Page 5 of Tell Me Why
I know she’s been trying to get a certain guy’s attention lately—she refuses to tell me his name out of sheer embarrassment—and I wonder if it has something to do with that. Half a second later, I dismiss that theory, though. She looks far too worried for this to be about a guy she’s not even dating yet.
“It’s not about me.” She glances around quickly, then leans in and lowers her voice. “It’s about your brother.”
My heart jumps. Skye has only been my roomie for a few weeks, but we hit it off pretty quickly. Both her parents are dead, like mine, so we kinda bonded over that. Then one night, over a fifth of cheap watermelon vodka, we bared our souls to each other, and I told hereverything—my real name, the fact that my brother Sin leads a secret society called Shadow and Ash, how they’re locked in a blood feud with the Burning Crown. I told her every messy detail.
I should probably regret spilling all that, but I don’t. All those secrets were boiling up inside me like a toxic sludge, and it felt good to get them out and tell someone.
“What did you hear?” I ask.
She glances at the psych building, which is just over my shoulder, off in the distance. “Can you miss class?”
Is she serious? Who gives a fuck about class now? The panic in her voice has me on high alert. “Yeah, whatever. Don’t worry about it. I haven’t missed any classes at all this semester. One absence won’t kill my grades.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble…”
Nowshe’s worried about that? “Skye,” I say sternly. “Just say it.”
She shifts on her feet, suddenly uncomfortable. “I was just at the coffee shop, in line, and I overheard the people behind me talking…”
“Okay,and…?” I prompt, trying to move her story along.
“I think they were members of the Burning Crown.”
My heart suddenly becomes weightless, like I’m in zero gravity. “Okay, and?”
Her delicate throat bobs. “I think the Sacred Sons are going to make a move against your brother. Soon.”
Oh,fuck. A few weeks ago, my brother and his guys did somethingreallystupid—they killed a Burning Crown member, and in the chaos, nearly killed one of the Sacred Sons, too—Lucas West. Christian’s twin.
It’s a no-brainer that the Burning Crown would retaliate, but after five weeks of nothing, a part of me hoped that was the end of it—that the two societies would go their separate ways, and just…leave each other alone.
“Are you sure you didn’t mishear?” I ask, clinging to that naïve hope with white-knuckles. “Maybe they were talking about someone else.”
“I distinctly heard them saySavano.”
My hand flies to the neckline of my hoodie, and I tug on it. Suddenly, I feel like I’m being strangled. “What did they say, exactly? What are they planning?” I ask, dread burning in my stomach like acid.
She shakes her head. “They didn’t say.”
All the possible scenarios swirl inside my head, but knowing the brutality of the Burning Crown, only one of those scenarios really makes sense.
“I think I know what the Burning Crown’s next move will be,” I say, pulling in a sharp breath. “They’re going to kill my brother. It’s the only way they can save face after what happened.”
Skye gasps. “Are you serious? Can you stop it?”
I wish to God I could. My brother is everything to me. Our mom was killed when I was twelve and Sin was fourteen. Grief hit our dadhard,and about a year later, he took his own life. We lived with our paternal aunt and her husband after that, but my brother was the one who really took care of me. I can only imagine how difficult it was for a fourteen-year-old to deal with his own grief while being both momanddad to his little sister.
“How could I possibly stop the Burning Crown from doinganything?” I whisper loudly. “They’re fucking invincible. They have money, power, influence…Everything Idon’thave.”
Skye takes a strand of my dark hair and smooths it between her fingers. “You’re forgetting what youdohave.”
I blink at her. “And what’s that?”
“Feminine appeal.”
I scoff at that. Easy for Skye to say. She’s beautiful. Slim figure. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Great skin. And the worst part? She hates wearing makeup. All she wears is sunscreen, tinted lip gloss, and mascara. That’s it.
Me, on the other hand? If I skip makeup, I look like I’m straight-up dying, which is all the time now, since I’m trying to stay off Christian’s radar. So that’s fun for me.
