All Grown Up (Eden High)

“Go ahead.”

“Now, these notes, that’s what we focus on first. Chances are they’re from one of Mandy’s old crew; I mean, who else would it be? Jace, you were there that night and didn’t see anyone else but Cassie and her parents, which means this is coming from that she-beast. If you want to keep Cassie’s parents out of this, we’re gonna have to cut the snake’s head off.”

“Yeah? How do you plan to do that? She’s behind bars. It’s not exactly like we have access.” I said it more as a test because I never know what he knows from one moment to the next. His smirk put a crimp in my gut. Jared and Shayne, who had been following along, held still as they looked back and forth between us.

“Let’s just say, you got the cellmate, and I got the CO second shift, Monday to Friday.” I didn’t give anything away by my expression, but I guess I should’ve expected this. “Damn, and we thought we did something, hey Shayne.” Now it was Track’s and my turn to look at the other two.

“What do you mean?”

“Should we tell them?” Jared asked Shayne, who grinned and nodded.

“The three of us knew that the two of you would get your asses in trouble over her, so we called in some favors. The best we could do was the food supervisor, and it took us a long time to get to her.”

“Called in favors? From who? And why didn’t you tell me you were doing that shit?”

“Mancini, who did you use?”

“Mancini!” This fucking guy is everywhere and in every damn thing. “So basically, we were in the dark about what each of us was doing, but he knew.” I’m gonna have to have a talk with him about this shit.

“Wait a minute, Alex is in on this with you guys?” That fuck can actually keep a secret?

“Yep! Which means we better hustle our asses to Cali before he goes rogue. You know he’s hotheaded and is bound to fuck shit up beyond recognition before we get there.”

“I can’t believe you guys kept this from me.” I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, even though I’d pretty much done the same thing.

“You realize we’re treating each other the way we treat the women, right? We can’t do that shit. From now on, we share everything no matter how much we may feel it’s best not to.” I looked at Track when I said it, and that fuck didn’t even flinch.

“That sounds good in theory, but the cops are already looking at you because of that twit’s lies and manipulations. They’re not gonna look at me because I wasn’t even there when the whole thing went down. She’s a known criminal, yeah, and they know who one of her attackers was, you’re still not off the hook.”

“I’m not worried about that. If you all remember, I’m the one who brought her into our midst. Everything she’s done is on me. I can’t have any of you suffering anymore behind my screw up. But at the end of the day, she fucking set Sian up to die; no one else is touching her but me.” They all suddenly became interested in the ceiling.

SIAN

“What did you hear?” I whispered the words to Belle as soon as she cleared the door. The others and I were gathered in the playroom with the kids who were still too young to play with half the things their dad and uncles had bought them. My daughter was sitting in the more practical bouncy walker her grandma had bought her, while my son was latched onto me like a limpet.

“Not much, but there was something about Mandy and notes. I think Cassie might have been receiving notes from someone. They didn’t mention anything about what was said in the notes, though.”

“I told you there was something fishy about this sudden change in plans. I wonder why Cassie didn’t say anything to us.”

“Who knows, there’s more.”

“What?” She had all of our attention. We’d chosen Belle to be the one to sneak as close to the room as possible to eavesdrop because she’s the one who can get over on Jared the easiest. She has him so wrapped around her pinky that all it takes is a pout, and he forgives her anything.

Jace glares me into submission, and Shayne gives Tammy the silent treatment. It takes him an hour tops before she caves. As for Valerie, whenever Track wants to know what we’re up to, they disappear behind closed doors for a while, and she comes out looking sheepish and apologetic, so we know she spilled every damn thing. My ass is still stinging from Jace’s last inquisition, so Belle was the best choice.

“They have people on Mandy too.”

“What? On the inside?” She nodded her head, and there were a few murmurs amid the rest of us. I wasn’t able to get that close, but we’ve kept in touch with Kelly, who pretends to be on good terms with Mandy and Liz to keep on top of the situation. I’d only been thinking of parole hearings and such and keeping on top of whatever moves Mandy was making behind bars, but it seems the guys were up to something else.