“I’ll call you,” Zach mouths at me.
“Hopefully, I’ll still be alive,” I mouth back before I’m ushered out of the room to await my fate.
7
Adam
Sam and I are on our way to see Mom and Phoebe when my burner phone pings in my back pocket.
Sam’s gaze darts to my normal phone sitting in the cup holder of my truck. “Since when do you have two phones?”
Oh, since I became a drug dealer.
“It’s not mine.” That isn’t a lie either. The phone technically belongs to Ray. “Garrett left it behind when I dropped him off last night from playing pool.” Now that’s a lie, but I have to improvise, to keep the secret. I hate that I’m concealing shit from my roomie, but that’s par for the course with this gig.
“How was the frat party last weekend?” Sam asks, propping his booted feet up on the dash.
The burner phone quits ringing. Thank fuck.
“Decent.” But only because a certain, enigmatic strawberry-blonde with gorgeous blue eyes was there. “When are you going to get your ass out with us?” I’ve been trying to coax Sam to leave his dorm room, and join us. While I don’t go to parties much, I do hang out with the guys after training. Either grabbing food in the diner, or shooting pool at the local pool hall. Sam is a bit of a recluse, and I’m worried about him. In his spare time, all he ever does is play Xbox or hack into who knows what.
“My schedule is busy. You know I tutor in the student center most nights after classes. I barely have time to do anything else.”
I roll my eyes. “What are you at level one thousand in some game?” I ask to make a point.
Cars speed by us in the left lane as I ease up on the gas pedal and maneuver the car onto the off ramp.
“I’m out with you now,” he volleys back.
“I mean to a party.”
He belts out a laugh. “Like you party. You’re not Carter Banks.”
Carter?That dude probed me like the FBI after class on Monday, wanting to hear all about Emily. I gave up nothing except for telling him, over and over, that we didn’t fuck. Didn’t matter though. He doesn’t believe we just talked, and in the end, I gave up. He’ll believe what he wants to believe.
“What do you know about Emily Parker?” I ask. Sam might be a recluse, but he knows everything there is to know about this campus. Dude definitely has too much time on his hands.
He whips his head around, and I’m sure it’s about to fall off his neck. “Coach’s daughter? Please tell me you didn’t hook up with her.”
I brake at the red light at the bottom of the ramp. “Are you jealous or scared? And what do you know?”
“That coach will cut off your nuts if you lay a finger on his daughter. I like you, Adam, and I’d hate to lose you as a roomie or friend.” He smirks, and I sense he’s concealing something.
I squirm in the driver’s seat. “Spill, man.” When the light flashes green, I turn left.
“She tutors sometimes in the student center.” His cheeks flush a little, and it’s clear he’s got a bit of a thing for her. “She’s one hot chick. That’s it.”
I’m surprised she tutors. I assumed she was strung out on Molly most nights, but everyone knows what they say about making assumptions. She wasn’t high at the party, so maybe she only uses it occasionally. That thought sits easier in my gut, than the thought she might have a serious problem.
The burner phone goes off again just as I’m pulling into Mom’s driveway.
“Someone must really want to get in touch with Garrett,” Sam says.
“Why don’t you go in,” I suggest, cutting the engine. “I’m going to call Carter so he can tell Garrett I have his phone.” The lies keep coming, and I’m quickly reminded of how I lied constantly when I worked for Donnie. “Tell my mom I’ll be five minutes.”
Sam knows Carter and Garrett are roommates, so this doesn’t raise his antenna. He nods once and climbs out.
I wait until he’s inside, then remove the burner phone, cussing under my breath when I spot the recent missed calls from Ray. I haven’t spoken to him since our initial meeting last week. He had one of his lackeys call me to see if I’d sold the five bags he gave me, and I’ve been expecting his call. Typical he’d phone when I couldn’t answer. I press redial and call him back.
