Luke slid his arm around the back of my chair and nodded toward Kai. "You two know each other?"
"Kind of." There was no need to turn and see the contempt on Kai's face.
Luke's eyes narrowed. "He's into you."
"No." I shook my head even as shivers ran...
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My legs were tangled in the covers when I woke up. The river had been sucking me down again. I disentangled my limbs, and unstuck the hair from the back of my neck. Kai had been there, too. He'd kissed me—willingly—and I'd liked it. I touched my lips as if it'd actually happened. Of course the next minute he'd given me those dark angry eyes. None of it made any sense. But then, dreams never did.
I threw on some clothes, slipped out of the house. Dad hadn't come home since he left the night before to go find Emma. I still had no idea what he was going to say to me, but I couldn't take Mom's red-rimmed eyes for one more second. She must've thought her only child was crazy.
I trotted Dakota toward Jasmine's.
"Who died?" Jasmine said as she met me on the trail with Cheyenne, her Palomino mare.
"My parents know."
"How?"
"Emma went missing last night. Guess who saw where she was?"
"Emma from the store?"
"Yep."
"Weird." Jazz shook her head. "I saw it with my own eyes. But weird."
"Try being me."
"I'll leave that to you." She threw a wary glance toward Dakota. "So, how did your parents react?"
"Badly. It's not even over yet."
"Sorry."
We guided Dakota and Cheyenne down the trail alongside the stream. Ridge after ridge of the pine-covered San Juan Mountains unfolded before us. The glimmer of gold in the aspens hinted at the coming fall.
"So," I said. "What do you know about Kai?"
Her lip curled. "You already know his name." She looked like she was going to spit. "He got kicked out of Utah. Lives with his uncle on the reservation. Only cares about the tribe. Rumor says he killed a guy."
"What?" I scoffed. "He rescued me."
"He said it wasn't him."
"It was him."
"He's poisoning Seth. Riling up our guys. He wouldn't save you."
"He did."
"Bay, get over what he looks like." She glared at me. "He's bad news. Don't do this."
My head snapped toward her. "Do what?"
"Get fixated," she said through her teeth. "Not this guy. He's even worse than Josh. Get stuck on that player Luke if you have to."
Whoa. Low blow mentioning my psycho ex. One case of bad judgment and she'd never let me live it down. But I couldn't lie and tell her I wasn't fascinated by Kai. "I just want to know why he won't admit it."
