Page 26 of The Invite (The Massacre Ball #1)

Downstairs in the kitchen, I make myself a cup of coffee. The scent of freshly brewed caffeine instantly lifts my spirits. I take a sip while mentally preparing a to-do list for my class today.

I’m excited to read the assignment I gave the students yesterday. It was fun having a frank discussion with them. Something I have Ace to thank for, but he taught me friends don’t say thank you to each other.

I hate how Augustus is ruining the single friendship I have in this town, which was on the cusp of growing. I was so ashamed for letting him butt his head in it that I purposely didn’t check the text he sent Ace last night.

What if he was rude and damaged what little bond Ace and I formed?

What if Ace asks for anexplanation? What will I say to him? I don’t want him to think I’m trying to avoid him.

Knowing my head will keep spinning with worst-case scenarios, I immediately grab my phone in the living room and open the messenger app.

Ace’s name is at the top.

ME: Hi Ace, my car has arrived so I’ll be driving myself to the school. Saving you the trouble to come pick me up.

Okayyy… I’m shocked. This is asimple and polite way of declining. A quality I didn’t expect Augustus to possess. Then again, he was pretending to be me without raising suspicions.

Judging from Ace’s reply, which came in the morning, I’d say he accomplished it.

ACE: It was no trouble at all, Nessa. I enjoyed your company. See you at school.

I’m glad my friendship with him is still intact.

However, there’s one problem. I don’t have my car yet. So, what am I going to tell Ace when I don’t arrive in one?

Ugh… Augustus has put me in another pickle.

Seriously, that boy is a walking, talking dark cloud over me. The biggest red flag to ever exist in the history of red flags.

My mood is ruined. I swiftly finish the rest of my coffee and grab my purse. I don’t want to miss the bus and the stop is a fifteen-minute walk from my house. I better hurry.

I double-check I have everything before I throw open the door and step onto my porch. I’m forced to a halt when there’s a figure waiting outside my house at the end of my driveway.

Maverick Sinclair.

The last person I expected to see on my doorstep, especially in broad daylight.

He’s leaning against an expensive black SUV with his arms crossed in a simple white tee, faded distressed jeans, and aviator glasses covering his blue eyes.

The casual appearance is alarmingly opposite to his other personality. No one would suspect he acts out women’s primal fantasies with a chain in his hand.

His presence is so unexpected, considering how it went last time, that it takes several moments to gather my wits.

I’m ready to bolt back inside my house when a cocky smirk lights up his face.

My hackles rise.

Is he in on Augustus’s torment? Or is he here to make me pay like his best friend is? I blink when he starts speaking.

“Good morning, Miss Davenport,” he drawls in the same cockiness I’ve come to know from him. Since it’s just us on the quiet street, his voice travels without a hitch to where I’m standing. “Leaving for work?”

I stay put and demand coldly, “What are you doing here, Mr. Sinclair?”

“Well, I should be on my way to school, but since you’ve made that impossible, I’m here to deliver your new ride.”

“My what?” I blurt out.

“Your new car.” He slaps the car’s door and dangles the keys from his index finger. “A gift from Augustus.”

Did I hear him correctly? Augustus bought me a freaking car?

More importantly, he told his best friend about us, who isn’t stupid to believe there’s something platonic going on between Augustus and me.

If it ever gets out that I’m sleeping with a student, much less one I had suspended in the first place, it’ll destroy my career. My reputation. My life.

How could Augustus risk that?

“I hope you know how to drive.”

He unknowingly gives me a way out. “No, I don’t. So, take the car back.”

Straightening from his perch, Maverick struts my way intimidatingly. He’s bulkier than Augustus and makes me feel infinitely smaller.

“Don’t lie and take the keys.”

“I’m not accepting the car,” I say without a second thought. “Return it to him.”

Besides, I can’t show up in an expensive-looking car that is way above my pay grade. It’ll make my colleagues curious to learn more about me.

“Augustus said you might say that. His reply is, and I quote, ‘If you’re going to school in anything but the car, I will escort you there myself on the back of my bike for everyone to see.’”

My mouth opens and closes for a comeback, but nothing comes.

Smirking, Maverick adds, “Since I don’t have to tell you the repercussions of showing up on his arm, I wouldn’t disobey him if I were you, Miss Davenport.”

“Why isn’t he here?”

“Has he got you hooked already?” Maverick teases. “Is that why you got him suspended, to resist the temptation? Because that assault story was bullshit. You wanted us.”

“It wasn’t bullshit,” I angrily reply. “I could never want either of you.”

“Then be a good girl and accept the car.”

Maverick stands his ground like he has all the time in the world. The longer we stand at an impasse, the more I’m getting late to work.

Begrudgingly, I snatch the keys from Maverick with the intent to return the so-called gift directly to Augustus when he comes over tonight.

The grin on Maverick’s lips grows and he shifts sideways and waves his hand toward the car.

“I thought you were his best friend, not his lap dog.”

My insult doesn’t ruffle his feathers, and he retorts with a laugh, “A very loyal one. And a whole lot crazy. You don’t want to get bitten by me, Miss Davenport.”

I swallow back a bite of dread and walk past him toward the car.

Then I get inside and drive away.

Only after I don’t see Maverick in my rearview mirror, do I notice the piece of paper on the passenger seat. I don’t need to turn it over to know what’s on the other side. My breath hitches when I see the stunning sketch.

Unlike the last two, it’s not a drawing of me in the throes of ecstasy. Instead, it’s the moment when I was dressing his wound while sitting on his lap. Him half naked while I’m bare with my hair flowing down my back and one of his arms curled around me protectively.

Even without the sexual nature, it’s deeply erotic and intimate.

My head is tilted down as I cup his palm while Augustus, whose face is shrouded in darkness with black strokes, is staring at me.

I can’t quite catch his expression.