Unknown (Unknown Series Book 1) (37 page)

My heart was lodged so far up my throat, I couldn’t even swallow.

He scrubbed the top of his head with his fingers again. “We’ve been married six weeks and we’ve never . . . we haven’t been together. We’ve only kissed.”

A giant, dry blast of air got stuck in my constricting lungs. Rylen and Livia hadn’t had sex. I was relieved and shocked and saddened for them both. I pushed words out of my mouth. I had to be supportive.

“It makes sense, Ry. You kind of had to rush the wedding, and then there was the pregnancy stuff. But now it’ll sort of be like you’re dating. We’ll get her back, and you guys can get to know each other.” I paused. This was killing me. “You’ll work your way up to the other stuff.”

“I don’t think she wants to.” He sounded pained. “I know she cares. She genuinely does. But whenever we’ve tried to get physical, it feels . . . forced.” He shook his head. “She’s a good girl. I want to make her happy.”

I swiped my leaking eyes with the backs of my hands. Oh, God, I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t handle this. I tried to inhale as quietly as possible, to fill my chest with a cleansing breath of Rylen-scented air.

“Everything will work out,” I whispered. “I’m sure there’s nothing wrong. The world is a mess right now. It’s probably having an effect on lots of marriages, much less brand new ones with language barriers.”

“Maybe.” I thought I could see his head shake. “I don’t know.”

I reached into my bag by my feet and pulled out a bottle of water. I unscrewed it and took a big gulp, and then I handed it to Ry. “Drink all of this and get some rest.”

He gave a chuckle. “Yes, ma’am.”

A loud burst of laughter and yelling came from outside as Rylen finished the water and lay on his back. I watched his shadowy form, and within a minute his breathing became louder and steady. He was asleep.

I pushed my legs into the sleeping bag and sighed in contentment at the warmth. I wished I could fall asleep as fast as Ry, but his words were galloping through my mind, and the voices of everyone outside rang in my ears. Why was life so unfair? Why did everything have to be so wrong? The only thing worse than Rylen being married was Rylen and Livia being stuck in an unhappy marriage. As much as it killed me to think it, I would rather they fell fast in love and humped like bunnies than to be in this in-between asexual phase, being unhappy and refusing to part ways. Maybe if they were truly in love, it would force me to move along.

After a long while of wallowing in my thoughts, things seemed to quiet down outside. Sounds of shuffling feet and grumbling, and zippering sleeping bags filled the night air. If everyone was getting ready for bed, that meant Remy and Tater would be in soon. I wished I could fall asleep, because everyone in the camp was probably going to snore like crazy tonight. If they fell asleep before me and I had to listen to that, I was screwed.

A few minutes later I thought I heard Remy crying. I sat up and listened harder. She was whimpering somewhere nearby. Just as I was about to jump up and find her, the whimpering turned to rhythmic moans of “
uhn, uhn, uhn
.”

Oh, my God! Was Remy having sex with one of them in the other tent??

No way. I listened harder and heard Texas Harry say, “Lucky bastard,” from a little further away, followed by murmurs and low laughter. So, it wasn’t him. Josh, maybe?

Remy gave a particularly loud shout of ecstasy and Rylen sat straight up, head swiveling side to side. “What was that?”

“Uh . . .”

“
Yes, oh God, yes. Tater, uuuhng
!”

“Oh, my God.” I slapped a hand over my mouth.

Rylen fell heavily onto his back and flung a forearm over his eyes. “Ah, Tater, you motherfucker.”

My thoughts exactly. What were they thinking? They annoyed the hell out of each other! Stupid whiskey and its stupid inhibition lowering ability. Now we’d have awkward drama on our hands on top of everything else going on. I knew Remy. It was never just a hook-up for her. All hook-ups came with drama.

They got quiet, and my heart started to slow, and then
bam
. They were at it again, faster and louder. When I heard skin smacking and Tater’s grunting, I slammed my pillow over my head and squished it against my ears to block out all sound. I stayed like that until long after the sounds had stopped, with my arm muscles shaking from the exertion of holding down the pillow, until I was finally exhausted enough to fall asleep. Small mercies.

