Page 144 of Out of Bounds

King came up to my other side. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

“How?” Adam demanded. “I don’t understand—Kassie.Kassie?Illustrator-in-chief? What guy on campus would stupid enough to pull that shit?”

“Off-campus.”

“The art director,” King breathed out.

“Yep.”

Adam sucked in a breath. "That’s fucked up, man."

"No. He’s about to get fucked up." I passed the desk assistant station and punched in the button for the elevator. "I know what hotel he’s staying at. I know what room. And he’s going to be fucking sorry."

56

Ryan

Two Options

I should’ve been tired, I should’ve been ready for bed like Kassie was. But I felt good. I had one single purpose driving me and that was enough to push past the exhaustion.

At the nearest abandoned gas station, I left my car and called a taxi. I’d planned out the whole thing. Wearing nondescript clothing. Having the taxi drop us off at the metro train. Avoiding the cameras.

I just wasn’t expecting one thing.

Adam grinned the entire time we stepped through the revolving doors but he grabbed me before we could pass by the front desk.

"What—?" I started to ask when I saw exactly what Adam had spotted.

Zariah. In the coffee shop.

I swore under my breath and sidestepped to the plants, like they were the right size to hide three football players.

"I bet she’d be cool with it," Adam muttered.

"We can’t tell her because then Kassie will find out," I said.

"Wait. We’re not telling Kassie? Why?"

"She’d get mad about this," I muttered, taking another look at Zariah, sipping her coffee. "I don’t want to make her mad. She would say something like this is her problem and she has to deal with it and this is really reckless or something."

"This is pretty reckless," King pointed out.

Adam and I took a long look at him and I dropped my voice. "Do you want to go home?"

"I didn’t say that."

"Why the fuck are we arguing about this?" Adam hissed. "It’s just Big Z and she’s on her phone. She wouldn’t look up for a traffic accident.” He threw up his hands. “Fuck it. I’ll just tell Zariah I’m here to see a brunette."

Before I could haul him back, the linebacker took the long walk across the lobby, right past the coffeeshop and Zariah, engrossed in her phone. She didn’t look up once. Not even when he skirted past the counter. King and I paused for a long moment before we followed after him towards the bank of elevators.

"This hotel’s security is terrible," King grunted.

The ride up the fourteen floors was quiet. None of us felt the need to say anything. I’d found Miller’s room number in one of the emails between Cleo and I, all the way down the hall to the right.

I rolled back my shoulders, ready to knock on the door, when I spotted the latch popped up, leaving about an inch and a half of space for anybody to push through.

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