Torie was glaring. “You did what?”

  Tamara chided, “Watch yourself. She’s going to go all Torie on you.”

  Liam frowned at her, cocked his head to the side, and narrowed his eyes. “Have we met?”

  Melissa was sharing another look with me. I couldn’t read her mind, but I felt it might’ve gone something along the lines of “Your friend is about to Torie on his ass and I don’t know what Torie means, but she seems super scary right now and I’m scared of her, so Liam better sober up real quick because he’s gonna get his ass kicked.”

  Okay. She didn’t say any of that. Her thoughts were probably more like “Did you hear what he said?”

  Either way, I was right there with her.

  Torie was about to kick Liam’s ass, and he wasn’t sober enough to enjoy it. The dude would be all sorts of remorseful in the morning.

  “You did. I don’t give a shit you don’t remember me. You better tell me you didn’t invite that bitch who sent out an image of my girl and her man in a private moment here? Where my girl is? Where her man is? And where her brother resides? Tell me you didn’t do that.”

  Liam’s mouth was hanging open. He was gawking at her.

  Carl sighed, shaking his head. “Oh, man. Here it comes.”

  Liam said, “I’m usually chill, but fuck—you’re hot.”

  Carl sighed again. “There it went.”

  Carl seemed like a good bud.

  I poked him in the shoulder. “Hey.” I nodded at Liam. “Get him out of here. He’s inviting people who want to hurt me. I have guards around me for reasons, so that’s not going to go over well.”

  He looked around.

  I didn’t know if he took in the guards or if he remembered them from earlier, but he nodded super-duper quick-like. “I got him. And for the record”—he leaned close—“he’s only being this way because he saw how Melissa wants to bone your brother. He’s in the feels, if you know what I mean.”

  Carl really was chill. I would’ve liked him in another universe.

  I nodded, stepping back from him. “Still not cool.”

  “I know.” His hand came to Liam’s shoulders, and right there proved how beyond Liam was, because Liam had no clue.

  Then I felt a presence behind me, a split second before a hand slid around my waist.

  A rush of heat swept me, and I knew whose hand that was. I knew whose chest I leaned back against, and I knew whose lips were coming to brush my cheek before rising to my ear.

  I ignored everyone’s attention.

  “Hey,” I murmured, turning my head so Kash’s lips could find mine.

  They did, and I wanted them to stay. They didn’t.

  A soft graze and he pulled back, but his hand didn’t. He was tugging me away from the group. “I need a word.”

  That didn’t sound good, but I was half-buzzed and too distracted to really take in how rigid he was, or how tight his shoulders were. He moved me into a corner with a semblance of privacy and turned his back to block anyone from watching.

  “I have to—”

  I didn’t wait. I rushed out, “I told Melissa at the game all the guys who liked her, and I told her to steer clear from Matt. I didn’t think she’d go for Liam. I really didn’t. But I’m excited for her, no matter who she ends up choosing.” I paused. There was something else, but I finally noticed the look in Kash’s eyes.

  Alarm pierced me. Everything else vanished.

  “What’s going on?” I gripped his hand.

  “I have to go on a trip. I can’t tell you any details right now, but I’ll call you as soon as we land.”

  He was leaving.

  I tried not to feel dejected.

  I failed. A pin popped my balloon, and I was deflating fast.

  “Oh.”

  He frowned, his forehead resting against mine. “I’m sorry.”

  I closed my eyes. “It’s fine.”

  He laughed lightly. “Don’t lie to me.”

  A finger went under my chin, and he tipped my head up. I opened my eyes.

  He said, “Not to me. Everyone else. Yourself even. But not me. Please.”

  I whispered, “I really liked being normal today.”

  His eyes softened. “I know you did.” He lowered his head, his lips finding mine. “I enjoyed it, too.”

  “Boss.” From Scott, behind him.

  Kash tensed, but he gave me another kiss, this one harder, with more feeling, before he ripped his mouth away. A last kiss to my forehead before he folded me to him. “Be safe. Have fun. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

  Then he was gone, and I no longer wanted to be there.

