Where were they the night of the barn attack?
The guys previously explained how they’d been experiencing some blank spots in their abilities, which meant they didn’t realize what was going down at the farm until it was too late.
But is that the truth? What if they lied?
Ugh. This isn’t helping at all. Forcing those nasty thoughts aside, I refocus on the conversation going on around me. “Can we just get this over and done with,” I plead. “I want to go see my mom.” Beck pushes the sleeve of my top up to my shoulder, producing a fuck-me giant-sized needle that gives me an instant case of the heebie-jeebies. “Holy crap. You’re not sticking me with that!”
Maddox busts out laughing. “I think he’d be happy to stick you with something else if you just asked.”
Coop semi-glares at his brother, and I scold him. “Not. Helping.”
“I’ll make it quick,” Beck says, trying to soothe me, and Maddox chuckles again. Oh my God, enough with the insinuations.
“Mad Dog.” Dane’s expression and surly tone shuts him up. Then he turns his death stare on me. “Turn your head to the side, Tori, if the sight of the needle terrifies you so much.”
I loathe the sneering look on Dane’s face, especially because it confirms we are back to our old roles. Well, the challenge has been set, and I’m not backing down now. Purposely eyeballing the needle, I brace myself. “Do it, Beck.” He is true to his word, stabbing me in one quick, fluid motion so all I feel is a brief, sharp prick. I still jerk though, and Dane’s amused snort makes me want to jump up and punch him in his assholery face. The liquid feels cool as it slides through my veins, but, apart from that, I don’t feel any different.
Mom bundles me into her arms the instant I step foot in the farmhouse kitchen a while later. “Victoria. I’ve missed you, sweetheart. Let me look at you.” She holds me at arm’s length, skimming her eyes up and down my body. “I hope you are eating. You’re still looking too thin.”
“She is eating, ma’am,” Maddox confirms. “I’m making sure of it.”
Mom reaches up, lightly pinching his cheek. “That’s my boy. Thank you for looking after my baby.”
“I swear you get more beautiful every time I see you, Victoria,” my aunt says, opening her arms for a hug.
“And I swear your eyesight gets worse every time you visit, Aunt May,” I joke, happily hugging her.
“She’s too modest,” Cooper says, propping his butt against the edge of the table behind me. “And I totally agree. Tori is the most beautiful girl on the planet.”
Maddox makes an obvious gagging sound behind me, but Aunt May beams at Cooper over my head, shucking out of our embrace. “And who is this handsome young man?” she asks, her gaze flipping between Cooper and me.
Cooper steps forward, offering her his hand. “I’m Cooper. I’m Tori’s boyfriend.”
Maddox smirks, Dane quirks a brow, and Beck looks at the floor, while I just stand there staring at Coop with my mouth open.
Cooper plants a kiss on the back of my aunt’s hand, and she visibly swoons. I don’t blame her. When Coop lays on the charm, no one is immune. “Well, isn’t Tori a lucky girl,” Aunt May manages to say.
Cooper pulls me into his side, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Nah, I’m definitely the lucky one.”
Maddox gags again, and Dane swats the back of his head. Coop grins at me while Mom tells us all to take a seat as she serves up dinner.
“What was that all about?” I whisper to Coop when he sits down beside me.
“I know you’re worried about how she’ll take the news you’re lusting after all of us, so I figure you should ease her into it gently. One boyfriend at a time.” He grins at me, popping a piece of carrot into his mouth.
“A warning would’ve been nice,” I murmur under my breath.
“I didn’t want to miss that look on your face.” He winks, and I roll my eyes. “Besides, I’m sure she’ll want to take tons of pictures next weekend, and as I’m your official date for the dance, it makes sense that it’d be me.”
“You have it all worked out, don’tcha?” I tease.
His smile fades, and he drills me with a funny look. “Not everything, no.”
We leave the house a couple of hours later, stuffed to the gills, promising we’ll make it a regular Sunday thing. I hug Mom for ages at the door, forcing myself to pull out of her arms when Dane revs the engine. “I miss you, Mom.”
