Page 32 of Marked By the Pack
“That wasn’t a sample! And my stripteases are expensive! It doesn’t mean you get a lifetime of them for free!”
“Well, I didn’t know that.”
I shook my head. “You absolutely did.” I folded my arms across my chest.
“I like the way that pushes your boobs up. Lose the robe, hot stuff.”
I immediately unfolded my arms. “So you listen to me downstairs? And watch me in my room?”
“Sometimes. Speaking of which…are we going to talk about your weird little dinner tonight?”
“My perfectly normal dinner party?”In my dreams.In reality, it was awkward AF.
“Uh…” his voice trailed off. “Sure. If you usually invite a vampire to dinner.”
Oh. Shit.Of course he’d heard all that. He’d even made the lights flicker when I was talking about it. “You heard wrong.”
“No. Definitely not. I was listening pretty closely after you talked about thinking Emma’s boyfriend was the one that broke into your house last night and you were going to stop him with garlic powder. That really piqued my interest. But I didn’t really have to piece anything together, because you said he was a vampire. Out loud. And no one said you were wrong.”
I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone Callum’s secret. But…I hadn’ttoldGrudge. He’d figured it out himself. And I was so freaking relieved. “Thank God. I feel like I’m dying with this secret. I’m one of the only people that knows and I’m so worried about Emma. And me. I’m definitely worried about me too.”
“So…you’re serious? You’re friends with a vampire? I feel like this is what we should be talking about. Not that silly listening in and watching you thing.”
“We’ll circle back to that later. Grudge, what am I going to do? I feel like I’m on edge all the time unless I’m pounding wine. Callum only drinks animal blood, but…what if he gets hungry for human blood again? He has every reason to control himself around Emma. He loves her. But he has way fewer reasons to control himself around me. You heard me earlier. I plotted his murder. And I tried to kill him last night with garlic powder. I’m on the chopping block.”
“I’m trying to figure out how this is even possible. Like…you’re sure? This if for real for real?”
“I’m positive.”
“And that other guy that was there. You said he was a thief?”
I nodded. And I was almost positive I was going over to Otto’s tomorrow night. I wasn’t sure what that said about me. He stole stuff for a living. Or worse. But his stupid hazel eyes were really distracting. “Grudge, what am I going to do?”
“Well there’s really only one solution.”
I leaned forward. “I’m listening.”
He took a sip of his energy drink. “Take off your robe and I’ll tell you.”
“As if you’re not going to see me without it later.”
He shrugged.
I took it off. We’d come back to this discussion later. I couldn’t believe he’d been watching me. No wonder he only sometimes asked me to do stuff during our sessions. He was jerking off to me on the regular without me even knowing. I would have been really pissed if he didn’t always make me laugh.
“Maybe the bra too,” he said.
“Grudge, just tell me what to do!”
“I just did…take your bra off.”
“I mean about the vampire!”
“Okay, okay.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Run,” he said.
“What?”
“Zoey, you gotta get the hell out of there. You’re hanging out with a thug and a blood sucking monster.”
