Page 254 of Knox Academy Omnibus
“That isn’t a good idea,” he says, shaking his head.
“I’ll take her,” Smalls says, making his presence known.
“Jason…” My father warns.
“I promise, she is safe with me. I will even take her bodyguards.”
My head snaps between my father and Smalls.
“Bodyguards?”
“You really didn’t think those assholes would send you halfway across the globe after an attack on you, and not have you watched?”
My father looks as surprised as I am.
“Your little psycho friend made an impression on your grandmother, so she allowed some of The Order’s men to keep watch over you. Ordinarily, they would have been taken out as soon as they hit Australian soil.”
“Baxter?” I question and Smalls nods.
What the actual fuck is going on?! My head is swimming with information that I’m not yet processing. All I’ve taken from this is my grandmother is a badass gangster and didn’t let a male dominated industry keep her from building an empire. This is a woman I need to meet.
“Amelie...” my father says.
“Yeah?”
“Do not talk about The Order. Your boyfriends can’t save you if you do.”
I nod in understanding. I follow Smalls out to his car and giggle. I may or may not have raided Chelsea’s craft cupboard last night in a bout of anger. Childish? Yes. Funny as fuck? Hell yes.
I jump in the passenger seat as soon as he opens the door, angling the air vents upwards and away from me. He doesn’t turn on the air straight away, he rolls the windows down to let out the hot air. We make it down the street and to a set of traffic lights before he leans over and turns the dial. I snort, trying to hold in my laugh, but it all happens so quickly. His face turns and is hit with a huge cloud of glitter. I clutch my stomach as tears roll down my face.
“What the fuck?!” he roars.
I compose myself as the asshole behind us honks his horn. Smalls ignores him and tries to dust the glitter off, making it worse as it sticks to the sweat on his face and hands.
“What the fuck, Amelie?!”
“So you are talking to me? I wasn’t sure. I figured after your jealous bullshit and treating me like A-grade shit, that you must have been talking to someone else.”
He proceeds to drive, giving up on trying to remove the glitter. He will be finding that in places men don’t want glitter for weeks. I pull out my phone and snap a picture, uploading it straight to social media and tagging him in it with the caption ‘There is a time and place for glitter...always and everywhere’. That serves him right.
“I’m sorry, okay? I was a jealous asshole. You’ve always been mine in a way, and I liked that. I felt like what we had was slipping away and they were taking you away from me.”
“You’re right, you are an asshole. But we will always be us, just with a clearer line we won’t cross. And no one will ever take me away from you. You are, and have always been, my best friend. I need you in my life. I couldn’t live in a world where we were not friends, it would kill me. You’re my rock.”
“And how do your boyfriends feel about that?”
I shrug.
“Kalen is Kalen and thinks he’s god’s gift, so he is fine. Sawyer knows how much I care about you. Slate, I don’t think has an opinion, and Onyx probably wants to murder you in your sleep.”
“He can try…” Smalls mutters darkly. “Was glitter really necessary?”
I look over at him and laugh again.
“Yep.”
“I hate you,” he moans.
