Page 84 of Boys Who Taint (Spine Ridge University #5)

“I was eating that,” Elliot grumbles.

“Do you ever stop stealing people’s food?” Aspen asks Xav, bumping into him with her elbow.

A mischievous grin forms on his face. “Never.”

“Hey, where’s Sunny?” Levi asks as he looks around the room. “Has anyone seen her?”

“No, last time I saw her was more than a week ago,” Max replies. “I thought, after all the fighting that went down, she might’ve taken a secret vacation somewhere on her own.”

“Really?” Levi responds.

“Sounds like heaven to me,” Elliot says.

“She hasn’t responded to any of my messages, though,” Max mutters, checking his phone.

“Okay, the installation is ready!” Aspen’s dad, Dylan, yells from the backyard. “Come outside, everyone!”

Everyone slowly exits the house through the back door, heading toward the gazebo, where the sprawling flower fields, well-kept bushes, and trees make even me want to take a breath of fresh air.

I much prefer the forests beyond Spine Ridge for a trip outdoors, but all the bugs and the rugged terrain doesn’t sway the rest of them to have a barbeque there, so this’ll have to do.

“Oh my God, it’s huge!” Aspen squeals, her eyes growing big as she sees her dad’s installed fireworks, just like a kid who just walked into a candystore, and it makes me laugh.

“Is this even safe?” her mom asks.

“Who the fuck gives a shit?” Silas responds.

“We do,” Felix growls at him.

“What if one of them hits Melody?” Alistair asks.

“That won’t happen,” Aspen’s dad replies. “How long have you known me?”

Alistair rolls his eyes. “Too long.”

Half of us laugh, and the other half throws out awkward looks.

“I know what I’m doing,” her dad says with a smug grin.

Levi’s dad raises a brow. “Right …”

“Can y’all just let me do this? Please?” he says. “It cost me ages.”

“Fine, fine, let’s do this,” Nathan mutters.

“Is it going to light the yard on fire?” Xavier says as he grabs a chair and some more cookies. “If so, I’m sitting.”

“You all have way too little trust in my dad,” Aspen says, snatching a cookie from his hand.

“Exactly.” Her dad pulls out a button. “Who wants to do it?”

Aspen’s whole face lights up.

“You wanna light it yourself, don’t you?” I ask, spanking her ass. “Go on then, Freckles.”

“What? But I wanted to do it,” Heath balks.

“You can do it next time,” his dad, Caleb, says, winking at him. “I mean, I assume we’re gonna do this every year from now on.”

“Good idea,” Blaine says, as he strolls out the door with a full wine glass. “I don’t know what exactly, but good idea.”

“You’ve had enough,” Crystal says, pulling the glass from his hand, only to take a sip herself. “Oh! Great flavor.”

“I wanna taste,” Orion says, stealing the glass from his mom’s hand.

“Can we get started or not?” Nathan asks, tapping his foot.

Dylan hands the button to his daughter and says, “Push this.”

She grabs it with both hands and closes her eyes while she presses it. The fireworks all go off at the same time and when her eyes open up the happiness on her face is as spectacular as the fireworks itself.

“Whooo! Oh yeah!” she squeals out loud, like a kid who just lit her very first fire, and it makes me smile from ear to ear.

Goddamn fiery fucking thing of mine.

Levi

We all sit on the grass watching the fireworks above. The installation her dad built is lasting a full ten minutes so far.

“It must’ve cost a fortune to put this all up, not to mention time. You never told me your dad was a fireworks enthusiast,” Grey says. “How does he even do this?”

“He’s a pyrotechnician,” Aspen responds.

“A what now?”

I laugh. “It means someone who’s a specialist in creating fireworks displays. That’s his job.”

“Ahh … Guess you learn something new every day,” Grey says.

“It’s not a profession people often choose.” She shrugs. “But I know my dad. This was the only option.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, let’s just say he loves fire a little too much.” She laughs to herself.

“Ah, well that explains it,” Grey says while staring at the sky above, where millions of lights explode.

“Explains what?” She looks at him.

“Be careful, Ghost-boy, you’re playing with fire,” Apollo warns him with a grin.

“He means you tried to set fire to the Phantom Society,” I explain.

“Damn right and you know exactly why,” she says, folding her arms.

“Goddamn pyro,” Apollo says. “Love it.”

“Stop calling me Ghost-boy because I have white hair,” Grey growls.

“You prefer cuck?” Apollo raises a brow.

Grey’s jaw drops. “We’re at a family thing!”

“You think I care what they think?” Apollo says.

“Who’s a cuck?” Xavier asks as he leans in.

“You,” Grey lies.

“You wish,” Xavier retorts.

“Then don’t butt in on conversations that have nothing to do with you,” Grey says.

“I can’t help that I’m nosy.”

“Too nosy for your own good,” Aspen says, shoving him away. “Go watch the fireworks.”

“It’s boring when you have no one to hold hands with.”

Apollo wraps his arm around Aspen and presses a kiss to her cheeks. “You’re just jealous.”

“He is, but the only reason is because he’s a pussy who can’t ask my sister out on a date,” I say without even granting him one glance.

“Oh my God …” Aspen snorts and hides her laughter behind her hand.

