I knew.
I fucking knew that.
Tears prick my eyes, but I dash them away. Been doing that a lot lately, haven’t I?
“I don’t know,” I reply carefully, ensuring with every word that I’m not lying. I really don’t know what happened, why Parrish was chosen, how he was taken without anyone knowing. “But I miss him. Maxie, I … we …” Her face softens as understanding dawns. She had her first time at sixteen, too, so I know she gets it.
“Oh, baby sister,” she murmurs, reaching two fingers up to touch the screen. “I knew you liked him.”
“I think I’m in love with him?” I query back, shaking my head at the thought. “I know I haven’t known him for very long, and that I’m probably too young to think something like that, but …”
“Whoa, whoa,” Maxine soothes, stopping my self-deprecating rant in its tracks. “When love hits, it hits. Feelings are never wrong or right; they just are.” She pauses briefly, pushing her dark hair back from her face. “Maxx says you’re not participating in the search parties? I told him that didn’t sound like you, that if you weren’t helping you had a reason.” I nod, but I can’t tell her what that reason is. My silence is enough to communicate that. Maxine and I know each other too damn well; I can’t get anything past her. “Whatever that reason is, it’s valid. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, Kota.”
“I know.” I sniffle slightly and rub at my nose. “I need to call Grandma and Grandpa and let them know what’s going on.” I pause briefly, wetting my dry lips. I’m so freaking tired right now, I can barely keep my eyes open. “What happened after Tess caught us? I mean … what did she do to you?”
Maxine looks supremely annoyed, the corner of her lip curling up in disgust.
“That doesn’t matter right now. How about we worry about that after Parrish comes back?”
I nod, glad to be able to set aside at least one problem in favor of a much, much bigger one.
Justin Prior. The Seattle Slayer. What if it’s all true? What will Maxine think when she finds out that my blood is tainted with a killer’s? What will my grandparents think? Will that change our relationship?
I can’t allow myself to believe that.
“I’ll call them now,” I tell her, and she nods, giving the screen a kiss before we say our usual goodbyes. “Love you fierce.”
“Love you fierce, baby sister.”
As soon as she hangs up, I dial my grandparents, noticing that they answer the call without Saffron present. With all of this crap going on, I can’t help but wonder if she didn’t somehow know.
“Has she told you? If she hasn’t, she should—before he finds you.”
If Saffron didn’t know anything, then she must be prophetic because all the things she told me seem to be ringing true. But how? How the fuck would she know anything at all about my biological father?
“Is there a way for me to contact Saffron?” I ask after I’ve had a chance to talk for a while. The look on Carmen’s face tells me that wasn’t the best question I could ask right now. She seems wary, almost afraid.
“It’s probably best that you don’t see or talk to her for a while,” she hazards, giving my grandfather a look. “Tess wasn’t happy with us for contacting you, to say the least. And Saffron was having a really hard time with it. She’s … well, she’s staying in a facility for the time being.”
I cock a brow, but I don’t really know how to respond to that. Saffron has always been a little sad, a little flighty, a little weird, but I never thought of her as someone who’d need to be committed or anything.
I decide to let the subject go for now, allowing myself just a few minutes to enjoy talking to my grandparents with Tess out of the house. Once I’m done, I curl up on my bed with an alarm set on my phone. Just thirty minutes and I’ll get up, get online, and see what I can’t do to help locate Parrish.
Unfortunately for me, I don’t wake up until hours later, when it’s already dark out.
The first thing I do is snatch my phone and check for messages.
There’s one waiting for me.
I don’t want your studies to slack because of this; it’s nearly finals and you should be studying. I’m going to give you the rest of the week off, and we’ll start fresh on Monday. Rest well, princess.
I just stare at the words, my jaw clenched tight as I resist the urge to throw the phone against the wall. What the hell is this guy playing at? My studies? Give me the rest of the week off? What the actual fuck?
You’re kidding me, right? You want me to study when someone I care about is bleeding and hurting and suffering? What sort of monster are you?
The response comes almost instantly.
The fatherly kind.
And that’s it. Just that. I send several more texts that he ignores, and then I shove up to my feet, wrenching my bedroom door open. Parrish’s is closed, but I can hear someone moving around inside. Even though I know it can’t possibly be him, a surge of stupid hope takes over anyway, and I find myself yanking the door open and stumbling inside.
It’s Maxx.
He’s sitting on the edge of Parrish’s bed, looking worn out and hopeless. Pretty sure he didn’t mean for anyone to see him that way. As soon as I set foot in the room, he stands up.
“Kota.” I love that he uses my nickname, but I’m not particularly thrilled to see him. He’s too perceptive. He knows that I know something, and he isn’t going to let it go until he finds out what that something is. “Are you okay? I knocked on your door earlier, but you didn’t answer.”
“Must’ve fallen asleep,” I offer, which is not at all what I wanted to say. I was sleeping while he was out searching for Parrish. That doesn’t make me look very good and, for some strange reason, I want to look good to Maxx. He’s my sister’s boyfriend, after all, and she’s more into him than any boy she’s ever been with. What if they get married? How will I ever live this down?
“Mm.” X ruffles up his hair with a sigh, closing his eyes for a moment, like he’s doing his best to regain his composure. “I’m sorry about earlier; I shouldn’t have come at you like that.” Sounds like someone was talking to Maxine, I think, forcing my tired lips into a semblance of a smile.
“No problem.” I pause, eyes flicking to the side where Parrish’s sketchbook is sitting, one of the green and black roses featured prominently on the exposed page. “For what it’s worth, I do care about Parrish. I want to find him just as much as anyone else.”
Silence stretches sticky and uncomfortable between us.
When I look back at Maxx, I find him staring at me.
“You know something,” he repeats, that edge of danger in his voice again. “Something big. I just can’t figure out why you’re keeping it to yourself.”
A shameful flush crawls up my cheeks and boobs, and I turn away toward the hallway.
“I don’t know as much as you think I do, Maxx.” I start back toward my bedroom, but he ambushes me, sliding around in front of me and slamming his left palm into the wall beside my head. His gaze is intense as he leans down toward me, that cool, sporty smell of his overwhelming me. I wonder if, like Parrish, that’s just his natural scent that I’m picking up on. I hope not. I hope it’s just cologne. Yeah, it’s got to be cologne. “What are you doing?” I choke out, looking up into his green gaze and wishing a hole would appear in the floor to swallow me up.