Miscreants: Next Generation by Natalie Bennett (classic books for 7th graders TXT) 📕

She began to walk away and then paused, glancing back at me and Lilith with a smile. “Thanks for the ride.”

I watched her go towards the massive fucking building in the center of the compound. Not privy to the inner workings of their faction, I didn’t know what the fuck all that was about. I knew she’d left the Venom guy she fucked with, nothing more or why.

“I should’ve had all boys,” Romero stated, focusing his attention on me and Lilith.

I think I spoke for everyone when I said he didn’t mean that. Bella and Addy meant just as much to him as my cousin Luce did.

“Now that she’s gone, why don’t you come with me?”

He poised it as a question, but I knew it wasn’t something I could refuse. I did the same shit on my own turf.

“You can come with me,” Cobra said to Lilith.

When neither of us replied or moved, Romero laughed. He stared at Lilith, whatever he was thinking unknown to any of us standing here sweating our goddamn asses off.

“I know how this goes. I’m not going to kill him. I like him. And his dad wouldn’t approve.”

“Lilith,” Cobra implored.

“Okay. Let’s go,” she replied. “Don’t die, and don’t do anything reckless,” she tacked on for me, walking away with him.

Did she forget who she was talking to? I wasn’t carelessly reckless. I was always calculated with it.

The stares took me back to the old days. I didn’t give a fuck—the circumstances weren’t anywhere near the same. I’d find it more offensive if they didn’t watch my every move. Jin shadowed me, unbothered about the attention or the two acolytes on either side of him.

“I was wondering when you’d show up,” Romero said.

“I wasn’t going to.”

“Women change everything.”

I interpreted that as his way of letting me know he knew how important Lilith was to me.

As we approached the grey stucco building in the center of the compound, I took in how large it was. The landscaping around it was immaculate—the greenest grass I’d ever seen in the Badlands with neatly trimmed shrubs full of bold, blue flowers.

“What is this place?”

“My house.”

“It’s more like three houses,” my dad said.

It was the first time he’d spoken since I’d gotten here. His observation wasn’t wrong. This place was fucking huge.

“You could’ve had one just like it,” Romero replied dismissively.

We went up a wide set of stairs, entering through a pair of double doors. Cool air surrounded us immediately.

Everything in his house screamed luxury and Savage. I looked at the high ceilings and swirled marble floor. In the center of the foyer was a massive Baphomet sigil. Another one hung in the center of the upper balcony in the form of a black and white tapestry. The dark fixtures were all adorned with symbolic Savage details.

I can’t lie, I was envious. Not of the way he proudly represented his faction, but of this house. Just like I knew a large part of him going this route was for my Aunt Calista, Lilith deserved something just as nice.

“We can head to the drawing room.”

Fucking drawing room.

The sound of light footsteps had me glancing to the left. Where did he come from? A small kid stood near the bottom of the large staircase. If it weren’t for the black hair and uncannily familiar blue eyes, I wouldn’t have known whose kid I was looking at.

Even without those traits and the fact that he still had chubby cheeks, this kid had my uncle’s whole fucking face.

“That’s my Nero,” Uncle Romero introduced casually.

“You had another kid?”

“Age hasn’t made me any less of a man. I still fuck my wife every morning and sometimes twice at night.”

His wife was my aunt, so I wasn’t going to dignify his oversharing with a response. I was still stuck on him having another son not a soul seemed to know about. There wasn’t a single fucking whisper or hint that this kid existed.

“You two go ahead and talk. I’m going to take him to his mom.”

He broke away from me and my father, leaving us at the doors of his drawing room. My dad pulled them apart, revealing an area that had my uncle’s aesthetic anywhere you looked.

“Are you okay with him waiting outside?”

I glanced back at Jin and nodded.

“That’s fine.”

I stepped around him and went to sit on a deep red baroque sofa. The doors clicked shut and then my father joined me on the loveseat opposite a coffee table. He rested his elbows on his denim clad knees and looked at me thoughtfully.

“Your mom wants to see you. Your sister’s coming too. I thought it’d be best if we spoke first.”

“I agree,” I replied.

“Do you hate me?”

This wasn’t a question I was expecting. I had no reason to lie or bullshit, though.

“I’ve never hated you or mom. I hated the way you looked at me.”

“I—”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I cut him off.

“It does matter,” he responded tersely. “I’ve waited a long time for this moment. I have a long list of things I want to say and twice as many to ask, but now that you’re right in front of me all I can think to say is that I’m sorry, and that I couldn’t be prouder of the man you’ve become.”

I leaned back, for once in my life at a loss for words. His emotion caught me off guard—mine made me uncomfortable. I didn’t feel this type of shit. I could hear the sincerity in his every word. It almost made me want to apologize too, but I didn’t know how to do that.

My father wasn’t a bad man. In our beautifully cruel world, he was a