Page 88 of Lovers Like Us

Donnelly nods to me. “Real orrumor?”

“Real,” I say. “You hear what he did to the Porsche?”Farrow knows. I already toldhim.

“Nah, no one’s saidyet.”

I think about how this won’t ever reach the public. You’ll never hear about Eliot’s suspension thanks to the Cobalt’s lawyers, but I’m betting security will find out tomorrowmorning.

And SFO is about to find out by metonight.

“In red paint,” I tell them, “he wrote‘the most unkindest cut of all’on the windshield.” I shake my head a few times, conflicted. I wish I could defend my eighteen-year-old cousin, but he vandalized another guy’s car. Eliot is a Cobalt, innately passionate. I swear he can never do anything half-heartedly.

“What the hell does that even mean?” Quinn asks. “The most unkindest…what?”

“Should’ve gone to college, little bro.” Oscar throws back a whiskeyshot.

Quinn scowls. “Maximoff didn’t go tocollege—”

“He’s a billionaire. He didn’t need to go to college.” Oscar outstretches his arm. “If you quit boxing, you should’ve gotten a degree, not followed me intosecuri—”

“Guys, be cool,” Akara interjects. This isn’t the first time the Oliveira brothers have argued on tour. At least they never get physical like Charlie andme.

Quinn clenches his jaw and screws the cap on the whiskeybottle.

“It’s a quote fromJulius Caesar,” I explain. “You know Tom was withEliot?”

Donnelly smirks. “My Cobalt children, slayin’together.”

Thatcher shakes his head. “Let’s not advocate vandalism, especially among theteenagers.”

“Advocado-what?” Donnelly pretends to bedumb.

I laugh with some of them, and Farrow eyes me a bit, his smilestretching.

“How’d Tom get out of trouble?” Akara asksme.

“Eliot just took all the blame for them.” I pause, their heads turning to the entrance. Vigilant as a middle-aged woman peeks in the bar and pops out. I hear her tell a friend that it looks empty in there, and their footsteps fadeaway.

Not spotted.Foronce.

Their attention fixing on me again, I finish, “The whole thing was Eliot’s ideaanyway.”

Oscar digs through the peanut shells. “Why’d they doit?”

I decide to be vague, the whole truth too personal. “The guy was messing with mysister.”

Luna clued Tom and Eliot in on the pregnancy scare, and they said the guy she slept with was spending his holiday break telling his friends that Luna Hale is aslut.

I wish I could’ve teleported toPhilly.

So I could do something. Be there for her. I don’t know if she told our mom and dad yet. And I honestly can’t tell you what I would’ve done if I were the same age as Luna, in school at the same time—would I’ve reacted similar or worse than Eliot?I don’tknow.

The bodyguards nod. Not pressing for more details. I bet they can sense when I’m beingreserved.

Quinn slides a newly filled glass to Farrow, but Thatcher steals the drink midway across thetable.

Farrow rolls his eyes. “I wasn’t going to drink it,Mom.” He slides off the stool and walks backwards to the empty bar. “What do you want, wolfscout?”

I think about how that’s stealing—fuck, he can totally tell I’m considering all the rules. His smile widens, and I swear “so pure” is on the edge of histongue.