Page 67 of Badd Ass

I shrugged. “Okay.”

“Which is where Brock is.” He let me go and smoothed out my shirt, a weird, shit-eating grin on his face.

“Okay.”

Bast shoved my shoulder. “Think, dumbfuck.”

I scowled at him, exhausted from a long day of travel and even more exhausted from disappointment. “If you’ve got something to say, then fucking say it, Sebastian. I’m in no mood for bullshit games.”

“Brock is in Seattle, because his new girlfriend is in Seattle.” He paused. “And Mara is in Seattle.”

“And what’s your point?”

Bast hissed in disgust. “How do you thinkBrockknowsMarais in Seattle?”

I stared at him for a moment, and then it sunk in. “Oh.Ohhhhh. Hesawher?”

Bast tugged his phone out of his back pocket, unlocked it, and handed it to me.

In a gray bubble was a message from Brock:So my girlfriend is Mara’s best friend, Claire. Mara is in Seattle. I’m in her living room with her right now.

I groaned, handing the phone back. “Fuck me. OfcourseBrock’s new girlfriend is Mara’s best friend.”

Bast grinned. “So now you can go see her.”

I shook my head. “If she wanted to see me, she would have answered my text. She would have answered my call, or returned it. She would have fucking mentioned she was moving.” I trudged, depressed, upstairs, ignoring Bast’s attempts to call me back, to talk sense into me.

I wasn’t interested in sense.

* * *

Afist poundingon my bedroom door woke me up the next morning; I peered at my clock: 9:08 a.m.

“What?” I snarled.

“Get your mopey ass out of bed, you stupid lazy motherfucker,” I heard Bax shout. “Someone’s here to see you.”

“Unless it’s Jack Daniels himself with a barrel of bourbon, tell them to go away.” I rolled over and pulled the blankets higher.

“You really don’t want that,” Bax answered.

“The fuck do you know about what I want?” I growled.

“In this case, more than you,” Bax said.

“Zane, get out of bed and come out here.” That was Brock.

“Thought you were in Seattle withClaire.”

“I was. And now I’m here, and I didn’t come alone.”

“Tell Claire I said hi,” I said. “Now shut the fuck up and leave me the fuck alone.”

“Open the door in the next three seconds or I kick it in and drag you out of bed,” Bax shouted.

I didn’t bother sitting up. “I’ll break your goddamn kneecaps if you come in here.”

“One.”