Chapter 63

After biology, I’m reviewing my pop quiz with a sinking pit in my stomach. Even with Steven’s help, I’m doing poorly. With as tense as things had been, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to asking him to tutor me more.

Debbie is sitting beside me, patting my back in sympathy. “It’s not all bad. I mean, there are worse scores you could have gotten.”

“An F is an F, Debbie.”

“It’s not an F-.”

I appreciate her looking on the bright side, but failing is failing whether it has a minus next to it or not.

Sighing, I accept my fate. I’m going to have to bite the bullet and ask Steven for more help. Maybe if we avoid talking about the fight or being a warrior or his brothers, we could have one of our more pleasant conversations. I really hope so, anyway.

I’m sighing again, when Tide approaches us. He’s timid, with his fingers looped together over his waist. I look up at him first. When Debbie sees him, she does a double-take.

“Can we talk later, Chloe?” he asks.

I shrug. “I guess.” I don’t really have much to say to Tide. After the reaction from the brothers, I am second guessing if I even want to breath the same air as him again, lest incur their wrath.

Although thinking of Archer’s punishment still made me shiver.

Tide nods, accepting what I said, and walks away.

Debbie immediately leans closer. “What does he want to talk to you about?”

I like Debbie a lot. And I trust her to an extent. But Tide’s secrets are just that, his own. It is not my place to tell anyone about his hardships.

“I ran into him the other day and we chatted some. I think he has more to say to me.” None of that is a lie, exactly. Hopefully Debbie doesn’t ask too many questions.

She doesn’t ask, but she looks like she really wants to. She worries her bottom lip with her teeth. “Well, be careful,” she says. “There’s a lot of rumors going around about him and his family.”

“What kind of rumors?”

Debbie is already speaking softly, but she lowers her voice further still. I have to strain to hear.

“They say that his family is losing their social status.”

I want to roll my eyes. Oh, the absolute horror. How terrible, that he might have to lower himself to living among the common folk and not rub elbows with the elites anymore.

Of course I couldn’t say any of that to Debbie. She is an understanding type, but she’s still one of them. She doesn’t know what it’s like to not have money. She was an outcast at school for a while, but she was still here, at one of the most prestigious schools on the planet.

So instead, I fake concern. “Oh. I hope that’s not true.”

“No one really knows why, but there are a lot of whispers.”

“Like what?”

Debbie glances around us, like someone might overhear. No one’s close enough.

“His family might be broke.”

I already know that, but I don’t let on that I do. I just fake being surprised.

“Did he mention anything to you, when you ran into him?”

“No, not really,” I lie. It feels like a white lie, in this circumstance. No shame on Debbie, but if she knows the truth, she’ll likely spread it around. It’s hard to know juicy gossip and keep it to yourself.

By some miracle, I’m able to direct Debbie back onto the topic of the quiz. She did better than me, but not by enough to want to have her help me instead. Especially when she admits,

“I guessed a lot.”

A third sigh. Steven is my only option, then.

After parting with Debbie, I sought out Tide and found him near a park bench just outside the building. He’s pacing back and forth the length of it. When he spots me, he all but runs up to me.

“Please, Chloe. You have to help me.”

I shake my head. “There’s nothing I can do for you, Tide.” The Hayes brothers are still so pissed about my fight. If I even lean in the direction of one, who knows what they might do?

Secretly, I wish I could tell Tide I’d be his bodyguard and help him stand up against the people who want to hurt him, but then I see Archer’s disapproving glare in my mind. The words immediately shrivel up on my tongue.

Besides, whether I agree with the brothers’ reasoning or not – hint, I don’t – I still have an obligation to Mia. If I get hurt, Mia is the one who would suffer. I would not let myself forget that again.

“I wish I could help you, but I can’t fight. And the Hayes’s won’t give you any money. I have some of my own, but it’s not very much, and –”

“Wait. You have money?”

I nod. “I get paid as part of being in the Hayes Court.”

He blinks and suddenly he’s looking at me like I’m his lord and savior made flesh just to save him.

“Chloe, don’t you see how perfect this is?”

I did not. “No.”

“You could loan me the money!”

“I don’t really have that much…”

“It’s only two grand! How much do you have?”

I don’t want to tell him. I don’t like the way he’s looking at me now, like I’m an ATM machine. I take a step backwards.

“No, no. Hear me out. I’m not saying this right.”

I wait, willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“If you loan me the two grand, I can invest it and pay you back twice that. I’d only need a week or so.”

That seems much too good to be true. “Don’t you have to give that money to the loan sharks?”

“Not all of it. Just enough to get them off my back for another week. Then, after I make back a bunch of cash, I can pay you and them, no problem! Wouldn’t you like to have some more money, Chloe?”

I would, and he seems confident now. His eyes are brighter than they’ve ever been, and though he’s still coming off as desperate, it’s more excited this time.

More money would be nice. In two months, the checks would stop and I’d be out on my own. It couldn’t hurt to have a lump of change saved up to help me through the harder times. I’m not unused to being broke, but… I would like not to return to that lifestyle.

Also, this could be the break that keeps Tide alive. I haven’t forgotten that those men could come back, looking to take Tide’s life this time, if he can’t pay up.

Tide takes my hands in his. His eyes are wide and pleading.

“If you would just –”

He spots something behind me and his voice dies in an instant.

“What a charming little sight? Has the Nanny gone and gotten herself a boyfriend?”

I know that condescending voice.

Beau.

Tide pales all the way to his hair roots. He drops my hands like they caught fire and scurries away, running the opposite direction. He trips on his own feet in the process, falling down onto the concrete sidewalk. Without missing a beat – or looking back – he corrects himself and keeps running.

I look back at Beau. He’s smirking but there’s nothing kind about it. His brow is low and his eyes are fierce. He glares at me like he wants to put a brand right on my face.

“Now, Nanny. Who told you that you are allowed run around with that riffraff?”