Page 76 of Pin-up Girl

“She was running from you, Emmett. Do you think she would immediately go to a place you could track her down?”

Emmett straightened out of the passenger seat, pain and regret written all over him.

“Why did you do it, Emmett? She saw you, across the room. We told her we’d get you, but she’s not a second chance kind of girl. The scene we walked in on was damn convincing, and it’s not one she’ll soon forget.”

Still nothing from Jules. That fucker better not keep me in the dark. Of course he would, happily, to have some alone time with our Pin-up. He was so taken with Elise, he would walk to the ends of the Earth, barefoot on hot coals, if she asked it of him. He was clearly not having any trouble moving past all the jagged obstacles in our path.

Just the way they were looking at each other in the booth sent a painful twinge through my heart. For a second, I was the outsider, the unintentional voyeur watching something too intimate for the general population.

“I’m the pretty boy, the player. High profile daughters were throwing themselves at me, and I saw a way to put my skills to use. I wanted to be part of the solution too, Milo. More than the backup muscle to you and Jules. I steal secrets and collect photos to blackmail the precious little sluts from the sorority house. Anyone that could have information we need. With everything going down, I hadn’t been able to keep it up, and I did that willingly to give this thing with Elise a shot. But I still squeeze secrets where I can. These bitches will go to any means to keep their photos out of the public eye.”

He stopped and took a deep breath, turning to sit in the passenger seat.

“And you have something we can work with now?”Come on, Jules.Give me something, so I didn’t have to stand like an idiot outside Derek’s house.

Finally, the dots appeared.I grabbed us a car, we’re going to my family home. My parents are abroad, so we’ll have the whole place to ourselves.

The hand constantly squeezing my heart relaxed, and I ran around the Caddy and jumped in the front seat.

“He responded?” Emmett buckled up while I started the car.

“Yes.” I texted him that we were on our way. This time, his response was immediate.

No, she doesn’t want to be anywhere around Emmett. I’ll bring her to you guys tomorrow, but she needs some time away from him.

“Damn it,” I muttered under my breath. I could completely ignore his last text and show up anyway. Then he would go postal on my ass… Unless I dropped Emmett off somewhere first.

I glanced at him, but the poor fucker was downright pathetic in the passenger seat. He fucked up, maybe bigger than Elise, and he was going to pay for it. Still, I couldn’t leave him alone. In fact, I needed to figure out what this big secret was that he thought was going to save our asses.

The phone rang in my hand, a burner number flashed across the screen. Dear old Dad, the only one who ever called or texted me from these phones. Usually when he wanted to share something too sensitive for mainstream communication.

“Hello, Dad.” My voice held considerably less chill, since I had to begrudgingly admit he wasn’t quite as evil as I’d made him out to be.

“Milo, did you have a chance to look into that delicate matter we chatted about?” His gravelly voice grated on my nerves. It always would, even if he had tried to help in his own fucked up way.

“I’ve been making some phone calls, but nothing solid yet. I’ll let you know as soon as something surfaces.” I didn’t have time to placate him, having a million fucking things I needed to be doing right now.

“Good, I’ll be expecting yourimmediatecall. In the meantime, another little tidbit of information to help you out. I have it on good authority one of your frat brothers is going to try and out you tonight, although I’m not sure of the details.” He sounded so fucking pleased with himself.

“Too late, Dad. That already happened, but I don’t think too many people were close enough to really hear what he had to say. He also underestimated my influence in the fraternity. I don’t think he’ll find me an easy target.”

He chortled. “You got that mean streak from me. The men in our family are ruthless, dangerously so.”

Like this was something we should be proud of. In a way, it was, because I didn’t have any remorse for taking down fuckers like Derek.

“I have to go. I’ll let you know if anything important comes up.” Not likely, but I needed him to stay firmly on our side, even if this had more to do with him than me.

“What was that about?” Emmett grabbed the handle as I sped down the drive, an unreasonable note in his words.

“Just Dad trying to wedge further up my ass. Hehearda little rumor that someone was going to try and out us tonight. Not quite how it played out, but close enough.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Emmett started maniacally bouncing his leg. “What’s this about being outed?”

“Oh, that’s right. You missed that beautiful part of the evening because you were off pretending to fuck someone else.” The sneer was impossible to suppress, but damn it, I was furious with him. If he’d stayed with us, tonight might have played out differently.

“Knock it off, all right? I fucked up. I admit it, but tell me what the hell happened tonight.” He slammed his hand on the dash.

I was being a prick, and he deserved it. “Derek caught us as we were trying to leave the ballroom to look for you. He had Cassidy on his arm. Before you start getting any crazy ideas about her narcing on us, he wanted me to make a very public statement because he had intel thatshewas a traitor.”

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