Page 84 of Disobedient Pawn

Liam and Theo seemed to materialize out of nowhere and walked down the steps to the crowded parking area. The way people parked, it looked like they were drunk before they arrived. Not one vehicle was lined up in an orderly fashion.

“Myles, you’re upfront with me,” Nash said as we walked down the road to Nash’s pickup truck.

We didn’t say anything else until we got inside.

“Blake ruined the bet, so we’ll either need a new one or pay everyone their money back,” Liam said, and I turned around to glare at him from the front seat.

“Forget the fucking bet. We have a bigger issue,” Nash said. He looked at all of us like we were stupid. “Does anyone else find it strange that Ren not only has an early curfew but that Morrison knew she’d be at the party?”

“Maybe Ivy told him,” Theo offered.

“Possibly, but we all know that girl avoids her father, and he didn’t seem to know his daughter was hiding in the corner.”

Nash started the truck and pulled onto the road, following the police car.

“Now that ya mention it, when I was out with Ren the other night, he was in the parking lot like he was waiting for us. I thought maybe he’d stopped in to get takeout, saw Ren, and decided to speak to her.”

“He also pulled us over the night the four of us were in town. He ordered us back to the academy and followed, which was strange,” Blake said from behind me.

“Exactly. Who the hell is this girl? I looked up her last name, and Davies is nowhere in any major families with any pull. If it weren’t for the fact she was in the school, I’d say she didn’t have any influential or criminal background at all.”

“Then why all the extra hassle,” Theo said. “And what’s with the early curfew? That’s very strange.”

“It’s almost like her father is scared she’ll be seen or maybe attacked,” Liam said, and we all fell silent. I really didn’t like that thought process. If someone hurt her, I’d kill them with my bare hands.

“I’m not even that important,” Nash finally said. “We need to get her to talk and tell us who she really is.”

“I don’t think she knows,” I said, shrugging. “Either that or she’s a damn good actress. She didn’t even know that the school was for us types. She looked like she was gonna faint when I told her.”

Nash tapped his fingers on the top of the steering wheel.

“Maybe we’re being played, not the other way around.”

“Oh, come on, ya don’t really believe that?”

Nash looked over at me.

“It’s a possibility. You’ve had your head up your ass where this chick is concerned from the moment she stepped on school property.”

“Fuck ya, Nash. I’m so sick of being accused of shit lately. I might like her, but I’m not an idiot, and I know what I saw. She was shocked and terrified, and no one could pull that acting job off.”

“I have to agree with Myles on this one. She doesn’t strike me as the type to hold back who she is. If anything, she is too honest, oversharing, and a whole lot innocent,” Theo said, acting as the voice of reason before I punched Nash and forced him to drive off the road. Theo was always the one that analyzed people far deeper than than everyone else. Funny enough, Ren reminded me of Theo or maybe Theo reminded me of Ren. Point was, she had that same quirk to her, and I loved it. Fuck. Fucking Blake. I should’ve just told her about the bet, I knew shit was going to go bad.

Nash looked in his rearview mirror.

“That’s what you believe?”

“Yeah, it is. I think Myles is correct, Ren doesn’t know who she is, or if she does, she doesn’t understand the significance.”

“Hmm.” Nash suddenly slammed on the brakes, all of us jerking in our seatbelts. He pointed at the small highway picnic area. “There’s the cruiser,” he said, cranking the steering wheel to drive into the lot. My adrenaline spiked as I stared at the dark car.

“What the hell is going on?”

I didn’t wait for the truck to stop moving before jumping out. Running over to the car, I peered inside, but no one was there, and my fear made it hard to think as all the worst-case scenario’s raced around my brain.

“Let go of me, you asshole!”

Ren’s angry voice reached me, and I sprinted toward the sound.