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“Where’s North?” Kota asked in a low voice.
I took another bite of muffin just to find more time to think of what to say. “He... had to go clean up before going to the diner.”
“You were gone all night,” he said. “I just wanted him to get you away from the party.”
“He kind of did that.” I didn’t mean to play like this, but I couldn’t help it. It was probably rude and I felt guilty the moment I said it.
“By taking you all the way out to the beach? What happened to you? Why do you look like you’ve been up all night?”
I cringed. I couldn’t lie but I didn’t want to tell him the truth. I held out the half muffin I had left. “Muffin?”
Kota did a small eye roll. “Please tell me he at least had you wear a helmet.”
There was a right answer to this, and I knew it but I didn’t want to start talking about one thing and then get roped into answering questions about the whole evening. I wanted North to be here because I wasn’t sure how much he wanted the others to know. Dodging felt safest. “It’s chocolate chip cappuccino.”
Kota strolled forward and planted his palms on either side of my thighs, gazing at me intently. “Sang, don’t get cute with me. What happened?”
I blushed, lowering the muffin. I sighed. His eyes were relentless, firing off questions. I couldn’t not answer him, because I wanted him to be happy with me, but I was concerned he wouldn’t like the truth. “We rode out to the beach. He showed me the lighthouse. I fell in the water.”
“Whoa, hey,” Nathan said. “You fell in?”
“I wanted to touch the water but I didn’t know about the riptides.”
Kota placed a gentle hand on my knee. “Then what happened?”
“He fished me out and we were both soaked. So we stayed the night at the hotel. We got muffins for breakfast.” And then I remembered the most important detail. “We spotted Mr. McCoy.” There. That had to be more important than where North took me and being mad about it.
They all flinched at this. “What?” Kota asked. “You saw McCoy? Where?”
I described the cafe, when I saw McCoy, and how he’d seemed to disappear.
“The lady he was talking to,” Kota said. “Could you describe her?”
I did. “But you guys said he was gone,” I said. “I thought you had him somewhere. But if he’s out there...”
Kota frowned. He tugged at my hips to get me to slide off the counter. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, holding me to him. “I told you not to worry about him, and I meant it.”
“Hendricks wants to talk to him.”
“That won’t happen.” He stepped back, rubbing my arms. “Look at me,” he said, pausing until I did. “When Hendricks asks, you’re going to tell him you thought you spotted him but you didn’t catch him, so you don’t know where he went.”
I stared at him, and his green eyes locked with mine. There were heavy shadows under his eyes, like he’d been up all night.
I felt guilty now. Not that I shouldn’t have said something, but North and I had escaped the chaos and at least had gotten some sleep. These boys stayed up all night to fix a mess that wasn’t theirs. Now I just gave them another problem. How could they be so sure Mr. McCoy wasn’t going to come after us... or me?
Kota frowned, as if he’d been able to read my thoughts. His hands slid up slowly until he was cupping my cheeks between his palms. He forced me to keep my eyes on his face and focus. “You’re safe with us,” he said. “Stay with us and you will be. You know I’ll make sure.”
I couldn’t answer him. I wanted to. I trusted him, or I thought I did, but a thousand ‘what if’ scenarios played through my head. There was always a time when I couldn’t have them next to me, or they all had to disappear. What then? And it wasn’t just Mr. McCoy, it seemed everyone lately was out to get me, us. Would any of us be safe?
I tried to push those fears aside. It wouldn’t do any good. Mr. Blackbourne said not to worry about what ifs. I tried to believe Kota. “Won’t Hendricks go to Folly Beach to look for him?” I asked.
“Maybe. This might be a good thing. We’ll give him someone else to chase for a while.” He looked up, nodding to Victor. “We need to go.”
Victor frowned. “I want to stay.”
“We’ve got work,” he said. He turned to me. “Are you okay?”
“I’ve got muffins,” I said quietly.
Kota smiled. He picked up the muffin I’d set aside, taking a bite out of the edge. He licked his lips. “Actually, these are pretty good.”
