Parchment & Pearls

21. Not Exactly How I Pictured Telling My Friends About My Secret Life

Chapter 21

Not Exactly How I Pictured Telling My Friends About My Secret Life

I did not have time for this. I wasn't going to make time for it either, because we didn't have any.

Beau, Gage, Ash, and Savannah were slowly walking out from behind the car surveying the scene. I turned away from them, sheathing my knife, and rushed to Drake, who was still on the ground.

"Are you okay?" I whispered, my hands going to his head. The blood on my hands wasn't his, thank goodness.

"Hattie," he warned, his eyes going behind me. He wasn't even thinking about how he'd just been knocked out. "They saw."

I swallowed hard, nodding once. "I can't deal with that right now."

"We're going to have to."

"Oh, my gosh...he's dead!" Savannah gasped. "She killed someone!"

"Same with this one," Ash forced out.

"And I'm pretty sure him, too," Gage said.

"Hattie," Cruz said, watching them also. "We need to go...and they're going to have to come with us."

I shook my head before he was even finished. "No, they're not. I'm not making them a part of this."

"Well, they were the ones who made themselves a part of it," Drake continued. "They've seen too much."

Again, I shook my head, leaning forward to grab Drake by the arm to help him stand. He stumbled forward, squeezing his eyes shut, and clutched my arm for support. I moved closer, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and put my arm around his waist.

"Help me get him to the car," I said to Cruz. "We need to get out of here."

"Hattie..."

"Do it!"

The car wasn't far away, so it was easy to get Drake into the front passenger seat without any problems. He still had his eyes closed and didn't say a word I moved back and closed the door.

"What do you want to do, Hattie?" Cruz asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he stared down at me. "We can't just leave them. The police will come. More Order will come. They're not safe here. Flannery said the cameras were taken care of, so this won't be caught on tape, but...you've got four people who saw it all. And if anyone else comes..."

"I didn't want them to know about any of this," I whispered. "Because if they do, it'll put them in even more danger."

"We'll take them back to Emmy and John's place. They'll be safe there."

"And what are they going to do then? Stay there for the rest of their lives?"

"No, but..."

My eyes shifted over to my friends, who were still staring at the destruction around them in horror.

Beau was the one I was worried about the most. Because as he stood in the middle of it all, I could see him piecing everything together in his head - me leaving every summer, the 'self-defense' training I had, the being secretive all the time, what happened when I attacked him that night we got home from New York...

His eyes met mine and all I saw in them was that horror...and even a little bit of awe.

Cruz had warned about what would have happened then. Because more Order members were coming, crashing through the door where we would have come out before and running for us. All the yelling made my friends pause and look up, but I was the one to make the decision then that I had been wrestling with my entire life.