Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
“You can tell that to the men at the station after we’ve explained all of your charges to you. You’re going away for a very long time.”
I turn around to find Orion casually strolling behind us, but his brother is nowhere in sight.
“Where’s Atlas?” I ask.
Orion shrugs. “Beats me, I looked away for one second, and he was gone. He kinda does that all the time, even with family, randomly disappearing on us. No one knows what he’s up to.” He winks. “Who knows … maybe he’s enjoying the wedding.”
Orion
Days later
I can’t believe we’re all here again, the entire extended family and friends, just to watch one of us be put in prison forever. The courthouse is bustling with people, but I barely notice them. I’m completely numb to the core.
I thought Atreus had a plan.
Why isn’t he here?
I look around at her family, who are clutching each other, worried to death, and I don’t blame them. By helping Atreus arrest José, I believed he would return the favor, but now I’m not so sure anymore.
“What’s taking Atreus so long …” Xavier mutters. “I swear to God, if he doesn’t free her, I will—”
His mother interrupts his rant with just one stern look, and it shuts him up immediately.
“I know how you feel, Xav, but more violence isn’t going to solve this,” his mom says.
“Yeah, well, you and Dad sure wrecked this town back in the day, and no one ever gave a shit!” Xavier shouts. “Why are you so complacent?”
“Because we have no other choice,” Felix, Silas’s dad, grits.
“Why not? You did it once before,” Silas says, shrugging.
“Because my grandpa stopped working there as head of the police force, didn’t he?” Melody says, looking up at her dad, Alistair, who nods.
“He was your inside guy,” Aspen mutters.
“They’ve been coming down on us hard ever since he left,” Felix mutters.
“As payback? That’s not fair,” Cecelia says.
“We gotta beat their asses in a brawl one of these days, maybe that’ll teach them not to mess with us,” Apollo says, making a fist.
“No,” the adults in the room respond, almost collectively.
“Well, for one, I agree with him.” Heath shrugs. “Beats sitting around here doing nothing.”
“No one’s beating anyone’s ass,” Caleb, Heath’s dad, says.
“Why would we let them waltz all over us?” Silas says, playing with his knife again.
Felix rubs the bridge of his nose. “I’m going for a cigarette.”
Everyone looks at him as he puts on his jacket and waltzes out of the room.
“What’s his problem?” Nathan, Sunny’s dad, asks.
“Beats me,” Levi muses. “He’s always grumpy as fuck on campus.”
Lana nudges him with her elbow. “Hey. Don’t talk about your uncle like that. He’s just trying to do the best he can.”
“You guys used to rule this fucking town. What happened?” Silas mutters, distracted by his own skills as he flips the knife up and down in his hand.
“Us,” Max mutters, and everyone looks at him, while the parents look flustered as hell.
“What do you mean?” his brother Elliot asks.
“It’s because we were born,” Max adds.
Maybe that’s it.
We all thought the dean was trying to hold us back, scolding us at every turn. But maybe … he was just trying to protect us.
“When I got pregnant,” Lana mutters, “Felix and I decided it would be safer if we all stopped the random murders. So he made a deal with the Bones Brotherhood.”
The jaws of all of us kids drop simultaneously.
“We would stay out of their business, and they would leave us alone,” Lana adds.
“Holy shit, so it’s true, you made a deal,” Silas says, flabbergasted.
“But everybody hates the Bones Brotherhood. Why would you make a deal with the people who can’t be trusted?” Elliot asks.
“It was the only way to protect you all,” Xavier’s mom, Penelope, says. “We were vulnerable. Babies are an easy target. We didn’t want to risk it.”
I swallow. “So you guys pretended they weren’t wreaking havoc in the city.”
“We retreated to our safe havens, our homes, to protect our kids,” my mom says. “Felix made that deal for all the right reasons.”
Everybody looks at him now, while he’s squeezing the palms of his hands like it’s annoyed him all this time that he’s had to carry the weight of this decision all by himself. “I fucking hate them too, but it was the only option.”
“With my dad gone from the corps,” Melody’s dad says. “There was no one from the police force we could trust. We needed to reduce the targets on our backs.”
“So that’s why you guys let Foley parade all over campus like he owns the place,” Apollo says.
“It was them, or the Bones Brotherhood. Take your pick,” his dad, Ares, says. “We made a choice. We live with the consequences.”
“Well, I’m grateful,” Cecelia says, smiling. “We’re still alive, thanks to you.”
Penelope and Felix share a burdened look.