Page 49 of The Ruling Class
I didn’t have the option of staying home from school another day. My sister wanted me out of the way. She wanted mesafe. And as it so happened, Hardwicke was more secure than most consulates.
Bodie pulled up to the curb. I was out of the car before he could impart any more words of wisdom. He rolled down his window. “Hey, kid?”
I turned back to look at him. His lips parted in a smile, but there was a serious glint in his dark eyes. “Mum’s the word.”
In other words:Don’t tell anyone about Vivvie’s dad. Or Judge Pierce. Or Justice Marquette.
Unfortunately,anyonehunted me down before my first class.
“What happened?” Asher asked, falling into step beside me. “Where were you yesterday? Where was Vivvie?” When I didn’t reply immediately, Asher tried another tack. “True or false: you’re going to tell me what happened.”
“False,” I said.
He gave me a morose look and lowered his voice to a stage whisper. “The correct answer wastrue.”
Asher sounded like he was joking, but my gut told me he wasn’t. This wasn’t some lark to him. It was personal, and if I tried to shut him out, he would do something about it.
Like tell Henry.
Mum’s the word.
“Short version?” I told Asher as we approached the classroom. “My sister knows. About Vivvie, about the phone, about everything.”
“And the long version?” Asher asked.
“Vivvie’s father found out about the phone.” That much I could tell him without compromising Ivy’s investigation—whatever that investigation entailed. “She showed up at my place two nights ago with a fat lip and the beginning of a black eye.”
“Is she—”
“She’s going to be fine,” I said. “Physically. But Vivvie and I are done. Out of it. Off the case.” I entered the classroom with Asher on my heels. I could feel him getting ready to pounce—another question I couldn’t answer, another look that told me heknewI was holding back. Then Asher’s eyes landed on Henry, sitting near the front of the room, his head bowed over a book.
Asher wouldn’t keep asking questions in earshot of his best friend.
I slid into the seat next to Henry, all too aware that Asher knew exactly what I was doing.
“True or false,” he whispered into the back of my head as he took the seat behind me. “We aren’t done talking about this.”
I could almost hear him thinking that of all the people in the world who Henry Marquette might trust to find out what had happened to his grandfather, my sister wasn’t near the top of the list.
In fact, it was a good bet that Ivy wasn’t on that list at all.
CHAPTER 32
“I assume you’ve made progress with your half of the assignment?” Henry Marquette sat opposite me in World Issues, a thick file folder open on the table between us. Clearly, he’d donehishalf of the assignment.
“You know what they say about assumptions,” I said.
Henry quirked an eyebrow at me. “Tell me, Kendrick, whatdothey say about assumptions?”
“It’s Tess.”
“Is that your way of telling me that you didnotscreen the candidates on your half of the list?” Henry asked me. “Tess.”
“Actually,” I said. “I looked into them.” He didn’t need to know what exactly I’d looked for—or why I’d been looking.
“And?”
And there’s reason to think Judge Pierce paid to have your grandfather killed.
