Elite (Eagle Elite) (19 page)

“Hmm.” I put my free hand on my hip. “I wonder what Nixon would say about that.”

Fear flashed in her eyes for a brief moment before she shrugged. “Tell him whatever you want. Because in a few days it won’t even matter anymore. He’ll get bored. They always do. You’re like the shiny new toy, and believe me when I say, Nixon really loves to play. Good luck finding any guy who will talk to you after he breaks you and puts you back on the shelf.”

Stunned I stared as she stomped off. Girls shoved past me. But I couldn’t move. Dread filled my stomach. What if she was right? I hadn’t known him very long, and wasn’t it kind of weird how close we had gotten? It wasn’t normal. Even I wasn’t backwoods enough to think anything about our relationship was normal. It was odd, but it worked, right?

I chewed my lower lip and walked back to my room.

Monroe was sitting on her bed looking like she’d been thoroughly kissed the night before.

“I take it Tex was attentive?” I decided not to tell anyone about my run in with the chick in the bathroom and put my stuff away while I waited for Mo to answer.

“He’s so…” She sighed happily. “Perfect.”

“Tex?” I laughed. “We are talking about Tex, right?”

“Shut up!” She threw a pillow at my head and giggled. Oh gosh, she had it bad. Right, like I could talk. I did in fact just sigh while reading a text not even a half hour ago. “He’s just so sweet and my family totally approves, which is a huge deal!”

My hands froze over my bathrobe. “Your family kind of strict?”

“Kind of?” She snorted. “The last guy I dated ran away screaming, and I’m not joking. My family is all about appearances and connections. Luckily, Tex is everything my dad actually likes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, for starters, his parents just bought out a multi-million dollar software company, and Tex is supposed to take over the family business in a few years. I mean, not like Nixon. I guess things happen faster than you realize, but Tex is next and—”

“Wait.” I put my hand up. “Nixon runs your family’s business?”

“Businesses.” She chewed her fingernail. “He kind of oversees everything. Like the CEO to the CEO you know what I mean? Or I guess just the owner-operator. Whatever. Anyways, Tex—”

“Wait, one more question. Why is Nixon even in school?”

Monroe laughed. “I thought you’d been hanging out with my brother for the past couple weeks. You know just as well as I do that he doesn’t actually go to school.”

Oh my gosh. My boyfriend was a dropout. “He quit?”

She gave me a confused look. “Um, he technically already graduated. He was so many credits ahead that this year he decided to take enough credits to be Student Body President, but that’s it. Why do you think it seems like he’s always roaming the halls and has all the access cards to everything? They wouldn’t just give that to a student.”

“But…” Confused, I began to pace. “Why hasn’t he told me?”

“Chill.” Monroe jumped up from the bed and pulled me into a hug. “It’s not like it’s a secret. Everyone knows about it. I’m sure he just assumed someone already told you.”

“Right.” I smiled, even though it felt forced, and hurried through my morning routine. It bothered me that Nixon hadn’t said anything. But what bothered me more was the fact that I had been blindly trusting him for the past few days without ever forcing him to answer any of my questions.

The main one being… Who the hell was he?

Chapter
Twenty-three

As promised, Grandpa was waiting outside my dorm at eight o’clock sharp. “Looking good,” I shouted at him once I stepped outside.

The minute he turned around I froze.

All his white facial hair was gone. He was wearing a really nice suit, like the type you see on Armani ads, and his smile seemed… worried.

Was nothing real in my life anymore? My grandpa was a farmer! A farmer! What would he need with a suit?

I approached him and the same black Mercedes I saw him driving last night. “What’s going on?”

“Trace.” He licked his lips. “Let’s just spend the day together and we’ll talk, okay? But not here, honey.”

I nodded. I mean, I really didn’t have any other choice. The car smelt like Grandpa, which was weird considering it was a rental.

The doors were heavy, too heavy to be a normal car, and the glass seemed thicker than normal. Not to mention that the windows were so darkly tinted it would be impossible to see in. I had no idea you could rent cars like this.

“Good news first or bad news?” Grandpa asked once he started the car.

“Bad. Always the bad first.”

Grandpa coughed. “Let me start with the good.”

“Why ask if you were already going to start with the good?”

