Page 68 of First Star I See Tonight (Chicago Stars 8)

Her mother appeared in the doorway. Glossy, sleep-tousled hair tumbled around her shoulders, and the unfastened top buttons of her pajamas revealed a column of warm caramel skin. Karah, with her scrubbed face and womanly body, looked more alluring than a dozen overly made-up hair-swingers. Piper was glad Coop had gone downstairs.

“Jada, what are you doing out here?” Karah exclaimed.

Piper saw no need to rat out the teenager. “Sorry about that. We were making too much noise and woke her up.”

Jada carefully slipped the Nerf gun behind her leg where her mother couldn’t see.

Piper gazed down at Logan. “As long as you two are awake, would you help me move him?”

“I will!” Jada exclaimed.

They maneuvered Logan back into the apartment and onto Piper’s couch. She fetched a bucket from under the kitchen sink and put it next to him, just in case.

Jada hovered over him. “Ohmygod, if he, like, gets sick, somebody should be watching him. Can I do it? Please, Piper! I’ll sleep in the chair. Can I, Mom? Please?”

“Absolutely not.”

Piper remembered how much Jada wanted to fit in at her new school and thought about the cred this would give her with her classmates. “It’s okay with me, Karah,” she said. “I’ll watch out for her. And this’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Jada to observe firsthand the perils of fame.”

Karah hesitated, then conceded, maybe because she’d arrived at the same conclusion as Piper. “If there are any problems, send her home right away.”

Problems? How could there be any problems? Piper thought, but didn’t say.

She wouldn’t let Jada sleep in the same room as Logan, even if he was comatose, and she sent the teenager to the bedroom. The club was closing, so she didn’t have to go back downstairs. After she’d washed her face and exchanged her dress for sweats, she curled up in the living room chair.

It seemed as though she’d barely fallen asleep before a thin shaft of sunlight followed by a rap on the door awakened her. She peeled open her eyelids. Across the room, Logan Stray lay on his stomach, a hand and foot dangling over the edge of the couch onto the carpet. In the bedroom, Jada was still asleep.

Her neck was stiff, and it cracked as she pulled herself out of the chair. Cursing whoever was on the other side, she stumbled across the carpet.

Two bright-eyed women with cheery smiles pasted on their faces barged in. One held a cardboard tray of coffee, the other a box of doughnuts. Piper gripped the doorknob to support herself. “You are going to die.”

“And good morning to you.”

“How’d you get in?” Piper growled.

“Cleaning crew.” Jen set the doughnut box on the counter, and Amber did the same with the coffee.

“Go away.”

“Can’t,” Jen said. “Dumb Ass asked me out.”

Amber puffed up with outrage. “She’s thinking about going, and you know he’ll tell her she has to have sex with him to keep her job.”

“Probably.” Jen ripped open the doughnut lid and pulled out a Bismarck.

Piper yawned. “Timezit?”

“Eight o’clock,” Amber said, “and you’re always awake at this time.”

“Not when I’ve been up most of the night!”

Just then, Logan rolled over, and the part of him that wasn’t already on the floor slid there. But he still didn’t wake up.

“That’s Logan Stray!” Jen exclaimed. And then, after a long pause, “Is he alive?”

Piper slouched back into the chair. “I guess.”

“If you killed him, we’ll help you hide the body.”

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