Page 110 of The Darkest Note

I grab the beer my twin offers and chug it back.

“How was Christa?” Zane, nosey as he is, interrogates me. “Did all the,” he gestures to his mouth, “fillers make a difference?”

“Not really,” I growl.

“Bummer.” He shakes his head and sighs.

Through the balcony doors, I see Babe—the host of this party—with his tongue deep in some girl’s throat. That girl isn’t Cadence, but it still pisses me off.

The way he was grinding all over Cadence tonight made me see red. She looked like she was enjoying herself. Her expression was one I’d never seen on her before and the fact that she was looking like thatwith himmade me act without thinking.

I’m glad my reputation precedes me. If the jock hadn’t backed off on the dance floor, I would have given him a reason to.

Something about her makes me break all my rules.

Zane glances in the direction I’m watching and smirks. “He and Cadey looked good together. Maybe we should lethimtalk to her next time. They seemed to have hit it off.”

I stare him down, my expression alone daring him to say one more word.

Finn climbs out of the water to join us. I toss him a towel and he accepts it with a nod of thanks.

Zane kisses each of the girls on the mouth and then shoos them away. When we’re alone, he leans forward. “What are we going to do now? We’ve only got a couple days to save Sol.”

I glare at the hills in the distance.

Finn rakes a hand through his hair roughly.

I don’t have an answer that they’ll want to hear. “We’re going to have to turn it up a notch.”

Finn flashes me a worried look.

Zane looks uneasy.

It’s not like we have a choice. What’s the freaking alternative? Let Sol rot in that boot camp while Cadence skips around, unhindered, at Redwood?

“My loyalty is to Sol, always. But you heard about her home situation,” Zane says. “Her mom was screwed up in life and she’s probably left even more of a mess in death. After Viola dropped those hints, I did some digging. You don’t want to know the kind of people her mom was getting involved with before she died.”

“Maybe we should stop here,” Finn says.

I hear the plea in his voice for me to not cross any lines.

But I shake my head. “If she was smart, she should have taken the money. She’s being stubborn now. We’ve got no choice but to get more drastic.”

Finn scowls at me. “She probably didn’t want to take the money from you.” He frowns. “I told you we should have sent Zane to talk to her instead.”

“That was the plan until our resident caveman here backed her upstairs.” Zane rolls his eyes at me.

“I saw an opportunity and went for it.”

“Nah.” Zane takes a sip of his beer. “You saw another man touching her and you lost it. There’s a difference.”

I hate that he can see right through me.

“You guys have any bright ideas then?” I snap.

“We keep trying with Principal Harris,” Zane says. “Get dad involved if we have to.”

“We burned that bridge.” I sneer.

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