He chuckled and shrugged. “The good news is that I’m going to be in town for a few months.”

“What!” I shrieked. “Grandpa, what about the cows! You know Wilbur won’t like being left without anyone familiar, and Matilda is—”

“I still regret letting you name some of the animals,” Grandpa grumbled. “And Wilbur and Matilda will be fine. They’ve got Scott. He’s going to watch over operations for a while.”

“Scott. As in, our cousin Scott?”

“Yes, Scott.” We joined the main road traffic. “He’s a good man and wanted some extra money, so I’m going to pay him to watch over things while I’m here.”

And then it hit me. Grandpa was sick. He had to be. Why else would he move? “Are you dying?”

Grandpa shook his head and sputtered. “Why would you think that? Do I look that awful clean-shaven?”

“No.” My breathing returned to normal. “I just… Well, why would you move here for a while?”

“Now, for the bad news.” Grandpa looked pasty white as he got on the freeway.

“What?”

“Everything you’ve ever known… is about to change.”

****

For some reason his words didn’t really hit me as hard as they should have. After all, everything had been slowly changing since Grandma’s death. I just didn’t know how or why.

Things were too weird not to change.

Maybe that’s why I didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, I tried to concentrate on what Nixon and I would do later. I had to. Because if I thought about the fact that Grandpa was driving me outside the city in an expensive car, wearing a suit, I would freak out.

I closed my eyes for a few minutes in order to conjure up Nixon’s smile, his face. When I opened them, Grandpa seemed to be immersed in his driving.

I snuck out my phone and sent Nixon a quick text.

I’M KIND OF FREAKED.

He didn’t respond right away, but when he did, I pretended not to hear the vibration. Grandpa was clueless. I pulled out the phone and looked at the screen.

U R SAFE AND U HAVE NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF.

I smiled and texted back.

WHY? U FOLLOWING ME?

My phone went off again.

GOTTA RUN!

I glanced in the rear view mirror just in case I was right. But I didn’t see Nixon’s SUV. Clearly I was reading too much into things.

Grandpa took the next exit. We were on the outskirts of town in some sort of subdivision I’d never been to before.

“Where are we?” I asked as we passed some large houses and land. I could still see Lake Michigan, so I knew we couldn’t be that far out of Chicago.

“Lake Forest,” he answered.

Something about Lake Forest seemed familiar. I just didn’t know what it was. Maybe it was just because I’d seen lots of signs for it? Wait, hadn’t Nixon taken me out in this direction for our date? Granted, we hadn’t gone this far. Or had we? Gosh, it felt like it took forever to get back, but I could have sworn it was only a twenty minute drive. Or was it?

I wracked my brain. “This kind of looks like where Nixon took me for our date.”

“Date,” Grandpa repeated. “With what, pastures?”

I looked around at some of the pretty farmland. “Yeah, kind of.”

Grandpa didn’t say anything for a while as we headed down a paved road into what looked like private property. “He was probably trying to get you to remember. I should shoot him for doing that to you.”

“He’d probably pull his gun on you too, Grandpa.” Whoops, that slipped.

Grandpa slammed on the brakes. “You saw his gun?”

“Kind of hard not to with people chasing us.” I shrugged.

Grandpa cursed in the same language Nixon often cursed in, and I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. This was too strange. Like something out of a movie. Clearly I was losing my mind.

“What’s so funny?” Grandpa smiled.

“You sound like Nixon. What language is that anyways?”

Grandpa was silent again as we drove to the gate of the property. Across the railing it said. “Alfero.”

“That’s on Grandma’s necklace.” I pointed at the sign as the gates opened, revealing a gorgeous expanse of grass and water fountains with trees lining the driveway. As we neared the end of the driveway, a three-story house came into view. It was a freaking mansion. My mouth dropped open as Grandpa pulled the car to a stop.

With a sigh he pulled the key from the ignition and looked at me, sadness dancing across his face. “Welcome home, Trace.”

Chapter
Twenty-four

“Home?” I repeated in a small voice.

Suddenly a man with an ear-piece pulled open my door. “Miss Alfero, an honor. Just this way.”

I gawked at the man and looked back at my grandpa. He was getting out of the car and walking toward us.

