“This whole thing with Lana is your fucking fault,” Kai grits while I throw my bag on the first table I find inside the Phantom Society building. “If you hadn’t taken those pictures, no one would’ve ever seen them.”
“I didn’t fucking share them,” I say, my voice booming through the hallway.
“Bullshit, who else could’ve done it? You?” Kai points his finger at Milo now, who just stares at him sheepishly.
“Who me? Of course not, why would I?” he replies.
Kai marches at him and grabs him by the shirt. “Did you share them with anyone?”
Milo shakes his head. “No. They’re on Nathan’s laptop, that’s it.”
“I haven’t kept them anywhere else. I swear,” I say.
Kai’s eyes narrow. “How the fuck did those pictures get out then?”
I rub my forehead. “I don’t fucking know.”
“Was it even safe? What if someone broke in, huh?” Kai growls. “This is all on you.” He paces around. “If I lose her because of this, I swear to God …”
“You’ll what?” I retort, standing my ground. “Kill me?”
He marches to me but stops mere inches away from my face. “Don’t give me a reason, Nathan.”
“I never thought a girl would get between us,” I say under my breath.
“And I never thought you’d be so careless about the only thing that kept her bound to us.”
“What do you mean?” Milo asks.
“We made a deal with her to safeguard her secret, and now it’s all out in the open.” He grinds his teeth. “There’s nothing left to stop her from running.”
“Yes, there is,” Milo says, making a fist. “Us.”
“She hates me now,” I say. “There is no us.”
“No, you’re right,” Kai says. “There is no us. But there is me.”
He narrows his eyes, staring me down like he means to tell me I no longer matter.
That I’ve forfeited my spot in this society over this mishap.
My fists ball. “I didn’t fucking do it.”
“Then who the fuck did because they were only on your fucking laptop?” Kai retorts, getting up in my face.
“Guys, don’t fight. Please.” Milo tries to squeeze between us, to no avail.
“Did you take the laptop out of this house?” Kai grits.
“It’s my school laptop, but I always take it wherever I go,” I say. “I just brought it to the library, and …” My eyes travel away from his as terror slowly sinks into me. “Oh God.”
Kai grips my collar. “What?”
I avert my eyes, lost in my memories, drowning in the hatred bubbling to the surface. “Caleb was there. When I got the phone call from my mom, I told him to watch my stuff.”
Kai’s nostrils flare. “Caleb? From that Tartarus House?”
“His ex,” Milo mutters, putting his hand in front of his mouth.
“He was chatting me up. I thought he was just trying to be friends again,” I say between thoughts.
Kai’s jaw tenses before he finally releases me. “You think he stole them and shared them with everyone?”
“Who else could it have been?” Milo asks. “I would never share those pictures myself. I treasure them. And I know Nathan does too.”
But I’m not listening to anything they’re saying anymore because of the fire raging in my body. “I’m gonna kill him.”
I slam both fists onto the Tartarus House. “CALEB. SHOW YOUR FUCKING FACE!”
“Maybe it’d help if you ring the doorbell?” Milo says, casually pushing the button.
I keep ramming my fists onto the wood until the pain reverberates in my arms. But it’s still not enough to quell the rage inside my heart.
He did this. It has to have been him. No one else had access to my laptop. I carry it with me everywhere I go. The only exception was that one fucking phone call.
When I stop, Milo rings the doorbell again.
After a few seconds, someone finally opens the door.
“See?” Milo muses.
But I just ram my fist into the guy’s face instead, hurling him to the floor.
“Where the fuck is Caleb?” I yell as I grab him by the shirt and lift him from the floor to meet my fist for a second time.
“Wow, chill, dude. I don’t know,” the guy says. “Hey, aren’t you …?”
“Phantoms, yes,” Kai says with his hands in his pocket.
“What the fuck do you want from Caleb?” the guy asks.
“No worries, I’m here.”
I release the guy from my grip at the sound of Caleb’s voice. He approaches from behind us with a bag slung over his shoulder.
“You …” I grit as I turn to face him. “You motherfucking asshole!” I yell, grasping him by the collar. “You stole my pictures, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t steal shit,” he retorts. “Are you accusing me?”
