Evanescent - By Addison Moore Page 0,68

me.

“You know who Hattie Tobias is, right?” She nods throwing me completely off track.

“What?” Did she just change the subject?

She averts her eyes as if she expected nothing less than ignorance on my part.

“She’s my new roommate. She’s been here for weeks.” A half-moon dimple presses into her cheek as she glares at me with disappointment.

Funny—Hattie said that Laken hadn’t slept in her dorm for weeks.

“Anyway”—she shakes her head—“I think there’s something very wrong with her. Like in a not human kind of way.”

My heart thumps. Laken was worried and didn’t bring me her concerns.

“She’s just weird,” she continues. “I can’t explain it. It’s almost as if I just know.” She sits up. “So I told Coop. He said he’d look into it as long as I collected some DNA, so I did.” She glances down a moment. “When you left last night, I went downstairs to sleep with Jen and bumped into Coop. That’s when I told him I had what he needed. He said his dad was home, and he could run the tests that night. I probably should have just let him take the samples, but Jen wasn’t in her room, and I was freaked out about being in the basement alone, so I asked if I could go with him.”

“So what were the test results?” I don’t know if I’m playing along or genuinely inquiring. At this point it feels like both.

“His dad said it was more complicated than he thought, and he might not know for days.”

I nod into her, waiting for her to finish. Laken didn’t come home last night. I’ll know she’s lying if she says she did.

“I fell asleep at his house, Wes.” She brings the sleeves of her jacket up over her mouth and sniffs away the tears. “I know you probably hate me.” She shakes her head. “But I have to know if Hattie Tobias is something I should fear…if they sent her.”

A chill runs through me. She still believes in “them.” She’s on a loop with her story, a hamster wheel of deception spun out from her own imagination, and she can’t find her way off the contraption.

“You don’t believe me.” She closes her eyes in defeat. Laken lowers her head until her hair sweeps down over her features like a curtain. She wants to let me into her world, and I’ve put up my own shield of disbelief. And why the hell does Flanders believe her, anyway? Obviously to land her in his bed. I’m not going to call her out on the private blood draws. I’m not ready to go there yet.

“I believe you, Laken. I believe you were terrified of Hattie, for whatever reason. I believe that Coop told you he could help you get to the bottom of this. Have you done this before? Spent the night at Cooper’s house?”

She shakes her head a little too aggressively.

“So you’ve been sleeping in the room with Hattie all along?”

“I’ve been with Jen.” Her eyes dart over the water when she says it. “Wes, I swear I love you. I want our relationship. I want us.” She takes up both my hands and shakes her head. “Please, Wes, really hear what I’m saying.” Her voice trembles as she draws herself to her knees. “You are my everything.” Laken pierces me with a primal intensity. “Let me in. Let me love you completely.”

Our eyes lock as if we were enemies at a standstill.

“Do you believe you’re Laken Stewart?”

A moment of silence slices by as deep as the ocean.

“Yes.” She doesn’t bother to deny it.

Shit. My eyes close involuntarily. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

“Do you think you could still love me like this?” she whispers. “Broken?”

I pull her in and topple us down to the soft blanket, my face buried in her hair.

“I’ll always love you, Laken. You can never change that. No matter what happens.”

She finds my lips with hers, and I cave. I press in with a heated kiss that only moments before I was afraid we would never experience again. My body pulsates like one giant heartbeat as I massage my tongue over hers—I roam her mouth like it were its own universe that I’m greedy to explore. I want to believe everything Laken tells me—but I’m not sure I can.

Laken sighs as if she heard me.

And I’m sure she did.

8

Love is a Battlefield

Laken

After a mouthwatering session of kisses down at Charity Lake, Wes and I return to Austen House where he