Tiny Dark Deeds: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Court Legacy Book 3)

Sloane

I didn’t know how to make a fire, but I figured I should try.

It was going to get cold tonight.

It was already cold considering night had fallen, and this stupid hoodie wasn’t going to do much.

Get it together. You’re going to be fine. It’s going to be…

Swallowing, I continued to root around for tree branches, weeds, and anything I could possibly make a fire with, my sight guided by my burner phone’s light. If I didn’t have that, I had the lighter I always kept on me. I had one on my key chain for the times when I did have a little cash to cop some weed.

These days, I hadn’t really been smoking any at all, and I had a big bundle of leaves more than any branches I could find for a fire. There weren’t really any trees out here. The concrete channel Ares had brought me to that one time only had wet trash and other debris. I figured it’d be a good place to camp out with all the pipes and all that.

The graffiti wall did have a few trees down the hill, though, so after grabbing a bunch of what I could find, I headed back. I couldn’t start the fire on the hill. Someone might see, but I planned to stay as close to the wall as I could. I liked being there for some reason.

Sniffing through chilled nostrils, I hugged the leaves and shit and made my way. I kept my hood down, snuggling into the heat I had but it made seeing pretty shitty.

Had I been watching where I was going, I would have seen him.

I hadn’t seen anyone outside of my brother and Thatcher Reed without the use of a screen for a long time. It’d been long enough where the presence of another definitely threw me, and not only did I drop everything in my hands, ice immediately locked on and froze my entire body. Limbs wouldn’t move. Legs wouldn’t run.

And sight took hold.

Palms up, a man came out of the shadows from behind the graffiti wall, but even before he got up on me, I knew who he was. Thick curls tucked under a backward ball cap, his letterman jacket on, but he was tall and something I always took note of because I was tall too. I had a vantage point way over most girls, and I usually stared guys in the eye, even if they held a few inches over me.

But this guy, this boy I always had to look up to, and even more so than the dark prince.

“Don’t run,” he said, and I noticed I did have a leg out, arms up. I was mid-sprint and didn’t even know it. Ares patted the air. “Please don’t run.”

I blinked, staying there. I wasn’t reacting how I thought I’d react and did think if I saw him again, I would run. He’d lied to me.

But for some reason I stayed still as he gained closer, each step deliberate but cautious. His throat worked. “It’s just me.”

It’s just him.

I even looked to see, studying the corner he’d come out of. I’d been on the painted side of the wall when he’d come through.

The side we’d tagged.

Of course, it hadn’t been just us. He said his dad and him had…

“No one else knows I’m here,” he stressed and even pulled off his hat. His curls fell out of it. “I swear it’s just you and me.”

My breath accelerated, air supply short, chest tight. “How did you know I was here?”

When Bru had called me, I’d just run and had no thoughts at all where I was going. He’d tried to ask me where I’d go, but I’d hung up. I had left and come here and totally hadn’t known where I was going until I’d arrived.

Ares shifted on his shoes a beat, and where he stood, breathing appeared to be hard for him too. He took a large one after I spoke. He faced back to the wall. “I thought if it was me, I’d come here.” He pressed his hair down before sliding his hat back on. “Lots of pipes and places to hide so…”

That made sense.

“I guess I just had a feeling too or… or something.” He wet his lips. “I don’t know. I felt like you’d come here. Like I said, I would.”

I nodded, messing with my hands. He started to come closer, and I raised mine.

He did too.

“Sorry. I won’t— Fuck.” He bit his lip, nostrils flaring. Large puffs of air clouded around him, and there definitely wasn’t a lot of light going around. Besides the shitty lighting coming off the channel, there was just the minimal light pollution from the city below the hill. His hands lifted higher. “I’m not here to do anything, and I haven’t told anyone I’m here.”

He hadn’t?

“D called me after he ran into Bru, and I just hopped in my car. Started driving.” His jaw shifted. “I just want to be here, okay? No pressure, and you don’t have to come back with me or anything like that. Just…” He swallowed. “Just let me be here. Be here with you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, but definitely hadn’t expected that tightness to hit my throat. He just wanted to be here, and for some reason, I wanted him to be and what the fuck?

