Page 41 of Devil's Kiss

“True. But cool idea.”

“Yeah, I think so. I’d love to do it down on the beach. You know, like Muscle Beach?”

“Oh, that would be totally hot.”

“Right? All those hot, oiled bodies. Hmm, this is sounding better and better. I’m a fucking mastermind.”

They laughed as they finished off their drinks, and then Finn looked at his watch. “Sorry, I need to bolt. I still have to hit the library to finish up this damn paper that’s due tomorrow before I head to Brantley’s. But this…it was really great. We need to do it again. Soon.”

“Yeah, we do,” Derek said as Finn slid out of the booth.

He followed suit and picked up the tray, tossing the trash out. When they got back in the car, Finn asked where to, and Derek pointed him in the direction of the gym. Once there, Finn dropped him off around the back, and just as he was about to drive away Derek looked through the window at his friend.

“Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

“I won’t. See you soon, Derek.”

“See you soon, Danny boy.”

As he watched Finn drive out of the parking lot he reminded himself that this was what happened as you got older. Things changed and you got busy. Friendships shifted and sometimes even ended, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. At least Finn was still in the same town. Maybe when things were easier, when school was over, they would come back together.

He glanced at the time on his phone. Five o’clock. He was right on time.

He turned, ready to head around to the front doors of the gym, but he didn’t get very far—the next thing he remembered was waking up on the concrete where he was curled into a ball.

Exactly where his father left him.

JORDAN SATOUT on his balcony with his feet propped up on the table in front of him and a glass of sweet tea in hand. It’d just turned five thirty on a glorious Wednesday afternoon and he’d decided to spend the evening relaxing while grading a few final papers he had left for the next day.

He was halfway through his stack when the phone he’d placed on the table started to buzz. When he saw Derek’s number flashing across his screen, he frowned. He thought Derek had work tonight.

After placing the paper on the table, he picked up his phone, and hit answer. “Shouldn’t you be at work, young man?”

He grinned, waiting for some smartass reply, but when all that greeted him was silence, Jordan sat forward in his chair, his stomach dropping.

“Derek?”

Again, nobody said anything, but this time Jordan heard a shuffling sound and then an anguished groan of pain.

“Derek?” Jordan demanded, and shot to his feet.

Fuck.Ohfuck.

He wasn’t sure how he knew, but somewhere in the pit of his stomach he knew something was terribly wrong.

“Derek, talk to me.” He raced inside to his kitchen counter and desperately searched for the keys he knew he’d left there. He checked under pamphlets and magazines, and when he found them, he asked, “Where are you?”

He ran to the elevator, punched the down button, and as the door slid shut he cursed the slow glide of it. He pressed the phone so hard against his ear he was surprised he didn’t break the thing, as he waited for anything from the man at the other end.

He prayed the phone wouldn’t cut them off during the descent, then right before the elevator hit the ground floor he heard words that made the air get stuck somewhere in the back of his throat. “Gym. Back of the gym. My father…”

Jordan’s hand shook as he pulled open the car door and slid inside. “Derek?”

When he got no answer, he turned the car on and the cell connected with the Bluetooth. He could hear Derek’s harsh breathing through his stereo, and the sound was haunting.

“Derek?”

There was a dreadful gurgling sound, an expulsion of air, then, “Yeah?”