Slowly, I tore my gaze from the closed door and met my mom’s soft eyes. She moved from the door to the couch, and I reluctantly followed. “I’m thinking we need to have a few rules about boys in the house while I’m at work.”
I sunk into the worn cushions. “What if we use the sock rule? If you are going to bring Devin to get your freak on, you put a sock on the front door. That way I’ll know not to disturb you.”
She sighed. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but now that you mention it–” she said as if the thought had merit.
“Mom, gross,” I interrupted before this suddenly became a house rule. “I was kidding. The last thing I want to think about every time I see a sock is you and Devin naked.”
“I see your point, but the reality is I am gone most evenings, and now that you and Chase are more…involved, I don’t want you to end up pregnant. You are too young to get tied down.”
I pulled my knees up against my chest, hugging them. “Mom, it’s not like that.”
Her brow waggled. “Really? ‘Cuz what I just saw looked pretty intense.”
There was no denying that. I could have said the same about her and Devin, but I knew she would play the adult card. Forget that I was turning eighteen soon. I fumbled with my hands, trying to find the words to explain what was between Chase and me. Not an easy task, especially since I myself didn’t have a clue. “It’s complicated.”
“You don’t have to tell me how complicated relationships can be. I just want you to be careful, not just with intimacy but with your heart as well. Seeing the two of you together makes me realize how serious things are. At the same time, I know that you are safe with Chase. He would never let anything harm you, but I don’t want him breaking your heart either.”
“That makes two of us,” I mumbled.
She casually brushed aside a piece of hair from my face, and then a huge grin bloomed on her face, followed by an escaped giggle. “That. Was. Hysterical.”
I just stared at her like she’d lost her mind.
“Oh my goodness, the look on your face when I opened the door – priceless,” she said, still laughing.
My own laugh joined hers. It really had been comical after the fact. I might have had a loser for a father, but my mom made up for it in tenfold. She was the best. I don’t know what I would have done without her.
***
The next morning, I hopped into my little white Fusion and drove myself to school. It was weird driving alone, not having to fight over stations with Chase and Lexi, not having to listen to Chase ridicule Lexi’s outfit choice for being overly sexy and inappropriate for school. It was peaceful.
I hated it.
Chase had plans afterschool like most afternoons lately. Slivers of curiosity and suspicion were starting to weave in my belly. Where was he going all the time? What was so important? It’s not like he had a job…This whole sneaking off thing was getting tiresome.
And yes, I was being nosey.
Call it female intuition, but I knew something fishy was going on. And I was going to figure it out.
Lexi, of course was no help. If it didn’t directly involve her somehow, she wasn’t the least bit concerned. She just shrugged her shoulders and said, “It’s Chase. Everything he does is a mystery.”
Ugh.
Why was I the only one who was worried?
Then there was the voice in my head. Because you are closer to him than anyone has ever been.
Sometimes the voice in my head could be such a nuisance.
The final bell rang on what turned out to be a very long school day. I went to my locker first to drop off my books and fished out my car keys. Stepping through the double front doors of the school, I watched stupefied from the sidewalk as a flashy silver car zoomed by.
It was impossible to mistake whose it was. I knew that car as well as I knew mine.
What I hadn’t been prepared for was the person seated comfortably in the passenger seat. Too cozy for my liking. The flaming red hair was distinctive.
Sierra.
The color drained from my face in disbelief and hurt. His eyes clashed with my own as I stood on the sidelines looking an idiot. And for a split-second, I swear I saw a spark of regret and maybe even pleading. But in that moment, I didn’t care. The lancing pain turned rapidly into searing rage.
Then I caught Sierra’s smirk as she noticed me. The gleam of satisfaction in her eyes made me want to go nuclear.
How dare he make me look like a fool? Make me think he cared.
I did the only sane thing a girl in my position would do. I flipped him off.
She was the last person in the universe I expected him to be sneaking off with. She was his so-called plans. For the first time since he saved me, I thought our bond truly, utterly, sucked ass.
It was a curse.
If he was fooling around with Sierra then this whole being linked crapola was a shamble. It didn’t mean jack, and this thing I thought we had going between us was bogus, nothing more than my overactive sick imagination and Chase’s cruel manipulation.
Damn half-demons.
He really was a heartless asshole.