Page 15 of The Forbidden Note

A nurse enters the room.

She glances at Dutch first, gaze lingering on his face and then moves to Finn before landing on Zane. She bounces around the three of them, her eyes widening in shock after every rotation.

Not surprising.

The Cross brothers paint a terrifyingly beautiful picture. Today, they’re all standing in three-piece suits and tuxes, their hair carefully styled. Each one of them is intimidating in their own right, but together? They own every room they enter, just like they own Redwood Prep.

Zane doesn’t shy away from the nurse’s ogling. He crosses his arms over his chest, his hot, menacing slash of a mouth curling up. Like his twin, Zane is over six feet but his eyes are sapphire blue rather than whiskey-amber and his hair is an almost purple-black.

The nurse blushes harder.

I feel a stab of annoyance.

“Did you need something?” I ask, prompting her.

“Ah yes.” She manages to rip her eyes from Zane. Her words are aimed at Cadence. “The police would like to speak with you.”

Viola stiffens and grabs her sister’s arm.

It feels like I’m missing something, but I’m not sure I want to know whatitis.

“Dutch,” Cadence says.

He nods. “I know.”

“Vi, go with—”

“Finn, can you watch Viola?” Dutch speaks at the same time.

Cadence’s eyebrows tighten. “I meant for you to—”

“I know what you meant,” he answers gruffly. “And if you think for a freaking minute that I’ll leave you to handle the cops alone, you don’t know me at all.”

The two glare at each other.

I watch them both.

The teenagers make an unusual pair.

Cadence Cooper is a gifted piano prodigy. At the start of the school year, she was recruited by my friend Henry Mulliez—the previous music teacher at Redwood.

Henry asked me to look out for her when he left, but I would have done it anyway. Cadence and I have a lot in common.

We’re both scholarship kids.

We both come from broken homes.

We both have a Cross-sized target on our backs.

Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t outrun Dutch.

I have no plans of following a similar path with Zane.

Even if Iwantedto—which I don’t—it wouldn’t be possible.

For many reasons.

Finn escorts Viola out of the room while Cadence and Dutch leave with the nurse to speak to the police.

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