The Fall of East: Book 3 in the Hear No Evil Trilogy, Malone, Nana [inspiring books for teens txt] 📗

each other, but I think that you both have a great deal of respect for each other. And if I didn't know better, I'd say that you two were friends."

Telly frowned at me. "You know what? I was starting to like you, but now I’m not sure I do.”

I laughed. "Um, sorry, no distractions. Let's get back to the Emma and Bridge thing."

Emma frowned at me. "God, we were so close to forgetting the whole topic of conversation."

"I'm sorry, but I need to know."

Emma sighed. "Okay. He said he wanted to meet me, so I met him. No big deal. I thought he wanted to talk about the case or maybe apologize for being a total dickhead to me. But it was neither of those things. He was telling me to back off, threatening me actually. He said that if I didn't back off, he was going to call my mother."

Livy's mouth hung open. Telly just stared at her. "Wait, he threatened to call your mother if you didn't comply with his orders?"

Emma nodded. "Can you imagine? As if he's my dad or something. So, yeah, Hazel was right. We were having an argument. Or maybe we'll say a spirited conversation about my work, my volunteer opportunities, and how he thinks he can arse into my life."

"Wow. Is he always that bossy?" Hazel asked.

Liv and Telly nodded as I spoke. "Yes. He doesn't say much, but ugh, Bridge. When he does say something, everyone listens."

Hazel leaned forward. "What's his story anyway? All I know is that he is one beautiful, tall drink of water."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Oh, he thinks he's God's gift. He's not. He's engaged to a woman who slapped me."

Hazel stared bug-eyed. "She what?"

Emma waved a hand. "She called me a whore. And slapped me."

Livy cracked a laugh. "Oh my God, why didn't I know of this particular piece of juicy goodness? Is she still standing?"

“Sadly, yes, but only because Bridge was there. Otherwise, it would have been a whole different story.

As I sat back and watched, I marveled at my new friends and remembered back to a recent time, when I had no East, no Amelia, and I felt completely alone. Things were different now. I wasn't alone. I had family. And I wondered how in the world that had happened.

Chapter Eleven East

The night after the girls went out, the lads got together.

I tossed my mini ball up in the air and caught it.

Drew was on his third scotch.

After the revelation from last night, none of us had quite recovered yet. We’d gathered back at Ben's to go over our options while the girls were out together.

Drew glared into his glass. "So, what happened to the real Walter Jameson?"

I shrugged. "Maybe he drowned in the boat accident that day."

Even as I said it, the words rang false to me.

Ben said, "If he drowned and it was an accident, then why the hell did Marcus Van Linsted identify Henry Warlow as Walter Jameson? Sure, his face was messed up, but he identified him, so that means—"

Bridge chimed in. "Yeah, the mental gymnastics you're going over right now, make it easier on yourself. The only answer is that Jameson killed him. On purpose. From what those reports say, he wasn't even supposed to be on that damn boat. And all the other boys on board must have been involved since their statements backed up the claim that there were only eight people on board."

I shook my head. "No, he wasn't supposed to be there."

Ben snatched the ball in mid-air as I was about to catch it. I frowned at him. "Hey, give it back."

But Ben just gave me a smug smirk. "Take it back."

"I don't like this. We've been Theroux's pawn from the beginning. Why didn't he just mention that he suspected that Warlow was Jameson?"

"Because we're Elite," Drew muttered. "He knows that. He knows everything about us. He knows we're honor-bound to at least protect Jameson in some kind of way. He knows that we wouldn't have believed it. Or he wants Jameson, I mean Warlow, to go down publicly. Full arrest. The whole nine yards."

Bridge shrugged. "Or he wants him to go down in a blaze of glory. To take everything that belongs to him. Which, I'm down for a revenge game. I really am. Look at us, after all. But what has Warlow done to Theroux? If we find that answer, we stop being pawns."

He had a point. When Ben wasn't looking, I snatched my ball back. "Hey," he growled.

I just chuckled and continued to toss it, angling my body away from him so he couldn’t easily grab it. “The other option is that Theroux couldn’t prove it himself.”

Bridge’s voice was low when he spoke. "The difficult thing is, we have proof he isn't who he says he is. We could take it to the authorities tomorrow, though we’d have a hard time explaining how we got it. Removal from the Elite and the protections it offers could be punishment enough for Garreth.”

I glowered at him. “That’s not enough. I want him to burn for what he did to my sister and to Toby. All of that. I want him gone. For good.”

“We’ll make sure he pays, East. I promise you.” Ben said. “But I still want to know why Theroux would go through all of this? Why not just tell us who he was and let us investigate instead of all this clandestine shit?"

Ben sat up. "This goose chase, it's like he's playing with us, but why? He doesn't know us. We don't owe him anything. We didn't steal from him, so there's no revenge motive. There's no reason to put us through these paces."

Livy's soft voice coming from the stairs had us all turning. I sat up straighter. "Are you wearing unicorn pajamas?"

She twirled and then popped her head a little bit. "I know, aren’t they awesome?"

Ben seemed unperturbed by this. Which meant he'd seen them before.

I stared