  Matt came up. “You okay?”

  I shook my head. I turned to him, knowing tears were there that I’d never admit to and never let fall, so I moved into him. “I want everyone gone.”

  His arms closed around me, and a second later my brother barked over my shoulder, “Everyone out. Now!”

  There were cries of protest, grumbles, a few curses, but they left.

  My brother hugged me the whole time. Only my friends stayed, and I was including Carl.

  I decided maybe I was wrong.

  Maybe being normal was overrated.

  THIRTY-SIX

  Okay. I overreacted.

  I mean, I really overreacted.

  Kash had to go. It happened. It wasn’t something to break down about, or wish the party to end. Though I hadn’t realized I wanted to be there only because Kash was. I felt safe, and I could let loose. He was gone. The guards were present, but it wasn’t the same.

  Bottom line: I was missing him.

  “There’s talk about going to Naveah.”

  I was hanging out on Matt’s deck, a blanket wrapped around me, sitting there and feeling embarrassed and sad. I was even more embarrassed about that. I looked up as Matt came out. My other friends would’ve come out, lingered by the couch, unsure where to sit because I was mostly sprawled over the entire couch.

  Not my brother.

  He picked me up, sat, and put me against him so I was half leaning into him. He rested his arm on the back of the couch. “How you doing?”

  “Wondering why I got emotional earlier,” I admitted, looking down, picking at the blanket in my lap.

  His arm squeezed me against him before returning to the couch. “My guess is it’s because you were having fun, you were a bit tipsy, and Kash told you he had to leave, when I’m sure you and him were looking forward to other activities tonight. Activities I don’t want to hear about, by the way.”

  I grinned. “That’s probably why.”

  “No reason to be embarrassed.”

  His arm fell to squeeze around my shoulders. “You got some interesting friends in there.”

  I lifted my head. “Dax and the guys show up?”

  “And a chick who security didn’t let through.”

  I lifted my head farther, tilting to see him.

  He said, “She’s at the front desk. That’s the farthest she got, and she’s insisting she’s got something important to tell you. Only you.” He raised an eyebrow. “Is this the bitch classmate that showed up with my ex Saturday night at Naveah?”

  His ex?

  Oh!

  Camille Story.

  “I forgot you dated her.”

  “Not thinking I did. She’s a lot different. I hardly recognized her, to tell you the truth.” He winced. “To be honest, it was more like a few drunken hookups. I called when I was wasted. She opened her door and legs. That sort of thing.”

  “I’m thinking you made an impression.”

  “Maybe. Or she targeted me because she already had an agenda. Either way, her bestie is downstairs pleading to talk to you.”

  I didn’t want to go, but I was going to go.

  And I knew I was going to hate going.

  But I was still going.

  Squashing a groan, I stood.

  Scott and Connor had gone with Kash. Of the main guys I knew, they had left back Fitz and Erik. I took them in, noting, “Isn’t this your normal time off?”

  They shared a look, bookending me on the way to the elevator.

  Erik cleared his throat. “We’re getting double time, but we’ll be relieved in the morning.”

  Time. I’d forgotten the time. It was a little after nine. It felt like it should’ve been after midnight, but I guess that’s how it went when you started the festivities at a football game in the middle of the day and then kept going.

  “You want us to come with you?” That was Matt, but Torie didn’t ask. She bypassed him, stepping firmly into the elevator as it opened.

  She wasn’t alone.

  Melissa came behind her, Tamara bookending her.

  Liam, Carl, Dax, Shyam, and a few other guys from class followed, too.

  They were about to get on the elevator, but Erik held up a hand. “No more. Next elevator.”

  The doors were closing when Liam shot a hand up. “Don’t kill her.”

  No one said a word inside.

  The door closed.

  We descended into the abyss of hell.

  I might’ve been overreacting again. I didn’t care. I grinned.

  “This is the same bitch from Naveah?”

  I didn’t have to answer Torie.

