Twisted Complications by Nikita Parmenter
Chapter Thirty-Five
Istare up at the principal that, despite us having been here for a while now, none of us have met save for Atlas and Rage. He seems fairly normal, salt and pepper hair, dark eyes and dressed immaculately. His eyes drift over the crowd as he talks and smiles at certain people in the audience. All of the teachers are sitting up on the stage behind him and I’m pleased to see that the coach isn’t there.
There’s also a couple of people I don’t recognise who I’m assuming are donors that Rage mentioned earlier. I try to pay attention to what the principal is saying, I really do, but it’s boring as hell and the number of eyes that I can feel on me is starting to make me feel twitchy. I know the idea of me wearing a dress was to blend in and cut down on the attention I get, but it hasn’t worked and at least if I was wearing my own clothes, I’d feel more comfortable and capable.
After about an hour of rich parents applauding and congratulating themselves for the massive donations they’re giving the school, the speeches are finally over, and we’re all directed to the cafeteria for the meal.
“Why is it compulsory for us to be here?” I grumble. “It’s not like any of our parents are coming.”
“Thank fuck.” Atty mumbles.
I grin.
“Because everyone else’s parents are here apart from a couple of kids whose parents are travelling, technically we’re representing the school.” Rage says snootily as if repeating verbatim from the brochure.
“Fantastic.” I sigh.
I don’t know why I thought this was going to be fun, it’s really not. I just want to go home, enjoy some time with my guys. Maybe look into Westlake Prep and see if the Amelia that Lucy mentioned is the same Amelia that Clint mentioned. Although, we haven’t got a picture of the one that Clint mentioned so our only way to know if it’s the same one would be if I look like the one Lucy went to school with, since they both said that I looked like her.
I have to admit, I’m pretty damn curious to see if I really do look like this mysterious woman. I also want to get going on the horse riding and see if the instructor has anything to do with Phoenix.
Basically, there are many other places I’d rather be right now than here.
The cafeteria has been transformed into more of a fine dining space than it already was before. I perk up at the thought of food, and Luc seeing my grin, smirks wrapping his arm around my shoulders and dropping a kiss onto my temple. There’s a light touch on the bottom of my back and Riot guides me towards a chair as Rage pulls it out and pushes it back in as I sit.
I feel like a mother fucking princess.
“You okay, Princess?” Atlas asks. “We should be able to get out of here soon.”
“I’m just looking forward to the food now.” I grin.
“It’s probably the only good thing about this damn day.” Rage says with no small amount of disdain.
“It’s making me miss my parents so damn much, can you imagine Jenny and mom here.” Cash chuckles.
“It’d be a hell of a lot more entertaining that’s for sure.” I grin. “Liam better sort his shit out soon. I miss them.” I frown.
“I’m surprised we haven’t heard anything more from him about your accident. He clearly cared about what happened.” Atlas mutters.
Conversation stops as the waiters put the first course down in front of us. I have no idea what it is, but it tastes fucking delicious. As we eat, I look around at the other tables, everyone looks not nearly as impressed as we are but they’re still eating it so I guess that’s good, I did expect some sort of drama from the rich assholes. I also notice that we are the only table that has no parents sat at it.
I spot Peter sitting across the hall and he looks bored as fuck, although his father entertains the table expertly, keeping everyone smiling. You can practically see the charisma rolling off him from here and I really want to meet him in person. From the little bit that Peter has told us about his dad, he sounds like an awesome person.
The food is absolutely delicious, I can name maybe one thing on each plate, like I recognised that something was made out of potatoes but other than that, I have no fucking idea what I’m eating. Well, worth not knowing though. I’m grateful that Cash and Trick helped to explain what order I needed to use the cutlery in at Christmas or I would probably be panicking right now.
I catch their eyes, from across the table, smiling when I realise that they’re both already looking my way and the grin proudly when I pick up the right fork.
It’s the little things.
“I’m going to try and recreate this one.” Rafe mutters quietly as he studies his main course, moving the ingredients around the plate and tasting things individually to see if he can pick out what it’s made of.
“I volunteer to be tribute taster.” I grin happily.
“Deal, you’ve got a good pallet, I probably need your help picking out some of the ingredients.”
“Deal.”
It wouldn’t surprise me if he recreated this dish and did it better than they have, he has a way of taking a tasty meal and making it truly spectacular.
It’s a while after the last course before people start moving about again but as soon as they do, Peter and his dad make their way over to us.
