Page 50 of Liar

Wait.

I come to a severe halt, my legs practically electric with anger.

“Where the fuck were you two?”

Ember jolts, her eyes snagging on mine. Savannah slows to a stop and crosses her arms.

“Getting to know each other better,” Savannah supplies, despite where my attention has very clearly landed. “We’re sisters now that Ember’s been officially proclaimed a Virtue.”

My eye tics in response. That’s another reason I need eyes on Ember at all times. My father has plans for her, and with how he handled his supposed best friend, Malcolm Weatherby, I don’t have much faith in Malcolm’s ability to defend his daughter.

But I can.

As Savannah talks, the pink in Ember’s cheeks drains to her neck, leaving her face paler than usual and staining her collarbone bright red. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was shame coloring her body. My lips curl.

A line forms between Ember’s brows. She looks at Sav, then back at me, as if trying to solve a mathematical problem between us.

“You have a sister,” I say to Sav. “Go see how she’s doing. I’ll take care of Ember.”

Ember steps farther away from both Sav and me, breaking our little triangle. “I don’t need any taking care of. And I’m hungry, so I’m going to lunch.”

She walks between us at a fast clip, her head dipped low so she doesn’t have to make eye contact with either of us.

That’s odd.

I swing my arm through the space between her elbow and torso, snagging her against me.

“What the—”

My mouth brushes her ear so the movement of my lips sends tingles down her neck. “I said, you’re coming with me.”

She tries to push out of my hold. Obviously, she fails. As her plan B, she swings her face to mine, glaring. “You made your intentions pretty clear last night. I’m not a basketball you get to bounce around and score whenever you feel like it. If you really wanted me, you would’ve stayed. But you didn’t, so fuck you very much and let me go.”

Sav’s brows shoot up. I frown. It’s through slitted vision that I growl at her, “You can go now.”

“Right when it’s getting interesting? That’s not very fair,” she says.

My frown turns into a warning sneer. It’s not like she’s jealous. We’ve both been playing our parts for our parents, being the good little heirs. When I first saw her after she returned, I was sincere in my concern, but her actions soon showed me that her trauma wasn’t entirely real. I’m well versed in how to be fake, and it seems Sav collected a few tips while she was gone.

Sav holds my stare but ultimately concedes, as everyone does. Nobody comes close to melting my ice. She backs up a few feet, but adds, “Remember what we talked about, Ember,” before swiveling on her heel and walking off.

“Well, that was unnecessarily ominous,” I muse over Ember’s head, but her struggles quickly redirect my efforts.

“Let me go, Thorne.”

“Every time you say that to me, it makes me want to fuck you harder.”

She stiffens. Releases a frustrated growl. Then aims a kick.

Shit. She got way too close to my goods. I toss her over my shoulder to put her legs out of commission.

“Hey!” She bats against my back. “We’re in the middle of school! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

I spin, taking us in the opposite direction of the cafeteria. “Taking us somewhere more private.”

“I don’t want to be anywhere with you! Put me down!” She smacks at my lower back again.

“Keep going. You know I like it rough.”