Page 24

KEENE

I woke the next day late in the morning.

With a groan, because my head was pounding, I rolled onto my back and opened my eyes to blink up at the ceiling.

I was going to find her.

Today.

Determined, I whipped back my sheets and sprang from the bed. After throwing on a pair of jeans, I hurried from my room, shirtless and barefoot.

In the kitchen, Oaklynn, Alec, and Xander were already awake. Probably because they hadn’t stayed up as late as I had, wondering which mystery person had hooked up with them the night before.

Hope was present too, sitting on the table next to the chair where her brother was seated.

“Hey! There’s the man of the hour,” she called with a big smile, lifting her fisted hand as if to cheer me on.

I stalled in the doorway, sending her a suspicious squint.

Hope’s history with the group was long and complicated.

We’d started out hating her because she was meaner than a rabid dog who’d been cornered by animal control and she’d bullied Alec mercilessly.

But she and Alec had made up and decided to become siblings of the year or some shit.

Except Hope still thought it was great fun to torment her brother’s friends with jokes only she thought were funny.

I used to avoid contact with her at all costs until about four months ago when Parker decided to go and fall in love with her, making her an even more regular staple in the crew.

Admittedly, she’d gotten better since then. She at least tried to be nice and had actually helped me score a couple of chicks one night, which I always appreciated. But she was still Hope, and that smile would probably always put me on edge, fearing which prank she was going to pull next.

“Alec was just telling us about your big night,” Oaklynn added from the opposite side of the table, where she sat in a chair with her feet on the seat so her knees could bend up toward her chest as she held a mug of some steaming brew between both hands.

When she lifted her eyebrows knowingly, I swerved my attention to my best friend. “Dude,” I warned him with a severe scowl. “I told you that shit in confidence.”

Alec’s smile died flat, his eyes flared, and he immediately gushed, “Oh fuck, man. I’m sorry. I didn’t know?—”

Losing my composure, I stopped him there with a snort and shake of the head before a full laugh burst out. But damn, he was so gullible.

“Seriously?” I chuckled, holding onto my gut and shaking my head as I slapped the side of his arm.

“I can’t believe you actually bought that.

So lame.” Starting for the Keurig machine to make myself a steaming cup full of whatever was on hand—hopefully, Oaklynn hadn’t used up all her cappuccino pods yet—I opened a cabinet and pulled down my usual cup.

“What has he told you so far?” I asked the others, turning back to them.

“Because he probably skimped on all the best details.”

Instead of answering, however, the table full of people merely gaped at me before Oaklynn demanded, “What the hell is wrong with your back?”

“What? What do you mean?” I twisted, trying to look over my shoulder, but I had no success in seeing what they were talking about. “What is it? A bug?”

I started to brush myself down, still spinning in a circle in an attempt to see my own spine.

“Is that…?” Hope popped from the table, squinting as she came forward to grab my shoulder and still me. “Scratch marks,” she finally decided before brushing a finger low on the right side of my back, just inches above the waistband of my jeans.

I straightened away from her touch, hissing at the slight sting it brought, only to try to twist and see the marks for myself.

My fingers drifted over them so I could feel the abraded skin. “Huh,” I murmured. “Must’ve gotten those last night when Mystery Girl was going down on me. Hey, did Younger tell you about how she?—”

“Yes,” Xander, Hope, and Oaklynn yelled together.

“He told us,” Hope assured as she grabbed my shoulder and manually turned me again before examining my love marks more thoroughly. “Damn,” she added with an impressed murmur. “She got you good. Here. Sit. I’m going to put some antiseptic on this so it doesn’t get infected.”

Always happy to be fussed over, I shrugged and carried my still empty mug to the table where I dropped down into the chair next to Xander, who was blushing as she gaped at me from wide eyes while pinching a hand around her mouth as if she needed to manually hold it closed to keep from saying something.

Sending her a wink, I asked, “Jealous?”

She snorted and dropped her hand. “I just can’t—I can’t even—” Her hand fluttered over her chest, patting it a few times as she searched for words.

So I tipped my face over toward Oaklynn. “She’s totally jealous.”

Oaklynn sent me a dry blink. “She doesn’t look jealous to me.”

I shrugged, disagreeing. “Well, I think she does.”

Returning to the table with a mini first aid kit she’d found in one of the cabinet drawers, Hope opened it on the table and commanded me to sit forward.

I did, arching from the cold ointment she applied as I plopped my elbows on the table.

