RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,157
But the expression on his face is so tortured that I stop dead in my tracks. There are dark shadows beneath his eyes, his skin extra pale, his hair extra wild. He looks like he’s about to come unhinged. “Elodie, I just want to talk to you. Can you stay calm for fifteen fucking minutes?”
“You had every opportunity to talk to me in the gazebo, Wren. You chose to walk away. Do you know how suspicious that looks?”
“Yeah, well, you’d just accused me of something pretty insane, and I didn’t want to say anything that might…” He blows out a frustrated breath.
“Implicate you?” I finish for him.
“No! Jesus Christ, Elodie, come on. I did not have anything to do with Mara’s disappearance. I didn’t fucking touch her, okay?”
“Then how do you explain the diary? Everything she wrote in it pointed to you. And the sweater she had in her hiding place? She had handfuls of feathers in a box, too. Feathers exactly like the one you gave to me.”
Wren grimaces, running his hands back through his hair. “What sweater?”
“The Wolf Hall sweater, with your initials on the label, Wren. God!”
He shakes his head. “I—I don’t know how she had that. I owned one of those things for five seconds last year, and then it was gone. I didn’t know what the fuck happened to it. And the feathers…fuck, I don’t know what to tell you, Elodie. She knew I collected them. Maybe she was saving them for me. I swear I didn’t leave her a single one, though, let alone handfuls of them. There’s so much you don’t know, okay? About Mara and what went on at the academy last year. I promise I’ll tell you. I’ll explain every single last sordid detail. But until we can sit down and talk about this properly, please, just…you have to believe me. I did not hurt her.”
He looks so wretched. My stomach turns over, nausea rolling through me in a wave. “How the hell am I supposed to believe a single thing you say? How am I going to listen to this story you’ve been keeping from me and accept that it’s the truth?”
A flat, distant look flashes over his handsome face. “Because I told you, Little E. No lies. Ever. I swore I’d never lie to you.”
My throat constricts. I’m achingly miserable. I want to believe him. I want nothing more than to hear what he’s saying and trust him. But—
“WREN JACOBI! Where the fuck are you!”
A roar goes up out in the living room—a riotous yell that could only have come from Pax. Other voices begin shouting and cheering, growing louder and louder on the other side of the door.
What the hell is going on?
Wren presses his fingers into his eyes, huffing. “For fuck’s sake. I have to go, Elodie. If I don’t get out there, they’re gonna break down this door—”
“WREEEEEEEENNNNN! You’ve got three seconds, asshole! Show your ugly face!”
Those vivid green eyes meet mine, pleading and full of misery… “Just don’t leave, Little E. Promise that you’ll hear me out?”
Lord, what a fool I am. I waver, but only for a second. “Fine. I’ll hear what you have to say. But the moment I think you’re lying to me, that’s it. I’m walking away.”
He looks so relieved. It almost hurts me to see that kind of desperate expression on his face. He nods, grimacing deeply. “Good.” Turning, he lets himself out of the bathroom and walks straight into the chaos on the other side of the door. It’s madness out there, Wolf Hall students all jostling and shoving at one another, trying to get by one another. I can’t figure out where they’re all going until I slip out of the restroom and stand against the wall by the front door, watching as they all flock to the foot of the staircase.
Pax and Dashiell are already standing there on the steps. Wren climbs up to meet them, dragging his feet, wearing an expression so dark and stormy that he looks every inch a monster. Pax is dressed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Meanwhile, Dashiell’s dressed much like Wren, as himself, in his regular clothes—an expensive black shirt and immaculate grey pants that look like they cost a fortune. Both Pax and Dash cheer, slapping Wren on the shoulder and back as he turns to face the crowd.
“Students of Wolf Hall! The moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived!” Dash calls out.