I
woke at dawn to the distant sounds of retching.

Rylen never stirred as I sat up and slipped out of the crinkly sleeping bag. The tent zipper seemed so loud in the quiet morning. I reached back and grabbed my sweatshirt, pulling it over my head. One of the guys in the outside huddle of sleeping bags stirred, but nobody got up.

I made my way down the trail toward the sounds until I found Remy behind a tree, bent over on her knees, one hand on the ground, one hand holding back her mane of wild blond waves. Her whole body shook. She didn’t look up as I squatted next to her and gathered her hair.

“I think I’m dying,” she croaked.

Aside from fast-food French fries, there was nothing I could give Remy to make her feel better. She wouldn’t drink water or eat anything when she felt like this. Only time would help her. The next couple hours would be miserable.

“You’ll be okay,” I whispered.

I looked at the ground, but it was only liquid and yellowish acid. She hadn’t eaten much yesterday, which made it all the worse.

“Is everyone still asleep?” She sounded hopeful.

“Yeah.”

She sat back on her heels, wiping her face with her eyes closed. I so wanted to give her a hard time about Tater, and to kick her ass for making me listen to them having sex, especially while I was stuck next to Rylen. But I didn’t have the heart. Once she was feeling better, it would be
on
.

When her stomach finally settled, she crawled over and leaned back against the trees. Her eyes stayed shut, and I began to wonder if she was avoiding looking at me.

“Can I get you anything?” I asked.

“No,” she whispered. “Not yet.” Her hand reached out toward me and I took it. She was warm despite the chill of the morning.

I cleared my throat. “So . . . how much do you remember from last night?”

She gave a dry, lackluster chuckle. “Enough.” One eye cracked open and focused on me. “How mad are you?”

I let out a heavy sigh. “I can’t say I’m excited. I figured you’d pick any of those guys over my idiot brother. I thought he annoyed you.”

Now it was her turn to sigh, but her exhale sounded dreamy. “He did back in the day. But not anymore. Not since he came back.”

“Great. Well, just for the record, I never want to hear him having sex again.”

Her eyes shot open and bugged out. “You could hear us?”

I stared at her. “Um . . . like, every detail. I slept with a pillow over my head.”

She gave her embarrassed giggle, but the sound quickly changed to a gag and she was bending over again. Nothing came out, just dry heaving, and then she was giggling again and grabbing her aching head.

“You’re a hot mess,” I said.

When she finally settled, she leaned her head back again. “Amber.” Another sappy sigh. “I could fall
so hard
for him.”

Oh, no. No, no, no. My brain went on high alert. This never, ever ended well. Remy, in her own way, was a player, just like Tater. If a guy fell hard for her, she’d find some flimsy reason to break things off. If a guy decided he wasn’t into her anymore, it affected her on a deep level. It was like a desperate, sickening mental game she played, a punishing cycle. Pretty sure this was her way of dealing with Daddy Issues.

I was so freaking glad not to have Daddy Issues.

“Just take things slow,” I told her. “There’s so much going on right now. It’s fine to have some fun when we can, but it’s probably not the best time to be worrying about a guy.” Especially my brother.

“I know,” she said, probably just to appease me. She wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled her knees in tighter, still shaking.

“You should try to lay back down,” I told her.

“I don’t want Jacob to see me like this.”

I forced myself not to roll my eyes. “Just get back in the tent with Rylen, then.”

“But what if Tater thinks I’m avoiding him?”

Now I did roll my eyes. “You’re overthinking this. Tater is not going to care what you look like. He’s going to be just as hungover as you and everyone else up there. Just do what you need to do to feel better.”

“Always so logical,” she whispered. Followed by, “Oh, my head.”

I helped her to her feet and she held my arm as we walked up together. She stopped twice and bent over, looking like she was going to heave again. We finally made our way up to camp, and blessedly everyone was still asleep. Remy stared at both tents a few minutes before she made her way, hunched like an old lady, and climbed into Tater’s tent.

