Page 28 of Rule the Night

“Um, no, you’re definitely not.” The conversation I had to have with Bailey was going to be hard enough withouta huge tatted stranger standing there while I packed my unmentionables. “Just wait here.”

I knew Bailey was home because she worked a boring office job five days a week and had the weekends off. Plus, her white Corolla was in the driveway we shared with Mrs. Carr.

Poe sank back into the seat. “Won’t you need help carrying your stuff?”

I couldn’t tell if he was being straight about wanting to help or if he was just plain nosy, but it didn’t matter because no way in hell was he coming in. “No.”

“If you’re sure.”

I’d never been more sure of anything in my life, except maybe the fact that I was in a world of trouble and Bailey was going to tell me exactly what she thought of the situation.

I got out of the car and headed into the house with my phone and keys in hand. My wallet was still in the glove box where I’d left it when I’d gone into the Orpheum the night before, and there had been no point carrying a purse.

At least I had Rose. If I had to live with three scary guys for three months (I tried not to think about what they were going to make me do), having a weapon was better than the alternative.

I spotted Mrs. Carr at her window as I approached the house and returned her wave. She was more than a little nosy, but it had never bothered me before June died.

Back then, I hadn’t had anything to hide.

I’d been more careful in the year and a half since June’s murder. The things I’d been doing could get me into trouble, and the fact that I was preparing to pack my belongings and live with three men whose names I’d learned less than an hour before was Exhibit A.

I’d wanted to avoid witnesses to my comings and goings, but now there seemed no point. I was moving out for three months. Mrs. Carr was bound to notice eventually.

I continued around the building and up the short flight of stairs that led to our apartment at the back of the old house.

I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly before I opened the door.

Bailey turned around on the sofa, craning her neck to look at me. On the TV, one of the girls onLove or Money, our favorite reality show, was mid-tirade, obviously chewing out one of the other girls in the house.

“Did you get my texts?” Bailey asked. Her dark blonde hair was held by a clip, her long legs stretched out in shorts under one of the tank tops she wore around the house.

That was how it had always been with us, ever since we’d become best friends in second grade at Forest Day School, the private school my parents had scraped to afford for June, Simon, Olivia, and me.

“Yeah, sorry.” I set down my phone and keys. “I didn’t look at my phone until ten minutes ago, and by then I was on my way home.”

“Must’ve been some inventory,” she said.

Guilt heated my face. I’d told Bailey I had to work inventory at Lushberry because it had seemed less complicated than telling her about the Hunt. I’d planned to win, in which case the three men who’d hunted me would be planning a murder and I’d be on my way back to my normal life.

What was left of it anyway.

Instead Bram and Remy were probably making up the guest bedroom — at least I hoped that was where I’d be sleeping — while Poe waited in my car outside.

“Yeah… about that.” I sat on the other end of the couch.

She lifted her eyebrows. “Uh-oh.”

“Yeah… I need to tell you something.”

18

MAEVE

“I wasn’t workinginventory last night.”

Bailey had turned off the TV. Now her body was angled toward mine, her eyes on my face. It was one of the things I’d always loved about Bailey: if I needed her she was there, likereallythere. She wasn’t thinking about her phone or the show she wanted to watch.

“Ooookay, where were you then? And why did you lie?” Her face lit up. “You’re seeing someone!”