“Okay.” My voice cracked, like I was on the verge of fucking tears and what the fuck again.

Ares’s hands lowered. He took a step back, letting me past.

We sat at the wall.

We parked it there together in the low light, my legs out and his up. I gauged time between looking at them and at him, though he stayed facing forward.

How did I not know?

How did I not see it, our similarities? Besides us both having pretty crappy attitudes the majority of the time, this guy basically had my face if I was a boy.

It was my face.

I mean, obviously we weren’t identical, but we both had angular features, straight noses and wide eyes. Ares had also been in a lot more physical altercations than me. He had a scar under his eye and along his jaw. They were faint, but they were there and possibly because of football.

This is wild.

He was like an inverted version of myself, masculine features where mine were softer. Then there were the more obvious things, our height being one of them.

We had the same hair.

Though Ares had put his ball cap back on, his dark, almost black curls still nearly touched his shoulders. These days, I definitely wasn’t straightening my own, and we even had a similar curl pattern, thick and untamed if one let it get to that point.

Ares’s lengthy fingers tapped his jeans, rips at the knees showing the same honey-gold complexion like myself. He braced his chunky Court ring, like Dorian’s just without the rubies for eyes.

“How’s your cheek doing?”

Our gazes clashed after what he said, and I apparently hadn’t been the only one looking at the other. He had his knees up, arms out. He pointed toward me. “Your face? Is that okay?”

I touched my cheek, no pain, but my own altercations hadn’t healed completely yet. I’d hit the floor in that warehouse, the warehouse with Godfrey. I hugged my legs. “It’s fine.”

He said nothing, still staring at me. Me and this dude even had the same eyes, tawny colored like a doe’s fur. I suppose a buck in his case. His hand locked around his wrist. “What about over all? I…” Lengthy fingers gripped his cap. “I heard you had some bumps and bruises.”

I suppose he had.

The world knew my story after all.

Those physical scars were basically gone today, all evidence of that day gone, but how could it really be?

The mental wounds still there, I turned away from him, pressing my face to my knees. “You said no one’s coming,” I stated, arms shaking, so fucking chilled by all this. “Why?” I thought he’d bring an army if he found out where I was.

They had before.

Silent, Ares left me to hear my own words fade off into the air.

He touched me.

Or at least he tried to. I whipped around, and he had his hands up. The jacket he’d been wearing was in his hands, and he held it up. “I was just going to… you know.” He pointed toward me. “You look cold. You were shaking.”

I was shaking and only partially from the cold.

His lips moved. “Here. Take it.”

I did, putting it on, and the wash of heat surrounded me. Ares’s jacket was heavy, and the Windsor Prep W was stitched on the chest. Lined with a silky material, I hated how comfortable it made me feel. How it reminded me of other comfortable times, late nights and laughter in his garage when we’d painted together.

Or watched late night TV.

That time we’d binged The Office and eaten so much junk food I thought I would pop still lingered in my mind. He’d come to my rescue that night, been there for me. I closed my eyes. “Why are you here by yourself?” I asked again, turning. We locked eyes again, and I swallowed. “Why didn’t you tell anyone? Why didn’t you tell…”

I couldn’t think his name, let alone say it. It was like my brain was rejecting it or something, and that remained consistent. Whenever I thought about his friend lately, it triggered things in me.

And the reason these days were obvious.

If Ares knew what I’d been about to say, he didn’t mention it. His gaze fell to the hill. “You ran before,” he said, his attention flicking up. “But you didn’t with Thatcher. You trusted him.”

My breath left in short puffs, heart racing.

“I figured having your back obviously worked for him so…” He shrugged, his expression hardened. He brought a hand down his face. “Figured it was my best bet. Didn’t want you to run.”

He shook his head after that. Like he was rejecting thoughts too. Maybe he was. This was obviously difficult for him.

