Empire High Betrayal(76)

Mason abruptly stood up. “Isabella!” he yelled.

I looked up to see Isabella standing in the foyer. She smiled at me and then disappeared back into the spooky hallway. Mason took a few steps toward her and then stopped and looked back at me. I knew why he wasn’t running after her. Matt had asked him to stay with me.

“Go,” I said. “I’m fine.”

He cursed for the millionth time tonight and then took off running.

Matt and Mason could take care of finding Isabella. I needed to find Miller. I needed my dad. He was the only one who would know what to do with her once the Caldwells found her. I pushed myself up. My legs were shaky as I made my way toward the front door. My security was still forced to stay outside. And they’d be out there somewhere. I opened up the door.

James was standing on the front step. He immediately pulled something out of his mouth and threw it onto the ground, grinding it into the gray stone with the heel of his dress shoe. Smoke swirled around his face and he coughed. He waved his hand through the air, trying to disperse it. “Oh. It’s just you,” he said with a laugh. But then he lowered his eyebrows as he took in my appearance. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Isa…” I gasped for air. “Isabella.”

He grabbed my hand without waiting for a response, pulling me into his chest. “Just breathe,” he whispered into my ear.

My tears felt hot on my cheeks as the cool autumn air blew around us. For just a few minutes, James held me. Until I was able to catch my breath.

“Oh God, I’m getting blood all over your tux.”

James laughed. “I don’t care about my tux. But why exactly are you covered in blood?”

I made sure not to wipe my face as I pulled away from him. “We went upstairs and found Isabella’s dog dead on our bed with the words, ‘You’re next,’ written in blood on the wall.”

“We?” James asked. “You mean you and Matt?”

I wasn’t sure why that was the part that he was questioning. I nodded.

“And he left you?”

“He left me with Mason. But then Mason saw Isabella and I told him to go after her.”

James ran his fingers through his hair. “Are you okay?” He shook his head. “Sorry, that was a stupid question.”

I tried to blink away my tears.

“We should probably take a shower real quick to get you cleaned up,” he said.

I laughed, which made him laugh too. “What are you dressed as?” I asked.

He looked down at his ruined white tux jacket. “James Bond. From The Man With the Golden Gun specifically.”

Oh. That made sense. And Rachel was one of his Bond girls. “Where’s Rachel?”

“Dancing. I just stepped out for a second. I needed some air.”

Air? I wasn’t blind. I’d seen all the smoke in the air out here. “What were you smoking?”

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “What does it matter?”

“It matters to me.”

He smiled. “Because I matter to you? Last time I checked, you turned down my proposal.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.”

“I’m Rachel’s problem. Not yours.” He sat down on the step.

I didn’t really know how to respond to that. “So are you two good?”

He exhaled slowly. “You mean do I think she actually likes me instead of just wanting my money?” He shrugged. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t make me like her any less. I don’t know how to quit her. She’s like a freaking drug.”

I nodded. I didn’t really understand, because I never did drugs except that one time I accidentally had pot cupcakes. But I was more addicted to Matt than I think I even knew.

We both sat in silence.

I was glad James was staying with Rachel, even though his words were slightly disturbing. I wanted him to be happy. But as I thought about happiness, I realized that there was one thing holding me back from it. Isabella. She’d always be standing in my way. And I needed to make a stand. Enough was enough. I wasn’t going to suffer the same fate as poor Sir Wilfred. I was not going to be next.

“I want to do the prank,” I said into the cool autumn night.

James smiled. “Yeah?”

I nodded. I didn’t tell him that I wished that Isabella was just dead. Hopefully an innocent prank would get this feeling out of my stomach. I just needed Isabella to know I wasn’t rolling over. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“You sure? I thought you didn’t want to stoop to her level.”

“I’m not threatening to murder her. Although I don’t know why Rob keeps asking me for blueprints to my dad’s apartment.”

“Who knows.”

“But it’s still just the pudding thing, right?”

James nodded.

I took a deep breath. Pudding. It was just a silly prank. But it meant I was fighting back. “And the deal is still on? About trying to make up with Matt?”

“A deal’s a deal, Brooklyn.”

I put my hand out for him to shake.

He looked down at my bloody hand, shrugged, and shook it.





Chapter 31


Saturday

The front door opened and Matt was standing there looking…super pissed.