“I’m staying with Sang,” Nathan said.
“Me, too,” Gabriel said. “We’re going out tonight.”
“Not until she talks to her sister,” Kota said.
I groaned. I really didn’t feel like a confrontation. There’d been too many.
“Please?” Kota asked. That struck me hard because I’d never heard him beg, so the way he did now made me want to jump up and do anything for him. “This throwing parties thing has to end. You’re the only one who is able to stand up to her.”
Except I didn’t want to do that. I never went looking to fight with Marie, and I was sure this would lead to one. Still, he was right. I nodded slowly at Kota. I wasn’t happy with the idea, but I’d do what he asked.
He turned to Nathan, handing him the rest of the muffin. “Make sure she does.”
“Okay, boss.” Nathan took the muffin, finishing off the rest in two bites and licking the smudges of chocolate from his fingers.
Kota’s hand wound around the back of my head. He bent his head, dropping a quick kiss on my brow. “Be good,” he said.
“Why does everyone tell me that?” I asked. “When am I ever not good?”
The guys laughed. Victor moved in, gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek and then followed Kota out the side door.
After they left, Gabriel turned on Nathan. “So when did everyone get to kiss Sang?”
Nathan’s eyebrows went up. “What?”
Gabriel held up his fingers, counting off. “North, Kota, Luke and Victor.” Gabriel turned to me, snapping. “Oy. Get over here.” He pointed to his cheek. “Where’s my kiss?”
I took a half step forward, but Nathan planted himself between us, his back to me. “No,” he said. “You can’t do that?”
“Why not?” Gabriel asked. “She was going to. She’s already done it to the others.”
“We’re not allowed to...” Nathan glanced over his shoulder at me. “I mean we can’t...”
I sighed. There were the words. Can’t. Shouldn’t. It didn’t sound right coming from their lips. “Funny,” I said. “I thought Academy guys could do anything.”
I walked away toward the stairs, secretly enjoying the stunned expressions on both of their faces. Had I made a point? Had I shown that I knew about their rule and that I thought it was stupid? I hoped so.
Upstairs on the landing, I knocked at Marie’s door. I wanted to get this part over with.
I heard footsteps and readied myself. I flinched when Danielle poked her head out from the open door. She looked me over once and then up at my head. “Someone had a wild nigh
t.”
“I need to talk to Marie,” I said, my voice a little shaky.
“We’re busy,” she said.
“Now,” I said, in a tone much stronger than before. Kota’s begging motivating me. I wanted to make sure to get this over with so he had one less thing to worry about.
Danielle smirked as she backed away from the door, opening it. “Marie, your sister wants you.”
I stepped in, stopping short. There were heaps of clothing piled up around the edges of the room. Marie’s school books sat in the corner, unused. There were paper plates and soda cans overflowing from a trash bin in another corner. The closet was open, nothing hanging up, and all the clothes and other things were piled on the floor inside.
Marie sat on the bed, flipping through a Cosmopolitan magazine. Where did she get that? Had Danielle brought it over?
She glanced up at me. “What?”
“No more parties,” I said.
Marie narrowed her eyes at me. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“If there’s another party, and the police get called, they’ll call our dad. They’ll ask questions.”
Danielle stepped over a pile of clothes to sit on the corner of the bed. “No one called the cops. We were fine.”
“The house was destroyed,” I said. “The boys worked all night and morning to clean it. They even had to repaint the living room.”
“Isn’t that nice of them?” Danielle flicked a smile. “At first they were really irritating, but I see why you keep them around. We didn’t have to pick up anything.”
From the state of the bedroom, I wasn’t sure they would have. “We got lucky last time,” I said. “But don’t throw another one. Not unless you want to end up in foster care or...”
“No,” Marie said, pointing in my direction. “You’ll end up in foster care. I’ll stay here. I’m only a few months away from turning eighteen.”
“You still have a few months,” I said. “They can still—”
“They won’t do anything to me,” Marie said. “When I turn 18, if my mom isn’t back yet, I get to take over the house. It belongs to her, so it’s mine.”
