The Order: Hit and Run by Emma Cole Page 0,43
it is.
“He’s dead.” The disbelief in Jaeger’s eyes reflects in his voice.
Drake, though, he’s shaking his head. “I’m nearly positive he’s not. I think he’s lurking and following us. You know that shake setting that activates your phone camera? I’d set it off waiting on my uncle and was trying to close it and hit the video button instead. When I stopped it and went to close it down, there was a man in the thumbnail. Thinking I was seeing shit, I opened it back up, and there’s this grainy image of a dude standing against the wall in front of me. Except nothing is there. Well, almost nothing-- there was an energy when I searched for it, faint but there. I sent it to our resident yearbook stalker, figuring the way he memorizes names and faces, he’d know who it is. His response was to ask me how I got it since there aren’t many surviving photos of the Malbec twins.” He pauses, waiting for the rest of us to catch up. As soon as I recognize the connection, my eyes widen.
”Yeah, those Malbecs. I think he’s watching us. If Cora is who I think she is, can you blame him?”
The guys start to talk over each other, but I silence them with an abrupt wave of my arm. “Not here. She’ll hear us. Seriously, she had to have fallen in or something to be taking this long. I’m going to shower; we’ll talk about this when we have more time. Also, before we go anywhere, you need to know that the fuckers that roughed me up thought you would be the one there, not me.”
Concern etches lines in Drake’s face, warring with the confusion in his blue eyes. “Go shower, and then fill me in after we leave. Hold up, why are we waiting on Cora?”
***
Cora
The shower helps a lot to clear my head of whatever mojo Jag whammied me with to keep me from freaking out— but now I'm tired. If I let on even a little that I'm not up to doing anything but taking a nap, they'll leave me behind, and that's not happening. From the muffled voices, they at least haven't left yet.
I catch the end of Drake’s question as I open my bedroom door, and relief and annoyance simultaneously wash through me. “You’re waiting on me because I have to go to the library, and you all need to go get clearance to spill your guts.” Drake’s eyes widen as I stomp over to him, getting right up in his face. “Don’t think for one second you won’t be telling me anything I want to know, buddy. I’ve had it with everyone around me hiding shit. Especially after I left it all behind.” He swallows roughly, nodding wide-eyed at my vehemence, and then I notice it. Gripping his face in both hands, I twist it this way and that, looking over his too-perfect skin. “Where is it?”
As Drake mumbles “Where’s what?” through his squished lips, Ash cracks up. He shuts up quickly when I release Drake, moving to him to jerk his shirt up.
Riggs grunts near his bedroom door, taking the opportunity to escape. “Have fun dealing with whatever that is.” I shoot a scowl at his back, but his door is already closing behind him as I go back to strip searching Ash.
“Cora, if you wanted me naked, you just needed to say so. Normally, I’m not shy, but we do have an audience.” Ash lets out an ‘oof’ when I smack his trim stomach.
Don’t look at them, Cora. Think of Kael. NO boys, not even Ash. Dragging my gaze up from the toned abs, I meet his, blushing at my distraction but determined to finish my hunt. “Shut up, Ash. Turn around.” Amusement lighting his storm-colored eyes, he complies. “It’s gone. I thought I was crazy, but it’s really not there. You had a scar, Ash. From a nail on a dock when we were kids. Remember? I thought your mom was going to pass out when you came out of the water bleeding.”
Ash turns back to me, understanding and compassion softening his features. “Cora, we’ll explain as soon as we can, but…” His hands drift up to cup my face, tilting it up to him. "The blue glowy stuff? It changes you— some things are good, and some things aren't."
Uncomfortable at the fact that I'm not uncomfortable with his big hands on my skin, I step back, but he doesn't