Society Girls: Neveah (4 page)

Me: Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Dylan: You’re welcome. Sweet dreams.

They will be sweet, because I’ll be dreaming
of him. I don’t know how I got so lucky to meet someone like him. I
know I deserve a good guy, but they’re sometimes hard to find.
Especially for a girl like me. He’s Ellie’s brother, so that
accounts for the “how” and I can’t imagine her family being
anything other than awesome, but I’m not going to analyze things.
It’s time for those sweet dreams.

Dylan

“She wouldn’t touch the gun?”

“No,” I say. “She opened the box, but then
she jumped back like the gun was going to do something on her
own.”

“Good.”

“It’s not good. She needs to get past her
fear of guns.”

“She does not.”

“We’re going to have to disagree on this.
She needs to get past her fear if she’s going to truly be happy.
You want her to be happy when I bring her to you, don’t you?”

“I need her to want to be with me. Happiness
can come later.”

I just shake my head. I should never have
made that vow. I was a scared teenager, and I had no idea it would
ever come to something like this. How could I have ever thought my
vow would cause me to deceive someone like Neveah. She’s sweet,
funny, and damn sexy, and if things were different, she’s
everything I would want. I’m going to have her, but it’s going to
eventually be against her will, and that’s not the way it should
be.

“Sure, you can force me to do what you
want—I owe you. But you can’t force her. She’s not indebted to you.
This isn’t right.”

“Are you going to break your vow?”

“You know I’m not. I’m asking you to
reconsider before this goes any further.”

“No. The plan will remain unchanged.”

The plan is all kinds of crazy, but I know
he’s desperate and not thinking straight, so there’s no reasoning
with him. Maybe I can delay him just a little bit.

“I’m not sure I can accomplish all you want
done before training camp.”

“Do not try and play me for a fool. Your
season just ended, and you have months before you go back. Plenty
of time to woo a sweet young girl.”

“Do you have any idea how creepy that just
sounded?”

“This discussion is over.”

I know better than to argue, so I walk out
of my pool house. I have to force myself not to slam the door,
because this whole thing is so fucked up, and it doesn’t have to
be. Since there’s no one here but the two of us, I strip off my
clothes and dive into the pool. A few hundred laps will maybe clear
my mind, and calm my temper. Maybe.

* * *

Neveah

“Someone’s smiling pretty hard today,” my
friend, Sierra, tells me when I walk into weapons class. Several of
my friends are gathered around, sending amused looks my way.

“And we all know it’s not the setting,”
Jenysis adds.

“Can’t a girl be happy?” I ask. I know I’m
smiling. Dylan and his sweet lips are running on replay through my
mind, so how could I possibly help it?

“Totally,” Harlow tells me. “It’s nice to
see you walking in here more relaxed.”

“Oh. I’m not relaxed about being in here,” I
tell her with a laugh. “It’s just other things are making it more
bearable.”

“Are you going to tell us his name?” Rhieve
asks.

“How do you know it’s a guy?”

“We didn’t know for sure until you just told
us,” Camari says with a smirk.

Ugh. I can’t tell them about Dylan. I don’t
know what’s going on with us. If anything’s going on. He’s not
known for sticking with any woman for more than a night. Yeah, he
said I can come over tonight, but that’s probably because he
promised to help me. It felt like he wanted more than just sex when
we were hanging out—and kissing—but how do I know? I’ve never tried
to be with a player before, sports or otherwise. The guys I’ve
dated have been fumbling teens who were lucky to have their own
cars and later, their own dorm room. Dylan’s well into his
twenties, has more sexual experience than most of the population,
and makes millions on and off the basketball court. I still can’t
wrap my head around him wanting anything more than my body in his
bed.

I don’t have time to dwell on Dylan’s
motives, or pay attention to my friends and their theories as Faith
walks in. Today, we’re going to be shown how to take apart and put
together guns. Both for technical knowledge, and also so we can
hide pieces if we need to. She said I could skip this lesson, but I
didn’t want to. I need to know everything, even if I’m not ready to
use it yet.

