Page 273 of Knox Academy Omnibus
“You can come out now, creeper,” I call out on instinct with a smile tugging against my lips. I know he’s here somewhere and Imight be pissed about Kalen’s hair, but I also want to make sure Baxter’s alright. Speaking to him on the phone and sending a few text messages while I was away did nothing to soothe my fears, and I won’t believe he’s okay until I see it with my own eyes.
I wait, and I wait. And then I wait some more. I look at my phone for what feels like the hundredth time and curse Baxter. He’s never late, it isn’t his style. Surely if he wasn’t going to make it, he would have called? Dread fills my stomach. What if something has happened to him?
There’s no way, it can’t have.
I dial his number and scan the tree line. I bet the asshat is watching me panic from a distance.
The call clicks straight to voicemail.Leave a messageI mock at the stupid recording. Who just says leave a message? It’s like he’s above people knowing his name.
I hang up without leaving a message, and then I reconsider and call him back.
“I swear the fuck to fucking god that you better have a good reason for standing me up! Are you stalking that poor girl? You better not have her tied up in a basement somewhere because I willnotsave your ass. I’m too pissed at you.” I hang up and scan the area again. He knows how to be invisible. He better not be using his skills on me.
“Baxter Baudelaire Bojangles Branson, so help me god if you are out there I’m going to kill you,” I yell while I dial his number again. “Then I will bring you back to life just to kill you all over again.”
Chapter Two
Amelie
Ugh. I give up after half an hour or so, and storm back to the house. I’m pissed, and it’s a damn shame Laura is out right now because she’s just who I need to relieve my anger.
I really need to figure out what I’m going to do about her. I don’t know how I plan to run The Order, let alone how I’ll deal with a threat like Laura, when I can’t even get my best friend to show up.Shit. Better not let Elsie catch me calling him my bestie.I suppose that’s what happens when you choose Baxter as a friend though. I swear he needs a few more lessons on protocol when you don’t show up. You don’t just ghost a friend. I wonder if I can use my connections to send him to a friendship 101 boot camp or something. If I wasn’t so mad, the image that conjures would probably have me laughing.
I curse him all the way through Monty’s ridiculous house, until I hear a second set of footsteps. I look up and make eye contact with Slate.
My heart stops.
It was easy to avoid him while I was in Australia or in a room with his brothers, but as he moves closer I can’t pretend I didn’t see him. I squeeze my eyes shut and hope he just passes by. I’m not ready to deal with him. How is it fair on him that I couldn’t even look at him, I couldn’t comfort him, I couldn’t bear the thought that he was okay and Onyx wasn’t because I would have to look at his face and be reminded of what I had lost? I know none of those feelings were rational but he didn’t deserve that. I pushed him away to spare my own heart, not caring that I was hurting his. And now I don’t know how to fix things. I don’t know if I’m ready to.
“Whoa, where’s the fire?” Slate asks, stepping in front of me in the hallway, arms out placatingly, but also blocking my way.
I don’t reply and try to sidestep him, but he grabs my wrist gently. “Amelie, please.”
I pause before I look back at him, avoiding his eyes. “I can’t Slate.”
“You can’t what, Amelie? Because from where I’m standing you're avoiding me and I don’t know what I’ve done.”
“You haven’t...it’s just…”
“This is bullshit.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think it is,” I snap, pulling my arm from his grip. Anger is better than guilt. Even if it’s forced. “Move out of my way.”
Instantly, Slate’s features darken and he looks more like his sullen twin than ever.
“What did Baxter do?” he growls.
“Nothing. He stood me up! Now move…” I take a deep breath and force myself to calm down. It’s not Slate’s fault that Baxter’s a jerk. “Please, I have a date with your brother.”
Slate gives me a wounded look, and even though it pains me, I tamp my regret down. He steps aside, and I move around him without a word. I know I need to put things right with him, tomend this rift I forced between us, but it’ll have to wait. Onyx is my priority, and I’ve been away from him for far too long.
“Careful, Amelie,” Slate warns in a tone as dark as his brother’s. I pause and shiver. When he doesn’t say anything else, I continue on my way, but the air suddenly feels heavy with his threat.
I don’t stop walking until I get to Onyx’s room. I push the door open without knocking and it flies open, banging against the wall behind it.
Onyx is stretched out on his bed, arms behind his head like lord of the fucking manor when I storm in.
“Hey, you okay?”
