Series: Webs We Weave Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 126927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126927 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Everyone notices the officer lingering in the narrow stairwell. Barricading the exit.
“He says we can make this go away, but we have to go through my lawyer. He doesn’t take on new clients, so you have to do this quick.” Rocky is dialing a number. “His name is Pierre.”
“Claire,” I whisper, since I need to leave soon. “Claire.”
She sniffs. “Mmmh?”
“Can you call a friend to come pick you up?”
She nods over and over.
Nova has bent down to Kendra. He’s helping her sit up. “Are you okay? Can you hear me?”
She moans. “I . . . yeah?” Gently, Nova rests her back against a wine crate. He collects her clothes.
“Take Kendra to the hospital,” I tell Claire.
“Okay,” she blurts into a squeak. “Okayokay. Kendra?”
I move out of the way and let Claire crawl to Kendra’s side. Nova hands her Kendra’s clothes, and she covers Kendra with the warm parka. After I fumble putting on my shirt and jeans quickly, I back into the shadows fully clothed. I watch as Matthew speaks to Pierre.
Also known as Oliver Graves.
“Okay . . . yeah . . . I can do that right now,” Matthew says, then focuses on the other Firefly members. “Get your phones out. You each need to wire thirty grand to this number. It’s the lawyer’s retainer fee.”
If anyone bats an eye at the high price, they don’t question Matthew, not at the risk of looking cheap, and a few friends cover for those who can’t pay in full.
Not long after all the wire transfers go through, the sighs of relief follow, and Matthew hugs Rocky like he’s his archangel and not a devil in disguise.
The officer doesn’t press charges. He leaves before the desperate students realize there was never a cop car parked outside.
Nova is pissed and pretends to have a fight with his “childhood friend” on their way out. Rocky calms him down for show.
Tomorrow morning, we’ll all be gone like a fever dream. And the Firefly Club will remain what it is. A secret.
Snow flurries are salting the night sky, and I pretend to call our personal car service. While we wait, we use Nova’s T-shirt to clean the blood off our bodies and faces.
Oliver arrives in five minutes, and I climb into the backseat of the black Rolls-Royce. I’m squished between Nova and Rocky since Hailey is in the passenger seat; heat blows through the vents and instantly warms my frigid skin.
No one says anything for a hundred miles.
The clock blinks 4:32 a.m.
Sitting on my sore ass is painful, and I slide further down the middle seat. Sort of angling into Rocky is the comfiest position, and he curves his bicep around me to tuck me against his chest. The thump of his heartbeat could soothe me to sleep.
He rests a calming hand on my head, and he watches me as I canvass the tensed lines of his jaw and the darkness shadowing his gaze. He’s not all right. I try to sit up, but he keeps me there and I ease back against him, concern flaring inside of me.
The silence is eating at Oliver. “Okay, is anyone going to tell me what happened?” he asks, his eyes flickering to me in the rearview mirror while he drives. “Phoebe?”
Hailey rotates in her seat. “Phebs?” She studies my slowly drying hair and the way I’m leaning into her older brother.
“I’m good.” I really am okay.
“Platypus?” Oliver questions.
I shake my head. “Polar bear.” We walked away with three hundred grand. Matthew will wake up to the realization that he’s not the big man on campus. He’s a fool who was so obviously tricked, and he opened the door for it to happen to his peers, too.
It’s not enough, a nagging thought grates at me.
I wish I could call him a piece of shit to his face. I wish I damaged more than his pride. I wish he would hurt as badly as he hurt those girls. He’s wealthy enough that thirty grand probably means nothing.
Embarrassment is the punishment, and sometimes, it just feels weak.
I hear my mom in my head. “You have his money. That’s the point, bug.” The payout might be everything to my mom and Addison, but the fancy lifestyle we’re living isn’t the reason I relish tricking people out of a tiny fortune.
Craning my neck to the other side, I touch Nova’s arm. “Platypus?”
He’s quiet. Gazing out the window, the snowy landscape thickens in white as we drive north.
“Nova?” My pulse skips. “Platypus?”
“Platypus,” he says in the quietest, deepest breath.
I take my hand off him. Unsure if this is about me or seeing Kendra nearly pass out and hearing Claire cry and doing nothing to help. He’s not regularly in those positions. Usually, he’d be behind the wheel keeping the car warm.
We’re in the middle of nowhere when Oliver drives onto a snow-blanketed dirt road. He parks near a skeletal tree and a small, iced-over pond. Most of us get out. Nova pops the trunk.