“Yes!” Callie says. “Squats.”
“I bet it was beautiful,” I murmur, lying back on the bed. “Jonah, you don’t wear leather pants for me.”
Karl starts to laugh. I shoot him a look to shut up from where I’m lying, ‘cause he is so loud, but this only makes him laugh harder. And Jonah doesn’t answer. Did he hear me? Maybe I should tell him again. We could go shopping for leather pants. Maybe he’d like shopping then.
“You know what would be beautiful?” Callie asks. She lies down next to me. “The superhero-god. In creaky leather pants. I wish he’d sniff my hair.”
“Superhero-god?” Karl is SO. LOUD. Poor Moira.
Callie and I choose to ignore him. I lean over and sniff her hair. It’s all coconutty. “I’ll give you my stuff and then he’ll be sniffing you, too. If we’re lucky enough to find him again. Oh!” I snap my fingers. “He’s in my class. We’ll get ‘im for you there.”
“You are the best!” Callie squeals, and we hug each other so hard that we start laughing all over again.
“I’m confused,” Kellan says. “When the hell did these two become friends? And also, is there a hair sniffing pervert on the loose?”
“Not if he has any smarts,” Jonah mutters. And day-um, are they serving anger-ade in here, or what?
“Did you know he did that? In my class?” I whisper loudly. “I think he’s a stalker. It’s kind of sweet, right?”
“No,” Jonah says, rubbing his forehead, and no matter how hard Callie and I try to explain just how awesome the superhero was, none of the guys with us will agree.
“Hangovers suck.”
Jonah hands over a mug of tea. We’re back in our apartments, having left the hospital shortly after he’d found Callie and me in the bar. He’d had to wrestle me into bed last night, insisting what I needed was a good night’s sleep when all I wanted was to party. Unfortunately for me, I can remember every detail of last night’s drinking fiasco. “You and Callie seem to be getting along.”
I have to sip slowly, fearful of my stomach rejecting it. I am never drinking again. What was I thinking? “She’s nice. We have a lot in common.”
He raises his eyebrows, so I clarify, “Well, not a lot. You, mainly. And your brother. But I can see why you guys like her.” His eyebrows go even higher. “You know what I mean. She’s actually sort of fun.”
But Jonah doesn’t look like the idea of me and Callie being friends is fun.
I set my mug down. “Are we going to talk about what happened yesterday or what?”
“I think I’ve got the gist of it. You and Callie got blitzed and fantasized repeatedly about superheroes and leather pants.”
Shoot me now. “I, uh, meant about what happened between you all and Jens Belladonna.”
That sobers him quickly. “Chloe, there are some things that I need to tell you, some things that I don’t want you to have to worry over because they’re absolutely ridiculous, but you still have a right to know about—”
I decide to spare him the awkward attempt at explaining how there are people who think I’m a murderer. “I already know he thinks I killed the missing Guard.”
He studies me for a long moment before chuckling. “That laptop. It was a listening device, wasn’t it?” When I nod, he says more seriously, “Kate was pretty explicit with me about not upsetting you. I didn’t want to hide from you that Jens Belladonna lost his mind and started accusing you of murder with no evidence, but I also didn’t want to risk upsetting your recovery. So I took care of it.”
I think about the conversation that I’d overheard. “You got him fired.”
He sips my tea. “Yeah, I did. And I’m not sorry for doing so.” He sets the mug down and takes my hands. “I couldn’t stand by and let somebody go after you, especially when you were at your most vulnerable.”
“This is all just so . . . I just can’t believe it,” I say quietly. “Why would he think these things? He doesn’t even know me.”
Jonah sighs. “Shortly after you and Kel were brought back, Jens came to me asking for my brother’s memories of the events so they could start searching for the three missing Guard. I was able to hand over everything pertinent, but Jens was upset over the gaps.”
It makes my already queasy stomach even more tremulous to ask, “Did you leave stuff out because of what me and Kellan did?”
Surprise fills his blue eyes. “What? No. Honey, I have to be honest, that wasn’t even a thought at the time. There legitimately were gaps in Kellan’s memory that were either blank due to black-outs or filled with really intense hallucinations.” He pauses, squeezes my hands. “There’s something about Jens you need to know. Something about his family past.” His words are cautious and quiet. “One of his ancestors was murdered by a Creator. I don’t know all the details yet, but I guess it’s stuck with the Belladonna family for a long time.”