“Because she sat outside your door,” Gray told me gruffly.
“Hesat outside your door.” Quinn shot him a glare. “Stop pretending you’re so cold all the time.”
“That’s why you went home?” Ava asked me as Jett pulled her into his side.
“No, I went home to forget about dropping the ball and blowing the game. The food kinda happened after I got there.”
“You didn’t blow the game,” Jett assured me. “You took a fair hit.”
“I think low blood sugar and something unbalanced in your meal plan didn’t help, but I will fix it,” Quinn told me with determination.
“I trust you,” I said and then realized, when her eyes widened slightly in surprise at what I’d said, at what I’d admitted, that I did. “But we do need to stop talking about me, as much as I am marvelous, and focus on how we coax Red back.”
“She won’t come back,” Ava said sadly as her head dropped onto Jett’s chest. “And I stayed here to yell at you.” She pinned Gray with a glare. “And she’s going to think I’m the worst friend ever.”
“She can’t stay in that apartment alone,” Quinn agreed. “So we need to fix this, but I don’t know how.”
“It’s technically a crime scene,” Jett mused. “Will she even be allowed back in?”
“I’m not apologizing,” Gray said quietly. “So, brother, you can take that calculating look you’re giving me off your face and shove it up your ass.”
“I don’t think she would be allowed back in yet.” Jett ignored his brother’s comment as he turned to me. “They may offer her a guest room in the main building. You know, the visitors’ rooms?”
“I don’t know how I even swing that.” I looked at my cousins as we thought about it. “I need ideas on how this works.”
“This sucks.” Ava was still shooting glares Gray’s way, which he was either ignoring or hadn’t noticed.
“We need to talk to Mia.” Quinn focused on Gray. “You can do it.”
“Queeny . . .”
“No, you overreacted. Apologize.” Her hand snapped up to stop him from talking. “Do it.”
“And then what?” Gray asked in exasperation.
“Then we convince Mia to tell the nice administration that her boyfriend is a permanent fixture to her side.” Ava smiled sheepishly at me. “And you fake a relationship.” Jett was nodding in agreement. “Or whatever is going on between you both, maybe you won’t need to fake it.”
“You’re right,” I said to no one in particular. “This does suck.”
* * *
Fake a relationship, they said.She likes you; it will be easy,they said. You know what wasn’t easy? Trying to find a redhead who didn’t want to be found.
Ava and I went back to the apartment, and I saw for the first time what damage had been done. We had to call maintenanceto let us in. It was completely boarded up, and they told us that no one else had asked to be let in. It was Sunday, did we know that?
Ava looked ready to decapitate the guy, so I slipped him a fifty for his trouble as Ava picked through the apartment, packing up things for her and Red.
Red, who wasn’t answering texts or calls, didn’t seem to have spoken to anyone since she left the house this morning, and no one knew where she was. Ava was checking her phone so many times, I wasn’t sure why she kept putting it back in her pocket. It didn’t stay there.
“Ava, can you stop freaking out?” I asked her eventually when her pacing was pushing me to a breaking point.
“No.” She groaned out loud and then looked at me, her shoulders slumped with sadness. “I didn’t go after her, Ash.”
“None of us did,” I reasoned.
“Well, you at least tried. I was too busy fantasizing about removing parts of Gray’s anatomy and shoving them down his throat.” Her scowl was directed at the door where Jett and Gray were waiting outside. The apartment was small; we weren’t all fitting in here comfortably.
I hesitated. I looked Ava over. She was slim, but she wasn’t afraid of much. I mean, she had no trouble calling Onyx out. “You do know he won’t apologize?” I asked her quietly.