“Why did you run?” he asked, and this was far beyond us just being beside each other. He didn’t have a right to ask me any questions.

Not after what he’d done.

And he couldn’t deny that shit. The evidence had been there and in my friggin’ hands when I’d gone into that home studio at his house. My jaw worked. “How long did you know?”

His chin tipped, head cocked. “Is that why you did?” He leaned forward. “Because I lied? Lied to you?”

I was glad he was admitting it.

I didn’t answer, and he sighed. Raising up, he touched his back to the wall.

“Not as long as you think.” His gaze swung in my direction. “I didn’t know who you were when you first got here. Honestly, it was a fucking fluke how it happened.”

I scanned him, watching as he scrubbed his hands down his face.

“A fucking miracle.” His attention latched onto me again, pointed, heavy. He frowned. “Remember that party I had? That day I mean?”

Of course, I fucking did. He lied to me then too.

He blinked, pulling that cap off and running a hand over his curls again. He returned it backward on his head. “Of course, you do. I made a fucking fool out of you.”

It was really crazy how my thoughts really did align with his. Like we were always kind of on the same wavelength, and I’d noticed it before this when we’d worked together closely.

Trying not to think of those similarities, I sat there, and Ares braced his long arms around his raised legs.

“Well, before the party, I saw you looking for something.” He chewed his lip. “Remember that? How you were on your knees looking for something?”

I shrugged. I guess I did. Honestly, I’d forgotten about it. I had seen a flash of something, but he’d made me feel like an idiot for being on the floor.

He reached toward me, and when I sat back, he raised a hand.

“There’s something in the pocket.” He directed a finger. “In the jacket? You can get it.”

Eyeing him, I tugged the pocket over, feeling around until I did feel something. I pulled it out, and it took me a second to see what I was looking at. Metal, whatever it was had been tarnished to the point where it wasn’t recognizable as, well, anything. It had a layer of age and distress, and with the channel’s low light, I couldn’t really see what the object was until Ares shined his phone light on it.

But when he did…

My heart stopped, like fucking stopped, full stop. I definitely recognized this thing.

It looks like his.

It resembled Ares’s emblem, the one he’d worn when we were painting. It looked exactly like it, but it was older and dented.

My thumb running over it, I looked up but only to see the same one in front of my face.

Ares held another, this one dangling from that familiar chain he always wore in his garage. His was newer, or at least nicer. He swallowed. “The one you’re holding is the one I found on the floor that day I saw you in the hall.” He cleared his throat. “I looked under the lockers after you left.”

He tugged his off, giving it to me. I was able to compare the two then, and they were completely identical.

I ran my thumb over both of them. “I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t either.” His back touched the wall again. “As far as I knew, I only had one. My parents gave mine to me when I was a kid.”

That’s what he’d said to me in the garage, that he got one as a kid.

“But I should have been the only one,” he continued. “Dad told me he had it made out of this old, archaic-as-shit necklace Court guys used to give their girlfriends. They called it a ‘Court Kept’ necklace or some bullshit. Only guys were members back then, and it was a way to claim their girls.”

Jesus, that was archaic.

“Right?” Ares laughed a little, apparently the pair of us on the same wavelength once more. “Anyway, I don’t know why it was never given to my mom. Maybe because it was archaic. I know he got it in high school, and they didn’t meet until my dad was at college so…” He angled forward. “Basically, I was the only one supposed to have it. It was unique. Obviously, since Dad made it out of this thing he used to have. He had that old necklace melted down and actually did it himself. He’s into metalwork. Don’t know if I mentioned that.”

I stayed quiet, watching him.

“He said the old necklace was special, that it meant something else, but now, it was for me because I was theirs. His and Mom’s.” He put his hands together. “They gave it to me when I was like real little. I’ve had it for forever.”

I stared at the two, all that meaning there. What he’d said was so beautiful, wonderful.

