Page 34 of Jaked

He gave the book a little wave. "Guess."

I knew whereI'dseen it last – tucked under the mattress of my single bed.

He set the book on a side table. "You need to find a better hiding spot," he said.

I gave Jake a hard stare. "You went in my room?" The thought was infinitely unsettling in more ways than one. "When?"

"Last night."

"When I was sleeping?"

"No. Before you got home."

I gave him a look of disgust. "Unbelievable."

"Want to know what's unbelievable?" he said, his voice growing harder now. "That you're hiding from some low-life when you could've called for help."

"From who?" I tried to laugh. "You?"

"Why not?"

"Because," I said, "we've lost touch. Remember?"

"If you wanted to, you could've gotten ahold of me."

"Yeah, right," I said. "And about Rango? I didn't know he was a low-life, okay? I met him at some club. We hit it off. He seemed nice."

"Uh-huh."

"And by the time I figured out he was a jerk, it was too late." I pushed a hand through my hair. "After things got too crazy, I figured a change of scenery would do me good."

"I saw your scenery," he said. "It wasn'tthatgood."

"Hey, it wasn't that bad," I lied.

"You're lucky you've been going by a different name," he said.

"Lucky?" I made a scoffing sound. "Try growing up with a name like Luna. See how luckyyoufeel."

His voice softened. "I like your name. You should stop changing it."

I gave him a sarcastic smile. "I'll think about it."

"By the way," he said, "you quit your bartending gig too."

My jaw dropped. "What?"

"Sorry."

He didn't look sorry. I slouched deeper into the chair, feeling utterly overwhelmed.

"So about Rango?" he said.

"What about him? " I said. "We had a bad break-up. End of story."

"The way I heard it, you trashed his Beamer."

"No," I said, considering Rango's once-beautiful car. "Hesmashedhis Beamer, and tried to pin the blame on me when the cops came. The idiot didn't even have insurance."