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“Marauders…” I say, remembering Hawke’s story.

But Hawke retorts. “That story isn’t true. It inspired, but it’s not accurate.”

“I think it might be,” I reply, turning back toward the street. “There’s a reason there’s bad blood between Pirates and Rebels. And something woke them up.”

The tower has new residents, and someone has noticed. It’s starting again.

Hawke

“Why Madoc’s?” Aro asks. “They could be going anywhere.”

I turn right, watching the Charger continue straight, and I speed ahead to get to the highway and the shortcut to Madoc’s house.

“You think Reeves is sending them?” she inquires.

“If Madoc has something that can protect him or that Reeves can use as leverage, he’ll need it more than ever now,” I tell her.

It’s his style to get angry teenagers to do his dirty work for him. They’re dumb enough to take the fall for him. That’s why he built Green Street in Weston. Because the parents there aren’t connected, the younger population is desperate.

“And if they’re just here to play,” I add, “Madoc’s is where everyone is at.”

Either way, the fun is at Kade’s house tonight.

Stoli and Dirk follow, Dylan taps away on her phone in the back seat, and Aro sits next to me, her eyes peeled for the other car. I punch the gas, trying to get there before them.

“Tie them up…” she says under her breath. “Hold them hostage…other things if people are into it…”

She repeats my words from the Carnival Tower story. I never really knew if it was all true or not. My parents didn’t seem to know much, and around the time I was born, the stories seemed to disappear altogether. According to my research anyway. The rivalries went on but all very tame. No violence, no breaking and entering, no threats, definitely no murder…

If that’s what happened to Winslet anyway.

Aro is right. Something is happening again, and it’s hard to ignore that Carnival Tower is a story that just might be somewhat true.

I glance in my rearview mirror, seeing the Weston jersey still on her. “Dylan…”

But she purses her lips. “No.”

She doesn’t even look at me, just shakes her head.

“They will take it off of you,” I grit out. “You have other clothes in that bag. I know you do.”

But she refuses to look at me, probably texting Kade and her friends to warn them that a shit-ton of trouble is on the way.

She’s going to be a senior this year, and from the looks of it, a whole new shit show is on the way.

And she just races toward trouble. Every damn time.

I won’t be there to watch out for her, and I don’t trust Kade to have her back. He just encourages her.

I look over at Aro, seeing her watching me. “And whose side are you on tonight?”

But I say it with a small smile, so she knows I’m teasing. Kind of teasing. There’s a lot more to her home than just Green Street, and the only thing she has here is me. It’s hard to be sure what she has to fight for.

But instead of saying Falls or Weston, she just says, “Yours.”

My chest tightens, and I look back at the road, knowing we have no time for me to pull over and kiss the hell out of her.

She told me she loved me last night. I never thought in a million years she’d be the one to the say it first. I’d wanted to say it since that night she crawled into bed with me and just slept.

And then she woke up the next morning and hopped out, going off to make coffee.

No pressure.

No expectations.

Just there for each other.

Not that women were always so all over me that I had to fend them off or anything, but in that moment, I knew I needed her in my life—as a friend or anything really—because it was the first time I knew I was never going to be alone again. As long as I could keep her.

Of course, my family is amazing, and I’ll always have them, but I loved Aro that morning and how she seemed to understand that I had just needed someone to talk to. I told her stuff I would never tell my family or friends, because I knew she wouldn’t laugh at me.

I loved her in that planetarium and when we made pizza for breakfast and when I saw her standing alone at my college and watching the other students. I wonder if I might’ve even loved her on the fire escape in the rain that second night.

I don’t want her to ever speak another word again that I can’t hear.

But she thinks this is going to end. She even seems resolved to it failing when we part ways for school. Like she doesn’t even want to try.

Her history with Green Street is tough to compete with, because even though she hates it there, she’s comfortable with Hugo and the rest of them. She knows what she’s in for. Nothing is unexpected. They all grew up the same—she feels equal.