Page 20 of Bliss & Her Idols

My room is warm with a maple chest of drawers and wardrobe pushed against one wall and my bed on the other.

Moonlight shines through a domed window.

A lamp, which is shaped like a dragon, spills a fiery glow into the darkness.

I dive onto my bed.

My man…

Chase’s description of Cricket loops around my mind.

My sweet Cricket…

Also, the president of the fan club for the biggest rock star in the world, my source, and a hacker.

Cricket is sweet but he’s not harmless.

He likes to hide in the shadows online to mask his attacks.

I hurriedly burrow into my nest of emerald blankets and cushions. I drag them around myself as a comfort.

I tap on Cricket’s golden emblem.

Hey

Are you there?

Sorry, I know that I’m early. Can we talk, Bee?

Bee?

Please?

I swallow, as the messages sound increasingly desperate.

It’s never good news, when a guy says that they want totalk, right?

I take a deep breath, before I steel myself.

Then I type in the number that I’ve memorized.

Cricket doesn’t have his own phone.

Red flag.

He gave me a number, however, which I can use via his computer in an emergency. It’s also how he sends texts.

The strangeness around this sudden change in behavior has me antsy enough to count this as an emergency.

I hold my breath.

What will his voice sound like?

I’ve pieced together that Cricket is around Piper’s age, along with the fact that he has a love for both the deer and foxes around his home in the forest, that he hates laundry more than scrubbing floors (and that he appears to spend most days doing chores), and that he has two Alpha younger brothers who he has pretty much raised himself.

I don’t know if he’s realized he’s even let slip that much.

“Bee? Is that you?” A wary, shy voice asks.

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