“You can sit with me,” Rose says. Everyone
knows I won’t be taking apart my own weapons today, since I can’t
bring myself to touch them. That will be changing soon. At least I
hope it will.

“I’m nervous, too.” Kalila whispers as I
walk past her. “What if I do it wrong?”

“If you do it wrong, we’ll tell you,” Ellie
says from behind me.

I freeze at the sound of her voice, because
I didn’t know I’d see her today. I’d pretty much decided to avoid
her for as long as possible, because I don’t know how to act around
her right now. I can’t say I’m with her brother, because we’ve
already established that I don’t know what Dylan and I are doing. I
also don’t want her to know I’m just another spin in his revolving
door if it turns out that way.

She walks over to Harlow and Rhieve, and I
breathe a sigh of relief. At least momentarily. Reina steps in
front of Rose and me, and I mentally cringe. I don’t want special
treatment. “You don’t need to help me, Rei.”

“Rose is my mentee,” she reminds me, and I
blush.

“Oh yeah, right. Sorry.”

“It’s cool. We can share the boss,” Rose
tells me, lightening the mood.

“You all share me. I hope everyone knows
that,” Reina says, looking around the room. “They do know that,
right? I mean, they have mentors, but my door’s always open.”

“Relax, Rei. We all know we can come to
you,” I assure her. Knowing and doing it are two different things,
though.

She nods her head. “Okay, good.”

Faith starts the class, and all worries
about special treatment are replaced by worries that I won’t ever
pass this class. I watch Rose carefully, and listen to both Faith
and Reina as they explain things, but I still can’t pick up the
guns. Not when they’re put together, or even when they’re in
pieces.

“Nev, can I see you for a moment?” Faith
asks when class is wrapping up later.

“Sure,” I say, before turning to my friends.
“I’ll meet you guys in a few.”

Once everyone files out, I drop my messenger
bag on the table closest to Faith, and hop up next to it. She sits
on the table across from me, and smiles. I know she’s worried, but
I also know she’ll never tell me that. So, here we are.

“How’s everything going?”

I shrug. “I think I’m doing pretty well with
everything else.”

“You’re excelling in most of your
classes.”

“I’m going to do it, Faith. I swear. I’m
going to pick up a gun and shoot it.”

“That’s not what it’s
about. I…we…don’t want you going through the motions of shooting a
gun. That could get you killed. You have to be comfortable with the
gun; it has to be a part of you when you’re pointing it at someone
else. You have to be willing to pull the trigger because you know
you have to. You
know
down to your bones that if you don’t do it, justice will be
cast aside.”

“I’m trying.”

“I know you are. There’s no time limit on
when we need you to do it, but I need to know you really and truly
think you can. Because as much as we sometimes try to avoid it,
death is a natural part of what we do. Sometimes people have to
die.”

“You never tried to avoid it, did you? I
mean, you’re the ‘avenging angel’ of the Society.”

“I’m no angel, Nev,” she tells me with a
laugh. “But yes, my sense of justice outweighs my guilt at any
lives I’ve had to take. I don’t go around just killing people for
fun, but I do enjoy taking down someone who deserves it.”

“How do you know they
deserve it?” I ask, practically yelling. I know I’m heading for
trouble, but I can’t stop. “You said you’re no angel, but are you
God? People can change. People
do
change. Every day, in fact.”

“Some do, yes,” she says quietly. “But some
people will never change. Their words and actions tell me that, or
I can see it in their eyes. When someone is about to die, and still
has no remorse, to me at least, that shows they’re not going to
change.”

“You take that chance from them.”

“I do.” She blows out a deep breath. “I
think you need to talk to someone else. Come back here after your
lunch.”

“You’re switching mentors on me? Am I going
to be with Isa now?” After Greta got kicked out, Isa doesn’t
currently have anyone to mentor.

“Is that what you want?” she asks, and I see
pain in her eyes.

“No,” I tell her honestly. “I don’t want
someone else.”