  Melissa did for me. “Yes, but if she’s here, then there’s a good reason she’s here.”

  That got my attention. That got everyone’s attention.

  Melissa kept on, “She wouldn’t come, especially to your brother’s place and to your dad’s hotel. Hoda feels bad. Kash handed her ass to her”—Look at Melissa, she was picking up our speak!—“and she feels bad, but she’s been trying to figure a way to make it up to you. If she’s here, this is her making it up to you. Trust me.” She ended with a harrumph and a nod. Her hair had a little bounce to it.

  No one said a word. We were mostly in shock, or I was guessing.

  But then there really wasn’t anything to say. Whatever Hoda was here to say, I’d listen. With that in mind, as the elevator opened again and we walked out to a still seriously packed lobby, I found her in two seconds. She was at the front desk, an arm resting on the counter. Her body was half-turned to watch the lobby, but her head swiveled toward where we were. Our eyes met, and her body jolted. Her arm even scraped against the counter, getting the front desk attendant’s attention.

  He looked at her, saw where she was looking, and clambered to get out from behind the desk. “Mr. Colello said—”

  Erik stepped in. “We got it. Is there a private room nearby?”

  The attendant stopped talking, taking me in, and Hoda, who was migrating around the desk toward us. Hotel security was standing by her, but seeing that it was okay for her to approach, he went back to the front door.

  The elevator pinged behind us. Matt, Liam, Carl—the whole group—spread out around us.

  Hoda took them in, gulping.

  The attendant snapped to attention again. “Mr. Francis, sir!”

  Matt moved forward. “They need a conference room, and I want all lingering students out of the lobby. They either need to be a guest or know a guest, and it’s okay for us to make them produce a keycard. If anyone gripes, send them my way.” My brother touched my arm. “My sister has to have a meeting. What room’s available?”

  Well, hell. We just saw Manager Matt.

  I liked it.

  We were shown to a conference room. All of us traipsed inside—and I mean all of us. Seemed Hoda wasn’t getting a one-on-one but a one-on-twenty-ish.

  She took it in stride. I had to hand that to her.

  “Okay.” She smoothed her hands down her sides, her eyes darting to take in everyone. “Wow. Okay. I didn’t realize I’d get an actual audience.”

  Matt growled, moving to stand in front of me. “My sis can hear your words, but you talk to me. Got it?”

  I couldn’t see her anymore, but she whispered, “Got it.”

  Liam was still drunk but looked like he was attempting to pretend to be sober. He and Melissa, and Carl, since he was an extension of Liam at this point, all stood between Hoda and the rest of us.

  “What’s up, the Hodes?” From Liam.

  His pretending wasn’t working.

  Melissa shot him a frown and mirrored Matt, standing in front of Liam. She reached out to touch Hoda’s arm. That I could see.

  “I told Bailey you wouldn’t be here unless it was important, and you don’t want to hurt her anymore.”

  Matt’s back straightened, stiffening.

  “Yes. Right.” Still a whisper from Hoda, until she cleared her throat. Her next words came out more clear, stronger. “I messed up. I was jealous and insecure, and I was educated on the error of my ways and realize how stupid I was. So”—a deep breath—“I wanted you guys to know that I didn’t reach out to Camille. She found me.”

  What?

  I stepped around Matt. “She found you?”

  Hoda nodded, looking sick. “She came to Naveah. I wasn’t the one who put that picture of you and Mr. Colello out to the blogs. That was her. But it was me who got the picture in the first place. She, um…” Her eyes darted to Matt before tearing back to me. She was twisting her hands together. “Thinking back, she targeted me. I mean, it sounds weird saying it, but I think that’s what she did. She used to come in when I was working. She looked different each time, too. I thought she was trying out new wigs, but now, seeing how Mr. Colello reacted to her, and”—her eyes darted to Matt—“your brother too, I realized that there was longer history there than I knew about.”

  “She broke the story about Kash and me.”

  “I know.” She bit down on her lip, her eyes downcast. “I’m sorry.”

