Chapter 1
Icame awake as a door opened and the BMW began to ding repeatedly, letting whoever had opened the door know that the car was still running. With blurry vision, I rose up on my forearms and looked through the frontwindows.
"This is Alex's house?" My voice came out as more of a croak—guttural and definitely stillsleepy.
Bellamy glanced back at me over his shoulder from the front passenger seat. "It's just his mountain retreat. Usually, he rents it out but when anyone in Iris needs it he lends it to us aswell."
"What are we doing here?" I asked, stifling a yawn. "I thought we were going to his house. I want to get this meeting done with sooner rather than later, so we can head out to findErika."
"Alex is staying the weekend up here," Bellamy replied, "and we all felt like it would be better to meet Grayson on neutral territory. Since Erika and Josh’s disappearance involves him too, we have to take precautions." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Neutral territory made them sound like such alpha animals. Bellamy frowned at me as my yawn finally got the better of me and escaped. "Are you okay?" he asked. "It wasn't that long of a drive, but you fell asleep less than a half hourin."
I scratched my arm and sat up fully. "I'm fine," I replied, "just tired. I feel like I haven’t gotten good sleep since we got back. I just want to sleep in my own bed for achange."
When I reached for the back door, he stopped me. "No, wait," he cautioned. "We're waiting for Marv's goahead."
"His go ahead? Why? Is something wrong out here?" I glanced out through the back windshield. "Are we being watched?" When I turned back around, Bellamy looked at me as though I were crazy. "What?" Idemanded.
"Where would you get an idea like that?" he asked, shocked. "We're not being watched. It's not like we're FBI oranything."
"Well, Iris does like to stick their nose in places that a lot of people would be upset about," I said. Case in point, the last job we had finished a few weeks before: suicides, drugged girls, a vengeance mission. It had been hard and extremely taxing as well as heartbreaking. I couldn’t really say much about Iris poking its head into the business of others because I went along with it all. I even pushed to go on the damnmission.
Bellamy sighed and then, up ahead, I saw that Marv was waiting on the front doorstep. The front door opened, and a dark-skinned woman smiled brightly, kissing him lightly on the cheek. My gut curdled—a cry from an emotion I didn’t want to name. Who wasshe?
“Ah, looks like we’re good, let’s go,” Bellamysaid.
I opened the back door and got out, frowning as I moved towards the wooden steps leading up to the house. It was a light, sunshine yellow with bright, pristine white trimmed windows to either side of the front door and a double window above. Marv held out his hand for mine and I took it, eyeing the woman as I ascended the stairs with Bellamy at myback.
“The others are almost here,” Marv said, directing the statement toBellamy.
“Are you staying for the weekend?” the unknown woman asked. I narrowed my gaze on her but didn’t respond. The truth was, I had no clue what the plan was. All I had been told was that we were going to see Alex. I hadn’t been sleeping well, and I cursed my lack ofattention.
“Not sure yet, Clarissa,” Marv said. “You know Alex and Knix get the ultimate say so. We prepared for it. Our stuff is in the car, but we’re going to leave it there until after he and Texas get here withCaruso.”
I blinked, directing my gaze to Marv in confusion. I certainly hadn’t packed anything. Hence, why I was so shocked to be here. They must have packed for me. Familiar irritation welled in me. Being left out of the loop was getting old fast. When we met with Alex as a team, I was going to make thatknown.
Clarissa let us into the foyer, closing the door behind us as we slipped our shoes off and placed them into the rack next to the stairwell. “Why don’t you three go out onto the patio,” she called as she walked further into the house. “I just made some fresh lemonade. I’ll grab it and bring it out foryou.”
“Do you have anything to eat?” Bellamy called back, following afterher.
Marv still clutched my hand and I stared at the floor. Neither of us moved towards wherever the patiowas.
“We can meet them out on the patio later,” he finally said, tugging me behind him, up the stairs. I was silent as I followed behind. He glanced over his shoulder once, as if determining if I was willing. Whatever he saw in my face must have assured him because he keptgoing.
On the second floor of the house was an open space with several doors. The open space was large enough to be a room itself. Someone had placed a dark, decorative, wood desk against a corner wall with a cushioned seat and books with unbroken spines on top. Marv headed for the door that was the furthest away from the opening of the stairwell. He opened it and peeked his head in before pulling me through. A double wide bed was pushed up against a double window and soft blue curtains that matched the bed’s comforter hung on eitherside.
Marv let go of my hand and marched to the bed. He flipped back the top cover and pointed. “Get in.” I was really still too tired to argue with him. He must have seen it. I walked up to him and looked at him for a moment before crawling onto the bed. It was the softest mattress I had ever felt. Softer, even, than my own mattress at the guys’ house. I swallowed a low moan as I laid down and Marv tucked the comforter around myshoulders.
“Do not cut me out of the meeting,” I said as he stood up. Marv’s dark, tornado eyes gazed down at me. “Please?” I didn’t want to beg, but I was truly scared that they wouldn’t wake me up. Maybe I shouldn’t be going to sleep in a stranger’s house in the first place. I started to sit up, but Marv stoppedme.
“We won’t,” he promised. He bent down and kissed my forehead before dipping even further, brushing his lips across mine. I sucked in a surprised breath. Since our talk, they had all kept their distance. It had only been a week or so, but still…My lashes fluttered as he pulled away. I bit my lip, fighting not to drag him back and put my mouth on his. “I’ll wake you up when Caruso gets here. You’ve only got an hour or two at most anyway.” I nodded and then laid back down as he went to the door and quietly slipped out. I turned away and closed my eyes, quickly drifting back tosleep.
* * *
When I woke, the sun was still high in the sky and no one had come to retrieve me. So, I walked down to the first floor, only encountering Clarissa as she busied herself in the kitchen. She smiled warmly my way. Awkwardly, I moved into the kitchen and glanced around, but none of the guys were withher.
“If you’re looking for them,” Clarissa said, answering my unspoken question, “Marv is outside with Knix, Alex, and Bellamy. Texas is upstairs withGrayson.”
A small smile stretched my lips. “Thanks,” I said. I backtracked towards the stairs once more, guilt churning in my gut as I thought about the jealous thoughts that had spun through my mind earlier. It was obvious Clarissa was familiar with the guys, but if she was staying in Alex’s house...then her relationship was probably with him. I shook my head and sighed as I made my way up thestaircase.