Elite (Empire High, #2)(98)

“Isabella, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Matt.”

“What about him?”

“I love him.”

Oh my God. I remembered when she first started torturing me in school. I thought it was because I was staring at the Untouchables’ table at lunch. But it was because I was staring at one Untouchable in particular. Matt. I thought about how she was blackmailing him with that made up sex scandal between him and Rachel. She used it as leverage so Matt couldn’t hang out with me. She made her minions watch him in class. I thought about her death stare when Matt sang to me at the homecoming game. It was all about Matt the whole time.

“I love him,” she said again. “So you need to leave.”

But he doesn’t love you back. Love doesn’t work that way.

“I get him for the next four years because he’s the one thing in my life I get to choose, and I choose him. Once you’re gone, everything will be perfect. Matt will be mine. And then once I have to marry James, I’ll keep Matt as my house boy.”

What the hell is a house boy? I didn’t even want to know. “You don’t get him for the next four years. You can’t just say something and it becomes real.”

“Yes I can. I’m a Pruitt.”

“No you can’t. Matt doesn’t love you. He loves me. And I love him back.” Apparently a conversation with a psychopath was all I needed to see everything clearly. Or maybe it was getting a gun pointed at my head. Or the freezing air against my exposed skin. But I saw it. I saw my future with Matt. And she couldn’t have him for the next four years. Because he was mine forever.

“He’s infatuated with you because you’re new in town. It’ll fade. Now grab your map and get lost.”

“No.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to leave? Maybe this will help you decide.” She walked over to the cardboard box and lifted out some kind of black device with wires and a timer on it. Another thing I’d only seen in movies. I was pretty sure it was a bomb.

I waited for her to throw it at me or something, but she just walked over to the limo and placed it on top. She pressed something on the side and the timer started ticking down from three minutes.

No. Kennedy!

Isabella turned back around. “If you don’t leave in two minutes and 58 seconds, Kennedy will go boom.”

“You can’t. You’re not allowed to kill people, Isabella. Your father told me the rules.” I wanted to believe it. For some reason I did believe that she wouldn’t kill me. But Kennedy? I had no freaking idea what Isabella was capable of.

“There are ways around rules, Sissy. Accidental limo explosions are one of those ways. Besides, no one’s going to miss her. For some reason it’s so much more fun now that I got to know her first, you know what I mean?”

No, you crazy bitch! “Sir Wilfred is in there! You can’t blow up your dog.”

“Hmmm. Good point. But moot. I saw you pet him. Sir Wilfred is officially tainted. Besides, he’s hardly trained. I’ll just buy another.”

“Donnelley, do something. Please.”

Isabella laughed. “Oh, darling. You’re crying again. Such a hot mess. And don’t speak to Donnelley. He can’t help you.”

“Of course he can. Donnelley, please!”

“No, he can’t,” Isabella said a little sterner. “Donnelley here is from a very religious family. And do you know what I caught him doing a week ago? Making out with your new friend Justin in a closet.” She laughed. “How fitting right? Since Donnelley is in the closet. And what on earth would his dear mother think if she found out he was batting for the wrong team?”

You horrible witch. All she knew was blackmail and hatred. I looked over at Donnelley. He was crying too. I could see it in his eyes. How sorry he was. But this wasn’t his fault. None of this was his fault.

“Tick tock,” Isabella said. “Only one minute left. What are you going to do?”

It wasn’t a choice. I couldn’t let Isabella kill my best friend. I couldn’t let her out Donnelley. I couldn’t even let her blow up her evil dog.

I picked up the map.

“Good girl. And don’t worry. I’ll take great care of Matt. Now disappear, trash goblin.”

I pulled the map to my chest. I wanted something to come to me that would help me out of this mess. Something clever. But all I could think about was that I had to run. I had to save them.

A gust of wind made goosebumps rise all over my skin. The map blew out of my hands. I tried to grab it, but my feet slipped in a puddle. I fell to my knees, the water splashing all over me.

Isabella laughed.

I looked down at myself sitting in the puddle and I hated that I saw what Isabella saw. Trash. I couldn’t think of a clever way out of this because I wasn’t a scholarship student at Empire High. I was the janitor’s niece. I never belonged here. All I’d done was broken the Caldwells and Hunters lifelong friendship, put my best friend’s life in jeopardy, and ruined the last few months of my uncle’s life. I’d been trying not to think about the last few months, but as soon as I did, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It didn’t matter that Uncle Jim had reassured me otherwise. He still could have been doing anything in the world, but he gave up everything for me. And why? I stared at my hands in the muddy puddle. I was trash.