“Wow, just wow,” Xavier says as he gets up. “For your information, I have never even shown interest in your sister, so I don’t know how you got the idea—”

“You think I live under a rock?” I interrupt. “I’m dating your sister. She talks.”

Xavier just stares at me, then Aspen, narrowing his eyes.

“Whatever. Continue fantasizing, I’m gonna grab some more food.” He walks off, leaving the group.

“Don’t be so hard on him,” Aspen says, smiling at me.

“How else is he gonna grow some balls?” I grin back.

She pokes me, but I grab her hand and pin her down onto the grass. “Don’t poke the beast unless you’re willing to get eaten alive.”

“Ooooh, I’m so scared,” she says, chuckling.

“You should be,” Apollo says. “If you knew what he had planned tonight.”

A devious grin spreads on her cheeks. “Now I’m curious.”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

I kiss her hard and fast, not giving a shit who sees.

Cecelia and Melody make whoo whoo sounds together like they’re cheering us on, and fuck it, it only makes me kiss her harder, driving my tongue inside for good measure just to prove to the world that she is mine.

And there ain’t nothing any of those fuckers can do about it.

“I have a couple of new toys I wanna try out,” Apollo says, winking. “They’re in the car.”

“Now I’m the one who’s curious,” Grey says, biting his lip.

“Soon, my little twink,” Apollo says, placing his hand on Aspen’s belly as he leans in to kiss her too. “Soon.”

Grey rolls over too and kisses her from the other side, their hands touching on her belly as we all make out with her.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Aspen mutters. “I still have a question.”

“What’s more important than kisses?” I ask, still pecking her.

“It’s not, but I just wanna know … since you’re my ghost, did you kill that guy in the girl’s bathroom at Spine Ridge?”

I frown while staring at her. “No?”

“Really? He was all tied up.”

“Why would I? I didn’t know the guy.”

“Did any of you do it?” she asks, and both Grey and Apollo shake their heads.

She leans up on her elbows and stares into the distance. “Then who did?”

“Maybe there is another killer on campus …” Levi says with wriggling brows, and my face turns white as snow. He grins, and it pisses me off so much I slap his thigh.

“Not funny!”

“Is anyone even watching Dylan’s fireworks?” Alistair asks, interrupting her chain of thought.

We gaze around at the others, and it looks like Ivy, Max, Silas, and Heath were also making out on the grass. Aspen chuckles. “Seems we’re not the only ones who can’t control ourselves.”

I grin against her neck as I press dirty little hickeys all over. “The filth runs in the family.”

“Have you heard from Sunny at all?” Mom asks as I grab my helmet after the night is over.

“No,” I reply.

She frowns. “Why wasn’t she here?”

“I don’t know.” I grab my coat and put it on.

“Wait, Sunny wasn’t here, was she?” Milo says. “She never bails on family functions.”

“When I get my hands on her, she is going to be in so much fucking trouble.” Mom’s hands ball into fists, and she growls out loud. “Finally, everyone is back together, and she just decides to jump ship.”

“Now, hold on, Lana,” Kai says. “We don’t know if she did this intentionally or not.”

“She’d better have good reasons,” Mom says, annoyed.

“I’ve been trying to call her all night to ask where she is, but she refuses to pick up her goddamn phone,” Nathan says as he approaches.

“Apollo, have you seen Sunny at all?” Mom asks as he approaches.

Apollo raises his brow. “No. Should I have?”

“Ivy?” Mom asks. “Have you heard from her?”

Ivy shakes her head. “No. Not since the whole ‘let’s kill Levi’ party.”

“Ouch,” I say, fake-stabbing myself with a knife.

“Anyone else know anything?” Mom asks around.

The rest of the group approaches, curious to hear what’s going on.

“I’ll call around. See if any of my girls from the sorority know,” Aspen says, and she pulls out her phone and walks off.

“Okay, now I’m getting worried,” Max says, clutching his phone.

“Relax. Sunny knows how to take care of herself,” I say.

“What if she’s in trouble?” Elliot asks.

“Sunny doesn’t get in trouble. Sunny is the trouble,” Apollo says jokingly, but no one’s laughing.

“Who are you all talking about?” Xavier asks.

“Sunny,” Mom, Nathan, and Milo say in sync, and it makes Xavier’s face turn white like he just saw a ghost.

“She hates this family stuff,” I say.

“She wouldn’t not show up on purpose, though. Mom would kill her,” Elliot says.

“Which is exactly why I’m so worried,” Max says, still messaging her. “I haven’t seen her. Not even on campus when I went to get some stuff.”

Aspen returns. “I asked some girls from her sorority. They say they haven’t seen her in a week, and her bed has remained empty ever since.”

“A week?” Xavier shouts.

Nathan’s eyes widen. “That’s not possible.”

“She’s not replying to any messages or calls, and she’s not been to her own room in a week,” Elliot mutters. “This isn’t normal.”

My heart begins to palpitate, and I pull my phone from my pocket and dial her number. “C’mon, Sunny. C’mon, don’t bail on me now!”

I keep ringing the phone, but no matter how many times I do, no one ever picks up.

“Goddammit!” I growl, slamming my helmet back onto the cabinet I grasped it from.

“Oh God,” Mom says, suddenly putting her hands in front of her mouth. “What if she’s gone?”

“Gone where ?” Apollo asks.

My phone drops to the floor. “No, not gone to a place. Gone … as in missing .”

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