The guy with the earpiece gave a curt nod to Grandpa. “Mr. Alfero, welcome home, sir.”

Grandpa gave the man a swift nod in return and put his hand on my lower back as he led me up the stairs to the giant entryway of the house.

Nothing anyone said could have prepared me for what was behind those doors. Nothing. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be happy or sad or pissed or shattered… I could only stare as Nixon stood in the entryway in my supposed house, with at least fifteen armed men. Chase and Anthony by his side.

“Ready?” Nixon asked, not once looking in my direction but over my shoulder to Grandpa.

Grandpa answered a gruff
yes
and continued pushing me through the giant hall.

Heartbroken and so totally betrayed, I didn’t know what to do. All I knew is the one person I wanted to trust had lied to me, big time.

My legs almost gave out on me before I could sit on the couch. Nixon sat directly across from me. All of his armed men behind him, and then I turned around and noticed that we had twice as many men behind us in that large entryway.

Everyone had guns.

And every single gun from Nixon’s group was trained on Grandpa. Every single gun from Grandpa’s group was trained on Nixon.

It was like a bad mafia movie.

Only every time I blinked it just became more real.

“You broke the rules,” Grandpa said, leaning back in his seat.

Nixon smirked. “What? You think I actually knew right away?”

“You grew up with her!” Grandpa yelled.

“She was six!” Nixon all but shouted.

“You may as well have pulled that trigger. Your father…”

“—Is dead.” Nixon smirked. “Cold and lifeless, lying right next to my mother.”

“What?” I shrieked. “You said that—”

“Monroe doesn’t know, Trace.” Nixon’s eyes softened for a brief second. “He’d been sick a while. It’s…”

“None of her damn business.” This from Anthony, who was staring at me as if we hadn’t shaken hands and spoken a few days ago.

“Gentleman.” Chase cleared his throat. “Back to the reason for meeting.”

Grandpa bristled next to me. Clearly he didn’t like taking orders from people younger than him but then again how was I to know they weren’t lying about their ages too?

“As I was saying…” Grandpa put an arm around me and squeezed. “The poor girl lost her parents at six. That’s still old enough to recognize people, you should have known Nixon.”

“I told you the minute I did,” Nixon defended himself. “And it wasn’t like I could have done anything!”

“You took her outside school property.”

“Before I knew.” Nixon sighed heavily. “I didn’t even guess until I saw the damn necklace with Alfero on it.”

“Then you should have stayed away.”

“Careful,” Anthony said from Nixon’s left. “You may be within your rights to call him out, but he’s still the boss. Has been for some time. So tread carefully, old man.”

Grandpa cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Mr. Abandonato.” He spat out the words like they were venom. “But the minute her cover was blown, the very second, you should have locked her in her damn room.”

What? Why would Grandpa say that? I tried to shrug underneath his arm but he held me firm.

Nixon’s icy eyes pierced through mine. “She’s just a teenager, Frank. What did you want me to do? Blow everyone’s cover? Ruin everything? And for what? Precaution? We’ve been in this for four damn years.” His eyes fell to Anthony. “Some of us longer. How was I supposed to know you’d drop her directly into the fight? Your own granddaughter? We were doing just fine until you did this to us!”

“And you still have no proof!” Grandpa shouted.

“We’re close!” Nixon fired back. “We just need more time.”

“Time doesn’t give Trace her parents back,” Grandpa said softly. “Time doesn’t heal a broken heart, and time will not fix the fact that you have successfully helped expose my innocent granddaughter to our world. I only meant to appease my dying wife, while at the same time allowing Trace to be used as bait only if necessary, and what do you do? You claim her for your own! An Abandonato!”

“All I can say is I’m sorry. I didn’t know. But would you rather have me leave her helpless? Admit it. She would have known something was up if I locked her in her room, and honestly we weren’t even sure she was exposed until last night when we almost…” Nixon swallowed. “Got killed.”

“Until it was almost too late!” Grandpa nodded his head. “So what are you going to do now? How do you hope to make amends?”

“Easy. We’ll let things die down, and we have to work faster to infiltrate the De Lange family.”

Grandpa nodded his head as if satisfied. “She must be protected.”

“We’ve been protecting her.” Chase’s teeth clenched. I thought he was going to break a tooth.