“I am.”

“Then why are you looking like that?”

“Because I’m not sure I can trust him.” His voice softened when he said, “Especially with you.”

Pretending my best friend didn’t just make me swoon, I said, “Is he Exiled?”

“Not anymore.”

“Is he a friend?”

He seemed to ponder the answer for a moment. “No.”

“Then if we’re not going to rob him, I say we leave.” I was never thrilled about getting dumped in some stranger’s lap, anyway. Wren and I had been on the run for days, and I never once minded being alone with him. He, on the other hand, seemed eager to get away from me all of a sudden.

“We can’t leave, Lou. There’s nowhere else to go.”

Before I could respond, the front door of the house opened, and a girl stepped out wearing a blue blazer and a tan skirt and clutched in her right hand was a helmet. She seemed vaguely familiar, but judging by the looks of her, I had no idea why. My circle didn’t exactly include the one-percenters.

A few seconds later, the door flew open, and a boy with a vicious scowl emerged wearing an identical uniform. He swaggered over to the girl already straddling the bike and buckling her chin strap and pulled her off.

“He doesn’t even fucking notice us standing here,” Wren muttered with an annoyed shake of his head. He’d spoken too soon though. A second later, the only person known to ever penetrate Wren’s thick skin besides me glanced over, and I could tell by the promise of pain now painted on the guy’s face that he wasn’t happy to see us standing here.

“Wren?” I called as the boy pushed who I assumed was his sister behind him and charged.

She shouted his name, and when he ignored her, she ran back inside the house. Just who the hell was Ever?

“Yeah, Lou?”

“Something tells me we’re not welcome.”

My suspicions were confirmed when Wren pushed me out of the way as the boy, who I could now see was insanely hot, reached us. Pretty boy swung without a single word spoken between them. Wren managed to duck in time and quickly threw his weight into him, sending them both crashing to the ground.

The guy wasn’t pulling any punches, and neither was Wren as the sound of grunting and pounding flesh grew more intense. I just hoped there wouldn’t be too much bloodshed. Wren brought me here, which meant he was either desperate or he didn’t have as big of a problem with this frenemy as he made it seem.

I leaned against the hood of the car and smiled knowing that Wren would lose his shit if he caught me smudging the paint. My smile, however, quickly faded when the front door flew open, and the girl returned with another one of her brothers.

And for the first time, I wished I’d never snapped that picture. Because then Nathaniel Fox wouldn’t want me dead, and Wren, the boy I’ve loved since I was fifteen, wouldn’t have been forced to turn his back on his family.