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Personally, I was well over sugar and frosting, but alas, I was the only one. The guys were like garbage disposals, and they ate everything like they were worried starvation was right around the corner. I didn’t get it, and if I ate like that, I’d wind up in a coma.

I stood before the back sliding door with my palm pressed flat against the glass. I hadn’t stepped out of the house since that day Quinton and I’d had sex in the pool.

Something at the edge of the yard, right where the tree line started, moved and caught my attention. There wasn’t supposed to be anything or anyone out there. I knew the house was protected and anyone unwelcome or unsavory wouldn’t make it past the barrier, and that included the pool, or the twins wouldn’t have been able to use it.

But the yard beyond the pool? The forest beyond that?

I wasn’t so sure, because I didn’t know exactly how far out the barrier of protection extended. I hadn’t been invited to take part in any of that stuff, and no one had volunteered to inform me of how it all worked.

Which was just plain old stupid if you asked me. But that was the problem, no one ever asked me.

I moved closer to the glass, almost pressing my nose up against it. It wouldn’t help me see any better, but I did it all the same like a crazy fool.

There, I saw it again. There was definitely something out there, moving through the trees. It was moving slowly, almost like it was weaving around drunkenly. I should stop calling it an it, because it was becoming more obvious by the second that it was a person out there creeping around and that was what had first caught my attention.

Someone was in our backyard, creeping through the trees. The only reason someone would stay hidden out there in the darkness was because they didn’t want to be seen. Like a stalker.

There were several people it could be at this point, and I didn’t think any of them were good.

I felt like I was locked in here like a bird in a cage, and I’d about had enough of that nonsense.

The person moved, their cape floating around them, and they stepped out of the shadows. They revealed themselves to me, and they did it by staring right up at me where I stood pressed against the glass.

Then he stepped back into the shadows, once again hidden by the trees.

Fuck, Finn.

His pale blond hair looked dirty, messy, and in desperate need of a wash. His black clothing had been torn and shredded.

From what I remembered of him, he was a short, skinny man, but he’d never been quite this skinny before.

Hmm…

If Finn looked this much like shit from afar, I wondered just how pretty he’d look up close. I bet he smelled bad.

Quinton had never said it to me, but I knew he’d been really upset when Finn had disappeared on us after Rebel died. I didn’t get it, but I guessed they had bonded over being strapped down to a table and fucked with by a psychotic killer.

Then again, Dash and I had really bonded over what that A-hole Chucky had done to us, so who was I to judge?

Fuck it, I knew it was stupid, but I was going to do it anyway. If he didn’t want to come up to the house for whatever reason, then I’d go down there to him.

Finn wasn’t my favorite person. He was weird and had questionable morals, but he meant something to Quinton and that meant he now meant something to me.

Huh. By that way of thinking, if this little adventure got me into trouble, then I could really place the blame for the whole thing right on Quinton where it would rightfully belong. I liked this idea, not that I was looking for trouble, but trouble had a way of finding me.

I didn’t have shoes on, but that didn’t matter to me as I slid the glass door open and stepped out onto the deck in nothing more than short shorts, a skimpy tank top, and my bare feet. There wasn’t time to put on shoes, someone might question me and put a stop to my actions.

I slid the door shut behind me as silently as I could. I hated sneaking around as if I were a naughty teenager sneaking out of the house to go to a party without my parents finding out. It was ridiculous, but I did what I had to do.

I ran down the stairs so fast I almost tripped and fell. I caught myself on the handrail at the last second. That was probably going to leave a bruise for me to find later. I raced around the pool and ran straight where I’d seen Finn standing in the woods.

He was still there, waiting for me.

His blue eyes were just as vacant as they had been before, but that was honestly the only thing about him that looked the same as the last time I’d seen him.

Finn looked like absolute dog shit.

His skin was so pale he resembled a ghost. And his hair wasn’t just dirty, it was greasy, and there were things in it that I didn’t want to pay too much attention to for my own sanity. And his clothes weren’t just torn or ripped. In some places they looked like they had been sliced with a knife or some other sharp object.