Page 115 of Chaos at Westbrook High

She mumbles something behind my hand, and I pull it away to let her speak.

“Derek, please?—”

“Promise me.”

“I promise!” She cries, frantically shaking her head as he opens the trunk. “Oh, God. Derek?—”

I toss her inside on her back, grabbing her ankle with a warning look when she tries to kick me.

“Tell me something I don’t already know, and I’ll consider letting you ride in the back seat.”

“He…he watches her,” she breathes out. “Your coffee girl. There’s a hidden camera set up in the shop, somewhere across from the counter. He watches her on it. He’s watching her right now.”

Furious, my nostrils flare as I shove her legs down and slam the trunk closed.

“You said you’d let me sit in the back!”

“I said I’d consider it,” I pull my phone from my pocket to bring up Callie’s number.

“Derek!” Freya wails.

He frowns at the trunk. “She’s afraid of the dark.”

“I know.” I smirk, and he smirks back.

“Hang in there, sweetheart.” He taps the trunk before we round the car and climb in.

Chapter 37

HAILEY

It’s almost closing time when Callie’s phone rings. The sound of it has Damon turning away from the window and stepping over to Callie.

“Who is it?” he demands. “Is it Kai?”

Unfazed by his tone, she holds her palm up to him and says, “Hey,” into the phone at her ear.

Damon fumes beside her while she listens to whoever it is on the other end.

Behind the counter with Wren and Wyatt, I continue working and try not to worry myself sick over Kai and Derek. I can’t help it though. I can barely focus on what I’m doing. I don’t know where they ran off to or why, but wherever they are, they’d better be okay. If they’re not, I’m going to kill them myself.

After passing a customer her cappuccino to go, I lean my hip against the counter and look at Callie as her eyes move to me, and then to the wall opposite me. “Okay,” she says. “Bye.”

“What did he say?” Damon asks. “Where are they?”

“On their way back.” She puts her phone down on the coffee table and stands up to stretch, rolling her eyes at the look in his. “Relax, big brother. They just went out to grab us some pizzas.”

Damon and I both narrow our eyes at her.

“I’m so bored,” she complains. “We should buy a TV and put it on the wall up here—” As she lifts her hand, the small plant on the shelf tumbles off and smashes on the floor. “Shit. Sorry, Hailey.”

I frown at how strange she’s acting. “It’s fine.”

I grab the broom and walk over to her. She takes it from me and begins sweeping up the mess before I can protest. When I walk back behind the counter, I notice Wyatt looks nervous, his eyes shifting to Callie as he watches her clear up the broken glass. When she’s done, she walks out the back door to get rid of it instead of putting it in the trash inside.

I follow her. “Callie, what are y?—”

She presses a finger to her lips, and I huff, throwing my hands up and walking back inside. When she returns to find me wiping tables, she checks that the customers have all cleared out before she locks the main door and turns the sign around to closed ten minutes early. I prop my hands on my hips and glare at her. She’s really starting to piss me off.

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