Parchment & Pearls

28. The Silent Treatment Does Do Some Good

"Not yet."

"Emmy."

"Hattie..."

"I'm not talking to him," I said, looking over at her again as she leaned against the desk. "He's keeping something else from me...and whatever it is, it changed him. It was almost like...like he was trying to seduce me or something. He was talking smooth and holding me close and whispering in my ear...but it wasn't my Drake. He was someone else entirely."

Emmy raised an eyebrow. "Your Drake."

"Not the point, Em."

"Totally the point, but go on."

I groaned again, shaking my head. "Okay, he wasn't my Drake. Yes, my Drake. He was scaring me with how he was acting, though, and I told him. After, though...he snapped out of it. He kept saying he couldn't do it, whatever it is. I don't get what happened and I'm trying to think back, but..."

"You think it might have something to do with Vince? He said he's had to keep up the part with him...and then there's the fact he wants you. Vince, not Drake...though Drake certainly wants to you..."

Vince...how come I never saw it before? Thinking back to the one time I'd ever met the man, there was one statement he told Drake that stuck out.

"You know what your job is now, Drake Garner. See to it."

His job...well, I knew he was playing friends with the Order. And the Order wanted me. Well, more specifically, Vince wanted me. Drake said that was never going to happen...

Something else had to have gone on between when we got to the manor and what happened the night before. Like Vince getting in touch with him. Or maybe giving him a threat.

Or both.

Definitely both.

"Has Drake told you anything more about Vince than I know?" I asked Emmy then. "Because I think...the reason he was acting the way he was last night...maybe Vince got in touch with him or something."

She shook her head, pursing her lips. "No. He really hasn't talked with me much since the two of you got here either. He's been hidden up in his room..."

"And hanging out with Beau."

That took her by surprise.

"Really?" she asked. "That's weird. I thought they didn't like each other very much."

"They didn't...but then they did. I don't know. I still don't get it. Anyway...I'm thinking that's what's going on with him. Back in Atlanta...when Vince talked to us at the mall...he said something to Drake about knowing what his job was. I think I'm his job. He's trying to get Drake to get me to fall in love with him so I'll be more easily persuaded."

Emmy's eyes immediately narrowed as she crossed her arms over her chest, resting them on her stomach. "So he's basically doing what he wanted done with Braewyn and John," she growled.

"But it's Drake," I pointed out. "And we know he's not with the Order. Not really."

"But to think they'd try this again and be able to succeed..."

There. Another epiphany.

Slowly, I started smiling. "Then why don't we make them think they have?"

***

I stood by his open door, watching as he paced back in forth in front of his bed, glancing over and over again at his phone that sat on it. He had his arms crossed over his chest with one hand up to his mouth, pressing his fist against it. He looked worried, waiting for a call that might or might not come, and didn't even notice me standing there.