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Drake takes a minute to scan the long shadows cast by the trees before putting his fingers to his lips and gesturing for me to follow him. A distant shout echoes to my right, making me jump, but I force myself to calm down when I realize that it’s coming from hundreds of yards away. “I don’t think anyone is on this side of the house. Brady will have someone stationed at the front, so we have to be quiet. Let’s go.”
The lights are off around the house. It’s dark enough that I have to follow just behind Drake to keep from losing sight of him.
When he takes my hand again, I don’t pull it away.
We reach the back of the house. I hate that I feel a spike of relief as I mount the porch steps and wait by the door as Drake unlocks it.
This is a stupid game made up by man-children, but I’m still happy to have won it. Especially considering what the alternative might have been.
Wood floorboards creak under my feet as I enter the kitchen, the sound seeming much too loud to my frazzled nerves. The inside of the house is dark and more than a little creepy, but I try to ignore that as Drake goes to the fridge and pulls out two beers.
“What now?” I ask.
He pops both of the beers open with a fridge magnet, then takes a large sip of one while holding out the other to me. “We lay low for a bit. It’s still an hour or so until dawn. Brady won’t let them stop looking for you until the time runs out. The guy is way too arrogant to think that you got past all of them. I’ll sneak back out so he thinks I’ve been in the woods all night like everybody else, but I don’t want to leave you alone for too long here.”
I definitely don’t want to be alone in the house when the first Havoc Boy wanders back inside. “Makes sense.”
“Don’t turn on any lights. It’s probably better if no one figures out we’re back.”
I pull my hand away from the light switch. “So we just wait here in the dark? Good times.”
“We should stay away from the front windows, just in case. You can hang out down here in the kitchen or…” Drake hesitates for the barest second before continuing. “My room faces the back of the house, it might be more comfortable to wait up there.”
My fingers trace a pattern on the neck of the beer bottle, a physical tremor from nerves that I can’t fight off. “Sure.”
I follow him up the stairs, forcing myself not to stare at the muscular planes of his back. My gaze moves downward, which isn’t much better because then I have a perfect view of how his jeans hug his thighs as he climbs the steps.
God, I need to get my head screwed on straight.
I don’t have any reason to be nervous, I remind myself. The two of us have an agreement. I should be more than smart enough to fight off the primitive, monkey part of my brain that wants to climb him like a tree.
Drake doesn’t turn on the light in his room, but does slightly part the drapes on the window. The light is just enough for me to make him out without it being obvious that anyone is inside.
His bedroom is as clean as it always is, in stark contrast to my own. My gaze moves over the neatly arranged desk and across the made bed, trying to find anything to focus on but the man standing a few feet away.
A framed picture on the dresser is one of the few personal effects on display. I bend to see it more clearly. A beautiful woman with her hair braided up in a complicated style on her head leans against the wall of a cottage with her arms crossed over her chest and a wide smile on her face. Her dark skin practically gleams against the whiteness of her teeth. “Is this your mom?”
Drake flashes a matching smile as he lowers himself into the desk chair. “It is.”
“She’s beautiful.”
“Oh, she knows.”
I set the picture down with a nervous laugh, still standing awkwardly next to the dresser. I’m not sure what to do with my body as I drum my fingers nervously against the beer bottle in my hand. Drake and I have been alone together before, so I have no idea why this feels so different.
And dangerous.
My gaze moves to the bed, which is the only other place to sit since Drake has taken the chair. Going anywhere near it feels like a very bad idea.
I take a sip of the beer, willing myself to calm the fuck down. “It must be hard to be so far away from her.”
Drake shrugs, but the corners of his mouth tighten. “I haven’t seen her for more than a few weeks at a time since my father sent me to boarding school when I was twelve. You get used to the distance and being on your own.”
A pang of sympathy moves through me. “That’s a young age to be on your own in a strange place.”
His gaze lingers on my face before he looks away. “No younger than you were when you got sent to juvie for the first time.”
“My mother doesn’t know what day it is most of the time, makes it difficult to miss her.” I can’t keep the note of bitterness out of my voice. I hate that it’s still possible for me to react emotionally to shit that should stay in the past. “Home has always been a bit of a nebulous concept for me.”
