“Once we find Parrish, then what happens? Justin lets us go on our merry way? He just tells us all to keep quiet and voila, we all live happily ever after?” Chasm grits his teeth at me as Maxx steps toward us, sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “There has to be an end somewhere. As I see it, there are only two options: I give myself up to him when we find Parrish. Or I kill Justin.”
Chasm purses his lips, glancing over at Maxx. They exchange their third glance of the night as I resist the urge to scream.
“He isn’t going to give us a chance to tell the cops anything,” I continue as they both look back at me. “You didn’t spend the day eating really good Mexican food and singing eighties pop songs with the guy.”
“Huh?” Chasm queries, but I just push past him, moving over to my dresser and yanking pajamas out of the top drawer. “You did what?”
I turn around, my pj’s clutched against my chest. Without realizing it, I’ve chosen the exact pajamas that I wore that night in the woods. With a shiver, I turn back and put them away, selecting a different outfit. I won’t throw them away in case there’s a clue to be found there, but I will never, ever wear them again.
Speaking of … I should ask Justin about the pj’s. Maybe, like with Francisca Cortez, he’ll tell me.
“Justin Prior is nice and personable and likable as hell. He’s also crazy. He told me all sorts of things today.”
“Like what?” Maxx prompts gently. There’s this … tenderness in his voice that I swear wasn’t there before last night. But then I think about it for a minute, and I realize he’s been talking to me like that for a while now.
“Let me change and deal with my period stuff.” I gesture randomly at myself and then flush as both boys’ eyes follow the movement of my hand. Maxx didn’t mention the cup the last night, and neither did I, but maybe he guessed? Either way, I’m not interested in bringing it up just now. “One second.”
I slip into the bathroom, making a show of removing the towel from the book bag. The camera is facing the wall, but I’m sure it has good audio built in. I turn the shower on, rinse off and deal with the blood situation, before I get out and dry off, dress myself, and pretend to simply chuck the towel right back over the bag.
When I head back into the room, I see that Maxx has taken the opportunity to change into loungewear—and oh my god. Oh my god. My mouth waters as I stare at him, shirtless and dressed in incredibly low-slung black shorts and nothing else. My eyes trace the hard shape of his shoulders, the curves of his biceps, the flat planes of his chest, the incredible valleys that make up his abs.
Ugh.
Feel me. Touch me. All of me.
Nope. No. Not gonna do that to myself.
I look over at Chasm, but he’s still dressed.
“I have to leave in a few minutes,” he says, grinding his teeth in frustration. “My dad is up your father’s ass, apparently. Like neck-deep in Justin Prior’s sphincter.”
“Please don’t say sphincter,” I say, giving a little crinkle of my face. I press my back to the bathroom door, the fan whirring loudly behind it. “Just say, like butt crack or something.”
“Okay, well, my dad is licking your dad’s butt crack. Better?” He gives me one of those signature saucy Chasm looks that I remember oh so fondly. Once upon a time, this prick sat on the bed when it was in the center of my room and bragged about how many girls he’d fucked on it.
And here he stands, having slept with exactly one.
“We suspected that, didn’t we?” I ask with a long sigh. “No wonder the clues linking Justin to Seamus were so easy to find; they never intended to hide their relationship.”
“My parents are in on whatever they’re up to,” Maxx adds with a hard frown. Frankly, I’m having trouble looking at his face. I must be tired. There’s no excuse for that. Maxine knows. She knows that I slept with her ex-boyfriend. Pain lances through my chest, but I push it back. One day, maybe, I’ll be able to explain it all to her and beg for her forgiveness. For now, I have one focus.
“How do you figure that?” I ask, moving over to sit on the bed with him. We make sure to keep careful distance between us, but there’s no denying that the chemistry between us is still there. Scratch that: it’s doubled. Tripled. I make myself look at Chasm, but that doesn’t help either. I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted to kiss or touch someone as much as I want to with him.