  “What do you mean, she targeted you?” Matt interjected.

  She looked up, her eyes widening. “Uh. Just that. She was friendly with a few of the staff, then somehow she started always being in the bathroom when I was. We laughed, joked that it was meant to be. We were supposed to be friends, but she knew I was on the IT staff there. We became friends. We, huh”—another visible gulp from her—“we used to meet up at our apartments. Sometimes we went to a movie, but mostly it was just gabbing like girlfriends do. She likes to drink wine and talk.”

  Hoda’s eyes found mine, silently pleading. “I just thought she was being a good friend to me. I didn’t realize she had an agenda, but she steered conversations toward you, about Kash. She took the pic from me. I confronted her about it, but she said she was helping me out in the long run. She insisted that that pic would keep you from coming to Hawking. I didn’t know how it would stop you, but she was adamant it would.”

  A very, very bad thought was coming to me.

  A truly bad and horrific feeling. It was so bad, I tasted acid in my mouth.

  I swallowed it back and kept listening.

  “I don’t know how to make it up to you, except I’ve been sticking around her.”

  “You what?” Melissa snapped at her.

  That was surprising.

  Matt thought so too, sharing a look with me.

  Hoda flinched, turning to Melissa. “It’s not what you’re thinking. When I got kicked out of my apartment, I’ve been staying with her. I was thinking I could stick around and, if I heard something, I could let you know. I mean, she thinks I’m firmly anti–Bailey and Kash, so it could work out perfect.”

  Matt moved into me, brushing against my side, and I was feeling what he was thinking.

  She had access to Camille Story’s apartment, to her actual lair. She was behind enemy lines.

  “She’s got a room in her apartment. She locks it up, keeps the key on her, and it’s not a normal lock. It’s like a dead-bolt lock, and she’s even got a keypad just for that room.”

  I glanced over. Erik had his phone to his ear; his eyes were speculative.

  I’d bet a million bucks he was relaying word for word to Kash right then and there, which I felt like a kick in my stomach if he was. Kash was available twenty-four/seven to the guards but not to me. That wasn’t sitting well with me. There were other bad tastes going on with me, too, and I needed to block all of them out. If I didn’t, my head would explode.

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  God. Hoda was shaking. She was so scared.

  I felt a wall loosening inside me.

  She spoke right to me. “We were watching the game on TV today when the camera showed you guys. Two seconds after that, her phone started ringing, and man … Her eyes lit up. She looked like she won a Pulitzer Prize. She took the phone, sprinted for her room, and I heard a few words before she sealed herself inside. She answered the phone with ‘Hello, Quinn.’”

  Ice blasted my insides.

  Everything that’d been getting riled up—dead. Total deadness inside.

  Quinn.

  Matt swore next to me. “No fucking way. No way.”

  Hoda frowned, her eyebrows pulling together. “That’s what I heard.”

  “We know.” I surged forward, touching her arm to reassure her. “He’s saying that about Quinn.” I tried to say more, but the words shriveled up in me.

  Quinn had been on the phone with Camille Story.

  That’d been the sick feeling before, but I hadn’t wanted to give it time to grow.

  “Quinn was behind those articles. Your face. Kash’s identity coming out. She was goddamn behind—” Matt broke from the group, his face furious, and he started pacing back and forth in clipped and almost frenzied steps. “I can’t.” His voice was strangled. “I can’t be here. I can’t be in the same fucking city as that bitch. I stay here and I will do major damage, and I know Kash has things planned. I can’t get in the middle of it.” He stopped abruptly, turning to Erik. “Is that Kash?”

  Erik nodded. He started to hold the phone out, but Matt was across the room in a flash. He took it from him before it even cleared away from his ear.

  “I need that plane now. I need to physically be far away from that bitch, or I swear to God I will—” He stopped talking. He started listening. A second later, his eyes turned to me. His voice sounded hollow. “Okay. I’ll do that.” He handed me the phone. “He wants to talk to you.”

  I took it and moved to a corner of the room. “Hey.”

  “You okay?”