Equinox by Lara Morgan Read Free Book Online Page B

message every five seconds. But she’d heard nothing. Riley hadn’t contacted her either. Apparently, he’d meant it when he said he didn’t want her to do anything. She hadn’t had a chance to tell her aunt about the anonymous threat. Aunt Essie hadn’t come in until well after midnight on Monday night, and had been out late and gone by the time Rosie had woken up every day since. She’d been trying to stay awake for her each night, but exhaustion had taken over. What could Aunt Essie possibly be doing that kept her out such long hours? Fear and anxiety were starting to send Rosie crazy. She couldn’t use her com to tell Aunt Essie; it was too risky, even with the fail-safes against tracking Riley put in it. The day before she’d left a note to say they had to talk, but her aunt had only pinged her com again to say she couldn’t make it. Tonight, she was going to stay up all night if she had to.
    She left the shop, already late for her next class. The building was one of a number spaced out around an open recreation area. There were benches, which were almost always filled with students socialising when they should have been studying. Rosie saw a group of girls hanging around one bench with Dalton and two other boys. The girls were wearing see-through dresses over skin-tight short suits. They were giggling and pouting. One of them was sitting on a boy’s lap playing with his hat.
    Rosie walked past them, annoyed that they were all so carefree and could play such stupid games.
    “Hey, Rosie, wait!” Dalton called. His boots scuffed the gravel behind her and she glanced back at him.
    “So you remembered my name,” she said as he caught up. He loped alongside her, a bag slung casually over one shoulder.
    “Hey, I think Pilot Girl’s a cute nickname, but if you don’t like it–”
    “I don’t.”
    “Okay then.”
    He gave her a smile that could have lit a stadium and her anger faltered under the wattage.
    “What are you so happy about?”
    He leaned in close and lowered his tone. “I think I figured out how you landed the ship in flight class.” He looked seriously pleased with himself.
    “You did?”
    “Sure. Genius move, by the way. How did you come up with it?”
    “It’s in the text.” There was no way she was going to tell him she’d got the idea of switching the power relays from the time she’d crashed her aunt’s pod on Mars.
    “Oh, the text, yeah, of course.” He nodded, sceptical. “Except it’s not. But that’s okay. You don’t have to give away all your secrets. I mean, we’ve all got secrets, haven’t we?”
    A jolt of unease hit her, but before she could answer, he said, “So are you coming to my dad’s famous welcome-to-the-rest-of-your-life party on Saturday? It’ll be worth it. You’ll never see anything like it, really.”
    “I haven’t decided.”
    “Seriously?” He raised an eyebrow. “But where else can you be surrounded by overdressed, self-involved rich brats ingesting insane amounts of illegal substances and grinding against each other on the dance floor? It’s a spectacle worth your free entry.”
    “It does sound amazing,” Rosie said, “but I’ll think I’ll pass. I’ve got nothing to wear. It’s really hard to find something that suits a grinding-rich-brat fest these days.”
    “I’ll buy you something,” Dalton said. “We can go shopping after class.”
    Rosie thought he might be serious. “Ah, no, that’s okay, and a bit weird.”
    He chuckled. “I know, sorry. I have a Prince Charming complex. But seriously, why don’t you come?” His gaze was warm. “It might make it bearable, raise the IQ level to above pond algae. What do you say?”
    Rosie was flustered by the way he was looking at her so intently. He was way, way too pretty. “Um, well, I’ll think about it.”
    “Okay, I guess that’s better than a no.”
    He checked the time on his com and whistled. “I’m late for hover hockey training. Catch you tomorrow?”
    “Yeah,