I nodded and stood, and Rogue got to his feet with me. “I’m gonna go home,” I said.
“You should stay here,” Rogue immediately said, but I shook my head. He once more went to reach out to touch me, but dropped his hand at the last second and curled it into a ball. “If you don’t want to stay here, then stay with one of them. Please, Scar.”
“No. I want to sleep in my own bed. I want to think.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Godfrey told me as I sidestepped around them to head for the door.
“I’m not being stupid,” I snapped. “I just found out that my four best friends have been illegally destroying evidence for years, and they didn’t tell me. I just found out that y’all are in serious trouble with Savannah’s worst gang, and that I might be kidnapped, and you might be killed. This morning y’all still hated me, and now I find out that you just faked it. I need a fucking minute to process.”
I reached the door, turned the handle, and let myself out. Not one of them tried to stop me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Once again, I tried to sleep, but my thoughts were too heavy to relax. I circled thoughts of the guy’s words in my head over and over, dissecting their story and trying to make sense of it all. It all made me angry. Angry with Mr. Taylor for exploiting the Heirs. Furious with my best friends for not trusting me with this sooner.
And then there was the ultimate fury—I was pissed off at myself. I should have noticed, somehow. I should have seen the signs, known that something was up long before it got to this. How could they have been living this double life for so long without me knowing? Did I even know them at all?
I was starting to think that I didn’t.
Even in the height of their cruelty, I still had a sense of who they were. I wrapped their personalities up like secrets meant only for me, and told myself that this was just one portion of a bigger equation.
It was nearly two in the morning when I heard a knock on my window. That familiar cadence of knuckles on glass made my heart stop for a moment. It had been so long since any of the guys had tried sneaking into my bedroom at night, but I didn’t even have to turn my attention to the large double window by my loveseat to know who was there.
I squeezed my eyes shut, pretending to ignore the insistent knocking, but feeling that familiar tug to go to them all the same. “Scar, open up or I’ll ring the doorbell,” Bonham Brodie said through the glass.
I shot up in bed and marched over to the window, frowning when I saw him balancing with one foot on the branch of the old sycamore outside our house. It always drove me crazy how they climbed that tree. One slip, and they could fall and snap their necks. Little did I know that falling from a tree was the least of my worries. Recklessness was in their nature.
I slid up the window and crossed my arms over my chest when the cool air licked at my skin. I was wearing my sleep shorts and a tank top that did little to hide my body, but I wasn’t bothered. Bonham and the others had seen much more of me than this.
“You gonna invite me in, Scarlett?” he asked with a smirk, showing off his adorable chin dimple as he leaned his head in while licking his lips.
“You gonna give me an option? Or is this another one of the Heir’s fucked up ways of making decisions for me?”
Bonham’s face fell into a frown, and just as I’d predicted, he jumped from the branch to the windowsill and came into my room anyways. He stepped into me and immediately enveloped me in a hug. He smelled like mint and aftershave, and although I didn’t wrap my own arms around his strong back, he still held onto me, swaying our bodies slightly as he whispered in my ear. “Come on, Scar. I know you’re mad, but I haven’t had a good hug from you in ages, and I could really use one right now.”
Damn manipulative asshole. My hand raised of its own volition, and I patted his shoulder with my fingertips twice before he finally