Page 48 of The Ruling Class

“Theresa.” Ivy didn’t raise her voice, but the use of my full name spoke volumes.

“Go,” Vivvie told me.

“If you want me to stay …,” I started to say.

“It’s fine,” Vivvie said quietly. “Just go.”

CHAPTER 31

Vivvie wouldn’t tell me much about what she and Ivy had talked about. “Your sister’s just trying to establish a timeline,” Vivvie said when I asked her. “How my father got involved, when he got involved, how he and Pierce know each other,ifthey know each other.”

“And?” I said.

“And,” Vivvie hedged, “I answered her questions.”

She wouldn’t say anything else. My sister wanted me out of this. Ivy Kendrick excelled at getting what she wanted.

That night, Vivvie slept in my room again. The next morning, I woke up alone.She’s probably just downstairs, I told myself. I threw on clothes. No Vivvie in the living room. No Vivvie in the kitchen, the foyer …

“She’s not here.”

I turned toward the sound of Bodie’s voice. “ ‘She’ as in Ivy, or ‘she’ as in Vivvie?”

Bodie took in the expression on my face. “Your sister’s out,” he said, hooking his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans. “Little Viv’s gone.”

“What do you mean,gone?”

Bodie held up his hands in a mea culpa. “Bad choice of words. She’s fine. She’s just not here.”

“Where is she?” I asked flatly.

“Viv’s in good hands, kiddo,” Bodie said. “Scout’s honor.”

In other words: this was need-to-know, and I didn’t.

“Where’s Ivy?” I asked. She’d found someplace to stash Vivvie and left Bodie to break the news to me.

“She and Captain Pentagon had an errand to run.” Bodie’s answer was cryptic. I tried to figure out what kind of “errand” Adam and Ivy might be running this early in the morning, but came up empty.

“Catch.” Bodie tossed his cell phone at me. I caught it. “Number’s already cued up. If you’re worried about Little V, call it.”

I took that to mean that Bodie would rather clue me in on Vivvie’s location than Ivy’s. I stored that fact away for future reference, then made the call.

Vivvie answered. “I’m fine,” she said, instead ofhello. “Ivy didn’t want me to wake you.”

What Ivy wanted, Ivy got.

“Where are you?” I asked Vivvie. “What did Ivy do?”

“She found someplace for me to go.”

Vivvie had an aunt. Her father’s younger sister. Vivvie had never even met the woman until this morning. Now she was living with her.

Courtesy of Ivy.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Bodie made an attempt at levity as he pulled past the Hardwicke gates to drop me off. “Forthat matter, you might want to stay away from about ninety percent of the things Iwoulddo, too.”

Vivvie wasn’t coming back to school until Monday—time for her bruises to heal, and time for her to get to know the relative Ivy had summoned up out of nowhere, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat.