Mad Love (Slateview High 3)

“Yeah.” He smiled at me, a rare and beautiful sight I had come to love. “Come with us, Coralee.”

A few minutes later, the four of us piled into Bishop’s car, and it felt so much like old times that something both pleasurable and painful pricked at my chest. I tried to tamp down the pain and focus only on the pleasure, repeating the words that Josephine had once said to me.

Appreciate what you have rather than worrying about what you might lose.

Right now, I had the Lost Boys, and they had me. And I was going to appreciate every minute I got to spend with them.

We listened to music and talked as we drove, and I could tell all of us felt the same giddy happiness at being together. The guys caught me up on what’d been going on at Slateview over the past week, and I told them about my run-in with Marissa.

Bishop shot me a sharp look when I mentioned that I’d punched her twice, and I didn’t know if he was about to lecture me about keeping myself safe and not starting fights or pull the car over and yank me into his lap so he could fuck me. To my disappointment, he did neither, although heat reflected in his eyes as he lifted my hand from my lap and brought it to his lips, kissing my bruised knuckles.

Fire shot through my veins at the touch, and the car grew quieter as we approached Nathaniel’s house. Tension and desire filled the small space, and I had a strong feeling that if they hadn’t been called for a meeting with him, they would’ve blown off every other responsibility and taken me back to Bishop’s house to tear my clothes off.

When we arrived at the house, the man who looked like a butler greeted us. I’d been shocked the first time I had come here and seen how elegant and luxurious Nathaniel’s house was, but it made much more sense to me now. The line between the criminal class and the elite class of Baltimore was razor thin, almost indistinguishable sometimes.

We were ushered upstairs to Nathaniel’s office, and unlike the last time I’d been here, the people we passed by didn’t look at us as if we had one foot in the grave already. A small shiver worked its way down my spine at the memory, and I felt the Lost Boys shift closer to me. I shot Misael a grateful glance, and he squeezed my hand.

The butler left us just outside Nathaniel’s office, and when the man himself opened the door, his gaze traveled quickly over the boys before landing on me. I tensed slightly, not quite sure what his reaction would be, but he smiled broadly.

“Cora. It’s nice to see you. How’s everything been at home?”

There were more layers of subtext to that question than I could possibly untangle. It was because of Nathaniel’s intervention that Dad had been proven innocent of the crimes he’d been accused of. Nathaniel had revealed that my father had been set up, and that revelation had resulted in his release from prison.

And in exchange, my father owed him a favor.

I hadn’t forgotten about that bargain, and I was sure Nathaniel hadn’t either. But his question didn’t sound like it had been meant just as a reminder of the debt Dad owed him. He sounded genuinely curious, maybe even a little concerned—as if he had some idea what being wrenched out of this life and away from my boys had done to me.

“It’s… it’s been okay,” I said, attempting to put on a smile. It was the vaguest answer I could give without outright lying, but he didn’t seem fooled for one moment.

He cocked his head at me, then nodded, letting the subject drop. “Good. I’m glad to hear it. If you’d like to wait in the library while we deal with our business, I’ll make sure Josephine knows you’re here. I’m sure she’d love to say hello. I won’t keep your boys for too long.”

He gave me another smile and then ushered the Lost Boys into his office. Kace brushed his hand over my lower back as he stepped forward, the touch soothing and reassuring. Once they disappeared inside the office, I made my way toward the library. I’d gotten caught wandering in here by Josephine the first time I’d met her, but this time, I was actually hoping she would come and say hello.

There was something about her that drew me in, that made me want to listen when she spoke.

She was so different from my own mother, but was so many things I wanted to be.

She was soft without being weak. Elegant. Self-assured. She was a part of Nathaniel’s world without allowing herself to become dominated by it, and I couldn’t help but look to her as a role-model.

“Cora.” Her smoky voice behind me made me turn, and a smile broke across my face as I caught sight of her. “What a pleasant surprise to see you here. I’m so glad you came with your boys today.”

“Hi, Josephine.”

She gestured me over to a seat by the window, glancing back toward the door as we settled down in the bright winter light streaming through the glass. “Nathaniel has been giving them greater and greater responsibility, and he’s been quite pleased with their work. You should be proud.”

I could tell she meant it, and it occurred to me that maybe Nathaniel was grooming the Lost Boys to step into higher level roles in his organization once they graduated high school. After all, it wouldn’t be long now.

“That’s good. I am,” I said, surprising myself with how much I meant it.

There was a part of me that still resisted the idea of them becoming any more enmeshed in this life and this line of work. But at the same time, I had come to accept a long time ago that this was part of who they were. And it made me glad to see them succeeding.

“And how are you? How have things been?” Josephine asked, turning her attention back to me.

I opened my mouth to tell her the same thing I’d told Nathaniel. That I was okay, and that things were fine. But somewhere between my brain and my tongue, the protective filter I had erected failed, and when my mouth finally did open, the truth spilled out.

“I’m engaged.”

The two words felt like daggers to my own heart, and Josephine’s eyes widened. Apparently, although the Lost Boys had gotten wind of it, the news hadn’t reached Nathaniel yet—although I was sure it would now.