Page 43 of Unwritten Rules (Rules 1)

Haze: Neither are you.

Winter: -.-

Haze: :D

I click out of the text conversation and push all Haze-related thoughts out of my head. Focus, Winter. I have to call Kendrick. If I don’t, he’ll find out about my mistake tomorrow when his mother calls him, and something tells me he’ll be even more angry.

I dial his number with a shaky hand. It rings a couple of times before he picks up.

“You owe me big-time. I think I’ve lied more in one night than I have in my entire life.”

A dreadfully long silence follows.

“Who is this?”

The voice is deep, masculine. But it’s not Kendrick’s.

I immediately know something is wrong.

I hang up as fast as humanly possible, my fingers automatically selecting Blake’s number in my contact list. There’s no way the boys are asleep. It’s 1:10 a.m.; they’re not anywhere near going to bed. They’re either training or playing video games and being sore losers.

One ring. Two rings. Three rings. Pick up, damn it!

“Hello?” Blake says on the other end.

“Does Kendrick have his phone?” I blurt.

“Well, hello to you, too, Winter,” he chuckles.

“Blake, I’m serious. Answer the question.”

“Of course not. He lost it during the fight with Tanner. We’re confident a gang has it by now.”

I freeze.

“You can’t be serious. Tell me you’re kidding.”

“Why? What happened?” Blake says. “Winter, what did you do? You didn’t call him, did you?”

Crap.

“Some guy answered. But I didn’t tell him anything and hung up right away. How the hell was I supposed to know? No one told me.”

“What?” Blake brings the phone away from his mouth. “You didn’t tell her about Kendrick’s phone?” he says to Alex and Will, I assume.

I hear Will’s voice in the background. “Of course we did. Alex told her, right?”

“What? I thought you did it,” Alex answers.

“You dumbasses, she called him. Listen carefully, Winter. You’re going to tell me exactly what happened.”

“I told you. I called him and some stranger picked up. But it’s not a big deal, right? It was just a phone call—right?”

“Winter…” He pauses. “We have no idea who has it by now. It could be anyone that’s an ally to Tanner. Chances are they’re not Kendrick’s biggest fans. If they try to locate the call, you could be in danger.”

Panic takes over me. “But why would they do that? Try and locate some random girl calling Kendrick?”

“Because that’s what they do. Any chance they get to hurt us, they’ll take. Not to mention the attack at the party got people talking. There’s rumors of an ‘East Side girl’—a girl that Kendrick cares for. We have enemies. A lot of enemies. What Tanner did to you is the mere example of that. You have to get rid of your phone. They can’t find you if there’s nothing to locate.”