Savage Sinners (Elites of Macedon High 3)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tomas

“It’s for your own good.”

I hate how much I sound like my father right now. My sister must hate it, too, because she turns her nose in the air, appearing more like our mother than at any other moment in her life. The sharp cheekbones, thin lips, and silky hair are trademark Marie D’Hautpoul, a signature that will likely follow Addie around for the rest of her life.

But hopefully not the drugs.

No matter what, she’ll never escape the impressions left by our parents. By me.

At least she’ll be with one of them.

“Cynthia agreed it would be best for our mother as well,” I add, trying to sound cheerful. But I’m feeling worse by the second. “It’s not until I graduate, princess.”

“I don’t like it.” She brushes her hair with her fingers, braiding and undoing the strands repeatedly as she paces the room. “It just doesn’t feel right to be separated.”

I sigh. “You didn’t have that objection when I sent Mother to live with the Welles.”

“That’s because she needs a babysitter—I sure fucking don’t.”

“When did you start cursing?”

She rolls her eyes and huffs, flipping around to face her bed. On the mattress sits an ivory white suitcase set with embossed gold ivy trailing along the sides. It was a gift from our father for her recent birthday, a present fit for a teenager instead of the little girl she used to be. I extend my hands to her, but I’m aware of how useless the gesture is when her back is turned.

“Addie,” I whisper, “I can’t take you with me.”

She spins around. “Why not?”

“Because it’s too dangerous. The guys and I…Alex is…” I close my eyes out of frustration. How do I put into words what we are when I can’t even tell what the hell we are? She’s our girlfriend and our toy—and we belong to her in much the same way. That’s not exactly something I can boil down to terms that Adelaide would understand. “We just have shit to do, okay?”

“You mean chase after bad guys?”

I shrug. It’s as good an explanation as any. “Sure. That’s what we’re doing.”

“You don’t sound confident.”

“And you sound nosy.”

A frown steals her lips and she flips back around, hugging herself tightly. Realizing I’ve hurt my sister’s feelings, I take her shoulder gently and tug her into a warm hug. She resists at first, grumbling something about me being an asshole, but rapidly gives in when I rub the spot between her shoulder blades.

The same thing works on Alex, too.

“It’s not forever, princess,” I assure her despite my uncertainty. “I’ll call and text. Shit, I’ll even send you emails if you want.”

“The fun ones? The animated ones?”

After planting a kiss on the top of her head, I nod. “We won’t be out of touch. We’ll just have a lot of distance between us.”

“We could use one of those encrypted apps—the ones that delete messages.”

“Yes, we could easily do that.”

She sniffles. “Could we do video calls, too?”

“Well, that might be a little more complicated, Addie.”

She shoves me. “What good is having a brother if I can’t rely on him?”