The Insiders by Tijan

TWENTY-FOUR

He never told me about them.

Matt only said he didn’t care for them, and I let it go. Shocking. But the main reason I let it go wasn’t because both of them refused to elaborate; it was because I had three glorious days.

I got quality time with my siblings. There was minimal time with Quinn, who it turned out did charity work as a full-time career. She had events in the mornings, meetings in the afternoons, and banquets in the evenings. Miss Victoria came around once a week, I learned, but she hadn’t been back since that one day of our lunch, so I hadn’t met her. After the bit I’d learned about her, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to meet her, but I also wasn’t letting that overshadow anything.

That first night after our lunch, I had dinner with my siblings. Marie and Theresa joined us, along with an older man named Barney, who turned out to be Marie’s husband.

Marie and Theresa were a lot nicer than the first time I had met them, and the rest were relaxed. There were no rules, no pressure to be a certain way, eat a certain way. They could pick at their pizza if they wanted, or scarf down a whole bowl of mac and cheese. After that first night, I caught Marie eyeing me with guilt. Matt told me later that our “dinners” were an unofficial secret. It wasn’t that whenever Quinn wasn’t around they ate like that, but over the last few days, I got their routine. If Quinn wasn’t around, they still ate healthy two out of three meals of the day. There was a healthy snack, too, but the evenings were laid back. Burned pizza was one of Seraphina’s favorites.

And the whole secret part was that no one told Quinn.

I loved it. I loved it all.

We were hanging out in one of the media rooms, three boxes of pizza on the floor and the latest superhero movie on the screen, when Matt’s phone buzzed.

I was curled up in the corner, my favorite place to sit.

Cyclone was lying next to me, his head in my lap. Seraphina was sprawled on the floor, her head propped up on her hands and her feet kicking back at the end of our couch. Marie had started to watch the movie with us but then left thirty minutes in, saying she’d be back the next morning.

Quinn was at another charity event for the evening.

The buzzing started, and Matt declined the call. No one paid him much attention. This had happened over the last few days. He had an active social life, but he’d been spending most of his time here and staying at Kash’s villa with me. He slept in Kash’s bed, and I was in mine.

But tonight the buzzing just kept going.

Buzz.

Buzz.

Buzz.

After a full twenty minutes of his phone going off, Seraphina sat up. “Just answer it! It’s so annoying.”

He laughed, reaching for the phone just as it started again. Hitting a button, he was speaking into it, “Yo. What do you want?” He sat up straight. “Oh, hey.… No. It didn’t come up that it was you—

“Oh. Okay.” He looked up at me, alarmed.

I started to sit up straighter, so did Cyclone. All three of us were waiting, but Matt got up, his phone to his ear. He left the room and we could only hear fragments of the conversation.

“Yeah?… No. I mean, it’s a movie.… She’s here. What?… I’ve been there. Yeah.… Why?… Oh.… For real?… No shit, huh.… He is?”

Suddenly his voice got louder, clearer. He was coming back.

Cyclone scrambled off the couch, grabbing the remote, and the movie was turned off. The screen went to black and he moved to the wall, hitting the switch so the room was bathed in light.

Matt came to stand in the doorway, his phone pressed to his ear. Seeing the screen off, he lowered his hand and took all of us in.

He swallowed stiffly, his eyes finding mine. I saw the worry, and my chest started to grow tight.

He murmured, his mouth curving down, “Yeah.… Yeah. I will.… Thank you. Yeah.”

Ending the call, he scrolled through something on his screen before his eyes darkened and he put his phone back in his pocket.

Then the fakest thing I’ve witnessed in a long time happened.

He plastered a huge bright smile on his face. “Guess what, guys?”

Seraphina scrambled to her knees. “What?”

Cyclone was hanging off the end of the couch. He thrust his arm in the air. “Dude, just tell us!”

“Dad’s coming home.” Matt looked at me. “Tonight.”

“What?” Seraphina jumped to her feet, lighting up.

“When?” Cyclone was right with her, shooting up to start jumping on the couch.

“Uh…” Matt checked the time on his phone again. “In like an hour. You guys are supposed to hurry and get ready for bed.”

“What?”

“Why?” Seraphina asked right after Cyclone’s whine.

“Because your mom’s planning a whole night of movies. So if you wash up, clean your teeth, get in your pajamas, you pick the first movie to watch with Dad.”