She’s been more than patient with me, and I
know my issues are my own. I don’t begrudge her for being who she
is, and I definitely don’t hate her. I just don’t understand her,
and how justice rules her life.

“Come back after lunch.”

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. We’re
good,” she tells me, jumping off the table and pulling me into a
hug. “Now go eat!”

I dodge questions from my friends while we
eat in the cafeteria, and convince them nothing’s wrong. I’m not
sure they all believe it, but they leave me alone. We’ve all got
our own problems, and no one’s going to push me on mine. Once we’re
done, we all head our separate ways to work on different
things.

I walk to Faith’s office and knock on the
door. When it opens, I’m surprised to see her husband, Gavin,
standing in front of me.

“Hi, Neveah,” he says with a smile, stepping
back so I can walk in. Faith isn’t in the office, and I turn back
to look at him. “You probably weren’t expecting me, were you?”

“No. Faith said I needed to talk to someone,
but I’m confused about why it would be you.”

“Have a seat, and I’ll fill you in.”

“Okay.”

Once we’re seated, him behind her desk, and
me in one of the chairs facing it, Gavin steeples his hands and
looks me in the eye. “I almost lost Faith because of my
beliefs.”

“I didn’t realize you were that
religious.”

“I wouldn’t classify myself as overly
religious, but there are certain things I believed, still believe
to some extent, that made things difficult for us.”

“And this has to do with me?” I’m really
confused now.

“I’ve always believed that God should be the
only one to decide whether a person lives or dies.”

My mouth drops open, and I can’t speak.
Whoa! I mean, seriously, whoa! “But you married Faith!” I blurt
out.

He smiles. “I did, and I’d do it again. I
love Faith more than anything. I don’t always agree with everything
she feels she has to do, but I love her. And honestly, I witnessed
a situation where I truly believe that if she’d let those people
live…well, it would’ve been catastrophic. They would have continued
to do all they could to destroy her, the Society, and humanity in
general. That doesn’t mean I’ve completely changed who I am, or
that I can condone what she does, but I’ve accepted who she
is.”

“Wow. I don’t know what to say.”

“I’m not sure you need to
say anything. I just want to you know that Faith doesn’t take what
she does lightly. It’s not fun for her…well, sometimes maybe it
is…but she truly feels she has to save the world. For her, the
scales of justice have to tip for good, and evil
cannot
prevail. When I
think of it that way, I agree. Not with the killing, but with the
way she feels. I don’t expect you to feel the same way, and neither
does Faith.”

“I hurt her earlier, didn’t I?”

“A little. She’s tough, but she has her own
insecurities. She doesn’t want to fail you.”

“She hasn’t failed me! She’s been so
patient, and I know she cares.”

“She does. She wants you to succeed.”

“What if I can’t do it, Gavin? What if I
freeze when I need to kill someone?”

“Then you, or someone you
love, might die. I hate to be so blunt, but that’s what could
happen. I couldn’t do it on a daily basis, that’s why I’m a chef. I
can tell you that if Faith were in danger, I
would
kill to save her. I believe in
her more than I believe in anything else.”

“I don’t love anyone like that.”

“For you, it has to be the Society and the
people being helped that you’re willing to kill for. I have my one
person who I would go against everything for, but you’re going to
do it for many others.”

“You’ve given me a lot to think about. Thank
you for talking to me.”

“Any time you need me, just call. Or come by
the cooking school. I can always use an extra set of hands.”

Gavin runs a very successful cooking school
for underprivileged youth. I’ve been wanting to check it out. “I
just might take you up on that.”

“Please do. See you soon, Nev.”

I nod and walk out the door. Faith is
leaning against the wall, looking nervous. It’s so out of character
for her, but after what Gavin said, maybe it’s not. It actually
makes me feel a little better knowing that this fierce warrior
woman is insecure about some things. It also makes me want to
re-assure her.

“You’re a wonderful mentor, Faith. Don’t
ever doubt that. I have to get over my issues, and I’m sorry if I
was rude earlier.”

“You weren’t rude. I want you to be honest
with me. Are you sure you’re happy with me being your mentor?”