I rubbed my temples. Coffee. I needed caffeine stat. And though my gut was calling out for food too, I knew if I filled it with liquid I could trick it into shushing for a little while. I walked with care between sleeping bags and filled the tea kettle with water from a gallon jug. Then I turned on the gas burner and sat on a log to wait.

I felt eyes on me and was startled to see every single guy awake in their beds, watching me. Their faces appeared miserable: ashen skin, messy hair, arms splayed like they were too lethargic to do anything more than watch me.

“Um, hey,” I said. “You guys want coffee?”

Five sets of eyes widened.

“You got coffee, for real?” Devon asked.

“It’s going to be weak, but yeah,” I told him. I had to ration it.

Slowly, the guys stretched and sat up, looking achy, and went off in different directions to use the trees. Sean came out of his tent, looking fresh and well rested. We gave each other a polite nod before he left to find a tree, too.

When the water was hot, I pulled out our paper cups and poured for everyone, putting half a scoop of instant coffee. I also tore open a packet of sugar and poured it in mine. It was weaker and less sweet than I liked it, but it was still so good. I didn’t know how I would survive when this stuff ran out. These guys had no idea how lucky they were I was willing to share.

When I saw Tater practically stumble out of his tent, I jumped up with my coffee and ran to meet him. He put up a palm to stop my progress, while holding his head with his other hand.

“Let me pee first.”

I waited impatiently. When he came back, still disheveled, I took him by the wrist and pulled him down the trail out of ear shot of the others.

As I was about to speak, he snatched my coffee and drank half. I snatched it back and was pissed when a little sloshed over the edge.

“Tater! You cannot mess with Remy’s mind!”

He stared at me blankly. “We’re just having fun.”

“No. It’s never just fun with her. You’re going to hurt her and make everything awkward.”

“Ah, come on. How do you know she won’t be the one to hurt me?” He gave me his droopy puppy eyes.

I smacked his arm then pointed at him. “I am immune to your cuteness. No more hookups unless you really do like her.”

“Amb—”

“I’m serious! I will kick your ass, Tater!”

He reached for my coffee again, and I curled my arm and body around it like freaking Gollum protecting his
precious
, and snarled, “Go make your own.”

I heard footsteps and looked up, still curled around my paper cup. The image of Rylen in fitted nylon running pants and no shirt made me straighten so fast my coffee sloshed over again. Damn it!

I licked my hand.

Tater walked away, narrowly dodging a punch from Rylen, who made his way down to me. He kept coming when I thought he would stop, ending up way too close. Rylen had a way of sliding into my personal bubble and making my skin prickle with heat. His head tilted down toward mine and he spoke in a low voice.

“I’m sorry about last night, Pepper. Again.” He tugged on his earlobe and gave his head a shake. “I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me.”

I brought the coffee up to my lips and gave a shrug. “Nothing to be sorry about.”

“I said too much.” He straightened and ran a hand through his hair, which was longer than I’d seen it in years.

I didn’t want to relive the conversation, but I needed to take away his worries so we could move past this apology. “You obviously needed someone to talk to, and I’m glad you felt comfortable enough to confide in me, drunk or not.”

He let out a dry laugh. “Definitely drunk.”

“Yeah, well.” I shrugged again. “You weren’t alone.” I downed the rest of my coffee, then felt sad that it was gone.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

I opened my mouth to respond, but a high-pitched shriek split the air. Remy.

Rylen and I sprinted up the path to the camp and found all of the guys in a semi-circle and Remy in the tent entrance, staring down. I pushed through. Her terrified eyes went up to me and back to the ground. “It’s a scorpion!”

I looked down at the nearly-translucent beige creature, about three inches long. Then I ran forward and stomped it. Remy screamed and the guys hollered. I felt it crunch through my sneaker bottom and I shivered all over. I lifted my foot, but the damn thing was still moving, so I proceeded to do the Mexican hat dance on that sucker until it no longer moved. I looked up in to the guys’ faces. They stared at me.