an eye for an eye—or in Liam’s case, at least, one broken bone for another. I nod.
“Okay.” Resigned, King folds his arms over his chest and leans back against the wall stocked with liquor bottles. “We can set it up in a way that means Liam doesn’t know it’s you—”
“I want him to know it’s me,” I say, cutting him off. A gleam of respect enters his gaze, and he pauses, reassessing me. Sure, it would be smarter to keep my identity hidden from Parker, but it would negate the message I want to drive home by doing so.
“Okay then—” Again he’s cut off, but this time it’s from another door banging open as his sister Savvy comes storming into the room.
“Cart, do you have any butterflies? Charming wasn’t watching what he was do—” This time it’s Savvy whose words stop abruptly, along with her steps when she notices her brother isn’t alone. “Mase?”
“Hi Savvy.” I greet her as Carter makes his way to her and lifts the fingers she has wrapped around her forearm.
“It was an accident, man, I swear.” Wesley Prince, Carter’s number two, is out of breath as he rushes in. “Ma reine, I’m sorry.”
Carter waves him off, already working on cleaning the long slice cutting across Savvy’s arm. “Don’t worry about it, Wes. You aren’t the first one to knick her during training.”
“Why are you hanging with the football brigade?” Savvy bounces a finger between Trav and me. “Is Kay here?”
“No,” Carter answers.
“So—fuck.” Savvy hisses at the antiseptic cleaning her wound. “You race, not play football. What gives?”
I’m surprised by how easy it is to read Carter’s thought process on his face as he debates if he should tell her the truth. “Mason wants help dealing with Parker.”
“Oh my god!” Savvy rips her arm away from her brother to clap excitedly, reminding me a lot of her best friend with that reaction. “Please, please, please let me help.”
“No.”
“Oh come on, Cart,” she whines. “I want to be there when you beat the shit out of him.”
“Savvy,” King says, retaking her arm to finish placing the butterfly bandages across it to secure the wound.
“Ooo, can we rip his fingernails off too?”
“Savvy.” This time her name comes out as more of a warning.
“What?” She shrugs innocently. “That is the least of what that douchemonkey deserves.”
“Savage,” Wes mutters, but Savvy only beams with pride, her shoulders rolling back, her spine lengthening.
“No,” King says again.
“Carter.” She drags out his name to multiple syllables.
“Samantha.” Now his tone brokers no argument, and Savvy huffs. Samantha?
“I hate it when you go dropping the legal name.” She crosses her arms, looking every bit the sullen teenager.
“If your name is Samantha, how do you get Savvy as a nickname?” Trav asks the question dancing on the tip of my tongue.
“It’s short for Savage because of her propensity toward fingernail ripping and such,” Wes explains, and now Savvy is back to preening.
In my pocket, my phone vibrates, but I ignore it because we’ve only just started to get back on topic. Trav’s phone goes off seconds later, and all our plans change.
#Chapter54
“Ugh.” Em groans and drops her phone on her desk with a clank as I step inside the doorway to her room and lean against the jamb to see if she’s ready to head out and meet G and CK for dinner.
“Your dad again?” I ask, almost afraid of the answer.
“Mom this time.” She spears her hands in her hair and tugs on the strands to the point that I see the skin around her hairline blanch.
To say Senator and Mrs. Logan are less than thrilled with the new frequency of their daughter showing up in pictures on UofJ411’s Instagram page and the periodic gossip site looking to find out how “top draft pick Mason Nova is really spending his time now that he’s not preparing for the NFL draft” would be an understatement.
For the most part, during her year-and-a-half tenure at the U of J, Em has flown under the radar. There was one sorority that tried to rush her our first semester freshman year since she is a legacy from her mother being a member from another chapter, but when she realized they wanted her more because she was a senator’s daughter than due to a sisterly connection, she stepped away. It’s what led to Em’s own distaste for Greek life. Other than that, most people don’t realize the girl with the perfect eyebrows cheering on the sidelines at their football and basketball