“I see,” he muses. “And does she only have eyes for you?”
He’s mocking me. He knows something, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to ask what.
“She loves me. I’m sure of it.”
He shakes his head, slow and sober. “She may have loved you, she may have had a pure love for you once in different place, but circumstances have changed. People change. You’ll never win her back.”
My blood courses through my veins, heavy and toxic as concrete. It takes everything in me not to strangle him.
“I’m bringing her to the woods,” I assert. He can shove it up his ass if he doesn’t like it.
“You’re a fool. There’s another girl for you, Wesley—it’s not Laken. I promise you this. Things will not end well if you refuse to heed my warning.” His eyes squint out a false smile. He’s reveling in my misery—tossing Flanders in my face so subtly he thinks I haven’t noticed.
I lunge at him and grab onto his ears with both hands. I thrash his head over the edge of the pool with the zeal of a cage fighter. Blood trickles down his temple as a smooth line of crimson escapes his nose. Demetri rumbles out a dull laugh before disintegrating right between my fingers.
He never dies.
He always wins.
Worst of all, he’s always right.
I dip down under the water.
He won’t be right this time. Laken and I will be together in the end even if I have to deal with Flanders myself.
As if the day weren’t running on crap fumes already, I see Jones’s ugly mug staring back at me from my phone.
Shit. The last person I want to speak to is Laken’s overprotective uncle.
I pick up as I head into Henderson. All I really want is to get in the shower and hit the sheets—forget about the nightmare that happened earlier at the pool.
“Yo,” I say, less than enthused to be chatting it up with Jones. Way to end this mindfuck of a day. Maybe I should call Laken after and see if she wants to hang out. She can kiss all of my emotional boo-boos and make me feel better. Just being with Laken—thinking of Laken, makes me feel better.
“Rumor has it the Spectators are joining forces.” He quips into my ear while over annunciating his P’s and C’s. “Rival clans are banding together. We could have a real problem if you don’t act. Do you have your boy on it?”
“Not yet.” I don’t fill him in on the fact I’m not too fond of my boy at the moment—that he might be trying to steal my girl. “I might take this one up on my own.”
“You don’t say?” He chuckles into the phone.
I shake my head as I hit the door to my room.
“Well, it was nice knowing you, kid.” He breathes heavily into the receiver. “Look, what do I have to do to knock some sense into you?”
I flick the lights on to find a very naked, and amply endowed, Kresley Fisher on my bed with a red velvet bow tied snug around her waist.
“Shit,” I hiss into the phone. “Look, I gotta run. I’ve got a girl in my bed I’ve got to deal with.”
“Laken?”
“No.”
“Good. Keep it that way.” The line goes dead as I toss my phone on my desk.
“Aren’t you going to shut the door?” She purrs, stretching out her long, tanned legs. Kresley pushes her hips from side to side, slipping her thighs open just enough to let me see the promise land.
“No need. You’re leaving.” I pull off my coat and shoes, plucking a fresh pair of boxers from my dresser before turning on the shower. “I said, leave.” It charges from me a little harsher than intended. A few guys poke their heads into the room and break out into a fit of laughter before heading down the hall.
“You bastard.” Kres hustles her sweater back on. She jumps into her jeans with that stupid bow still hanging from her belly like some unwanted Christmas present. “What’s got your balls all twisted up in knots? Did you find out Laken did the walk of shame last night? And, let me guess—you weren’t the one unlucky enough to degrade her body all night long.” She gets in my face with her dark mane, wild and knotted up as if she were waiting for hours. “I bet it hurt like hell to have your heart ripped out while it was still