“Where?” This was news to me.
“The Cheese Council.”
I blinked fast. The literal head cheese of… well, cheese.
“I went for three rounds of interviews.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” So that was why he’d made those trips to Chicago. “Did you get it?”
He checked his side mirror, even though there was zero traffic on this road. “Yeah.”
“That’s amazing! You gonna take it?” I pushed aside the jealousy that rose up in my throat. I wished I had a job in Chicago. But I wasn’t going to be petty. This was huge for Jude, who only ever left Lake Sanguis for college and graduate school, and then hurried back home like a good boy.
He stared at the windshield. The tree line began to thin as we returned to civilization. “I don’t know,” he said.
“You have to take it. That’s a great opportunity. Chicago is fantastic…”
“Yeah, but you’re not there.” He snuck a glance at me.
It hit me then that I was his anchor there, a friendly face in a sea of strangers. That beneath his new cool sexy nerd exterior was still the uncertain kid with the anime lunch box looking for a place to sit in the cafeteria. I think Jude needed people more than I did.
“So? You’ll make friends. You know what? I bet there’s aFortune FatedMeetup. There’s every kind of weird subgroup in Chicago. Trust me. I once happened upon a group of Stormtroopers mingling near the Bean in Grant Park. And if you get the Spark app, you’ll have tons of hot women knocking down your door. Kenzie is just the start. Ooh! Your handle could be Pooh Bear!” I clapped my hands in delight. Jude, however, didn’t look happy about that prospect.
We approached downtown Lake Sanguis, and he steered the car toward Main Street just as the vintage streetlamps flickered on. I could see Koi down the street, its porchlight on.
“I don’t want to meet someone new,” he said, looking miserable.
“Oh?” Then I got it. “Oh, right. You’re crushing on someone already. I forgot.”
“Yeah.” Jude didn’t meet my gaze as he pulled up in front of Koi, headlights illuminating part of the bamboo gate. That put another wrinkle in moving away, I guessed, if his living, breathing love thing was in Lake Sanguis. I swung open my door as he shut off the engine. He glanced at me. “Uh… Ella, wait.”
I was halfway out of the door.
“Are your parents home? I want to make sure…” Jude glanced anxiously back and forth, eyeing the mostly dark windows of Koi. “I can’t let you go on your own with a killer on the loose.”
“Aw, that’s sweet,” I said. Jude wanted to walk me to the door and check inside like a proper gentleman, even though I was pretty sure I’d be the one defending his honor if we ran into trouble. “They’re not home. Olivia texted me that she and my parents went out for pizza.” I climbed out of the car. Jude scrambled to follow me. The motion-sensitive Zen garden lights flickered on, lighting the path. The stone lanterns near the koi pond glowed, too.
As we hesitated together on the sidewalk outside Jude’s car near Koi’s bamboo fence, I wondered why Jude was being so weird. Then I glanced up and saw what I thought was the white Jeep Wagoneer—back to us, red brake lights on, half a block down Main Street, as if it had been waiting there, all this time, just for me. Exhaust trailed upward in small puffs from its muffler.
“Shit,” I said, glancing at the car. I couldn’t read the license plate, so I moved out to the street to try to get a better look. That’swhen the driver revved the engine and then threw the car in reverse. Jude clocked it at the same time I did.
“El!” Jude yelled, just as I scurried out of the way. Jude reached out for me as I hopped up on the curb. The Wagoneer hit the brakes, hard, the red glow of the back lights warm and menacing, less than a foot from me. I glanced into the back windows, but the black tint gave me only my own startled reflection. Up close, I saw that since the last time, someone had taken off the license plate. There wasn’t one there at all now. The Wagoneer took off again with a squeal of tires. It took the corner ahead so quickly that it knocked over a planter, spraying dirt and golden mums in all directions.
“Not cool, man. Not cool!” Jude shouted at the empty street. “You okay?”
“Fine,” I said, shaken as I watched the end of the street, half expecting the Wagoneer to appear again. “Did you see the driver?” My attention was fixed on the road.
“No,” Jude said, sucking in a breath. “You?”
A blaze of headlights flicked on, suddenly blinding us from the narrow alley to our left. We both jumped, and I raised my forearm to shield my eyes from the brightness. Then my eyes adjusted, and I realized it wasn’t the Jeep Wagoneer after all. It was a silver sedan.
Eric from Irene’s studio slipped out of the driver’s side door. He looked the worse for wear, the black eye I’d given him swollen so much his one eye was almost completely shut. Cotton balls plugged the nostrils of his swollen nose. His good eye glared at me, as his much larger, much more serious-looking friends cleared their throats behind us. Where had they come from? One looked like a linebacker with no neck, and the other, wearing a backward baseball cap, was giving rush week vibes for the worst fraternity on earth.
“This her?” his no-neck friend said as he cracked one of his massive knuckles.
“That’s her,” Eric confirmed with a nod.
“You beat up our friend?” Frat Boy taunted. “Looks like we’re going to have to teach you—and your boyfriend—a lesson.”