“Yeah?”

“Really?” Seraphina asked

Matt was tense as he clipped his head up and down. “Yep. Go and get ready, then come back in here with your blankets. Your mom said something about a sleepover even.”

Cyclone jumped off from the couch. “Yes!” And he took off running down the hall.

Seraphina hurried after him, but stopped, turned, and came back to give me a tight hug around my neck. “Thanks for tonight. It was a lot of fun.” Before I could reply, she hurried from the room, yelling over her shoulder, “Bye, Matt! Love you.”

“And then there’s the two of us, until Kash gets back also.” Matt regarded me, a deep sigh leaving him. He slid his hands in his front pockets. “How’s it going?”

Hewas coming back.

Not that I cared.

Not that I’d been waiting.

Not that I’d been looking forward to seeing him again.

I had done as he asked, called him once I got my phone again. That set the precedent. We talked the next day. We texted in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. Good times. And there were also the good night texts and good morning texts.

I disliked those the most.

Yep. Detested them. Loathed them.

Why hadn’t he told me good morning today?

I didn’t care. Not one bit.

I was lying. I was a caring fool.

Then I noticed Matt’s silence and began looking on the floor.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for the shoe you’re about to drop.”

“Ha ha.” He rubbed at his forehead, ignoring my lame grin. “I’m sorry. I actually took two calls just now. One was Kash, letting me know about Dad, but the other was Quinn. She…” His hand dropped. “She asked me to make sure you weren’t on the property when my—when Dad gets home.”

I reeled from that one.

“He’s been in DC working on a big project, and I guess it was a tense time for him. Something happened. She thinks it’ll be better if he doesn’t add anything extra on his plate.”

Right. Extra. I was the extra.

Backward.

I was feeling shoved out of the house. One by one, all the doors were closing in my face until I was so far out that I was outside the gates. That’s what Quinn just did.

I was getting kicked out.

“I see.” I looked down at my lap. There was a slight tremor with my hands, so I stuffed them between my legs, stopping it.

It was fine.

I mean, it’s not like I expected to see him again.

Or hoped to see him again.

He hurt Chrissy. I drew that in, remembering, hardening. He hurt my mom.

“She doesn’t even want me in Kash’s villa?”

He hesitated, before slumping down on the couch next to me. “No. Not even there. Look, it’ll be fine. I tend to have a whole security team on me when I leave, and since Quinn would rather both of us”—he nudged me with his shoulder—“not be here … I can’t help but go at her sometimes, so I was thinking we can head downtown to my place. I have a place. You’ll be safe. Kash has given me the safety approval before.”

“Francois Nova?”

He nodded. “It’s where I normally stay. I moved out of this house years ago. We could go there. A few of my friends are heading to a new nightclub, if you wanted to go there too?”

“Friends?”

Another nod. “I could go for a night of debauchery, to tell you the truth.”

It sounded wrong somehow. “I don’t know, Matt.”

“Come on. It’ll just be one or two friends. I told you, Kash is good with it. I’ve got the whole security team and everything. And it won’t be anything big. These guys are cool. Might do you good to meet a few of the girls, if they’re there.” He stopped, rolling his eyes. “What am I saying? If there’s a new club opening, they’ll be there.” His shoulder bumped mine playfully. “Maybe it’s time to meet a few of the gang.”

“You have a gang?”

He stood, making up our minds for both of us, and catching my hand, he hauled me with him. “One thing you need to learn about this world: we might live in an exclusive club, but it’s a small exclusive club. And once it’s out who you are, everyone’s going to want to get their hooks in you. Might be a good idea to meet them one by one, in small doses, and when they don’t know who you are.”

I wasn’t fully following his theory, but I didn’t have a choice. Quinn wanted me gone, and Matt was doing her bidding. He was just going with me.

I nodded, giving in. “Should I pack a bag then?”

“Nah.” His mouth twitched in a half smirk, and he threw his arm back around my shoulder as we headed out. “As long as you have your phone, you’re good to go. I’ll have everything at my place.”

“I.D.? You have women’s clothes at your place?”

“When you go with me, you don’t need I.D.” He just laughed. “And being rich gives you the luxury of being prepared for anything. Come on. Let’s go forget about family ‘stress’ by getting wasted.”

It wasn’t what I’d normally do.

I was in.