“But I hadn’t seen mine in years,” he said, and I looked up. He nodded. “I used to lose it all the time, and it meant so much I had my mom keep track of it. The day of my party, I pocketed that one I found, then texted my mom after. I wanted to know where mine was so I could compare them. I hadn’t seen mine in a while, you know, so I wasn’t completely sure they were even the same.” He focused on me. “I also asked her if another was made. I figured there could be a possibility because I was, uh… well, because I was a twin.”

My throat dry, I squeezed the emblems. “What happened?”

“Well, nothing at first. My mom’s not much of a texter, and both my parents were out of town that day.” His breath was harsh, labored. He gripped his legs. “She didn’t call me until late. Told me where mine was and confirmed there’d been two. She said my sister Pilar had the other one, and both were on our baby blankets before Mom and Dad made mine into a necklace.”

I rubbed my chest, my throat.

“I bet I’ve seen that photo a million times. Us. Me and Pilar in those blankets.” He faced me, his mouth turned down. “But I never put two and two together. That my necklace came from the blanket and her charm obviously came from hers.” He pressed his hands to his face, his mouth. “I just hadn’t put it together, and even after my mom told me the connection, I didn’t believe what I had was Pilar’s. I mean, how could I? I couldn’t.” He studied the sky. “It didn’t make sense, and it definitely didn’t that you found it.”

I sat up, struggling to.

“No sense at all,” he continued, looking at me. “You looking for it in that hallway, my hallway in my school didn’t make sense. Pilar’s would have been on her baby blanket.” His jaw tightened. “She was taken in her baby blanket so no, that didn’t make sense.”

I’d heard how I was taken, the details. The news had talked all about it, and Thatcher had given us a room with a TV. The baby had been swiped, right from the hospital, and in the middle of the night. She’d been taken from a family and only been a newborn. She’d been in the NICU because she’d been sick.

“I found my necklace after the conversation with my mom.” Ares stared at the ground. “She told me where it was. It was easy.” His words sounded haunted, his eyes appearing the same, and I think he was cold now the way he squeezed his arms. “I compared the two and…”

“Ares.”

His attention shifted, on me again. “It still didn’t make sense, and I wouldn’t believe it.” Emotion hit his voice, his eyes. His nostrils flared. “I spent so long looking for her.”

I noticed he didn’t say me, but I didn’t blame him. I was sure a lot of pain came with that search.

And I had heard about it, his search.

That topic was for another day, another thought, and I definitely couldn’t think about it now. This was too much for me now.

I covered my mouth. “Is that why you poked me?” I asked, and though he didn’t look at me, I knew he heard me. His back straightened, his jaw tight. “That day in the hall at your house? You poked me, right? Got my DNA?”

The news talked about that too, how the families had DNA evidence, and it didn’t take me long to put together how they’d gotten it. I thought Ares had stabbed me with something that day, a prick to my leg.

“I needed evidence,” he said, glancing my way. “I needed the truth, and even after I had it, I still didn’t believe it.” He scanned me. “No matter how obvious it was.”

He didn’t even have to elaborate on that. His own friends had said how much we looked like each other, acted like each other. “You’ve known that long then? Since then?”

“Not long after. Found out the DNA results that day Bru did the haze.”

I closed my eyes. That day had been a mess, and I recalled Ares acting weird that day. He’d texted me out of the blue and had been weird. He’d been weird about Dorian.

Dorian…

Chills covered my body again. My face touched my knees.

“I was going to tell you.” His whole body shifted in my direction. “I wanted to tell you so bad, Sloane. I swear to God—”

“Why didn’t you?” I shot, eyes cloudy, voice strained. “You knew that whole fucking time, and you said not one word, Ares. You didn’t say a goddamn thing to me. You didn’t… You didn’t…” Tears blinked down, and I couldn’t finish. My throat was raw, and I couldn’t see. “He didn’t tell me either.”

I barely heard those last words spoken myself. I didn’t want to hear them, feel them.

He lied. They all lied.

Everyone in my life lied to me, everyone I cared about the most. Everyone I trusted, and especially Dorian Prinze. His lie had been the worst.

Because he’d gotten the closest.

