Tainted by A. E. Rought Read Free Book Online

is. The perfect, too clean, too high-fashion work-out clothes scream Hailey.
    “Well, look at that,” she simpers, mincing across the floor to the coat hooks like she owns the place. “My two favorite boys in one place.”
    Trent beams, a lap dog being praised. I risk the urge to roll my eyes and snort.
    “What are you doing here, Hailey?” My patience is gone, my niceness used up.
    “Working out,” she says, eyes innocent and round.
    Bullshit. She’s never willingly exercised a day in her life. She steps on an elliptical machine, and can’t figure out how to start it. She fumbles around, then finally gets everything moving in the right direction. Slow, lazy loops. I bounce a look between her and Trent. Catty smiles, narrowed eyes. They’re up to something, and I don’t want to know what it is.
    “Right, OK.” I turn toward the locker room. “You two enjoy your exercise.”
    “Wait,” Hailey commands. Damn my feet for staying put, it’ll perpetuate her fantasy of having some control over me. “We need to talk.”
    By the time I force myself to turn and face her, she’s inches from me. Her ice green eyes chill, the tilt to them almost predatory. One hand traces up my arm, and then she pats my shoulder. Too many ugly emotions swirl in me to sort and name. Even tall as she is, I look down at her.
    “What?” I say, heavily layered with frustration.
    “Apparently,” she responds, “you don’t hear me properly over the phone.”
    “Oh, I hear you just fine.” A muscle ticks when I clench my jaw. “I just don’t listen very well.”
    “You need to work on that, Alex. I’ve given you every opportunity to do the right thing, and you keep turning me down.”
    “I won’t say I’m sorry to disappoint you.” A gulf opens between us when I take an obvious large step back from her. “I’m with Emma now. And you’re not getting Ascension. Nothing you can say or do will change that.”
    Her eyebrows rise a fraction. Trent lets out a breath. Something in Hailey’s expression says, “oh really?”
    “Then bring her to the Reindeer Games. All our old Sadony friends wonder what’s happened to you. If you parade your little army candy in front of them, maybe, maybe they’ll understand why you went crazy.”
    “Touching story,” I say. “Not my problem.” Hailey is.
    I stride past, refuse to respond to her little incredulous breath. Trent seems smart enough to keep his mouth shut. Not one pause or look back as I stride to the locker room. Slamming the door is childish, sure, but I feel a little better afterward.
    In the locker room, I peel off my gear and take a quick shower. My phone, once liberated from the mess in my gym bag, flashes light into the confined shadows. Please let it be a message from Emma.
    No such luck.
    You can’t ignore me forever, Hailey’s text reads. Meet me Friday night or things will get ugly.
    Why does she think threatening is going to work? It hasn’t yet.
    No . I type back. I have a party to go to with my girlfriend.
    The only date Hailey will have is with disappointment. She’s not getting what she wants out of me. She’s brilliant, driven – some of the Ascension scientists called her obsessive – and not one for wasting her time. It makes no sense for Hailey to go public with what my father did. She worked too hard to hide it. If there’s one thing I know for sure, I need to figure out a way to shake her off soon, or things really are going to get ugly. Hailey will find a way to punish me for not giving her what she wants.
    I’m fully clothed, and halfway to the door, still mulling over Hailey’s threat when the roar of Jason’s Bronco sounds above the gym noises. Figures. Only an hour later than he was supposed to show up.
    Sidewalk salt crunches beneath my shoes after I push open the gym door and step out.
    Jason jumps from the Bronco, his feet skidding when he lands on the packed snow of the gym parking lot. Despite not landing on his face, his pinwheeling