Page 33 of The Secrets We Bury

Moments pass like that, the two of us captured in each other’s gazes. The only sound that drifts through the cab of the SUV is that of the radio on low and the sound of the rumbling engine.

When the light turns green, he doesn’t sit up, but he does turn his eyes back to the front as he takes his foot off the brake and eases the vehicle forward as we start moving again. I release the breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. Somehow, I forget how intense he can be when he sets the sole of his focus on you.

I need to remember, even if I’m with the Scorpion Kings—it’s only for now. At the end of this year, we all graduate. Maybe we’ll go to Eastpoint together, or maybe life will take us all in different directions. There’s no telling.

“You don’t have to tell me,” I say after several more minutes have passed as we’re getting closer to his house. “It was stupid to ask. I’m sorry.”

Nolan doesn’t respond right away. In fact, he doesn’t say a word as he turns into his neighborhood and parks behind the Indian motorcycle in his driveway. I don’t think he will until as I reach for the door handle, his voice rises up over the still playing radio.

“I got my scars from the same place you got yours,” he says.

I frown and twist back to face him. “I don’t have scars.”

Nolan’s smile is sad as he tilts his head and then turns off the car. “We all have scars, Princess. Some are just easier to hide than others.”

With that, he gets out of the SUV, leaving me propped in the passenger seat. Before I asked, I would have assumed Nolan got his scars from his father. I still think that. His words to me,though, have me second-guessing not the question itself, but why I asked it.

It’s taken me losing everything—my home, my family, my friends—to realize one fact of life. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or what kind of luxuries you possess. Everyone has scars. The rich. The powerful. The poor. The powerless.

In that, we’re alike.

The Scorpion Kings and I… we’ve bled to be where we are and it doesn’t matter where we started, the end is always a climb, not a fall.

13

JULIET

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a party in my old zip code. When Lex’s SUV pulls up in front of a three-story McMansion, I mentally ask myself why the fuck I agreed to this in the first place. Walking in there is going to be like wading into a pool full of sharks wearing a meat jumpsuit.

“Are you guys actually here for the party or are you working?” I ask as Lex follows one of the attendant’s navigation directions as he waves us past the driveway to a separate parking area that’s been set up because, yeah, it’s one of those kinds of parties.

“Both?” Gio grins from where he sits on the bench seat in the back with me.

I groan and let my head flop back against the seat. “I should’ve stayed home.” How easily I’ve come to think of the guys’ places as home now. I’ve stopped even looking for new apartments in my budget—not that there are any in Silverwood.

Gio nudges me with his elbow. “Where would be the fun in that?” he asks.

I side-eye himhard. “Are you asking if I want to be arrested?” I prompt, gesturing towards the massively lit-up house with girls in teetering heels and short sparkly dresses andguys in polos and khakis striding up the front lawn. “Because this is practically asking for trouble.”

“Then why did you agree to come?” Nolan asks.

“I’m asking myself that very fucking thing,” I mutter in response.

The fact is, the idea of the Scorpion Kings leaving me behind doesn’t sit well with me. I’m like a puppy who got picked up from the pound. I’ve decided to trust them and stop biting at them, and now I have abandonment issues. If only Ms. Beck hadn’t been a mindless Morpheus drone.

“I’ll keep you company, baby,” Lex says quietly.

He glances at me in the rearview mirror as he directs the SUV into a makeshift parking spot and turns off the engine. I offer him a lame smile just as Gio whoops and jumps from the vehicle.

“It’s free booze and a fucking good time!” he calls out, already several feet from the car, the back door hanging open as he abandons it. “Let’s go!”

“How did the two of you become best friends with him?” I ask absently as the three of us sit in near silence at Gio’s hasty departure.

“I think my mom took pity on him and kept inviting him to my birthday parties,” Nolan replies.

Lex chuckles, the sound low and reverberating. The sound reminds me of what other noises he makes when his head is between my thighs and he’s driving me to the brink of insanity. My thighs tighten. Jesus H. Christ.

“You know it’s because he’s solid, dickhead,” Lex says, landing a soft punch on Nolan’s arm as he, too, gets out of the SUV. “Gio might be a bit of an idiot, but he’ll always back us up.”