Page 31

Once we were out of the woods we had to be a little more careful because we don’t exactly look like a couple of college kids out for a stroll at 2am. Honestly, Desmond and I look like the felons we are, with or without the jumpsuits, so this might have gone from risky to downright dangerous.

Oh well.

As soon as Maggie is wearing our marks and full of our scent, temporarily escaping from the asylum and almost falling off a building will be worth it.

”We are going to have to ride her ass for this.”

I jump off the railing and land next to Des, following his line of sight until I see what he’s talking about.

You have got to be kidding me.

For someone as smart as Magnolia, who also happens to have some power crazed alpha trying to mate her, this is some bullshit.

The screen on her sliding glass door is wide open, the glass is clearly unlocked, and the piece of wood I’m assuming goes down in the track as an extra precaution is propped against the other side of the door.

This shit is a predator's dream come true.

Des snorts. “You were thinking the same thing, weren’t you?”

Yeah. We’re both thinking it’s ironic that we’re worried about someone breaking into Magnolia’s place when we are, in fact, trying to break into her place.

She’s lucky it’s us, though, and not someone else.

We’re coming to give her mate marks and orgasms, some other criminal off the street could be coming to clean her out or something far worse.

Quietly, Desmond slides open the glass, just enough for us to fit through, then waits to see if he can hear anything before waving me inside. I follow cautiously, looking around as I close the door behind me and lock it, and join him in listening to our new surroundings.

It’s so fucking quiet you could hear a pin drop.

”Nobody’s home.”

I nod, not really sure how to feel about that.

It means this is going to start out a lot smoother than I originally thought. Not running into her roommate or any unwanted visitors. It’ll give us a chance to look around. Des can snoop through her shit the way I know he wants to.

Then again, it’s 2am on a Wednesday. Where the fuck is our girl?

MAGNOLIA

“You are so lucky that you’re my best friend and I don’t know what I’d do without you.

” I hoist Evie higher on my shoulder, hanging onto her waist tighter as I fish around in my purse for my keys.

“I was in bed, asleep before midnight on a work night like the good little doctor I am, then ring ring , your bestie’s calling and that’s all over. I had to put pants on for you, Eve.”

She giggles into my boob as she slowly sags down my body. “You love it.”

”No, I love you. I hate picking your drunk ass up in the middle of the night because you refused to leave when your cousins did.”

”Pfft.” She waves me off as I unlock our door. “They’re party poopers.”

I roll my eyes as I push inside, dragging my absolutely hammered best friend into the apartment and tossing her on the couch before I shut and lock the door.

“They’re responsible adults, Evelyn. They cut themselves off so they weren’t hung over at the asylum tomorrow.”

Evie points a finger in my face as I grab her foot and start unlacing her stiletto boots. “Don’t you never call me that, Magdalena. My douchebag DNA sharer calls me that and I loathe hims entirely.”

“I loathe hims entirely, too, but you deserve a full name call out. Be glad I didn’t use your middle name.”

“Magdalena,” Evie gasps and clutches her boob instead of her imaginary pearls. “You wouldn’t dare.”

I point her boot at her once it’s off. “I would.”

“I did a shot for you,” she says, changing the subject as she holds her other foot up for me. “It was called, uhm, wait I know this one.”

Drunk Evie is adorable.

She’s so much more relaxed, more carefree. Evie’s funnier, she throws caution to the wind, but she’s also a huge pain in my ass because at some point tonight, she’ll either crawl into bed with me and try to cuddle herself sober, or she’ll wake me up in an hour ready to keep the party going.

Sometimes it makes me sad to see her like this, though.

It’s not like Eve has a problem, she rarely goes out to be honest, but aside from when it’s just us and she knows we aren’t going to get interrupted by one of our realities, it’s the only time she’s comfortable letting loose.

“A blowjob!” Evie claps her hands then lifts her arms so I can tug her shirt off. “No, wait. Sex on the beach? Hold on, it was a slippery nipple.”

“What was a slippery nipple?”

“No, Magdalena, that wasn’t it.”

When Eve is drunk, she brings out what she refers to as my secret identity but really it’s the name she thinks I should have because she hates my mother so much she doesn’t think the bitch should have been allowed to name me.

She doesn’t have a problem with my name, just that my mom was the one who gave it to me, so Eve changes it to Magdalena.

