Wild Girl (Slateview High 2)

Just before I was raped and probably killed by the man I went to for help.

Bishop was silent for several long moments, and when my gaze flicked back to meet his, he was staring at me with an unreadable expression. I almost expected him to not answer.

Finally, his voice cut through the quiet, still air of the abandoned office. “We look out for what’s ours, Princess. Haven’t I made that clear enough?”

“I know you do.” I swallowed. “But how—”

Misael’s fingers slid gently over the bracelet the three boys had given me at the same time Bishop’s gaze shifted down toward the silver band on my wrist.

I glanced down, my brows drawing together. What did my bracelet have to do with them knowing where I was?

Then it hit me in a rush, I jerked my gaze back up to Bishop. With trembling fingers, I pulled the bracelet off. It was one of those kinds that had a hinge, letting you snap it shut to keep it safely on your wrist. The silver band was thick, and I held it up in the dim light, gazing hard at the smooth surface.

“The GPS is inside,” Misael said in a low voice. “It’s not meant to come out.”

My heart stuttered in my chest.

A GPS. A tracker.

The gift the boys had given me had been about so much more than just a simple piece of jewelry.

I blinked up at Bishop, a dozen different emotions tearing through my chest. I didn’t know whether to be outraged or grateful—but the honest, unavoidable truth was, this gift had saved my life.

“You were… spying on me?” I asked, stumbling over the word.

“Why were you meeting Flint?” Bish repeated. “How did you manage to get in contact with him?”

His voice was blunt. Not angry, but there was a tension there that I couldn’t place.

I bit my lip, gathering my thoughts and my courage.

Then I explained everything. From the happenstance of seeing Flint’s number on Bishop’s phone, to having the back and forth in my mind about whether or not I should meet with him. I explained how it all stemmed from overhearing a damn name and wanting to follow a lead.

The boys listened, never interrupting. I could tell all three of them wanted to say something, but they let me speak until I was finished. And when my words finally ran out, we sat in a prolonged silence.

Eventually, Bishop spoke up.

“Why didn’t you tell any of us about wanting to do this?”

“Because I knew you would’ve tried to stop me if I had,” I said. “You would’ve said ‘no’ at the first hint that I wanted to—”

“For a good reason, Cora.” His sharp voice cut me off. “Flint—fuck, he’s not, he wasn’t a good person.”

“You worked with him.”

Bishop’s expression hardened, his eyes glinting in the dim glow of the streetlights from outside. His lips pressed together, and he shook his head. “Yeah. Because we had to. Because he worked for Nathaniel and so do we. It’s totally fucking different, and you know it, Cora. You know what would’ve happened to you—”

“Well, clearly nothing would have happened to me, since you were watching my every fucking move!” I snapped the bracelet back on my wrist, waving it in his face.

Bishop frowned. “We weren’t watching your every move, Cora. We were taking care of you. We were making sure you wouldn’t end up in the exact situation you did with no fucking backup.”

“Well, you should’ve told me about it! Not just put a tracker on me without my knowledge.”

“Yeah? Like you should’ve told us about your plans to meet up with Flint?”

Fuck.

I sank back onto the couch, the hot flare of anger draining out of me. He was right. They’d kept something from me, just like I’d kept something from them. And although it hurt to think they hadn’t been honest with me—that their sweet gift had held an ulterior motive—they had done it to protect me. They had known, in a way I had refused to admit, how out of my depth I was here.