Toxic Part One (Celestra Series Book 7) (35 page)

“I predict a visit to Rockaway in our future,” he rumbles into my neck.

“I was thinking maybe there’s a thirteenth floor that might need some haunting.”

“I think you’re right.” The curve of a naughty smile springs to his lips.

Gage reduces me to cinders with a heated kiss.

I’ve always wondered what made those disembodied spirits moan so wildly.

And now, I’ll discover firsthand.

Chapter 50

Suspicious Minds

The bowling alley holds the scent of fresh popcorn, the thick smell of pizza dough rising in the oven, and unfortunately, the somewhat pungent odor of used shoes. Tons of people from East and West have chosen to patronize the establishment and, of course, that includes the bitch squad.

Chloe is wearing her Band-Aid inspired bathing suit top and ultra-short shorts that accentuate her long, tawny legs.

Whatever the hell happened to no shirt, no shoes, no service? Where’s Logan when you need him to enforce the rules?

Chloe keeps complaining about the “shoddy equipment” and redirecting Gage to the technical difficulties by way of her scantily clad bod.

“She never quits.” Brielle seethes as though it were
her
boyfriend Chloe had declared open season on.

“She’s tenacious,” I say. “Her jealousy should be classified as a deadly weapon.”

“Totally illegal,” Brielle sneers. “We should do something to her. Just me and you.”

I graze over Brielle with a quick look. I’m still not sure I can trust her one hundred percent, and I really don’t want to confront her about being paid a cool grand to be my friend while we’re staring down the barrel of a six-hour shift.

“What did you have in mind?” I’d love to hear Brielle’s unique take on exacting revenge. I’m always open to entertaining new possibilities in that arena.

“I don’t know.” Brielle rests her hand next to mine. “Someone like her—you almost have to hurt her ego. You know, build her up then pull the pin on the grenade and run like hell.”

“I see Chloe more as a landmine.” She specializes in blowing your world apart when you least expect it.

She and Gage make a beeline over to us. Much to my delight, he looks totally annoyed with the overexposed witch by his side.

“I had a great idea.” Chloe presses out her chest. “Gage, here, thought I should run it by you.” She curtsies into me sarcastically. “I think the bowling alley should start a recycling program. It’s such a waste to toss all these bottles and cans in the trash. It could be the beginning of a green revolution right here on the island.”

“Perfect.” I force a smile. “We’ll be sure to let Logan know once he gets in.”

Chloe scowls before heading back to Emily and Lexy. What did she want? A statue erected in her honor?

“I thought I’d redirect all her inquires to you.” Gage lands a sultry kiss on my lips. “That way she knows she can never have a minute of my time that doesn’t involve my better half.”

My stomach burns with heat when he calls me that. I wrap my arms around him and lay my head over his shoulder.

Chloe singes me with a look from across the room that could melt a glacier.

I have a feeling the recyclopath is up to her old tricks again. The only thing turning green around here is her. I’m pretty sure the only revolution she’s interested in igniting is the one for Gage Oliver’s heart.

Brielle is right. It’s time to put her in her place once and for all. Build her up and watch her explode into a million tiny pieces.

I smile over at her.

Payback is a bitch Chloe—just like you.  

***

It’s not until almost noon that Logan walks through the door, showered and shaved, looking like his usual resplendent self.

“Logan!”

He reels me in by the hand and indulges in a very long embrace. I can feel his broad chest heave with relief. It’s so good to have him back right here on Paragon. This madness we’ve embroiled ourselves in has got to end.

“Tell me everything,” I say. “Start with the Transfer.”

“Hey.” Gage comes up and knocks a fist into Logan’s side. “Everything OK with you?”

Logan pauses, looking from me to Gage.

“I’m great.” The smile slides from his face, and that perennial sadness clouds him. He heads over and opens the register, checks to see if we need any more dollar bills. “So you guys work things out?” He washes over the two of us with a brief glance.

“Yeah.” Gage nods as though he were affirming a grim diagnosis at the oncologist’s office.

“You!” Brielle lunges at Logan with a big rocking hug. “Your birthday is knocking at the door. So what are we doing? The Cape?”

