Page 31 of What's Left of Me

“I will rip your hand off and shove it between two slices of bread and chow down.”

Nick laughed but hastily removed his hand.

“And?” Mason gestured for him to continue.

“It seemed to catch him off guard—which is a little jarring, if you ask me, but eventually he said he’d get those recordings to us.”

Shep hummed. “This is why I don’t trust the authorities. Well, one of them. They take shortcuts, are understaffed, and lack the resources they need to achieve an optimal end to their cases.”

“Mendez was always saying things like that when I’d call about my stalker.” Matt was home today, and this was the first time he’d really spoken about his stalker—James, his ex-landlord.

“In the end it took Nick and Angel, and of course all of you hacking into places you shouldn’t to save me.”

Hazel held up her glass of water. “Then I’m grateful we’re here and have you to help Nix.”

Everyone followed suit. Even me, reluctantly, when Noel elbowed my arm.

“Yeah, seriously. Thank you, guys.” I sipped my water, and the conversations moved from Adonis to something about Four wondering if Lizzy would like going to a cooking class for a date.

Since it wasfamily night again, we had Panera for dinner and watchedWicked, which I was in heaven to see. It was more amazing than I’d hoped.

Afterward everyone went their separate ways and oddly, I found myself lingering outside Noel’s door.

“So, we had all the bedrooms soundproofed because there’s far too much sex that goes on in this house, and we did not want a porn symphony. You’ll have to knock.” Angel was walking by with a cookie in his hand. He never paused, just kept going right along. He was a bit standoffish, but you knew what you were getting with him.

Why was I even here? I’d been in my room reading, the book pretty hot and heavy, and Noel’s smiling face had popped into my head. I’d gotten a momentary jolt of bravery and decided I’d go and say…what?

Just then his door opened, and he didn’t seem shocked to see me.

“You’ve been out there for ten minutes.”

I looked down the hallway where Angel had gone. “Angel said the rooms were soundproofed.”

He lifted his finger up, and there was a small camera above the doorframe.

“Ohhh.”

“Yeah.” He chuckled. “What’s up, wanna come in?” He moved out of the way and motioned for me to enter, so I did.

“I was um…” No way I was admitting to what I was doing.

“Bored?”

I whipped around to see his face, hoping he wasn’t thinking that I came here for him to entertain me. But he had a playful smirk, almost as if he knew why I was really here.

“Reading.”

“Reading?” He sat on his desk chair, and I went to the comfy-looking oversized beanbag chair.

“Yes, and then there was a character that reminded me of you, and I was wondering what you were up to so, here I am.”

He narrowed his eyes, always analyzing. “What book?”

I patted the beanbag. “This is insanely comfortable.”

His face bloomed into the most gorgeous grin, but he spared me. “I stole it from Nick when Matt moved in. They looked cramped.”

“So generous of you.”

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