Free Unleashed by Nancy Holder

Where?” Cordelia asked, cocking her head to the side.
    Katelyn was surprised she didn’t know. Didn’t everyone know everyone around here? And from what Trick had said, she’d gathered that the town loved their gossip.
    “I don’t even know. I live with my grandfather. Mordecai McBride.”
    “Oh, yeah, he’s way out in the sticks,” Cordelia said. “I didn’t put you together with him.” She smiled weakly. “Should have with the last name and all.”
    Thunder boomed above their heads as they strolled down the hall together. Katelyn smelled food. Lunch was being prepared. The school day was both dragging and racing by, the same as the days after her mother’s death.
    “We should get together, though,” Katelyn assured her. She didn’t want Cordelia to think she didn’t want to hang out with her. Just not at the cabin.
    Cordelia caught her lower lip between her teeth and got quiet. Then she nodded. “You’ll come to us, okay? My place.”
    Katelyn hoped it would be all right with her grandfather. But before she could say anything, Cordelia rushed on.
    “Yeah, it’ll be okay,” Cordelia said, more to herself than to Katelyn. “Just ignore my sisters if they’re over. They’re both crazy. And Justin’s still gone. So the coast is clear.”
    Cordelia’s demeanor had intensified. She was tense to the point of edgy. The invitation wasn’t a straightforward one, that was for sure.
    “I’ll need to check,” Katelyn said. “We could go to a coffee shop or something.” That would be nice. She hadn’t seen anything of downtown except on the ride in, and it would be neutral territory.
    “Oh, no, my house will be fine,” Cordelia insisted. And before Katelyn could argue, Cordelia gave a little wave and darted down the hall. Katelyn watched her go and smiled as the dark-skinned girl with the gold fingernails caught up with her. Katelyn was feeling protective of her. Cordelia seemed sad, almost frightened.
    But what does she have against Trick?
    Katelyn spent her lunch buying her gym clothes and getting some more of her textbooks. After lunch was art.
    She walked into a small room crammed with wooden tables coated with splashes of paint and was hit by the smell of turpentine and newsprint. Paintings and collages hung all over the walls, and framed prints of famous pieces by Monet, Picasso, and Chagall sat on wooden stools against a chalkboard. Rain spattered a large picture window, where a girl wearing a gray Timberwolf sweatshirt stood facing Katelyn. The girl smiled at her and walked away, giving Katelyn a clear view of the senior parking lot.
    Trick was outside, standing with a man who was wearing a suit and holding an umbrella. Or rather, the man was standing and Trick was pacing, bareheaded, flailing his arms. He was too far away for her to see his face, but it was obvious that he was angry.
    “Oh, my God,” a girl with chestnut curls cried as she sailed into the room. “Someone slashed Trick’s tires!”
    “What?” the girl in the sweatshirt squeaked. “ Again ?”

    By the time she was heading home that afternoon, the sun was setting. It had taken a while to straighten everything out with Trick’s car and to get replacement tires. He tried to joke about it, but she knew if it had happened to her, she’d be pissed and scared. And she’d seen him in the parking lot and seen how angry he was. She tried to ask him about it—who’d done it, and whether it had anything to do with the court trouble—but like Cordelia, he deflected her questions.
    “So this is life on the wild side,” she said, feeling bad for him.
    “Oh, yeah. It doesn’t get much wilder.” He rolled his eyes, but it was clear by his clenched jaw that the lightheartedness was a front.
    “I’m sorry about your car and everything.”
    He shook his head and glanced toward the sky. “I’m more worried about getting you home before dark.”
    She knew now why that was. Haley—Trick’s … what? his girlfriend?—had