The anguish of that truth shook my entire body, and it took me a moment to realize how close Ares had gotten.

“He didn’t know,” he said, locking eyes with me. His held a shine to them, one he squeezed away before hunkering down with me. “I told no one. Not my parents.” His Adam’s apple shifted. “Not the boys. Not D.”

Not D.

“He didn’t know, Sloane.” Ares brought his hands together. “The night you found that file, the file I’d made about you, was when I told Dorian, Wells, and Thatch. They didn’t know before that, and my parents found out not long after. I told them too. Basically, right after.”

He didn’t… know?

I didn’t understand.

“Why?” I ached, my insides searing. “Why did you lie? Why did you do that?”

“Because I fucked up.” His breathing was harsh. “I fucked up because I was scared, and though I knew who you were, I didn’t know you. I didn’t, and I needed to protect my family. My parents, the guys and their families…” His shoulders sagged. “And you too.”

This didn’t make sense, any of it.

Ares rubbed his mouth. “The only thing I knew about you was the company you kept.” He glanced my way. “You were hanging around with that Callum, and I didn’t know if you were trapped. You could have been up to shit with him and trying to screw our families. Up to shit with him.”

With him.

I closed my eyes, the chills enveloping me again. I wished I didn’t know what he meant. I wished I didn’t know the truth.

But I did.

I knew so many things now. Because so much had changed, so many truths revealed.

“Callum…”

“You mean Dorian’s grandfather?” I asked, and Ares blinked. My throat worked. “Callum Prinze?”

The words rang in the air, loud, vibrant.

But then so much silence.

They ghosted off into the night and completely froze both of us.

Ares leaned forward. “He told you then?” His legs lowered. “Told you the truth? He said he did.”

He’d spoken to him? “He talked to you?”

“He reached out to the families, yeah. He said he told you the truth, and you ran after.” Ares’s hand gripped his wrist. “Before tonight, I thought that was why you ran.” He rocked a little. “But now, I’m feeling like a lot of that had to do with me. Me and my lies.”

Lies. Lies. Lies.

So many, and they all made me sick. People lying to me.

“Did he ever hurt you? You or Bru, or…” He studied me. “Anything like that?”

He felt the need to ask, and that made sense. I hated it made sense.

How had this become my life?

How was I here and in a world where people told you lies, and truths weren’t the norm?

“Sloane, please if you don’t tell me anything else just let me know he didn’t hurt you. Let me know that you were okay, and that he never—”

“He was honest with me,” I said, nodding. “And from how it sounds maybe the only one?”

My words surprised him, Ares’s mouth parting, and they surprised me too. I’d had a lot of time to myself at Windsor House, the Court’s headquarters, with Bru. At lot of time to find truths and discover what were the lies. Thatcher had given my brother and me a laptop to use as well as a room with a TV, and I used it to decipher what was real. Callum had told me many things before I’d left, many dark and disturbing things, and I went to the computer to flesh it out.

The internet only confirmed what he’d said.

He hadn’t told me a lie about who he was, not one.

I wished he had.

“I know about it all, Ares,” I said. “The murder cover-up, the cruelty…” I held onto his jacket, needing the warmth so bad. I glanced his way. “How he helped our family?”

Our family…

I was suddenly in a world where people hurt each other, and families protected each other to the point of madness. Where terror and horrible acts reigned supreme and darkness flapped its ugly wings. This was my legacy.

This was my family.

It was Ares’s too, and though the Mallicks weren’t the only parties involved, we’d started this. The news articles said the Mallicks were at the helm.

Ares put his hands together. “Our great-uncle and grandfather,” he said. “Yes.”

And that was all he had to say, that truth out there too. Our great-uncle had murdered someone, and our grandfather helped cover it up. He’d gone to someone to help him, and that someone hit real close to home.

He’d been taking care of Bru and me.

“Great-Uncle Leo is still serving time.” Ares adjusted against the wall. “I’ve never met him, and he’ll die in that place.” His expression cut. “For what he did, he’ll die in there.”