“I miss you, too, sweetheart. So, so much. But keeping you safe is the most important thing right now, and I know you’re safest with the boys.” She pierces me with a serious expression, one I’ve been on the receiving end of before.
Uh-oh, here it comes.
She folds her arms, lowering her voice. “When were you going to tell me you were dating Cooper?”
“I was going to tell you today, but it’s a new thing, and he beat me to it.”
“I like him, and I approve, but I hope you remember you aren’t yet eighteen and you’re still in high school, and whether I’m there or not, the no-boys-in-your-bedroom rule still applies. I’m trusting you to be responsible, Victoria.”
Now definitely wouldn’t be a good time to tell her I’m not a virgin or that Cooper shares my bed most nights. This is so embarrassing. I’m pretty sure Coop is listening and most likely relaying every word to his brothers. My cheeks grow warm, and I inwardly groan, but, in another way, I love this, because it feels normal, and there’s been little else that’s been normal lately. I know Mom is already worried about me, and I don’t want to add to that, so I figure a little twisting of the truth can’t hurt. “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m being responsible, and I haven’t had sex with Cooper.” I kiss her cheek quickly, waving as I back up, desperate to distance myself from this conversation before it turns even more humiliating. “Gotta fly! Kylie is waiting for me. I’ll call you tomorrow. Love you!”
CHAPTER 22
I can’t get to the car fast enough, and my fingers are curled around the handle of the passenger side door when a throat clears behind me. “Hi, Tori.” My eyes pop wide as I turn around, facing Jensen who is standing about three feet away with a warm smile that is disarming. It’s been so long since he’s acknowledged me in any way that I’m rooted to the spot in shock.
Considering he lives with his family in the smaller farmhouse on the property, I should’ve known he’d see the car and realize I was here. He chuckles, raking his gaze over me appreciatively. “You look good. How’s your mom?”
“Um, thanks, and she’s doing okay. As well as can be expected.”
The creaking of the back door signals Cooper’s arrival. He’s as predictable as snow in February. “We need to leave, Tori, or you’ll be late.” Shoving past Jensen as if he doesn’t exist, Coop opens the passenger door for me. Helping me into my seat, he deliberately feels my ass in the process, and I’m torn between mortification and rage.
Jensen’s face darkens like thunder. “I’ll see you at school, Tori.” He takes a couple steps back.
“Eh, yeah,” Coop harrumphs. “So not happening.” He closes the door before I can say a word.
“Fuck,” Maddox exclaims, while Dane just emits an exasperated noise.
Outside, angry words are exchanged, and then Jensen flips Coop the bird before stomping off. Coop hauls ass back into the car with a smug, superior look on his face. I whirl around in my seat, glaring at him. “That was downright mean and completely uncalled for.”
Coop looks totally unapologetic. “I’m doing you a favor, Tori. Jensen inserting himself back into your life isn’t a good thing for him or you. You’re learning to move on, and it’s safer if he has no more contact with you.”
I refuse to agree with him, even if I know he’s right, so I ignore him, turning back around and staring out the window, watching my ex-boyfriend’s shrunken shoulders as he heads for home. A pang of sorrow hits me right in the chest.
“While I don’t disagree with your logic, Coop,” Dane says, thrus
ting the gear stick and moving the car forward, “we all know bullshit when we hear it.” Maddox snorts. “You’ve turned into a jealous motherfucker since Alinthia came into our lives, and we all know that’s the reason why you treat Jensen as you do. Give the poor guy a break. You got the girl. Isn’t that enough?”
I don’t need to turn around to see Coop’s sulky pout; I can sense it from here.
“And you really should reconsider the memory erase for all your friends,” Dane adds, looking over at me.
“You know how I feel about that,” I reply, looking back at him. “Only if there’s no other choice. I won’t tamper with my friend’s minds unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“You’re so fucking stubborn.” Shaking his head, he swings the car out onto the main road.
“Takes one to know one,” I retort.