My teeth almost break from the amount of grinding I’m doing.
For a split second, I contemplate biting into his flesh instead.
“Nathan.” Kai’s warning voice pulls me back from the violent beyond. “Don’t.”
Fuck.
We can’t risk getting even more enemies. The Skull & Serpent Society is already enough to have on our plate. We don’t need the fucking Tartarus House on top of that too.
“Go on. Ask me what you wanna ask,” Caleb murmurs.
I can barely speak without sounding like a mad man.“Did you send my picture of Lana to everyone’s email?”
“No.”
My nails dig into my skin. “Don’t. Fucking. Lie.”
“It wasn’t me,” he growls. “I already tried to tell you that, but you won’t believe me.”
“No shit!” I spit back. “You were the only one in the library with me.”
“There were a ton of other people,” he quips.
“Yet you were the one watching my laptop.”
“Was I?” He lifts a brow. “Or did you just tell me to?”
Fuck.
I probably did, but I’d assume he’d do it.
My teeth grind together.
“We weren’t the only ones there,” he adds.
He’s the only one with a motive, though.
“You’re the only one to hate me enough to send that picture to the whole goddamn school.” Fury makes me lash out, and I roar before I raise another fist. “You motherf—”
“Enough.”
A stern voice coming from the front door makes me stop midair.
Blaine’s standing there, gripping the doorjamb, glaring at both of us.
“I won’t allow you to soil this ground with blood,” Blaine says, smiling when he sees me looking. “You’re all better than that. C’mon. You were lovers once, right?”
“True,” Milo muses.
“Shut up,” I bark at him.
“Your boy Caleb over here decided to put some very private pictures of Lana and us on the group chat,” Kai growls at Blaine.
“I did not,” Caleb retorts. “And I keep telling them that, but they refuse to believe me.”
Blaine walks out of the Tartarus House and approaches us. “Interesting.” He stops when he reaches me while I still have Caleb in a death grip, ready to pound his head in. “Caleb, you’ll fix this.”
“What? But I didn’t do shi—”
Blaine interrupts him with a single finger. “Just do it.”
“How is he gonna fix this?” I retort. “Everyone’s already seen the picture. Fuck knows the entire internet by now.”
“Turn it into a story,” Blaine says, waving his hand. “Make her look like a victim.”
“What … you mean turn us into predators?” Kai folds his arms and tilts his head. “You think I’m going to agree to that?”
“Your girlfriend must hate you right now, no?” Blaine retorts.
Kai’s eye twitches, but he doesn’t respond.
“Then I guess this is the only chance you’ve got to make it right.”
“Um … is everyone forgetting the dead body in the picture?” Milo pulls out his phone to show it to both Caleb and Blaine.
Kai snatches the phone out of his hand. “Great job, Milo. Now even more people saw it.”
“They already did.” He shrugs.
“Yes, I’m aware of the dead body,” Blaine says. “I’ve seen the picture.”
“People will assume she’s a killer now,” Kai says.
“Not if we make people believe the three masked men in the photo were responsible,” he says, a hint of a smile forming at the left corner of his lip.
“Go on,” Kai says.
“Take your guy off Caleb first.”
Kai throws me a glance, and I hesitantly move off Caleb, lifting him to his feet.
He pats down his shirt and pants and brushes off the remaining dirt. “Asshole.”
“You’ll probably have to pose for another kill with those masks on for it to work, though,” Blaine says.
“Caleb can help with that,” I snarl at him. “I can turn you into a corpse in no time.”
“Fine. I don’t care how, just make it happen,” Kai says. “We have to make the school believe she’s innocent.”
Suddenly, my phone buzzes.
I fish it from my pocket, but when I see the message, all the anger I felt for Caleb is redirected at the phone.
Romeo: You really, really, shouldn’t have come to our club, Nathan … Your girlfriend left quite the mess.
I snap as the phone screen cracks under the weight of a cruel frenzy to tear him from limb to limb.
Romeo: I’m so glad one of my guys managed to catch a glimpse of her face, though. It was easy to find her. Come with money, and I might give her back. If you don’t … I’ll sell her to the highest bidder.
