Deadly Crush (Deadly Trilogy, Book 1) (6 page)

~ JADE ~

I woke up feeling
gross and greasy.
 
The KFC had been
delicious going down, but I wasn’t used to eating that much grease at once, and
it really wasn’t sitting well at all.

Last night had been … weird.
 
Dad hadn’t come home.
 
Mom said he was having a
boy’s weekend,
and there was nothing to worry about, but the whole
fact that she said that there was nothing to worry about, had me kind of
worried.
 
And it had been clear that I
wasn’t the only one.
 
Mom had been
hyperaware of every bump and thump.
 
At
one point, I had shifted on the couch, making the leather squeak beneath me,
and she had jumped, tossing a full bowl of popcorn all over the floor.

Mom was never jumpy.
 
She took everything in stride and even when
she was nervous, she always hid it well.
 
It was a survival technique, one that I used frequently while dealing
with the oddities of our town.
 
But last
night, she had been a nervous wreck.

Rolling over in bed, I looked out the big
bay window.
 
The sky looked as if a dirty
ball of wool had been unraveled, covered in clouds.
 
I couldn’t say how long I had lain there
watching the little rivers of rain slide down my window, when my door squeaked
open and Mom peeked around it.
 
“Honey,
you need to get up.”

“It’s Saturday, Mom,” I said with a groan,
and rolled over.

Mom pursed her lips, pushed the door wide
open, and flicked the light switch on.
 
The pot lights seemed overly bright against the dreary day outside.
 
“You have company,” she said evenly.

“Mac’s not company,” I groaned.
 
“She’s been a permanent fixture here for a
year now.”
 
Since her mother took off
last year, Marcy had pretty much moved into our house, and my mom had
unofficially adopted her into our family.
 
The only time she went home now, was when her father forced her, or
rather, when he begged her.
 
It wasn’t
that she didn’t want to spend time with her dad, it was more that he was never
home, always working, and Marcy wasn’t really a solitude kind of person.
 
She needed people, noise, and action.

I rolled up on my elbows, and scrunched my
forehead, as my sleepy brain tried to process why I needed to get up.
 
I guess I took too long, because she marched
into the room, shooting me one of those
stern
mom
kind
of
looks.

“I’m not talking about Mac,” she said with
her hands on her hips, scowling down at me.
 
“Get up.
 
He’s waiting for you.”

“What?” I asked, squinting at her.
 
“Who’s ‘he?’”
 
I scrubbed my eyes, wiping the sleep from them, and yawned loudly.

Mom looked more put together today, not as
jittery that was for sure.
 
She had her
dark brown hair tied up in a loose bun, and she was dressed in a long, simple black
knit dress.
 
It hung on her slim figure
loosely.
 
She arched a brow and a small,
devious looking smile curled her lips.
 
“Dominic’s downstairs.”

“You let him in the house?” I hissed, and
sat up with a start.
 
I fought against my
comforter, which was wrapped around my legs like a cocoon.
 
“What’s wrong with you?”

As soon as I said it, I heard his rumbling
chuckle.
 
Darn those dogs and their impeccable hearing!
 
I glared at the door, and gritted my
teeth.

“Of course I let him in.
 
He’s been your best friend since you were a
baby,” she said hastily and a bit too loudly, as if she was trying to make sure
he heard her reprimand me.
 
“He stopped
by to drop off your backpack and he wants to talk to you.”
 
She walked over to my bed, flung the covers
back, and glared down at me with her hands on her hips.
 
“Now get up.
 
I’m going out.”

I gritted my teeth.
 
My
backpack,
I thought, completely annoyed at myself for forgetting about it
yesterday.
 
I thought of about a million
reasons as to why I didn’t want to talk to him, or why I wasn’t going to get
out of bed, but each one sounded like a child throwing a tantrum.
 
“Where are you going?” I asked instead.
 
Heat settled in my cheeks, and my jaw was
starting to ache from clenching it so tightly.

“Shopping,” she said, not unkindly but with
an unmistakable edge, and then she grabbed hold of my feet and started to pull,
dragging me off my bed.
 
“Now get in the
shower and make yourself presentable,” she said.

Mom didn’t leave my room until she watched
me walk into the bathroom, and knowing her, she probably stood there until she
heard the shower turn on.
 
I couldn’t
believe she was still pushing her little dream on me.
 
It was the only reason I could think of as to
why she was going to leave the house with me in the shower, and Dominic sitting
just downstairs.
 
Well, okay, maybe it
wasn’t the only reason.
 
My parents knew
he was gay, but still, they wanted nothing more than for me to date a werewolf,
and pushing me toward Dominic would push me toward the straight ones.
 
Twisted, right?
 
They wanted their only daughter to hook up
with an animal — literally.

I took my time in the shower, and even
longer blow-drying my hair.
 
I was kind
of hoping that if I stalled long enough he’d just go away.
 
I spent ten minutes staring into my closet,
before I finally decided on a pair of jeans and a powder blue T-shirt, and
then, since I couldn’t think of any other way to prolong the process further, I
went to see what he wanted.

Dominic was lounging in my dad’s recliner,
and when I spotted him, I almost forgot how much I didn’t want to see him.
 
He looked … good.
 
Really good.
 
His short blond hair was gelled, with the
front flipped up.
 
He was in jeans and a
light blue polo shirt with the collar popped up, and he was smiling, something
that he rarely did anymore, and darn it, but I missed that smile.
 