My best friend holds both of her legs out to me as she fights with the fly on her jeans and I swear, if anyone saw this they’d think we were about to go have some crazy drunk sex or something.

While I love Eve, I’ve never been attracted to her and I know she can say the same about me.

This is all just because drunk Evie has no idea how to undress herself and will get stuck in an article of clothing if she tries.

This is the safest way and it’s taken us years of perfecting it to get it to this point.

I yank her jeans down to her ankles, the skinny denim giving me a harder time than I thought, and as soon as I have one of her feet free, Eve kicks her pants across the room and yells, “Lick my pussy!”

“Excuse me?” I choke out as I jump, her words throwing me off but I swear I heard something come from down the hall at the same time.

A thumping sound.

I turn a little, waiting to hear anything else, but after a few seconds pass, I shake it off and figure it was the sound of my little gray cells exploding over what my bestie just shouted at me.

“Lick my pussy,” she repeats. “That was the shot I did for you!”

“ Ah, ” I say slowly, waiting for the explanation I know will follow.

Eve pulls her cami up, the silk immediately snagging on her hoop earrings and ponytail. “You know, because you really need someone to lick your pussy.”

“Evie.” I sigh as I untangle her. “I appreciate it but you really don’t have to be so concerned about my pussy.”

“If I’m not, who will be?” She slumps against the couch, her eyes already closing. “You don’t seem to care if anyone’s putting their mouth on your hooha.”

I shake my head and reach for the throw blanket. “No, not really.”

“I don’t know why,” Evie says with a yawn. “I’ve seen it. It’s a nice hooha. If I thought you were hot in a not plutonium way, I’d put my mouth on it.”

“Platonic.” I cover her up then turn her on her side before adding an extra pillow under her head. “And thank you.”

She nods against the pillows, grabbing the blanket and pulling it up to her chin while I spread a second one out over her. “Anytime… I’ll tell everyone about your hooha… and how great it is. We can make… flyers…”

Evie starts snoring before she finishes her thought, and I’m not mad about it.

The last thing I need is drunk Evie deciding we really should make flyers for my vag.

She’d whip my pants off and try to get a picture then go grab her glitter and puffy paint.

All in the name of helping me out. With her new hobby, I don’t know if I could fight her off, so I’m going to be thankful she had some sort of dark colored liquor tonight since she’s already sawing logs.

I bet Eve’s going to have some fucked up dreams tonight.

Giggling my way to the kitchen, I grab a bottle of water and two ibuprofen, the loaf of bread and a bag of spicy pretzels before I set them all up on the coffee table by my best friend.

She’s going to need all of that when she gets up, and I’ll even do her the courtesy of sticking her migraine cap in the freezer next to mine.

With a yawn, I head down the hall, turning off lights I don’t remember leaving on, then pause just before my bedroom.

Did I lock the door?

I turn and look, the deadbolt and chain in place right along with the knob. Still, something feels a little off and I better be sure to get the slider. It doesn’t just keep people from getting in, it also keeps drunk Evie from getting out.

”Of course,” I grunt under my breath as I open the sliding door to close the screen. The glass is next, both locked up tight, and I drop the wood in the track for good measure before I pull the curtains closed.

I don’t know how I missed that earlier.

It’s a pretty normal part of my routine to go through and lock up before shutting things down for the night.

Granted, I had one hell of a day between Camden and everyone on Ward C.

When I got home all I wanted to do was take a hot bath and listen to some music before climbing into bed and sleeping for a million hours.

I was on track, too, until Eve called me.

I have no idea if I’m going to be able to get back to sleep now.

I yawn again as I walk into my room, hopeful since that’s twice now but I’m not going to hold my breath.

I stretch my arms above my head and make my way to the closet, dropping my pants and stepping out of them, and decide that’s where they’re going to stay.

At least they’re in the closet. That’s closer than most of my clothes get.

I stretch again then rub my hands over my face, happy to feel another yawn coming on.

A yawn that turns into a scream when I hear, “I think you need a bigger mattress, Maggie.”

I run to the lamp on my desk and turn it on, squinting against the low light until Desmond fucking Hawthorne comes into focus, sprawled out on my bed like he fucking lives here.

My eyes widen as I hiss, “What are you doing here?”

I hurry to close my door, only to find it closed already and blocked by all six-foot-five of Korvin Severe, who’s actually grinning at me as he leans against it.