Ephors take David? That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You’re working for Alexander.”

Bee reached out and did the same with another branch, and we stood there facing each other, fake branches clutched in our hands, both of us breathing hard.

“I’m not working for them,” Bee said, her fingers tight around that branch. “It isn’t about Alexander or any of that, Harper, I swear, but you can’t go to him. I can’t let you.”

“He’s in danger,” I cried, my chest seizing even as I said the words.

Nodding, Bee gripped her branch harder. “He might be, yeah. But I promised him I’d let him do this.”

The words landed harder than her blows had. “What?”

“I promised David,” she said, and I felt like my head was spinning. “He knew you’d never let him leave, knew you’d fight to keep him here. But this—” She clutched the branch harder, and I saw tears start to pool in her eyes. “This is what’s actually best for him.” Her voice had turned pleading now. “Please, Harper, don’t make me do this.”

Out onstage, I could hear Sara announcing the beginning of the talent portion of the pageant. The stereo system was blasting some kind of terrible smooth jazz, but even that couldn’t drown out the rush of blood in my ears as I faced down Bee. I knew what she meant. We were both protecting David, albeit in different ways. My Paladin instincts weren’t going to quit until the threat—Bee—was eliminated. Bee wouldn’t stop until she’d fulfilled whatever vow it was she’d made to David.

“Nothing bad is going to happen to him,” Bee said.

“That’s a lie,” I cried, “because I wouldn’t feel like this if he were going to be fine.”

Bee shook her head, hard enough that her blond hair began to spill out of her updo. “It’s the only way.”

With that, she swung the branch at me. I raised my own, blocking her blow. Whoever had made the fake tree had done a darn good job, because even though I could feel the reverberations all the way down my arms, the branch didn’t break.