It was a lot easier to hate him when he was
all jerky and serious.
 
But right then,
in that moment, if only for a second, he was my best friend again.

I stood at the top of the stairs for a
moment, watching him run a finger along the stacked bookcase beside him as if
he was trying to pick something to read.
 
He looked comfortable — at home — sitting in our country-style living
room, amongst the blue and green-checkered curtains, and the cherry wood
floors.
 
But then, I figured he should
look comfortable, since he was the one that had made and hung the curtains, and
come to think of it, I was certain he had recommended cherry wood for the
floors, too.
 
I knew he had helped
install them at least.

As I padded down the stairs, trying to
prepare myself for what I was sure would be a replay of
yesterday,
I stumbled, tripping over my own feet.
 
I
hadn’t thought he’d even noticed me coming down the stairs, but the moment I
slipped, Dominic jumped out of his chair, leapt over the coffee table, and
caught me just before I did a face plant on the floor.

“That was graceful,” he said, his voice oozing
with sarcasm, and he helped me regain my balance.
 
His lips twitched, and a cocky grin spread
across his face.

“Wow, thanks,” I said, snatching my arm
from his hand.
 
He chuckled, and his
smile grew wider.
 
I gave him my best
shut up
look, and said, “And you wonder
why I don’t like you.
 
You do something
slightly nice, and then you always ruin it by speaking.”

Dominic crossed his arms over his chest;
they bounced softly with his shoulders, as he tried to hold in a laugh.
 
His eyes shimmered with humor.
 
“A simple thank you would have worked, too,”
he said.
 
“You know, you’re still so
adorable when you’re all mad, scrunchy-nosed, and flushed cheeked.”

“Whatever,” I
snapped,
putting every bit of snark I had into my tone.
 
“Where’s Mac?”

“She went home,” he said, and then he gave
me a serious look.
 
“Jade, I want you to
stay away from Aidan.”

I laughed dryly and rolled my eyes before
making my way into the kitchen.
 
So that
was what this little visit was about.
 
The new guy.
 
And by
the look I was getting from Dominic, I’d guess it was also about a bruised
ego.
 
“And I care what you want because?”

Dominic followed me, stopping at the fridge
to grab milk before moving on to the cupboard and snagging two mugs.
 
He scooped three heaping spoonfuls of sugar
in one, and added only milk to the other and then filled them both with
steaming coffee.
 
I watched him,
stunned.
 
The way he moved around the
kitchen was as if he was supposed to be there, as if he had never left.
 
Once he had finished stirring in the sugar,
he slid the mug over to me, and grinned.
 
“You still like it that way, right?”

I took the mug and drank a long, deep
mouthful before looking back up at him.
 
“What are you really doing here, Dominic?”

He stepped over to me, and tucked a few
strands of loose hair behind my ear, a gesture that used to be common, but now,
it just felt wrong.
 
“I saw the way you
were looking at him.
 
He’s no good for
you.”
 
There was more emotion in his
voice than I was used to.
 
It was gentle
and pleading, strong and caring.
 
It was
as if we had stepped back two years and he was still my Dom.
 
My rock.
 
My stabling force.
 
My best friend.
 
And I don’t know why, but it pissed me off.

I almost pointed out that I didn’t know
anything about Aidan.
 
I came close to
telling Dominic that there was nothing to worry about, because honestly, since
finding out about Ray, I hadn’t even given Aidan another thought, but I
couldn’t bring myself to do it.
 
As far
as I was concerned, it was none of his business who I looked at.
 
“You don’t have the right to play the
concerned best friend card.
 
Not
anymore.”

Hot guilt pulsed over me and I almost took
the words back.
 
I felt like an
insensitive jerk.
 
Again, I wondered if
he was trying to reach out because he needed someone to talk to about Ray’s
death.
 
I almost asked him if he was
okay, but just before I opened my mouth, Marcy’s pointed look from yesterday
flashed through my head and I bit my tongue.
 
There was a reason Ray’s death was a secret.
 
I didn’t understand why, and I really wasn’t
sure if I should let on that I knew about it — yet.

He narrowed his eyes, not harshly, but as
if he was trying to get a better look at me, and see something that may have
been hidden under my words.
 
“You’re not
being fair,” he said after a long moment.

I glared at him.
 
There really was nothing to say.
 
He had abandoned me when I had needed
him.
 
Blew me off to
climb the pack ranks.
 
He had no
right to try and tell me what was and wasn’t good for me.
 
Not anymore.
 
If he wanted to talk about Ray, then fine, I’d be there for him, but I
wasn’t about to stand there and listen to him tell me what I could and couldn’t
do.

He must have seen what I was thinking, or
maybe he still just knew me that well, because he groaned.
 
Dominic had a variety of groans.
 
There was the long and drawn out, annoyed
groan.
 
The short but loud
you’ve got to be kidding me
groan.
 
But this one was one that I knew well.
 
It was
the
you
are being so stubborn
groan.
 
“Jade, you’ve got to forgive me already.
 
It’s been two years.”

I clenched my teeth, trying to keep my jaw
from dropping.
 
If it wasn’t for the look
he was giving me, I probably would have laughed, but I could see that he was
dead serious, and that made my head spin.
 
“Exactly, it’s been two years since the last time you made an
effort.
 
Two years since the first time
you pretended not to know me, and two years since you left me to find my own
way home because the pack was more important.
 
You’ve never even pretended to be sorry.”