“Hello, I’m Shawn.” He greets us as we stand, and he shakes hands with us all. “Peter’s told me so much about you all. I have to say it’s nice to see him surrounded by some authentic friends for a change.”
“Dad, really?” Peter groans.
“It’s nice to meet you sir.” I reply, trying not to laugh at the comment.
“You look like you’re giving these misogynistic assholes a run for their money.” He grins.
“You can bet on it.” I smile.
“If you get into any sort of trouble, get Pete to give me a call and I’ll see what I can do.” He offers, sincerely. “This isn’t the safest place for a girl, although from the looks of it, you’re pretty well protected.” He adds looking around at the guys fanned out around me.
“We’re just back up, Sir.” Luc grins. “She’s more than capable of handling herself.”
“Good.” He replies, smiling and seeming relieved, he seems too nice for this cutthroat world. His eyes narrow on Luc. “Pete tells me that it’s not a good idea to go into business with your father.”
“It’s not Sir, it would be detrimental to your own business and he is not the kind of business partner you want to have. Nor is his company one that you want to invest in.” Luc says seriously his arms crossing over his chest.
“Very well, I trust my son and if he trusts you, then I trust you.”
“Thank you, sir.” Luc says relieved.
Shawn nods in understanding before his serious façade drops and he grins again. “It’s a shame that they don’t have dancing here, I’ve got some killer moves.”
“Oh, Peter told us all about them,” Jensen grins. “I think I could win in a dance off.”
“Challenge accepted.” Shawn grins as Peter looks on with a mixture of shock and amusement on his features.
“Pete, make sure they come to the spring ball.” He tells his son who grins.
“You have no idea what you guys just got yourselves into.” Peter chuckles, lightly.
“We’d love to come.” I accept the offer before one of the guys can reject it due to safety reasons.
“Excellent, I must go and schmooze the boring bastards over by the bar for a bit. God, I miss your Pa, he normally takes care of all the schmoozing.” He takes a fortifying breath, like he’s preparing for battle and walks off.
“Dude, your dad is freaking awesome.” Rafe grins.
“I know, Pa normally comes to these things to help reign him in a bit, but he’s gone out of town on business, so dad’s been left to his own devices.” Peter grins.
We chuckle, Shawn is awesome and from the sounds of it, Peter’s other dad is pretty cool too.
“So, what’s the deal with this ball?” I ask excitedly.
“Well, its next month and it’s black tie, so me and you will definitely be going shopping. It’s more fun than serious though, my dad’s just use it as an excuse to get dressed up and show off.” He explains.
“Sounds good. So long as no security risks pop up, we should be able to attend.” Atlas adds, grinning when I kiss him in on the cheek.
“Awesome. It’s held at my house and we have high end security year-round but there’ll also be extra security for the night who will be fully vetted beforehand. I can get their names and pictures before you guys come so you can look into them yourselves or I can help you do it.” Peter says seriously, not asking questions about why there could be a security risk just giving us reassurance and solutions.
“Thanks man, we’ll take you up on that. We can explain what’s going on tomorrow if you want to come over to ours, I think you’ve definitely earned at least a small portion of the story. It might help you not to be doing stuff blind to our situation.” Trick offers.
“That sounds great, I’m happy to involved in whatever way you deem it necessary.” Peter replies grinning, his eyes move over my shoulder. “Ah shit, some drama’s about to go down.” He adds nodding in the direction he was looking, and we all turn to watch the show unfold.
“What am I looking at right now?” I ask curiously.
“The woman in red is Regina, she’s a gold-digging whore who broke up the marriage between the man in the black suit, red tie and the woman in pink. This is the first outing since it came out.” Peter says taking a sip of his wine.
“Holy shit, it’s like high school never ends for these people.” I groan as I watch the woman in red go for the other one.
Before they collide and I get some entertainment finally in this boring as shit afternoon, blinds suddenly drop over the windows as the lights go out, the room falls into completely darkness, the guys close ranks around me.
“Don’t move, we could get separated or trampled if people start to panic.” Trick mutters quietly, as everyone in the room starts to shuffle uneasily, unsure if this is a part of the programme or not.
A loud bang echoes through the room making me jump and a few people cry out. It’s not a gunshot I’d recognise that but it’s still concerning. The bang comes again making everyone start to get more agitated. It starts to become faster and faster creating a deep and pound beat as the once dark room starts to flash with strobe lights to the beat.