“What’s the Cape?” I ask as Gage tries to wrap his arm around my waist, but I pretend to lose my footing and move a little out of reach. It doesn’t feel right to have him holding me openly in front of Logan. I can’t stand the fact that my love for Gage keeps stabbing him in the heart.

Brielle opens her mouth a moment and nods. “That’s right, you weren’t here.”

Gage steps over and pulls me in. Obviously, Gage and I don’t see things the same way when it comes to sparing Logan’s feelings.

Brielle continues, “A bunch of us went out last year and camped at the north tip of the island for his birthday. It was completely wild.” She looks up as though she were reliving a memory. “We should totally go to the Cape.” Brielle bounces on her feet like a child pleading for a new toy.

“What do you guys think?” Logan swallows hard as he traces Gage wrapped around me—eyes him as if he were an anaconda about to swallow me whole.

“I think it sounds great.” It’s doubtful Mom and Tad will approve, but a girl can dream.

“Get the shifts covered and let’s do it.” Gage jostles me, thrilled by the prospect of losing ourselves in an overnight adventure. He tucks a kiss into my neck. “I’ll get our wetsuits ready. I’ve been dying to take you out.”

“Perfect.” I reach up and cradle the back of his neck to reward him for his stroke of genius. I glance up to find Logan glaring at the counter like he’s just been robbed, and there’s not a damn thing he can do about it.

The main board lights up showing two different lanes with jammed pins.

“I got it.” Gage jogs over without hesitating.

“I’m on Chloe patrol.” Brielle declares, heading out after him.

“Chloe patrol. Some things never change,” Logan says, as he tries to reprogram the machines, but it’s clear his mind is elsewhere. Logan is wearing his heart on his sleeve and it’s visibly broken for all to see. 

“No, some things never change,” I say, glancing back over at Brielle. “I think she has a transference issue with Chloe and Gage regarding Emily and Drake—something like that anyway.” I step into him and lay my hand carefully over his forearm. “She’s really worried about protecting what’s hers but won’t admit it.”
I know you’re hurting,
I say it telepathically because I can’t find the strength to push the words through my lips.

Logan blinks a smile, still hacking away at the keyboard.

I mean
, I go on,
you spent a few days with my mother. That’s enough to psychologically scar just about anybody. What did she do? Lock you in the lion’s den?

He darts a quick look in my direction.
No lion’s den. Turns out, she likes me.
A devilish grin breaks out on his face.

Oh, that’s right
. Actually, I hadn’t forgotten. I was trying to make light of the situation because, in truth, I’m scared to death to find out what she might have revealed to him.
She’s team Logan.
I run my fingers down his back and feel him shudder. His eyes close as if he were locked in passion, and it catches me off guard. It pulses a wave of pleasure through me uninvited.

“I heard you.” He bows into his words with a bashful apprehension that I’m not used to hearing from him. “And, you’re right, your mother did reveal something to me.” He runs his sad orbs over me, washes me with those dark saffron eyes, slow as molasses in January.

“Really?” I try to sound freshly surprised. “OK.” I sag with defeat. “Just give it to me straight because I can’t handle the suspense. What is it? Is Chloe going to hack my head off? Or maybe Tad will lock me in a cellar somewhere. Oh, wait—Demetri hangs me upside down in his trophy room.” I know Gage once predicted Logan and I would live very long lives, but there was never any stipulation about whose head I’d be wearing while I did it. With Dr. Oliver’s handy dandy tool bag and Marshall’s knowhow, I could be staring at anyone’s face in the mirror before I’m officially a senior. God—what if
that’s
why I demanded Gage keep Chloe alive in the future? Holy freaking shit. “I’d better not end up wearing Chloe’s head like a hat.”

“What?” He lets out a low rumble of laughter. Logan loosens up for the first time since he’s stepped into the bowling alley. “It’s nothing like that, I promise. She didn’t mention anything about you accessorizing with anymore of Chloe’s body parts.”

“Then what is it?” I step into him, pleading with everything in me for the short and sweet synopsis that I’m hoping against hope doesn’t involve mortality or eternal curses. I can’t wait to hear what moronic bullshit my mother is up to now.

“I’ll tell you.” Logan glances behind me as Gage calls him over to assist with a sticking gutter. “Emily is having a party tonight.” His eyes switch back to mine. “You going?”

