“All right then.” My father grumbled in my direction, “You all work New Year’s together.”
To my relief, he made a shooing motion with his hand, dismissing me. I started to turn, then saw movement from my other side, where Pharzuph, in a robe, walked toward us from the indoor pool area.
“You still standing here?” my father snapped at me. I swiveled on my heels and headed for the door, where Kaidan stood waiting for me. From the corner of my eye I saw Pharzuph entering the veranda through the sliding doors just as we were rushing out.
“Let’s go,” Kaidan said out loud, to the air. By the time we made it to the front door, the four Neph had come up from the basement and were joining us, shrugging into their jackets. Kaidan tossed his keys to Blake. Their eyes were all distant, listening. I joined them, pressing my hearing toward the veranda as we left the house.
“That girl of yours leaves a stink of virtue behind her.” Pharzuph spoke with quiet disdain to my father, not wanting the human men in the room to hear.
Shoot! I hadn’t made it out of the room in time!
We picked up our pace, walking faster and cramming into Kaidan’s car, Kai taking shotgun.
“Well, that won’t last long,” my dad said, sounding so believable it hurt. “She’s just getting good at her job, and the rest will follow. She can drink any man here under the table, that’s for damn sure.”
It was all poker talk after that, but I continued to listen until we were out of range.
I chewed my thumbnail until Marna took my hand and held it in hers. As soon as Blake signaled we were out of the five-mile range of Duke hearing, Blake turned and glanced at me.
“You’re a virgin?” I nodded, and he looked me over like some sort of anomaly, which I guess I was. He laughed and slapped the steering wheel. “Man, things are definitely more interesting with you around.”
I wanted to crawl under the seat and hide my face. Kaidan took a drink from his flask.
“Are we really partying together on New Year’s?” Marna asked.
“As if we have a choice now,” Ginger stated.
We’d been ordered to go, but how would they know if we were working or not? What if one of them decided to check on us? And then it hit me: Kopano would be expected to be there working, too. I angled myself toward him.
“Maybe you can come up with an excuse or something,” I offered, feeling horrible. He shook his head.
“I cannot raise suspicion against my father or any of you. I will work.”
The car went ghostly silent. Nobody here had ever seen Kopano work. I closed my eyes. This was so wrong. We kept our thoughts to ourselves as the reality settled in. Marna squeezed my hand.
“So how’s my little cupcake Jay doing these days?” she asked. I loved her for trying to distract me.
“Fine. Actually, I think he might have a girlfriend soon, this other girl we’re friends with.”
“Oh?” A look of excitement and challenge flashed in her wide eyes, and I realized my mistake. She caught herself and dropped her gaze to our hands.
“Good for him,” she whispered.
The two plastic baggies were in my other hand, making me agitated. My mind kept returning to the fact that Pharzuph knew I was a virgin, and how liberating it would feel to take one bump of the powder. It was right there, far more tempting to me than alcohol. All I had to do was stick my fingernail in there and— No!
I had to get rid of it. I asked Kopano to switch places with me. I climbed over his lap as he scooted under, trying not to touch me. I cracked the window a few inches. No cars were behind us on the strip of road. I opened the bag of marijuana first, hands shaking, and tipped the contents out the window.
“What are you doing?” Blake asked.
“Getting rid of it,” I said, feeling unusually antsy.
“That’s perfectly good J!” Blake protested.
“Sorry.” I dumped the last of it.
“Front-row seats at the suicide show,” Ginger said. “Lovely.”
I peered down at the bag of white powder in my hand. I cracked the window again and tipped the corner of the bag. I held my breath as the powder hit the rushing wind, spiraling out into a cloud behind us. I watched the cloud with a pang of yearning, and heard a funny flapping sound. Something spiraled through the air as the last of the powder poured out.
“Stop the car!” I said. “Something was in the bag!”
Blake pulled over and we all jumped out, running, using our hypervision to scan the ground.
“What was it?” Marna asked.
“I think it was paper.”
“Yes, I saw it, too,” Kopano affirmed.
“There!” Ginger ran toward a tree and picked up a strip of paper, holding it out to me. I tugged it open and read to myself. No, no, no. My knees buckled, but I saw Kaidan jogging over and forced myself to stand straight.