Gilded Cage

Chapter 55

Later that day, with some effort, I managed to untangle myself from my ridiculously hot half-naked boyfriend and then proceeded to convince him to put his clothes back on so I could sneak his ass out the front door.

Zac grumbled and glared at me the whole time and made it very clear that he didn't want to go. I would've liked nothing more than to stay cuddled up beside him in bed, murmuring sweet, naughty nonsense to each other while teasing and touching until we were beyond hot and bothered. Unfortunately, my siblings had long since returned home from the charity ball. Bea and Trick were likely awake now, and I didn't want to risk having them run into Zac.

Bea wasn't my main concern. I could probably convince my sister to keep her mouth shut and look the other way if we happened to cross paths. The one that worried me was Trick. Once my brother recognized the black BMW in our driveway, knowing Trick, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from picking another fight with Zac, and then he'd definitely rat me out to daddy dearest just to mess with our relationship.

Usually, I wouldn't stress over this sort of thing because my dad didn't give a fuck about the stupid shit that Bea, Trick, and I got up to as long as, of course, we didn't make him clean up our messes afterwards. For some reason, though, on the day Zac dropped me off after our first kiss at the park, I remembered that my dad told me specifically to "not bring that boy around here again," and I didn't want to give him a reason to dislike Zac anymore than he already did.

I mean it, Cate.

His insistence troubled me more than I liked to admit. The man rarely involved himself in my life. For my dad to speak up about something probably meant that it really, really mattered to him. At the time, I thought that his disapproval had been triggered by Zac's piercings.

Now, I couldn't help considering the possibility that his opposition had less to do with me dating a boy who offended his conversative, straight-laced sensibilities and more to do with his own murky ties to Zac's father. I distinctly recalled that my dad had asked about Mr. Mazur before banning Zac from our house, and this particular sequence of events left a bad taste in my mouth.

As I watched Zac speed away from my driveway, a part of me was still feeling slightly paranoid, as though my dad might emerge from the bushes and apprehend me like a criminal. Never had I rebelled against one of his requests in such a deliberate manner before. I'd definitely let my emotions overrule my brain when I asked Zac to stay the night. My dad's warning had completely slipped my mind in the heat of the moment, and I didn't think even about the consequences, which was unlike me. I wondered briefly if I was getting in over my head. There were so many fires that needed to be put out, all of which required my undivided, meticulous attention to execute properly...

For one thing, Amari was still mad at me.

And Lily needed to be incinerated into a pile of ashes.

Topping it all off, the effort it took to try and wrap my head around the possible conspiracies between Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Mazur, and my dad was giving me a permanent migraine.

I prayed that these flames wouldn't burn me alive. Was I asking for too much?

Before Zac drove away, he had given me one of the backup flash drives with the stolen data from Mr. Sinclair's computer. We had agreed to start combing through the files tonight. I made an additional mental note to look around my dad's study before he flew back from DC in two days. I didn't have the password to his computer, but maybe I could find the keys to his filing cabinets and try sifting through some of his paper documents. I'd have tonight and tomorrow night to act. Otherwise, I'd need to wait another week for him to leave Wellesley again.

I sucked in a shaky breath as I tried not to let my thoughts overwhelm me. Never had I been the kind of person to crumple under pressure, but suddenly I felt like I might be nearing my limit. I forced myself to keep my shit together. I was determined to chase after my target until it fucking broke me.

With a clenched jaw, I went back inside the house to look for Bea. I wanted to talk to her about reporting some "missing" funds from her charity ball...

I found her in the downstairs living room. My pretty blonde sister was wrapped in a large wool throw blanket like a child, and she looked tired and stressed as hell. The moment she noticed me, though, some of her misery melted away. Her blue eyes filled with concern.

"Hey," she said softly.

I sat down beside her on the couch. "Hey."

With a strained expression, Bea sighed. "Last night was something else, huh?"

I grimaced. "Tell me about it."

"You look like crap."

"So do you."

Bea scowled. "I feel like crap."

"Me, too."

She eyed me with trepidation. "I don't blame you. That shit with your mom was rough."

I gave her a half-smile. "I'll be fine. Eventually. How are you doing?"

Her lips flattened tightly. "I'm fucking pissed! My event was such a goddamn disaster. I've been sitting here and stewing over it for the past few hours."

"I feel partially responsible," I admitted. "I shouldn't have asked you to move the charity ball to Lily's house. I'm sorry I fucked up all your hard work and planning."

Bea glared. "Do you think saying 'I'm sorry' is going to fix everything? The whole Fellowship is coming after me now because I forced them to change venues. They're talking about voting me out as president. I can't believe I risked my neck just so you could show off your new boyfriend to Lily!"

"I'll make it up to you, I swear," I promised, "and I'll find a way to prevent them from voting you out."

I meant it, too. After I tallied up Lily's body count, I had every intention to do right by Bea. I knew I hadn't been honest with her regarding the real reason why I wanted the charity ball at Lily's house, but I figured now wasn't the time to come clean. One day, though, after all this fuckery was over, I'd tell her the truth. I genuinely wanted to be a better sister to her.

"I don't know if this will make you feel better, but, for the record, I was really impressed by what you put together. You made Lily's house look amazing. You have a great eye for detail and an incredible talent for event planning. If it wasn't for that fucking video, then this could've easily been touted as the event of the semester."

This seemed to soften Bea's ire. "I guess... I kinda owe you an apology, too, Cate."

"For what?"

She whispered in remorse, "For... that horrible, horrible video. The one with all those pictures of your mom. I'm sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I can't imagine what it must have felt like for you. I've been running through everything that happened over the past week in my head, and I think... it might have been my fault? Lily asked to see the final cut two days before the ball. I didn't think anything of it at the time, so I gave her a copy of the video on a flash drive. She must have edited the original clip at some point and switched it out on my flash drive right before the ball. I'm so sorry, Cate. Really, I am."

"It's okay," I assured her quietly. "Technically, you were doing me a huge favor by hosting the event at Lily's house. Who knew it was going to blow up in our faces like this?"

"Yeah," Bea echoed with a defeated gleam in her eyes. "Karma really came back to bite you in the ass, didn't she?"

This seemed like the perfect segway to introduce my plan, so I jumped on it.

"You know, Bea, speaking of karma—if Lily was the one who fucked with your flash drive, then maybe we should do something about it. About her. She screwed over both of us with that one video."

"Oh, trust me, I've been plotting all sorts of ways to get back at that bitch," Bea declared with a feral grin. "I wanna make Lily rue the day she ever fucked with us, Cate."

I narrowed my eyes and smirked. "I'd love to know what you came up with. I also have a fun little idea of my own that you might be interested in hearing..."