The boys drop me off in front of the dress shop where Kylie is messing with her cell, looking bored, on the sidewalk, as she waits for me. Coop offers to take protective duty, but I shut him down quick. I’m still mad at him over his treatment of Jensen, so Maddox offers to watch me instead, and I gratefully accept. He parks the SUV on the opposite side of the street while the others discreetly disappear to find a safe spot to teleport back to the house.
“So,” Kylie says, looking a little hesitant, as we peruse the rails. “Hunter asked me to go to the dance with him.”
My eyes widen. “He did? What did you tell him?”
“That I’d have to think about it.”
I hold onto the rail, watching my friend. “Do you want to go with him?”
She shrugs. “I wouldn’t mind, but I don’t want to make anything awkward for you, so I’m totally happy to hang with you and the guys. It’s no biggie.”
Except I’m sensing it is. I’ve teased Kylie on and off over the years about having a thing for Jensen’s best friend. She’s always denied it, but a friend knows—she’s into him, or at least she could be if given the chance. “If you want to go with Hunter, you should go with Hunter. Being at different tables doesn’t mean we can’t hang out at the dance.”
Her expression is hopeful as she looks at me. “You’re sure you don’t mind?”
I shake my head, smiling. “Nope. You should totally go with Hunter. You two will look great together.”
Kylie convinces me to opt for a knee-length, strapless black and gold gown that I would never ordinarily choose. It couldn’t be any more different from the original dress I’d picked out, but I don’t have much energy to fight her on it. Although I know what I told Dane last night, and I want to give the guys some normal high school experiences, it’s difficult to summon enthusiasm for the dance when there is so much stuff going on. It feels frivolous to waste time thinking about a stupid dance when my fate, and the fate of my home planet, is hanging in the balance.
I hand Coop’s platinum credit card over, hoping he meant what he said and that he doesn’t balk at the three-hundred-dollar price tag for my new dress, purse, and shoes. Dane had explained before how the APGP gives them a very generous monthly allowance and covers all their accommodation costs, so I don’t feel too guilty.
As we are leaving the store, I spot a guy loitering by the corner. Dressed in a black overcoat, black pants, and black dress shoes, with black shades covering his eyes, he looks conspicuous and highly suspicious, not to mention ridiculous wearing shades when there isn’t a lick of sun to be found. I turn to Kylie, grabbing her arm. “Dodgy-looking dude straight ahead.” I move to pull her across the road to where Maddox is parked.
“Where? I don’t see anyone.” She looks perplexed.
I turn back around, and the guy is gone. Jogging to the corner, I look up and down the alley, but the guy is nowhere to be found. “He was right here, and he looked shifty.”
“Oh well.” She twirls a finger around one of her gorgeous strawberry-blonde corkscrew curls. “He’s not there now, so let’s not worry about the imaginary boogie man.”
I snap my gaze to her, surprised at her flippant, slightly condescending tone. “I didn’t imagine it, Kylie. He was right there.”
“I never said you did.” She emits a nervous laugh, and I frown. “But, whoever he is, he’s gone now, and we’re late to meet Zara, and I think you should just put it out of your mind. You have a lot going on right now, Tor,” she says, as if I didn’t know, “so don’t worry about it. Let’s get all the gossip from Zara.”
Zara is already seated in the small coffee shop, and she waves us over. We pull out chairs and sit down as she slides coffee cups across to us. “I took the liberty of ordering for you.”
“Thanks.” I warm my hands around the cup, lifting the lid and smelling the heavenly aroma.
“So, fill us in on what happened after I left last night.” Kylie had already briefly explained that she’d attended a senior party last night and how Jack was fawning all over Kenzie before she left. I tap out a quick text to Maddox in case he didn’t spot me leaving the store and coming here.
Zara’s face puckers in disgust. “I have lost all respect for Kenzie. She’s back with the douche.”
“Are you serious?” I specifically asked Jack to stay away from Kenzie, so this doesn’t bode well.
