A Rose to Keep (The Society 1)

“Do you have an answer for us?” Gideon asked.

“What do you want me to do?”

“First, you tell us what your decision is.”

Heather took a deep breath and leaned forward. “Do you intend to harm her? Break her? Humiliate her in some way?”

“No. Have you heard of anyone doing that in previous selections?” William asked.

“I’m not asking about previous ones. I’m talking about this one. None of the others matter. The only person who does is Sian. Will you hurt her?”

“No,” Gideon said.

“You have to promise me.”

“Heather, you’re not in a position to negotiate.”

“I am. Do you think I give a shit about all of this?” She pointed around her.

“Yeah, I do,” Gideon said.

She laughed. “I guess someone like you would think that.”

“This is your future, Heather. Your life.”

“No. What you don’t get is I’ve met a whole lot of people. I know a good person when I see it. Sian is an amazing person. I have never met anyone like her. She was born with a silver spoon and yet, she is nothing like any of you. She is kind and sweet, considerate.”

“That doesn’t sound like the girl who keeps on turning us down,” I said.

“You don’t know her. None of you do. You don’t know her fears. Her pain. What she has to deal with. All you care about is that prize you get once this is done.” She shook her head. “Look, Sian is … she has trouble with her parents, okay? She is doing everything they want her to do within reason. Her plan is not to stick around with them. I agree to help in any way I can because I believe Sian is going to need a friend. I don’t trust any of you, and she already has to be here against her wishes.”

“She was in a public school,” I said. “Why the fuck would she want to be there?” I was getting angrier by the second, and it had nothing to do with Heather and everything to do with the little tidbit of information we’d just been given.

“She loved it there. If you’re really serious in doing all of this for Sian, then try to find out everything you can about a nanny named Drew.” Heather got to her feet and left.

“How is that supposed to help?” William asked.

“Simple. We find out what this Drew meant to her, and we discover what makes Sian tick. We all know what nannies are like.”

“Mine fucked my dad,” I said. “Did anyone realize in that short little time that we fucked up?”

“You mean about the parents?” Dante asked.

“Yep.”

“Hell, yeah, I heard it,” William said.

Gideon nodded.

The moment her parents got involved, we were fucked.

****

Dante

Gideon had tried to call his dad to make sure he didn’t talk to her parents, but it would seem we were late. Sian’s parents were already aware of the situation and the last we heard from Heather at lunchtime, there was a dinner date scheduled for Friday.

Crap.

We had exactly three and a half days to make Sian agreeable, and the fact she was pissed at Heather’s transfer didn’t look good.

She ignored us.

Considering we completely surrounded her, well, that just wasn’t good. She treated us as if we weren’t there.

I wanted to touch her.

To make her react.

But she just … blanked us.

After the end of Wednesday, giving us two days, I had enough.

Sian packed up her bag as everyone left the room. When she made to leave, I grabbed her arm, stopping her from escaping.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“You can’t ignore us forever,” I said.

Like the good little sheep they were, everyone left the room without a word, including the teacher. The door was closed, giving us privacy.

“Is there not anyone here who will stand up against you?” she asked.

“Come on, Sian. You know how this works,” I said.

Gideon moved in close behind her as William and Mateo took up her sides. We surrounded her.

Sian closed her eyes, and I noticed her hands clenched into hard fists. What was she thinking about?

“Back off,” she said.

None of us did.

“I don’t like this.”

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Gideon said.

“You would have heard if rape was our thing,” William said. “News flash, it really isn’t. We don’t like to force a woman.”

Sian chuckled. “You do realize how stupid that sounds, right?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” William asked.

“You don’t like to force a woman, and yet I’ve told you guys no and you’re insistent on not listening. Double standard.”

“None of us have touched you when you didn’t want it,” Gideon said. The tips of his fingers trailed down her arms and she flinched away.

This woman was proving to be a bigger challenge than I ever realized.

“I want you to get Heather back,” she said.

“We don’t have control over that,” Gideon said.

“Don’t lie. I know you guys had something to do with this. There is no way she can go from being in my classes to having to take different ones.” She folded her arms, and her glares were cute.