This Fearless Girl (St. Clary's University #2) - E. M. Moore Page 0,73
goodbye with promises to see him tomorrow at school. I hate that he has to do this, but none of us see another choice—not with the whereabouts of his mother unknown still.
I take the passenger seat, gnawing at my lip the entire way back to Jacobs Manor. If we don’t want Cole coming to us, I have to call him about what we found out. Or at least what we did today. There’s no doubt he has eyes on us, and if I don’t tell him that we met with an antique jeweler, he could do something else to try to fuck with one of us. His reach is too wide, his resources too much. It’s best not to poke the bear.
When we get back, I sneak into my room and eye the cell phone on the nightstand. Before I can talk myself out of it, I pull up my contacts and hit Cole. It only rings once before he answers. “Baby girl?”
“It’s Dakota,” I stammer, stunned that he’s even answering himself. I don’t know why. It seems like he would have people who would do that for him.
“Yeah, I know, baby girl.” He chuckles when I don’t say anything back. “You don’t like that, do you?”
“Not particularly.”
“Well, Dakota, what do I owe the honor of hearing your sweet, sweet voice?”
“I’m calling with an update.”
“Ah,” he says. I picture him lounging in a huge bed. “Perfect.”
“Well,” I start, getting right into it. “Today, we went to—”
He interrupts me. “Oh no, sweetheart. I prefer to do business in person. You’ll have to come to me.”
“Come to you?”
“I’ll send someone over to pick you up.”
“Whoa. Wait,” I rasp. “You never said I had to do anything like that.”
“What? You don’t trust me?”
“Not really. You turned Stone in to his fiancée because...because—”
“Because he ate you out?”
My face heats, and I growl, “I thought it was because we didn’t give you an update when we got back from the mountains?”
He chuckles. “That, too. Listen, I’m trying to be straight with you. I do my business in person. You’re my business right now, so I need to see you.”
I get up from my bed and turn, catching Wyatt’s eye who is heading toward his room.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Cole grinds out, his voice firm. “You can trust me.”
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s the case, Cole,” I tell him, using his name so Wyatt stops looking at me like he’s so proud I’m using the phone.
He immediately goes on high alert as Cole says, “Where I’m from, my word means everything, and I give you my word that I will not touch one hair on your head; I will not harm one piece of your body; My people will not touch you or hurt you. If they do, I’ll have great pleasure in watching them bleed out in front of me.”
“What’s he want?” Wyatt asks.
“Oh, one of your boy toys is right there. Let’s see. Which one is it? The stepbrother? The cowboy? The—”
Wyatt takes the phone from me and puts it to his ear. “What do you want?”
His face pales as he listens to what Cole says on the other end. Eventually, he speaks up, “We’re coming with her.” There’s another pause before he growls, “Fine. I’m coming with her.” He ends the call, gripping the cell in his fist until his knuckles turn white.
“What did he say?” I ask as Lucas comes up behind Wyatt.
“He’s sending someone to pick you up. I’m going with you. He said you could only bring one of us, and even then, I can’t go into where you’re having the meeting with him.”
“Is that safe?” Lucas asks.
“Probably fucking not,” Wyatt barks. He hands me back the phone, his fingers brushing me as he does so.
“He promised not to hurt me,” I tell them, hoping to convince them and myself. Can we trust someone like a gang leader? Seems highly unlikely.
“I’ll be right there,” Wyatt promises. “I don’t care what happens, if you feel uncomfortable, I’ll come for you. I don’t care who I have to go through.” Wyatt stalks past me to his room, the angry step in his stride fueled by determination.
Lucas runs his hands through his hair. “Fuck. Stone’s going to—” He breaks off with a hard groan. “Did he call you?”
I shake my head. “No, I called him because that’s how we got ourselves into trouble last time. I thought I would just tell him over the phone who we saw today, but he