“Are you kidding? And miss the artistic display of my future playing out on at least three hundred canvases? Of course, I’m going. Who knows what she’s whipped out since we were last there.” I leave out the detail of bringing Dudley.

“You think maybe we can hang out after?” There’s a boyishness about him. A wide-eyed apprehension I don’t ever remember seeing in him before.

Hanging out after a party is usually a right reserved for people who are seeing each other. The idea makes me nervous, as if Logan is trying to move the invisible boundary line of what we should and shouldn’t do.

“Sure,” I say. “We can all go out for a bite, hang out at Rockaway or your house.”

He shakes his head just barely. “Just me and you, Skyla. You’re the only person I’m going to share this with.”

Just Logan and me alone after Emily’s party—the idea has me flustered. I can feel the heat rising to my cheeks. An unnatural level of lust beats its way to the surface, but I submerge it as I glance back at Gage.

Logan leans in. “I think there should be a whole lot more time spent with just you and me,” he whispers.

I take a quick breath at the thought. There’s something powerful about the two of us together. We seem to harness all of the energy in the universe, strong enough to slice through granite boulders with precision.

Logan looks up and brands me with his wanting. Logan could drill a hole straight into the core of the Earth with all of that sexual tension bottled up inside him.

“OK.” I nod into Logan. “Just you and me.”

Chapter 51

The Crying Game

That evening, I hang out with baby Beau in my bedroom. It’s the big babysitting stint Gage volunteered us for. He’s conveniently late for our nonmonetary employment, and seeing that it has the potential to involve bouts of incontinence, I really don’t blame him. 

It’s just a few hours before Emily’s big party, so I text Marshall and let him know I’ll be expecting him to drop by and hang with the teen scene. To which he promptly replies.

There’s not a spirit in the sky that could keep me away from you tonight. Shall I bring the wings?

NO. ~S

Figures Marshall would go there. I say hello to him these days, and he considers it a proposition. If I did marry Marshall—which I’m a thousand percent sure I’m not—I have a feeling tying me to the bedpost would be a rather permanent situation. For a second, I envision us there in his palatial bedroom—Marshall in his unclothed glory, panting over me all sweaty with that perplexingly sexy, devilish grin of his. I can practically feel his hands tugging at the haunted corset I’m sure he’d require me to wear, the hot red and black one he fashioned for the woman he thought would love him but didn’t. My heart breaks a little for Marshall. Then all unholy hell breaks loose in my imagination, and I let him rip the bodice off me before I latch onto him like some sexed-up chimpanzee. I can practically feel his hands swimming over my hips, his hot breath in my hair, an entire string of hot kisses that lead all the way down to my stomach—

Baby Beau lets out a gurgle, and I snap out of my erotic-laced fantasy. He’s already tucked snug in his casket sans the lid, which Tad removed after Gage’s oh-so-lucid suggestion. Mom needed me to baby-Count sit so she could effectively fight Dr.
Izzy
off her husband during their sham of a couple’s counseling session.

I pull outfit after outfit from the closet and settle on a pair of jean shorts and a tight white T-shirt that’s perfectly see-through. It’s actually freezing out, but I noticed that doesn’t stop anybody on Paragon from pretending it’s summer.

My phone buzzes lightly.

Almost to the door.

It’s Gage. I made him promise to text me so he wouldn’t interrupt the therapy session Isis is busy misconducting. Plus, the baby is sleeping, which, by the way, was totally easy to get him to do. I have no clue what Brielle was griping about. Gage and I should have a whole blissful hour to ourselves before we leave for Em’s.

I head downstairs and startle at the sound of hysterical crying, only it’s not coming from my bedroom.

What the hell?

I know for a fact it’s not the baby. It’s definitely originating from downstairs and holy shit if it’s not more than one person—a woman’s howls are intermingled with a man’s bizarre form of shrieking.

Oh my, God. I bet Isis brainwashed Tad into slaughtering my mother. She could have easily hypnotized him with a pair of swirly pasties.

A shadow lingers on the other side of the front door, and I pull Gage in and brush him with a quick kiss.

Gage rides a low sexy smile, and for a moment I forget all about the insanity taking place in the other room.