“Griff ran away,” I insisted, my shaking voice failing to convince either of us.
“The only place that guy is running to is hell.”
He grabbed me by the arm and tried to pull me off the bed. “Girls like you come and go around
here all the time, you ain’t nothing special, and I ain’t gonna get killed for some prissy
little girl.” He twisted my arm and yanked me from my seat. “Now get the hell out of here
before you get another one of us killed.”
“You’re hurting me!” I told him.
He twisted harder. I yelped.
“Roach! Let her go!” one of the bigger night guards commanded.
“Mind your own business, Brick. Go back to bed.” Roach was dragging me away from the bed.
Two night guards swiftly jumped off their bed and made their way toward us. Roach immediately
chickened out and let me go.
“Go,” the guard ordered me as he pushed Roach out of my way and kept his eyes on him.
I ran from the garage without protest, without looking back. Outside, nothing was different. The
sun was still shining. The armed guards were still stalking the property, still doing their best
to ignore me. But, to me, it was all a little different, like Griff’s absence had shaded it all
in various shades of gray. I loved Cameron. And Cameron loved me. Of this I was sure—I couldn’
t have imagined that feeling. Everything else was now gray.
I didn’t stop running until I was back in the house. My heart was pounding through my chest,
and Rocco was shambling down the stairs.
“I was looking for you. Where were you?” he asked me.
“Just walking around,” I lied. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be hanging around Griff or
looking for him either. My head was buzzing too much to give Rocco a better excuse.
I had to admit that Rocco looked funny standing in his swim trunks with a plastic bag over his
injured foot.
“I’m going for a swim,” he announced. “Coming?”
“You really shouldn’t be going in the water with your foot injured like that. It’ll get
infected.”
“No, it won’t,” he squeaked and pointed at his plastic wrapped foot, “My foot will stay dry
in this.”
My expression was laden with doubt, but he ignored me. “So are you coming or not?”
I shrugged and didn’t waste time changing my clothes and my frame of mind. I desperately needed
to be with a friendly face while I cleared my head. When I got to the pool, Rocco was in the
water, and the plastic bag had already been thrown to the side.
“It didn’t work,” he explained before I could ask him. I raised my eyebrows in a “told-you-
so” way and plunged into the pool.
When I came back up for air, he was looking at me oddly.
“What’s on your arm?”
I followed his gaze and looked at my upper arm—five finger-sized bruises were surfacing where
Roach had grabbed me.
“I think I’m getting a rash,” I said.
He swam away from me.
I tried to forget Roach, count my blessings, and focus on what Roach had said, not what he had
done. I could tell that he wasn’t the most reliable source … but he had seemed so sure of
himself that Griff was … I couldn’t bring myself to believe him.
“Did you talk to Cameron about Griff yet?” I asked Rocco, trying to sound as cool as possible.
“Yeah. I talked to him about it last night.”
“And?”
“And nothing. Cameron said the same thing I did. Griff is being stupid—no one’s going to kill
him or anything like that. I’m the one who screwed up, not Griff.” His voice was slightly
bitter.
“One of the guards told me he was gone,” I mentioned innocently in passing.
“I know,” he admitted. “Griff was sent away yesterday.”
I wondered if sent away was a code for … something else. “Why would he be sent away if
shooting yourself in the foot was your fault?”
“Because he doesn’t follow anyone’s orders. I guess him breaking into your room was kind of
the last straw.”
I was mortified. “You told Cameron that Griff climbed into my room!”
“No, I didn’t!” Rocco whimpered. “They already knew. Spider caught Griff climbing down.”
I knew this couldn’t be good.
“Where was Griff sent away to?” I asked, acting as casual as I could.
“Cameron found him another job with one of his distributors.”
“And you believe him?” I questioned, too quickly—what was I insinuating?
He looked at me strangely. “Why wouldn’t I believe him? That’s a stupid question.”
I left it alone. Rocco was getting upset, and so was I.
After a while, the patio door opened. Spider and Carly walked right to the pool house,
completely ignoring Rocco and me. A short while later, Cameron also appeared and tensely sat on
the edge of the lounge chair.
He surveyed me.
“What’s on your arm?” It had sounded like an accusation.
“Rash,” Rocco explained for me, thankfully.
Cameron continued to stare at my arm with suspicion. I swam away, grabbing the piece of bandage
that floated by and throwing it at Rocco.