But her touch was gentle and kind, so I managed to relax and enjoy the pampering as she smoothed the salve over my cuts, which thankfully grew warmer with her application.

Alec smirked and shook his head. Xander went back to pressing a hand to her mouth as if she couldn’t believe this was happening, her face still flaming red.

And Oaklynn furrowed her brow into a scowl. “I can’t believe you hooked up with someone in my gazebo.”

“And you thought her name was, what, Makayla?” Hope snorted with a laugh. “That is hilarious that you seriously thought she was someone else the entire time.”

“But my gazebo,” Oaklynn cut in as she poked a finger into the center of her own chest. “That was supposed to be my birthday present from Damien.”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “So?”

“So?” she countered in outrage. “So I was planning to be the one to break it in with Damien. I was just waiting until it was finished. And you just—you snuck in and stole its first booty rights from me, you—you bastard.”

“Geesh, sorry,” I mumbled. “I guess you should’ve jumped him in it sooner.”

Crying out a sound of indignation, she shoved her way to her feet. “You are unbelievable.” And she stormed from the kitchen, muttering obscenities about me as she went.

“And Keene’s pissed off his first female of the day,” Hope announced dryly from where she was slapping a bandage onto my back. “Order has been restored to the universe.”

“Who will be next?” Alec asked with a scandalized sound as if he were commentating a movie.

When he glanced toward Xander and lifted his eyebrows in question, she nodded. “Yeah. Probably me.”

I snorted and sent the whole table of people a short frown before snagging Oaklynn’s abandoned drink and drawing it to my mouth. “Whatever. Like I was supposed to know she wanted to get freaky in the gazebo before I did.”

As I gulped at least half of her cappuccino in one long draw, Alec stated, “I have a feeling she never wanted you to get freaky in her gazebo at all .”

I made a face because that sounded like no fun.

“So how do you plan on finding this mystery girl of yours?” Hope asked as she put the first aid kit back where she’d found it.

“Yeah, did she leave a glass slipper behind for you to go around and try on every fair maiden on campus?” Alec teased, making Xander snort and nearly spit out the drink she’d just taken.

“Very funny,” I muttered dryly.

“So she didn’t leave any clue behind at all?” Hope wondered as she returned to the table to slip into the chair Oaklynn had vacated.

“I mean…” Making a face, I tilted my head and answered, “I do have her panties sitting on my desk in my bedroom right now. Should I go around trying them on everyone?”

“Eww. No.” Hope grimaced, while Xander pretended to gag.

“Not cool,” Alec agreed with the girls, striking out that idea with a slash of his hands.

“If she wants to be found, I have a feeling she’ll come to you,” Xander predicted.

But I was too impatient to wait for that kind of bullshit. “And if she doesn’t?”

“Because let’s be honest, why would she?” Hope teased with a laughing snort.

“Hey!” I scowled. “Rude.”

“There’s always the tattoo,” Alec spoke up, reminding me of that.

“Oh yeah,” I remembered, lifting my arm to motion to the side of my wrist. “Right here. I saw it when the real Makayla showed up and turned on her phone light. Mystery Girl lifted her hand to block me from seeing her face, and I spotted the tat then.”

“She has a tattoo on her wrist?” Xander croaked, looking almost horrified.

I squinted at her, wondering what that expression was about, even as I answered, “Yeah. It’s an all-black feather. About an inch or two long.” As her eyes grew wider the more I described the tattoo, my own narrowed with suspicion. “Why? Have you seen it on someone?”

“What?” Xander snapped her gaze to me guiltily, only to shake her head with too much vigor. “No. Nope. I can honestly say I’ve never noticed a tattoo like that on anyone before.”

“Then why are you acting like you have?” I asked, grabbing her hand to make a production out of checking either side of her left wrist.

“Oh my God, really ?” she asked, lifting her right arm to show me it was free of ink as well. “You think it was me?”

“Well, I don’t know,” I said, even though I actually did know it wasn’t her. “You’re acting weird.”

Alec leaned in her direction to quietly admit, “You are kind of acting weird.”

“Wha—?” She sent him a dismayed glance of betrayal before turning back to me to sputter, “I just—sorry. I don’t know. I was just surprised to hear that you’d seen any of her. I thought you had no physical details.”

“Well, I saw a tattoo,” I muttered with lifted eyebrows. “That was it.”

“And her hand. So you probably know what race she is.”

“Caucasian,” I answered. “And she was shorter than you.” Glancing toward Hope, I pointed and added, “But maybe taller than you.” My eyes squinted as I studied her. “But not by much.”

