“Yeah, probably.” She glanced up the path leading to the boardwalk and bitherlip.
“What’s theproblem?”
“Nothing.” She started up the path, but stopped when she reached the start of the suspendedboardwalk.
I came up behind her in the dark. “What’s the fucking problem,princess?”
Jessa cringed at the old nickname. “Nevermind.”
I studied her dark silhouette, trying to figure out what the fuck she wasupto.
I hadnoidea.
Used to think I knew her, could read her, knew all the shit she never told anyone,evenme.
I was wrong. So totally fuckingwrong.
“Have a nice night.” I bypassed her, heading into the trees. “Try not to freeze todeath.”
“It’s just…” she called out after me. “I’m kindoflost.”
I turned back. “You’relost?”
She drew the blanket tighter around herself. “Yeah, okay? That’s why I was late coming down to jam. I got lost. It was light out when I arrived, and I’ve had a lot to drink, and it’s all dark, and this walkway is dangerous. There’s no rail in some places, you know, and it’s afuckingmaze…”
It was dark. The twinkly lights along the boardwalk had gone out, probably on a timer. And she was right; it was kind ofamaze.
And she did almost fall off it last night. Still made my stomach turn to think about it, about what might’ve happened if I wasn’tthere.
Wasn’t really in the mood to agree with her,though.
Instead I muttered, “Jesus, Jessa,” took her by the elbow, and led her intothedark.
ChapterNine
Brody
“Number fourteen,”I said, pointing at the carved wooden numbers in the middle of Jessa’s cabin door as I shut it behind us. Luckily, she was too drunk to note or ponder the fact that I knew exactly which doorwashers.
“Oh. Shit. I didn’t know they had numbers. Guess I was kind of… distracted… when they showed mearound…”
I wasn’tlistening.
I ditched my jacket and went straight to the fireplace, ignoring the suitcase that was tossed open on the bed, her lingerie spilling out of it. Silky, lacy,skimpyshit—
But yeah, I was ignoring that. Definitely wasn’t picturing her wearing it or wondering why the fuck she’dfailedto wear any of it when she showed up at the wedding without panties on and gave that photographer aneyeful.
I flexed my hand. My knuckles were bruised and one had split, but the blood had dried. At least I knew the guy whose face had taken the brunt of the damage wasn’t gonna do shit about it. Not after Piper and Jude had a talk with him. I wasn’t gonna deny that it was convenient as hell that our head of security was connected to a powerful outlaw motorcycle club, and when problems needed to disappear, they tended to do just that. I’d never asked Jude to ask his brother for anything on my account, but I wasn’t naive about it occasionally happening. And in a case like this, I wasn’tcomplaining.
I got the fire going with a wooden match and got it burning hot. Wouldn’t take long to get the room warm. It was smaller than the one Amanda and I were given, just a single with a double bed instead ofaking.
I was just turning to stand when I realized how thin the walls between the rooms were, as the unmistakable sounds of fucking started coming right through. No doubt Jessa’s good old friend Roni was entertaining someone, or more specifically two someones, in an adjacent room.Loudly.
No secret that Dylan and Ash liked sharing women, and no secret that Roni liked taking it from more than one guy at a time, so no big surprise there. Didn’t mean I was in any mood to listentoit.
“Wait. I got it,” Jessa said, digging out her phone and turning on some music. It was Arctic Monkeys, “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?”. She went to the bedside table, dumped a bunch of pine cones out of a decorative bowl that was sitting there, and lay the phone in the metal bowl, which worked pretty well as an amplifier. Then she turned it up, turned to me andsmiled.
It was a big, dorky smile, just like she used to smile when we were kids. Which might’ve been cute as she stood there all damp and drunk, wrapped in that ugly wool blanket—if not for the fact that I was still oscillating wildly between wanting her and wanting like hell tohateher.