For what he did…

I knew about that too, of course, all of it.

“As far as Grandpa, I’ve never met him either. Though, he’s out of prison now.” Ares’s head lowered. “He stayed away my whole life. Like D’s…”

My eyes shut tight, the tears blinking down.

“He’s his grandpa,” I gasped, rubbing my nose. “Callum is Dorian’s grandfather.” It’d been the first time I’d spoken the words aloud and since they’d been originally spoken to me. “Callum Montgomery is Callum Prinze.” It was like I needed to hear the words again to believe them. “And he covered up the murder of Dorian’s aunt.”

His aunt Paige, his mother’s sister.

Holy fuck.

Nausea surfaced and not the first time. I’d thrown up many times since I had gone out on my own. During restless nights.

After nightmares.

Sickness threatened to grapple hold again, and I hoped I could hold it down.

“Yes,” Ares whispered, his gaze pointed, focused on me. “He really did tell you everything.”

Callum had told my brother and me the truth, told us all of it, and each gritty detail was only confirmed by those internet searches. My guardian had told us facts, and though he’d spared us the specifics, that hadn’t mattered.

I’d still asked for the trash can.

I’d thrown up literally everything to the point of stomach bile that day, and Callum had rushed everyone inside the room. Doctors had come, nurses. It’d only proved to smother me even more. I’d needed out.

And he’d given that to me.

Callum had given us the room after I’d thrown up, and my brother and I had taken the first opportunity we could to leave it. It was all too much. It was…

“I know D didn’t tell you,” Ares said, his hands coming together. “About his grandfather. I know he didn’t tell you who he was and that he knew him, and that probably looks really bad, but you have to understand where he was coming from. D and his grandfather…” Ares huffed. “It’s some complicated shit. The fucker has stayed out of his life just like mine, and there’s a reason for that. You know about that murder cover-up, and Callum Prinze did that shit to his own family. Dorian’s dad was dating his mom at the time.”

Christ.

“Callum Prinze has done some fucked-up things, and none of us could trust him.”

Which meant they couldn’t trust me? “What do I have to do with any of that?”

“That’s the thing. We didn’t know. Like I said, I didn’t know and…” His expression fell, pained. “I was scared about the possibility of that, but I was more scared for you. I was scared he was having you do things, causing chaos on his behalf and possibly hurting you in the process.”

“I wasn’t.”

“I know.” He rubbed his legs. “It took me some time. Time to know you and…” His jaw moved. “Even outside of that, he never hurt you, right? Never did anything to make you feel unsafe? You or Bru? Please just let me know that so I don’t go fucking crazy.”

He hadn’t. He didn’t.

He’d only been kind.

I closed my eyes, my own pain rupturing again. “He was only good to me and Bru,” I said, lifting my head. “And he didn’t even have to tell the truth.”

In fact, he hadn’t even been going to. He’d said he didn’t want to be part of this and what Godfrey did.

He’d just wanted to right a wrong.

“But I know now that was weak of me. Selfish.”

His words lingered in my memory, some of the final ones before my world collapsed even more than it’d already had. He’d been the one person who’d been honest with me.

“What do you mean?” Ares asked, and I nodded.

“He didn’t have to tell the truth, or at least his place in it.” I rubbed my hands. “He told Bru and me once he found out about what Godfrey did, he’d planned to keep his part in bringing me back here quiet. Said there were other factors, which he later explained was his history here.”

He’d said he couldn’t come forward. There was too much history here and him coming around would cause pain.

He’d said it would bring pain to his family.

“He said coming forward would hurt his family,” I said, Ares’s eyebrows narrowed. “And he felt a sense of responsibility that my dad…” I bit my lip, still getting used to that. “That Godfrey had come to him to care for us.”

Callum had said Godfrey thought Callum would keep his secret if Callum had ever found out, and from what I knew about Callum, him and his history with that town, that made sense.

“So why did he then? Come forward?” Ares asked, and I dropped my legs.

“He said he realized he’d only been trying to protect himself, and he shouldn’t do that anymore.” He’d admitted that too.

