“You want to explain what happened yesterday?” Zane asks, twirling his sticks around. “Or are we just going to pretend that you weren’t eye-banging that redhead from the lounge when we walked in?”
I play a complicated riff and hope my brothers take that as a sign that I haven’t heard them.
If the mysterious redhead hadn’t pushed me away and slapped the hell out of me, maybe they would have walked in on more than an intense stare down and jagged breaths.
The memory of the kiss makes heat swell in my chest and I let an angry note ring. It does nothing to pierce through the haze and rid me of my restlessness.
Mystery Girl did a number on me yesterday.
And I’m not just talking about the slap that almost sent my brain sloshing out of my skull. A slap that came after she kissed me.
“Just go ahead and smash that guitar into the ground,” Finn yells to be heard over my thrashing. “It’ll be more satisfying.”
I whip my head up and glare at him.
Finn is on a high chair, the bass guitar in his lap. Zane is behind the drums, twirling the sticks and giving me a stupid grin.
“We’re starting from the second set,” I growl.
Then I wait for Zane to tick his drums.
He doesn’t.
I try my hardest to ignore both of them, but when my brothers refuse to play, I whirl around.
“We’ve only got a few days of practice until that stupid dance,” I grumble.
Principal Harris has us do ‘community service’ gigs every once in a while, mostly to punish us for our spotty attendance records. Next weekend, we’re going to play for a high school in an area where we’ll all probably get robbed or shot at.
“We don’t have time to waste,” I add, growling.
“We’re not the one wasting time, Dutch.” Zane points a drum stick in my direction. “You are.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I grumble.
“What happened between you and the redhead?” Zane insists.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t feed us that bull,” Finn gripes.
“Whatever that ‘nothing’ was, it caused you to sprint after that chick like you were trying out for the Olympics. Then when you didn’t find her, you ran about five red lights before kicking us out of the truck and disappearing who knows where.”
I know where.
I texted Christa and told her to get her and that plumped up mouth out to Fourth Base, the lookout point above the town where almost half our graduating class lost their virginities.
My intentions were to screw the redhead out of my mind. Christa’s always a guaranteed good time and I figured I could replace the taste of cherries and innocence with the taste of caviar and rum.
It didn’t work.
I was in deep when I realized that Christa was mewling over me and the only reason I was putting any work in was because I was picturing redhead’s face on top of hers.
I grit my teeth. “Since when did you two get so nosy?”
“This is my first time seeing you lose your cool in front of a chick,” Zane observes, sticking a hand through his raven hair.
Finn agrees. “You looked a little spazzed when you left her.”
“She slapped me.”
Both my brothers go still.
Finn blinks rapidly. “She did what?”
“And you let her?”
I didn’t just let her. I was going to tell her every one of my secrets. Why we were looking for Cadence that night. Why we need her out of school. Why my loyalty is to Sol no matter what.
She had a damn lock on me from the moment I walked into the lounge and saw her behind the piano. There was no spotlight on her that night, but there might as well have been by the way I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Everything about her was so unvarnished and authentic that it made me want to trap her inside me until whatever made her the way she was rubbed against me too.
Hell, maybe that was all it was. The need to feel someone that genuine under me. I swear I don’t go around following girls into changing rooms like a creep. Usually, it’s the other way around.
But the way it felt with her, it was almost like I knew her. Like we were cut from the same cloth.
“Dutch, what is going on with you, man?” Zane demands.
I don’t know.
I have no freaking clue why this girl screws with my head. In fact, after the kiss-slap duet, it took me a long time to page through what the hell had just happened to me.
“Are you finally going to chase her down?” Finn asks.
“No.”
“That’s the only way Jinx will release her information,” Zane informs me.
My eyes sharpen on them. “What are you talking about?”
“We tried to pay Jinx for a name,” Zane explains. “It was the weirdest thing. She refused to give it to us. Said she’d only release that information to you.”
“Why do you think she’s playing games?” Finn asks.
“She’s always playing games,” Zane grumbles. “This time, she’s playing hardball.”
“Probably because she wants more money,” I growl. Whoever Jinx is, she’s a good businesswoman. I’ll give her that. I can’t count how much she’s managed to glean from the Cross brothers alone.
“There’s something more to that redhead,” Finn says thoughtfully. “I can feel it.”
I point angry eyes at him. “What exactly are you feeling?”
“Watch it, Finn. Dutch is going to deck you for thinking about his girl.”
“She’s not my girl.” I set my guitar down. “If we’re not going to practice, then I’m leaving.”
“Why? Your date isn’t until Saturday,” Zane teases.
I immediately stiffen the hell up.
On the one hand, I want to be smart about this. Whenever I’m around the redhead, my brain goes on the fritz. She’s all I can see. All I want. In fact, not even Christa’s thirty-thousand dollar lips going to town on me could rid me of the taste of her hot, cherry-flavored lip gloss. After it was over, I couldn’t help but wish it was the redhead that I’d had pinned to my steering wheel.
As annoyed as I am about that slap and the Cinderella act she pulled by running away without leaving her name, I know that I’d follow her anywhere.
And that means I’m in deep. Way deeper than I’d like to be. I can’t lose control and the moment I see her, I’ll be putty in the palm of her hands.
Frustrated with my brothers and myself, I sling my guitar over my shoulder in a practiced move and set it back on its stand.
“You bozos practice without me. I’m out.”
Zane pouts. “Don’t be like that, big brother.”
I roll my eyes. I was only ahead of him by a couple minutes, but he’ll never cease to milk the distinction.
Finn smirks at me as if he knows they got under my skin.
I grab my backpack and sling it over one shoulder. “What class do we have now?”
“Probably music.” He gestures to the drums. “Which is why we’re here.”
I perk up a bit. Cadence is in our music class. Rather than spend time sulking over the redhead, I can try to make more progress in kicking her out of Redwood.
She destroyed my wallet last week. I can’t have her thinking she’s escaped my wrath.
My brothers are silent and staring at me.
“Why’d his face light up?” Zane asks Finn.
My brother just shrugs.
Without making them any wiser, I leave the practice room and head to music class. Brahms is getting a little too comfortable with me. Since I’m in the mood, I think it’s about time I raised some hell.
Jinx: I couldn’t give your brothers a good bang for their bucks, so here’s a freebie. Your favorite pair of primped lips has been plotting and scheming for a while now. She plans to strike your girl where it hurts today.
Jinx: What will it be, Dutch? Want to play the hero or the villain?
