The Broken Puppet (The Elite King's Club 2)

“Okay, so the tape…,” she starts, and I pause my chewing, looking around the cafeteria in panic mode.

“Tatum!” I snap at her through a whisper. “Why would you bring that up?” I sit straight, biting into my apple again.

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe because you haven’t mentioned it.”

“Well I just want to forget.” I give her a pointed stare.

“I just have this thing. So who sent it? Ally?” She won’t stop. Someone needs to gag her.

“Apparently so—yes.”

“But here’s the thing.” She spoons her yogurt into her mouth. “Ally was apparently at a retreat the day that video got leaked. As in, she couldn’t have done it, because you’re not allowed phones.”

I pause again, thinking over what she said. There’s no way that it couldn’t have been Ally. All signs pointed to her, and she admitted it was her. “It was her, Tate. She confessed.”

Tatum shrugs. “Ehhh, I just think that’s Ally. She’s going to take credit for any pain that has been inflicted on you, just because it’s you. But I don’t think she sent it.”

“Well, maybe not.” I drop my apple, appetite gone. “But she definitely had a part to play in it.”

“Mmm,” Tatum murmurs. “Which is my next thing. There’s someone who was working with her if that’s the case.”

I look around the cafeteria, watching all the students, in small cliques, some laughing, some drawing, some playing the guitar, and some just alone. “I haven’t had any trouble from it since, so I don’t want to look into it. Let’s just drop it?”

Tatum nods. “Consider it dropped.”

If she’s right and someone was working with Ally, then there’s someone here who is working against me. Could it be Lauren? But since Ally disappeared, she’s been hanging around the nerd group.

Just as I’m about to open my mouth, Bishop walks into the cafeteria with the rest of the boys following closely behind. He takes a seat beside me, Nate sitting next to Tatum. I should really ask what’s going on between the two of them, but I won’t. I’m scared he’s just using Tatum as a rebound from Tillie, because I saw how he was with Tillie. Without sounding completely bigheaded, I didn’t even exist when Tillie was around, and since she’s been gone, I can see, just slightly, not in an obvious way, what her absence has done to him. I know I was told not to look for her, but once all this shit is sorted with the Kings, and Daemon, and Katsia, and all the other things I’ve left out, if she’s still not home, I will look for her.

Bishop wraps his arm around me, pulling me in and kissing me on the head. “Hey, baby.”

Swoon.

I smile shyly. “Hey.”

Tatum kicks me from under the table, so I look at her, widening my eyes to ask what the hell she wants. Her eyes shoot over her shoulder, so I follow, looking where she’s pointedly staring, and that’s when I see it. The whole school has pretty much stopped what they were doing to watch Bishop’s and my exchange. It’s unsettling and it’s weird, but I’ve gotten used to it over the years. Not just because Bishop is who he is, but from always being the new girl. But attaining Bishop has made people’s heads spin. He’s the standoffish asshole. No one was good enough for him—until me.

“So, just a quick little question while I have everyone here. Carter is throwing a party this weekend to mark….” Tatum thinks over something and then shakes her head. “Never mind. I forgot what it was for, but anyway! I’m going. Mads?” She looks at me, her eyes wide like innocent little saucers. The innocence is a lie.

I stick my straw into my mouth. “Think I’ll pass. I have a few things to do this weekend.”

“Bishop being one of them?” she quips back, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Bishop being all of them,” Bishop answers for me, picking me up from my seat and placing me onto his lap. I feel bad. I know I shouldn’t, but I do. I know Tatum feels like she’s losing her best friend since Bishop and I have been spending so much time together, and I don’t want her to feel like that at all. Tatum’s eyes drop to her food, and she picks at her orange.

Rolling my eyes, I turn to face Bishop. “Shall we go? Just for a little while. We don’t have to stay late.”

Bishop tosses one of my carrot sticks into his mouth and winks. “Yeah, babe.” He looks over Tatum’s shoulder, directly at Carter. “We should go.” His eyes do that dark thing, and I spin back around, his hand gripping possessively on my thigh.

“We will come.”

Tatum claps excitedly. “Yay, okay, so outfits—”

“Oh no.” I cut her off. “Nope. You’re on your own with that. I’ll wear whatever I have.”