Broken Empire (Boys of Oak Park Prep 3)

“No, I don’t think so. Thanks.”

“All right. Give me a call when you graduate, and we’ll see what we can do about getting more of your trust released before your twenty-first birthday.”

“Okay, I will.”

“Goodbye, Talia.”

I pressed the button to end the call and held the phone away from my face, staring at it. Goddammit. I wasn’t surprised she hadn’t told me—she’d steadfastly refused for the entire time she’d worked on my case in Sand Valley, so there was no reason to think she’d cave because of a quick phone call months later.

But I had hoped maybe she would. Or that she’d forget she wasn’t supposed to tell me or something.

The way she had hesitated before answering though… Did she know Adam Pierce?

I slipped my phone back in my pocket. It was good that I had touched base with her anyway, considering that I would probably need her help if I wanted to free up any more money for college tuition. She’d given me copies of a bunch of documents with information about the trust, and I’d taken pictures of a few documents we’d submitted to the judge, just so I could reference everything later.

I’d have to go through it all soon and seriously think about whether I wanted to try to go to school next year or not. My plan of taking time off had made sense when I thought I’d be dancing, but now that I knew that wasn’t going to happen, I felt like the responsible thing to do was go to college.

Putting all of that away to think about later, I pressed the button on the side of my phone and checked the time. It was almost eleven a.m.

Cole had told me he’d pick me up when he and Penny were on their way to mini-golf, and even though I had a perfectly good car in the lot, I’d accepted.

I didn’t like it though.

His parents probably only had a vague idea who I was, a memory of me as a little girl in a sundress—but if his dad wanted Cole off-campus for the weekends, I didn’t think he’d take too kindly to hearing that his son had driven all the way out to Oak Park to pick me up.

Finn and I got in a bit of studying while I waited for Cole and Penny to arrive, and when he texted me to let me know he was in the lot, the blond quarterback insisted on walking me across campus. Cole met us halfway, making me feel even more like a human relay baton.

He had Penny in tow, and the sight of the two of them together made my footsteps stutter. She was a petite girl of eight—or nine by now, probably—all thin limbs and bony elbows. Her hand rested inside Cole’s much larger one, and with her at his side, the raven-haired boy looked even bigger and broader than usual.

I wondered what it must be like for her to have someone like Cole for an older brother—to know that the hulking slab of muscle would do anything to protect her.

Then I wondered what it was like for her to have to watch their father beat Cole, and my stomach turned over like a corpse in a grave.

I shook the terrible thought away as they approached, and Finn gave my hand a squeeze before he released it. Our fingers had twined around each other without me even realizing it, something that seemed to happen more and more these days. As if our bodies knew something we didn’t—or wouldn’t admit—and were constantly trying to reconnect, to get closer.

Introductions were made, and the boys exchanged a quick greeting while Penny stared up at me with big eyes, then Cole took my hand in his free one and the three of us started across the lawn toward the student lot. He kept his pace deliberately slow to match mine, and when Penny started to get ahead of us, he cleared his throat and jerked his chin slightly toward me.

She adjusted her pace, shooting me another wide-eyed look, and I smiled weakly.

God, why am I so fucking nervous?

I’d never officially met his parents since I’d arrived at Oak Park, but I found myself way more worried about what Penny thought of me than I would be about Mr. or Mrs. Mercer’s opinions.

Cole’s gaze cut to me, and I thought maybe he was hiding a smirk. Like he knew exactly what I was thinking and thought it was cute or something. I narrowed my eyes at him, and the smirk finally broke through, tilting his lips as we reached the parking lot.

His car was a sleek Aston Martin, and as he reached for the passenger door handle, I saw his gaze flicker between me and his sister.

“Hey, Penny, why don’t you sit up front?” I offered, moving toward the other door and saving Cole from having to decide between us.

I could feel him watching me as his sister climbed into the front seat and I slid into the back. When he got behind the wheel, he adjusted the rearview mirror to see my face, and there was something warm in his bright blue eyes.

The mini-golf place was on the outskirts of Roseland, about a twenty-minute drive from the school. The entire way there, Penny kept up a constant stream of chatter, with Cole throwing in a few words here and there in his deep, gruff voice. I didn’t say much, partly because I thought Penny had sort of forgotten I was in the car and I didn’t want to scare her—she’d been mum all the way across campus, too busy staring at me to say anything at all.

The other part of why I didn’t talk was because I was caught up in observing the interactions between Cole and his sister.

She had lighter hair than him, but I could see other similarities in their features. And although their personalities seemed as different as night and day, I couldn’t help thinking the universe had created them as the perfect complements to each other.

Cole needed someone around who would fill the silences he couldn’t. And given what I knew of their home life, Penny probably needed someone who would listen when she talked.