It’s incredibly disconcerting and my senses are in absolute overload, the only thing keeping me grounded right now is the guys hands on me. In the brief moments of light, I can see the terrified faces of the surrounding diners as they start to make their way towards the door, shouting at each other and trying to communicate over the loud banging.
“We need to back up against the wall.” I yell. “We’re like sitting ducks out here in the open.”
“As one we move backwards, don’t let go of anyone.” Atlas orders a growl in his voice.
“Pete, you with us.” I yell, starting to panic that we’ve lost him in the crowd and confusion.
“I’m here.” He says grimly, thankfully taking a cue from the rest of us and staying calm.
We slowly start to move around the table and back to the wall that’s the other side of it. People start to run into us in their panic and I get jostled, my ribs protesting at the sharp movement. The knock created a gap in the wall of men around me and a hand reaches through, grabbing mine and placing an envelope in it. I follow the arm up to a face covered with the mask of Phoenix and I nearly scream, with the lights flashing over it and the beat of the banging in the background it looks truly terrifying.
I grip the envelope in my hand as Jensen sees him and viciously punches him in the face, the guy’s head snaps back, I don’t know what the hell he’s using to keep the mask in place, but it doesn’t go anywhere, even though a split appears down the middle.
I’m assuming it’s a guy, purely from his build. He’s got no other distinguishing features.
“Leave him, we need to stay together.” Trick orders as Jensen goes to move after him.
“Are you okay, Angel?” Jensen asks as he gently place his hand on my cheek, the only reason I know what he said is that I’m reading his lips.
I nod since there’s no point in answering, he won’t be able to hear me. The flashing lights are starting to make my brain swirl as we finally hit the wall. Everyone’s still panicking and trying to make their way towards the exits. Suddenly the rhythmic banging stops, the lights turn back on and the blinds on the windows rise. The sight before me is pure carnage, all of the immaculately made up people are looking worse for wear, several have injuries from being knocked over or run into but my eyes only stay on them for a brief moment before they land on the tapestries now hanging from the walls around the cafeteria.
Each one of them decorated with a phoenix.
The people left in the room stare up at them in shock, everyone beginning to look around uneasily.
“Time to go.” Atty growls, his eyes locked on the tapestries.
The envelope is still held tightly in my hand as we use everyone’s momentary distraction to leave the room. I clench it tightly the whole way home almost scared to look at it. It’s a testament to how alert the guys are, keeping an eye on our surroundings, that they don’t notice that I’m holding it. Whoever gave me it obviously used the distraction made by the Phoenix in order to give me it. The fact he was wearing the Phoenix masks would suggest that he is a part of the group but what if that’s just what he wants me to think.
“Did that guy do anything to you when he grabbed you, Angel, you’ve been really quiet.” Jensen asks, concern flashing across his eyes.
I wait until we’re all inside the house before I reply, raising my hand.
“He gave me this.”
“What does it say?” Cash asks, curiously.
“I haven’t looked at it yet.”
“Let’s get it over with?” Trick asks gently.
“I swear if there’s another photo of me in this damn envelope I’m going to go fucking postal.” I grumble. “And my feet hurt from being in these damn shoes.”
I don’t know why I felt that was important to add but it was.
The guys share a grin and I am this close to demanding that they all wear high heels for a few hours and see how their feet feel. I tear open the envelope and pull out a folded note from within it, breathing a sigh of relief that a photograph doesn’t fall out as well. I am so sick of those, they’re ridiculously creepy, especially since I’m usually so aware of my surroundings.
I unfold it carefully, just in case there is anything extra in it and then read, the flowing and script like handwriting out loud.
“Leave the past in the past, or the consequences are going to end up deadly, Butterfly.”
That one word freezes my entire mind as memories assault me of much happy times, playing in the garden and being called in for dinner, the whispered words, I love you butterfly floating through my ears, a voice I haven’t heard for years. While I’ve been lost the guys have been talking and I jump slightly as Rafe’s face appears in my line of vision.
“What’s wrong, Dragonfly?” He asks.
“It says Butterfly.”
“It’s probably just someone who hasn’t done their research properly and thinks that’s what we call you.” Cash mutters, rolling his eyes.
“I don’t think that’s it, why write it at all?” I defend.
Rafe studies my features further, his eyes scanning mine. He grabs my hands and I cling onto them tightly ignoring the twinge of pain in my hand.
“What’s going on, Ever?”
At his serious tone, the guys that were starting to move away to do their own things turn back to me.
“You don’t understand, the last person that called me, Butterfly, was my mom.”