"Here," Kody handed Steele a phone from his pocket. "Squeaky clean."
"Thanks, bro," Steele replied, turning it on and scrolling. "Aw, you saved all the important numbers for me too. You do care."
Their teasing banter continued until our food arrived, then we turned on a movie while we ate. Bree texted me at some point between my burrito and the caramel apple empanadas, letting me know Kody had dropped her new phone off earlier and that she'd pick me up for school in the morning.
"Hey, did you get a new phone for Scott too?" I asked after replying to Bree's message. "Bree, Dallas, and Scott are the only people, other than you guys, that I ever talk to. And Zane, I guess."
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell them Scott’s lie about how he’d likely followed us instead of using a phone tracker. But I knew it’d only make them suspicious, and I was pretty sure Scott was harmless.
Kody and Steele shot each other a glance, and Kody sighed. "I forgot about Zane. But yes, I got one for your creepy fake boyfriend. Just figured I can give it to him tomorrow and not make a special trip today."
"You gotta do Zane's too," Steele told him.
Kody groaned. "Do I have to? What do we care if MK's stalker is tapping his phone?"
"What if he talks to someone else about the security on this place or mentions booking her another meeting or something? If the stalker has Zane tapped, he could set her up and not even know it." Steele was all logic, but it churned my stomach. I hadn't thought any of that was even possible.
Kody let out a heavy sigh. "Fine, I'll do it tomorrow. Fucking Zane. Don't blame me if my fist slips and hits him in the face, though."
Steele gave him a wild sort of smirk. "Let it slip an extra time for me, would ya?"
"Actually, now that you mention Scott, MK," Kody said, turning his attention back to me with a serious expression, "Did you speak to Bree about that whole phone tracking crap? That was some sketchy shit from her."
Dammit. I should’ve known he wouldn't forget.
"Bree didn't do anything," I told them with a sigh. I hated that they'd know Scott crossed a line, but I hated them suspecting Bree even more. "She's got a lot going on right now in her personal life, but she's not the shady fuck you guys think she is. Scott lied. He never even spoke to her that day, let alone used her lost-phone tracker."
Steele shifted in his seat, running a hand over his face. "Hellcat, you know what that means, don't you?"
"Scott isn't my stalker," I replied, already knowing what he was trying to say. "He just isn't. Yeah, he's a bit needy and can't seem to take no for an answer, and his social skills are seriously lacking. But he wasn't even in Shadow Grove until recently, and he's way too young to have been my mom's stalker."
Steele and Kody exchanged a look, and I knew they disagreed with me.
"That's true," Kody offered, "but you can understand why we might keep an eye on him, all the same."
I snorted a laugh. "Like you aren't already." I stifled a yawn and wiped my hands off on a napkin. Exhaustion was hitting me hard, and my eyes felt gritty and sore.
"We should go," Steele commented, clearly noticing my sleepiness. He whacked Kody in the leg as he said it, and Kody scowled.
"Or," the playful, blond asshole suggested, "you could go, and I could stay over to make sure MK stays safe tonight."
"Don't be an ass, Kody," Steele replied, standing and collecting up all our trash. "MK needs sleep, and that's the furthest thing from your mind right now."
I grinned because he was totally right. The sultry look Kody shot me confirmed it, too. "Max is right," I said. "Besides, you two aren't totally off my shit list yet. We aren't just falling straight back into old habits like that." I snapped my fingers, and both guys looked resigned.
"Well, I'll just need to find some other bastard to torture for you, then," Steele suggested, and I grinned.
Kody frowned, thinking, then his brows shot up. "I let you use me for sex to piss off Arch," he pointed out, like that was a good enough reason to be forgiven.
I scoffed a laugh while collecting the last of our leftovers and following Steele over to the kitchen to dispose of everything.
"That must have been a real hardship for you, Kody," Steele commented with heavy sarcasm.
Kody laughed, wrapping his arms around me from behind as I rinsed the few plates we'd used. "I could show you what else is hard..." he murmured in my ear, and the suggestion was more difficult to turn down than I really wanted to admit.
"Go," I ordered them both in a firm voice before I could change my mind and strip them both naked. "I'll see you tomorrow before class, right?"
"You bet," Kody replied, kissing my neck before letting me go. "I'll text you later."
He headed out the door first, then Steele grabbed my face for a fast but bruising kiss. When he let me go, he gave me a wink.
"Lock the door, Hellcat," he murmured, then pulled it shut behind him.
I knew he'd wait to hear me close the bolts, so I quickly flipped them over. For a moment, I just leaned my forehead against the door while I caught my breath and let my racing pulse return to normal.
Fucking Steele, he knew I wouldn't be able to get that kiss out of my head for the rest of the night. Good thing I was plenty experienced with handling my own needs.
25
The next few days passed with relative calm. No one tried to kill me, no one delivered creepy packages, and Scott was back to the guy I'd met in Aspen—normal, a little flirtatious, but thoroughly un-creepy. I appreciated the breathing space.
Kody and Steele had made it their mission to win me over—more than they already had—and were helping run interference with Archer for me.
Interference sometimes resulted in Archer taking a rough elbow or knee to the body, but that only endeared the guys to me further. It wasn't like Archer was any stranger to taking a hit, and for everything he'd put me through? Yeah, he could take a couple of friendly knocks.
After his snide comment about keeping me alive for a payout, I decided to quit pandering to his bullshit. I was sick of putting myself in a position where he could tear me down in a few callous words, so I was simply not risking it. All week, whenever he'd tried to corner me alone or asked the guys to fuck off so we could talk, I'd completely iced him out.
Fuck that noise. Until I heard back from Demi on how to end our sham marriage, I intended to pretend Archer D'Ath simply didn't exist.
Surprisingly, both Kody and Steele were giving me space. They met me every morning with coffee and snacks and we spent lunch together, along with Bree and Scott, but they didn't insist on shadowing me home after classes were over.
On Thursday afternoon, after Kody had dragged me around the corner of the human sciences building and kissed me until my knees went weak, I slid into Bree's car with a dazed smile.
"So, as much as I love having time with you again," she commented, giving me a knowing look as I ran my fingers through my tousled hair, "I'm surprised they aren't glued to your side twenty-four seven. I'd have thought the moment you gave them an inch, they'd take a mile."