“I’m five, six,” Hope stated helpfully.

I nodded. “And her frame was slighter than yours.”

Alec drew out a long whistle. “Wow. Skinny.”

“Yeah,” I murmured. “Incredibly. And her hair was straight.” I lifted my brows at Hope, letting her know she was checkmarked off my list. “But it was probably about the same length as yours.”

“Color?” she asked as if she too were trying to picture Mystery Girl in her mind.

I shook my head. “No idea. You saw more of her than I did. You tell me.”

Hope’s mouth opened before she closed it again and shrugged. “Didn’t see her hair or face, sorry. It was dark.”

“So it could’ve been someone you knew?” I charged, scowling at her because she’d sounded adamant last night that she’d never seen the girl before.

Shrugging, Hope admitted, “I guess. But she blew by us so fast I really didn’t get a good look at her. And then you were shouting and running up right behind her. I lost track of her almost immediately.”

I chewed on the side of my lip, studying her intently, only to finally nod and blow out a breath. “Well, damn,” I muttered, skimming a hand over my hair. “That’s a dead end.”

My shoulders slumped, and I felt momentarily lost.

Eyes filling with sympathy, Hope patted my arm. “Aww. I’m sorry, Sneezy,” she lamented. “But maybe it’s for the best you don’t find out who she is.”

I lifted my gaze to her and demanded, “How could that be for the best?”

She shrugged lamely and admitted, “I don’t know. Sometimes reality is just not as good as what you dream up in your head.”

With raised eyebrows, I asked, “Is that how it went with you and Ohrley?”

Huffing out a breath, she confessed, “Well, no, but—dammit. You’re making me feel bad for you. Do you want a hug?”

I nodded immediately when she opened her arms in offering. But as she started to lift from her chair to come to me, I added, “And could you put a lot of boob rubbing into it?” Because I was feeling really down right now.

Except Hope yelped, “What? Oh my God, no!” And instead of hugging me, she slapped my arm before returning to her own chair. “You’re such a tool. No wonder why I was forced to put a fake snake in your bed.”

I started to sniff, only to fall immediately still. “Wait. What?” My eyes narrowed. “That was you ?”

She waggled her eyebrows tauntingly and stuck out her tongue. “Yep,” she crowed, sounding proud of herself. “Got you good, didn’t I?”

I gaped for a full second before breathing, “Holy shit. You liar.”

Hope pulled back as if I’d slapped her. “Excuse me?”

“You know exactly who my mystery girl is,” I said with a calmness that seemed to freak her out as I rose from my seat. Eyes widening, she leaped from her own chair and backed warily away from me.

She still tried to deny it, though. Shaking her head, she swore, “I have no idea what you’re talking about right now. How does that snake have anything to do with?—?”

“Because she knew about it,” I hissed, stalking forward as she backed herself neatly into the cabinets. I slapped a hand to the counter behind her and blocked her path. “She tried to warn me it was there.”

Mouth falling open, Hope gasped in outrage. “That snitch,” she accused hotly. “I’m never asking her to play lookout for me again.”

Excitement roared through me. I was this much closer to unveiling my mistress’s identity.

“Who is she?” I said.

Hope’s gaze flared with horror as she realized she’d let out too much. But instead of confessing, she lifted her chin stubbornly. “I’m not telling.”

“Hope,” I growled from between gritted teeth. “Who…is she?”

Her lashes fluttered in indecision. “Seriously,” she said, pushing experimentally on my chest to get me to step back, except I didn’t budge.

Worry lit her gaze. “Stop looking at me like that,” she demanded. “You’re freaking me out. Now get out of my space, Keene.”

“Gladly. Just give me her name, and I will.”

Acting like a cornered rabbit, her eyes darted back and forth between me and her brother before she said, “Nope,” and then tried to duck out from under my arm and shimmy through the space there.

“Get back here,” I growled, instinctively hooking an arm around her waist to keep her from escaping.

Hope yelped in surprise, screeching, “Alec!” as her feet scrambled to no avail, unable to break free.

“Hey,” Alec cried, coming to his feet with both hands lifted. “Whoa, now.”

Xander leaped up as well, backing away from the table with wide eyes just as a hand grabbed my arm and ripped me away from Hope. I went hurtling backward until my spine rammed into the refrigerator.

Gasping as the wind was knocked from me, I blinked up into Parker’s enraged eyes as he pinned me in place by the throat.