Ares blew out a breath, his head shaking. “He’s done some fucked-up shit, Sloane. A lot of fucked-up shit and…” He studied the ground, his head lifting. “Helping you or not, I’m sure it helps him. Whether it’s to clear his guilt, guilt about shit he’s done or whatever.” His eyebrows narrowed. “He’s messed up a lot of peoples’ lives, his own family’s the most.”

I did know this and was so aware of it.

I mean, he’d told me himself.

Ares left me with those thoughts. We were silent for a while, and when he pulled out his phone, my head shot up.

“I’m not calling anyone,” he said, somehow knowing what I was thinking. He pressed a button, and his phone went dark. “My family can track my phone as well as the guys, so I shut it off.” He pocketed the thing. “I meant what I said. I’m not setting the dogs on you. I just want to be here, and if that means a while, that’s what it’s going to be.”

Putting his legs out, he crossed them at the ankles, the frown on his face evident.

“I’m going to earn back your trust,” he said. “So as long as you’re here, I’ll be here too.”

I didn’t know what to say about that, so many questions in my mind. I faced him. “But your parents. I mean…” I stopped, my jaw moving. “You can’t just ghost.”

He couldn’t ghost them.

I didn’t even want to.

I didn’t know what I wanted. I was so confused. I just knew up until a month ago I’d been something else.

I’d been someone else.

Now, I was being told I had a whole other life. My brother, Bruno, wasn’t my own, and I had not one living parent but two. I had a family, and an interconnected web of other families. I’d seen the Prinzes, Reeds, and the Ambroses on the television too.

I’d seen them fight for me.

“If you’re here, I’m here,” he said, swallowing. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do, and I’m not letting anyone else do that either.”

And then there was him and probably the closest link of all. We were twins.

I was a twin.

I didn’t know what that meant. It’d just been Bru and me for so long.

“Can I ask you something?” He whispered the question, his body incredibly still. “How did you know Pilar’s charm…” His head shook. “How did you know that charm was under the lockers? Have you been here before? In Maywood Heights? You had to have.”

But I hadn’t. I never. “I’ve never been here. I don’t know how it got there.” My finger scratched my wrist, restless. I used to wear the charm there on a bracelet my parents had gotten me.

At least, I thought they’d been my parents.

I just had a scar in that place now, and I had no idea how I’d gotten that either. It had happened a long time ago when I’d been young.

Why can’t I remember anything?

Maybe I’d just been too young, and there’d been no chance at all to remember anything.

Ares’s lips came together after what I said, and though I thought he’d ask another question, he didn’t.

Taking them off my lap, I gave Ares back both charms. I didn’t know the answer to his questions, and God I wished I did.

Ares’s hand closed around them both, and after pocketing them, he faced forward. He folded his arms, and when he closed his eyes, I knew he was serious. He was going to stay out here with me in the cold.

“He really didn’t know?” I asked, and his eyes open. “Dorian. He didn’t know about me. Who I was?”

Ares told me he didn’t, but there were just so many lies.

Ares head tilted. “If he did, he would have blown the whistle on that shit. Instantly. He would have called my parents for me. Fuck, he did call my dad and made me tell the truth. The truth about you.”

What?

“You would have known, Sloane, and he would have told you himself had I refused. As far as keeping quiet about Callum, D didn’t have all the information. He didn’t know who you were, and had he, I think he might have done a few things differently.”

But Ares didn’t know that. Not really.

“If he’s part of the reason you ran, he shouldn’t be,” he said. “The secrets and shit was me, and D and his gramps are complicated. I’m sure he’ll talk to you about it if you ask. Just got to give him a chance.”

He was always trying to be the peacemaker, and it made sense he believed what he did, about me running, and I probably would have come to that conclusion too had I been him.

It’s not that simple.

I was cold again, my head lowering. I zipped Ares’s jacket up, and stared at the city with its twinkling lights. I sat next to my twin brother, my eyes closing. They were itchy and hot.

The tears that followed only made it worse.