Delinquents Turned Fugitives - Ann Denton Page 0,37

to get ahead of them. We have to feed the news.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and nodded, stifling a yawn. He and Evan were right. It was stupid to come this far and get this close and not follow through. “Ok. Grab a computer and I’ll grab some coffee.”

I stood and shuffled past Grayson to the kitchen where I saw a full pot of coffee already made. I glanced into the living room, where the guys chatted, my gaze landing on the back of Gray’s head. Did the rich boy know how to make coffee?

Hmm. Guess I learned my new thing for the day, I told myself wearily as I pulled out a mug and poured, adding a little milk before savoring the liquid stimulant. The only thing that would make this better was a shot of Clarity so I knew what to do next. But the side effects for that were far worse than any other drug on the magical market. There was no way I’d trade the use of my limbs for clear-headedness right now.

I made my way back to the guys, figuring I’d sit cross-legged on the floor next to Evan and do my hacking. But I stopped short.

No way.

“What’s the matter?” Evan was the first to notice me standing stock-still in the middle of the room. He shoved off the floor and put down the decades-old sports magazine he’d found in the kindling pile near the fireplace.

I blinked, not quite sure of what I was seeing. But when I opened my eyes, Evan’s nose was still covered in grey fur and hanging down like a fuzzy elephant trunk or anteater nose or … something horrific along those lines. His furry nose was so long that it covered his lips.

Malcolm sat up on his knees, peering over the dilapidated, floral print couch at me. His nose … also was not his nose. The tip of his nose stretched up tall and thin, flickering back and forth like a windshield wiper or a hairless puppy dog tail. Each flick made his nostrils pulse. “Hayley?” he asked, as if I were the weird one and not him.

I put a hand to my forehead and stared down into my coffee cup. And that’s when I started to realize what was going on.

I liked it.

A lot.

I took a step forward and tapped Andros on the foot. He lifted the arm that had been covering his face. He had a bright pink nose with whiskers on it, just like a precious little kitten. His whiskers waggled when he frowned at me.

“What?” he huffed.

I laughed.

Z spun around on the couch from his spot next to Malcolm, bouncing on his knees. “Did I miss a joke?” he quirked a brow. His nose was cow-colored, brown with white splotches and his nostrils were wide and round.

My shoulders started to shake and I had to clutch my coffee cup in both hands to avoid spilling it.

I turned to look at Gray, whose nose was perfectly normal.

He grinned at me.

I grinned back and made my way over to him. “Spiked the coffee, huh?”

He winked. I shoved aside his arm, which was still holding his sports drink—a bit of it sloshed down the sides of the bottle—and sat down on his lap.

He raised a brow in surprise but I just shrugged. “I’m afraid the ‘cow’ boy over there might try to chew on my hair.” That was the explanation I gave him, but we both knew it was more of an excuse. I settled into him, grinning. Happy to grin, even if it was just for a moment.

“What the hell did you spike the coffee with?” Z asked. But he didn’t sound upset, he just launched himself over the back of the couch and headed into the kitchen. “Tastes normal!” he yelled, as second later.

Gray and I just started laughing.

Malcolm walked toward the adjacent dining room and grabbed a computer bag laying on top of the lace tablecloth, unzipped it, and brought me a new laptop. He took my coffee from my hand as he slid the machine onto my lap. He sniffed the cup before taking a sip and then setting it on the side table. “Can you please just—” he stopped talking when he looked back at my face. Then he gazed over at Gray and shook his head, pressing his lips into a thin line.

“What’s mine look like?” I asked, grinning.

But Malcolm just went back to his spot on the couch. He dug