“Yeah. They were all over one another last night, and, judging by the sounds coming from the bedroom they disappeared to, it was one hell of a reunion.”
Coffee sludges sourly in my gut. “What is she thinking? Has she forgotten how he humiliated her?”
“Obviously,” Zara scoffs. “She has zero self-respect or self-control. And it was only last week she was crawling all over Jensen, hoping she could take your place.”
My stomach sours again at the reminder. If I didn’t know better, I might wonder if Kenzie had been cursed too, but her behavior is too true to form to seriously worry about that.
“How is he?” I quietly ask, knowing Zara will give it to me straight.
“I’m no expert, but I’d say he’s depressed. He’s been moody as hell, although, he seemed to be in great shape last night, but he didn’t stay long.”
I take a sip of my drink, trying to ignore the ache in my heart. “And what about Jack? What’s your assessment of him?”
“I trust him about as far as I could throw him, but he seems normal, like the usual self-centered arrogant ass that he is. No change there.”
Hmm. I still don’t know what to make of that. “Let me know if you spot anything weird.”
She shoots me a perplexed expression. “Will do, but why the interest? I thought after what he tried to do that you’d want nothing to do with him.”
“I don’t, but I don’t trust his motives, especially around Kenzie, so I’d like a heads-up if anything seems sketchy.”
“You think he’s going to try something like that again?” she inquires.
I shrug. “I don’t know, but I want to be prepared if he does.”
“Fair enough, and I’d do the same. I’ll keep you informed.”
We leave the coffee shop together, emerging into the quiet, dark street. The sky is a murky gray-black color as nightfall descends, casting creepy shadows on the land below. Out of the corner of my eye, I think I catch a glimpse of the man from earlier, but when I blink, he’s no longer there.
“Everything okay, Tori?” Kylie asks, looking up at me with a troubled look in her eyes.
She pretty much shot me down the last time I mentioned the strange dude, so I say nothing about him. “Peachy,” I lie, giving both my friends a quick hug before darting across the road to Maddox.
Sliding in the passenger seat, I greet Maddox, shut the door, and lean my head back against the headrest. Closing my eyes, I try to muzzle my panic as I think about the multitude of ways in which my life is so very far from peachy.
CHAPTER 23
School on Monday is a total mind fuck, especially at lunch when we are forced to watch the nauseating Jack-and-Kenzie slobber fest. “I’m worried about her,” I tell the guys, picking at the food on my plate. “We tol
d him to stay away from her, and he’s rubbing our noses in it, like he’s deliberately goading us.”
“I’ll have a word with him,” Dane says, looking absently out the window. He hasn’t looked me in the face once since he left my room at Zorc’s house after our conversation.
“What did the asset have to report?” Beck asks, shoveling one last mouthful of pasta into his mouth.
“That Jack spent the weekend fucking around with Kenzie.”
I slam my cup down on the table. “Do you have to be so crude?”
“What? You have an issue with fucking, or the word offends you?” He leans back in his seat, crossing his arms and daring me with his expression.
Typical.
For the first time in two days, Dane looks me in the eyes, and it’s to taunt me. Figures.
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
Kylie bites down on her lip as her gaze shuttles between Dane and me.
He sits up, resting his elbows on the table as he shoots me a dark look. “Yeah, it didn’t seem like you had any issue with it Saturday night.”
The insinuation is intentional, and my blood boils. Perhaps it’s time for a little test to see if the cure has worked. I’m so riled up that I don’t even stop to consider it. Focusing my mind, I visualize dumping my soda all over his smug face, and, in an instant, my cup floats across the table, emptying the contents over his head.
Dane glares at me with sticky soda dripping down his face.
“Shit, Tori,” Maddox whispers across the table. “You did that on purpose?”
I purse my lips. “Might have, and it’s not like the jerk didn’t deserve it.”
Kylie is staring at something across the way, and I turn to see what has snagged her interest.
“You’re such a brat,” Coop says, failing to hide his grin.
The Secret Heir (Alinthia Series Book 2) Page 16