The Princess and The Jester - A.D. McCammon Page 0,79
as I pace the floor, my mind racing with horrible thoughts. By the time my phone rings, I’m so far down the worry rabbit hole that I nearly jump out of my skin.
Lydia’s name flashes across the screen and my stomach plummets as I answer. “Lydia?”
“Is Cole with you?” she blurts, her voice dripping with anxiety.
“He dropped me off a little after noon, and I haven’t heard from him since. Has he not been home?” I shiver as icy panic runs through my veins. It’s nearly four now. If he hasn’t been home yet, something is definitely wrong.
“He was here,” she sniffles, “but he…he knows about his father.”
My heart feels like it stops beating, my head spinning. I already did. You just don’t realize it yet.
“Gwen,” she prompts, her voice frantic.
“How?” I finally manage to ask, already knowing the answer. This had to be Shane’s doing.
“I’m not sure. He came out of his room with a pained look on his face, and I knew something was wrong. When he asked me about his father, I couldn’t lie to him.” She hiccups a sob. “He listened to the whole story then he just…left. I’m so worried about him.”
Without knowing where I’m going or what to do, I slip on my shoes and grab my purse before heading toward my car. “I’ll go look for him. It’ll be okay. I’m sure he just needs a minute to process.” My words hold way more confidence than I feel at the moment.
She cries into the phone, and the ache in my chest is unbearable once I reach the bottom of the stairs.
“He shouldn’t be alone right now,” she says. “Please let me know the second you find him or hear from him.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Thank you, Gwen. He’s lucky to have you.”
Tears fill my eyes as my throat swells, and there’s a knock at the door. “Someone’s here. I’ll call you right back if it’s him.”
I hang up the phone and run to the door. Arwen is standing on the other side, worry etched on her normally stoic face. “Lydia called my dad,” she explains. “Thatcher’s already in the car. Come on, we know a few places he might be.”
Arwen’s car speeds all the way to Nashville, the cab remaining uncomfortably silent most of the time. Thatcher occasionally barks orders that she merely acknowledges with her middle finger, while I sit in the back seat chewing on my bottom lip and wiping away the tears as they fall.
Once she slowly starts creeping down Broad Street, I finally get the nerve to speak. “Do you know? I mean…did your dad tell you why Cole ran off?”
Arwen eyes me through the rearview mirror. “Yeah.”
“I’ve known for years, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him,” I confess. “You must think I’m a horrible person for keeping something like that from him.”
Thatcher turns to glare at me. “It wasn’t your secret to tell, and you didn’t want to hurt him. We can’t fault you for that. Is this what that fucker Shane was blackmailing you with?”
I gasp. “You guys know about that?”
They exchange a look before eyeing me with pressed lips and raised eyebrows. Of course they know. The three of them don’t keep secrets from one another.
“I don’t understand how Cole found out,” I say.
Thatcher and Arwen exchange another look, their gazes apologetic this time when they land on me.
“What?” I prod. “There’s obviously something I’m missing.”
“He hacked your phone,” Arwen answers casually, as if it’s no big deal.
“What?” He’s been spying on me? No. That can’t be right.
“Use your brain. How do you think he found out? You didn’t tell him, and I sure as shit didn’t.”
“It’s what he does. It’s like this superpower he doesn’t tell anyone about,” Thatcher says with a shrug. “If it wasn’t for his hacker skills, we wouldn’t have been able to take over Westbrook.”
Hacker skills? I’m not surprised Cole doesn’t tell everyone about this superpower of his. But how could I not know this about him?
“Do you even know who you’ve been opening your legs for, you stupid fucking cow?”
My stomach sours. That’s how he figured out I was Phantom Girl. This also explains how he knew about my movie date with Cory. How could he invade my privacy like that?
“Shattering your illusions is going to be so much fun.”
“Shane,” I exclaim. “He sent me a text this afternoon, after Cole dropped me off.”
That’s what his cryptic text message was about. The asshole knew Cole would see his messages