“and you’re not going to kill her. We both know you won’t get out of this room if you do.”
“Kill her?” Julian jeered. “What the fuck are you talking about? No one is going to kill her.”
Short, rapid pants rattled my chest as I watched Julian advance on Royal. He truly did not know what was going on here.
“But you are going to learn a lesson. Raven River is our school.” Julian shoved him. “Built by us, for us.” He shoved him again.
Royal snarled, fists balling up. I had a feeling their family connection was the single restraint staying his hand.
“Things are going to change from here on. We’re taking back our school and all the slum trash”—he sunk a fist in his gut—“are going to learn their place.”
Royal rocked back, the barest grunt escaping him. As he straightened, a grin laced with madness twisted his face. “Your mommy doesn’t agree about where my place is.”
“My mom feels sorry for you! Poor little bastard that nobody wanted! After I’m done, you and the OB trash will be looking for a new school.”
“Fucking right!” Leo said. He came for Royal. Cassius and Hiro jumped on him, wrestling him down.
“Get off!” Nolan ordered.
“Are you going to drive them out by any means necessary, Julian?” I cried. “You willing to beat them? Frame them? Flood the campus with drugs and hide baggies of coke under their mattress?”
“Ember, shut the hell up,” Nolan snapped.
Julian looked at me like I was crazy. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Exactly,” I said. “You wouldn’t do those things because even though your friends are the worst fucking people ever born—”
“I’m the worst?” Nolan’s mirthless laugh set my teeth on edge. “You may want to take a closer look at the guys you’re fucking.”
“—you’re not like them, Julian,” I plowed on. “You harassed me but you never forced yourself on me like your buddy Leo, and when you have a problem with someone, you say it to their face. Unlike Ives who sneaks around like a little bitch!”
Nolan grabbed my neck, choking a gasp out of me. “You just can’t shut your mouth, can you?”
Royal and Julian lurched at us. “Nolan, ease up,” Julian said.
“Why do you give a shit about her? She’s the same stuck-up bitch we swore off.”
“Just let her go.”
His grip tightened, drawing me away as Julian, Royal, and Cassius and Hiro holding Leo edged closer. He was losing control of the situation and that’s when he would reveal his true self. Julian needed to see it.
“You see?” I croaked. “This is who he really is. A monster. A drug-dealing, blackmailing monster who threatened to have my brother’s hands stomped!”
“I’m the monster?!” He shook me. “Your boyfriends are the monsters! You don’t— You have no idea the things they’ve done or just how little of a fuck they give for your brother!”
“Nolan!” Julian shouted.
“Why don’t you ask them?” Nolan hauled me to my feet.
The tight grip he had on my neck, and the gun in his pocket, kept the boys inching forward but slowly to not spook him.
“Ask what they’ve done for the Horsemen,” he demanded. “Those thugs run Raveners who dare to enter their slum off the road to jack their money and cars! Ask them if they were one of the guys that ran my mother into a tree!”
His bellowing battered my eardrum.
“Ask them if they gave her a concussion, stole her purse, car, and phone, and then left her injured and alone on the side of the street!
“Ask them how many people they’ve hurt. How much blood is on their hands? The Horsemen toss their kills in the dumpster and spray paint angel wings above their heads! When you dump their bodies, who takes the feet and who takes the arms, Royal?”
“They would never do those things!” I shrieked.
“You can’t be this naïve. Do you know anything about his father? The things he’s done. Rio Cruz is a ruthless, sadistic animal. He’s a demon! And he raised his son to be the same way!”
“And what kind of son did your father raise, women-hating drug dealer?”
He barked a laugh. “My father was a heartless bastard, Ember, so I’ll give you that. But he wasn’t stupid. When Viviana came home with Dante Gallo on her arm, gushing about true love and getting married after five weeks, he saw right through him.”
Viviana? The older sister Nolan never talked about?
I remembered seeing pictures of her in the house and the subtle subject changes when I asked