Shade Me

Shade Me by Jennifer Brown Read Free Book Online

Book: Shade Me by Jennifer Brown Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jennifer Brown
doorsafter me. I waited. “Hey,” he said when he reached me. “Did you drive here?”
    â€œYeah, why?”
    â€œLet me walk you to your car.” He gestured toward where we’d just come from. “This has got me a little on guard, you know?”
    He wasn’t the only one. In general, I wasn’t easily shaken, but I would admit that seeing Peyton’s injuries had me eyeing the parking lot a little closer than I normally would. I felt like eight-year-old Nikki again—afraid that the bad guys who’d killed my mom might jump out at me and take me out, too. Not that I had any reason to trust Dru Hollis, but another warm body was better than nothing.
    â€œConsider it a thank-you,” he said. “For coming.”
    â€œSure,” I said. “Of course.”
    We walked to my car, awkward silence stretching between us. Away from the heavy hospital smell, I was able to catch his scent. The night air commingled with his cologne and drifted through me, practically carried me. He smelled rich, rugged, sexy, and like he didn’t know it, which only made him even sexier. I was conscious of everything—the way I walked, the wrinkles in my shirt, the catches in my hair from being windblown on the window ledge earlier. I wondered if I smelled like smoke.
    Once we got to my car, I finally spoke. “This . . . didn’t happen at your house, did it?”
    Hollis Mansion was huge, and the setting of a museum of epic parties. If someone came to school laughing about having lost anything from shoes to car keys to their virginity, chances were high that it happened during a party at Peyton’s. The mansion was like Pleasure Island—the place where fun happens and nobody has to answer to anything. It was weird to think of the boy standing beside me being part of that scene. Even despite the rumors about him. It was even weirder to think an intruder might have gotten in there and tried to kill one of them.
    â€œNo,” he said. “The nurse told me someone found her in a parking lot, called it in, and split.” He wrung his hands together. “I don’t know who it was. I’m just glad she got some help.”
    We fell into silence again, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to get into my car now, or if he had more to say.
    â€œWhat happened?” I asked, to break the tension. I pointed at his hand.
    He glanced at it, splaying his fingers out, and then covered it with his other hand and let them both drop in front of him. “Basketball game,” he said. “Got a little rough. Also took an elbow.” He rubbed his cheek, right below his eye, and I noticed for the first time that it was bruised and swollen as well.
    â€œDamn, tough game.”
    He stared back toward the hospital. “Better than beingon one of my father’s job interviews, which was where I was supposed to be,” he said.
    â€œJob interview?”
    â€œNothing,” he said. “My parents think I need some direction .” He said the last with a heavy tinge of sarcasm.
    â€œSo you burn off energy by beating up basketballs?”
    He turned to me, and I got the patented Dru Hollis guarded stare full-on for the first time.
    My cheeks burned. “Sorry. It’s been a weird night.”
    â€œYeah,” he said. “It has. I don’t understand it. Why would someone want to hurt Peyton?”
    â€œI have no idea,” I said. “And they said I was the only contact in her phone. Why? Why not you? Or your parents?”
    â€œI don’t know,” he said, looking surprised. “My dad’s going to be shattered. They’re really close. I couldn’t get ahold of him. He has no clue. None of this makes any sense.”
    â€œMaybe it was an accident?” I said hopefully.
    â€œMaybe,” he echoed, but he sounded doubtful. “Listen, I really appreciate you coming.” He reached around me for the door handle.

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