Chapter 27
NOAH
The look Ace gave us when we entered the living room was cold enough to freeze lava, and panic tightened my chest at the uncomfortable feeling his glare created. Like I felt guilty for messing around with Torin. Fuck that.
Minho put out his hand in invitation to join him, and I quickly crossed over to him, sitting on the floor between his legs as his fingers rested on the back of my neck. Somehow Ace made me feel guilty and insecure, while Minnie just made me feel cherished.
“What took you so long?” Xavier drawled, giving Torin a narrow--eyed glance.
Torin flopped down on the vacant space on the sofa, relaxed as all shit. “Noah was helping me finish a piece for my gallery show. You know how these things go; I can’t just up and leave in the middle of working wet clay.”
“Noah was helping you?” Augie asked, shooting a puzzled look between the two of us. “You don’t let anyone touch your art.”
Torin shrugged. “The muse wants what it wants.”
“That’s cool, bro,” Z said encouragingly, giving a nod like he fully understood the need for satisfying his artistic muse. It made me wonder if Tess was his muse, but that seemed unlikely, considering he was thinking of breaking up with her.
Ace gave an irritated sound, folding his arms as he glowered. “Okay, well, we have team matters to discuss, so if we can get on with it?” The question was rhetorical, but Torin answered anyway, giving a magnanimous of course, please proceed wave, making Ace narrow his eyes.
“Spit it out, Ace,” Skye groaned. “Tor is just winding you up.”
“I’m aware,” our team leader growled. “We have a new Clik Games challenge.”
“Finally,” Xavier muttered, earning a glare of his own.
Apparently Ace was shitty at all of us today.
Ace stayed silent a moment, like he needed to count to ten in his head before continuing.
“The new challenge should be an easy one for us. We select one of the charities supplied by ClikByte execs and spend a day volunteering with their organization. All funding generated by our Cliks gets donated back to the same charity and doubled by the platform. Highest donation, highest points.”
“Easy,” Skye said with a grin. “We’ve got this nailed.”
“Do we?” Ace shot back with an irritated squint. “Because GeeGee already beat us to the list and picked Clean Future, which has agreed to let them run a car wash for their fundraiser day. In bikinis.”
Xavier groaned. “Nice. Yeah, we’re fucked.”
“What have we got left?” Torin asked, frowning. “Or have you already chosen?”
Ace huffed a sigh. “I already chose so we didn’t end up with fucking roadside trash cleanup. We’re doing Skate Stars.”
It was actually a good pick for our team.
Skate Stars was a program that mentored kids from foster homes and shitty neighborhoods, teaching them how to skateboard and gain some life skills and advice from the coaches in the process.
It was active, sporty, masculine but still edgy and cool, with some opportunity for cheeky thirst traps to reel in the Cliks. Maybe we weren’t totally fucked.
“Sick!” Skye whooped, putting out his hand for me to high--five him.
I obliged, but Ace gave us another vexed look. “You won’t be here, Skye. Content filming is scheduled for next Friday, and you’re spending the whole of next week as guest coach for the Little Rippers surf competition in Hawaii.”
“Fuck!” Skye pouted. “How the hell is that going to work? We’re supposed to have more than six days to prepare, and you guys are going to need practice before trying to teach kids. Noah and Xavier can’t do all the work, and—-”
“We don’t have much choice in the matter, Skye,” Ace snapped, cutting him off.
“Original timeframes are out the window, thanks to the investigation into Cat’s murder, then the incident involving Noah and me, then the Camp Beaver shit.
No one seems to know what the fuck is going on.
But we have six days, and none of us are total noobs to skating. I think we can handle it.”
For the first time in a long time, I agreed with Ace. We were only coaching little kids, not training them for the X Games. How hard could it be?
“Okay,” Z said thoughtfully, running his fingers through his freshly red--dyed hair. “Let’s see if we can rent that indoor skate park in Wind Valley to practice without eyes on us. When does Skye need to leave for Hawaii?”
“Tomorrow,” Ace replied. “Which leads me to my next point. We’re changing bedroom assignments around.”
That made me sit up straighter, dread pooling in my gut. “Sorry?”
Suddenly Ace didn’t seem capable of meeting my eyes as he continued.
“With Skye leaving for the surf trip and Noah very clearly not sleeping well in that room, we’ve made a decision to swap.
” Then he paused, like he was second--guessing his choice or maybe searching for the actual fucking audacity, because the next thing he said required a whole lot of it.
“Noah and Xavier will switch. That allows them both a private room.”
“What?” I exploded, sitting up so abruptly Minho’s fingers tugged my hair. “No, I’m not switching.”
At the same time, Skye had surged to his feet, also shaking his head vehemently. “What about you, Ace? You’re Xavier’s roommate, which means—-”
“I never sleep before six, and Noah is always up before then,” Ace argued, flapping his hand like it was inconsequential. “It’s basically the same as having a private room, and I think that—-”
“Whoa, whoa, basically the same is not the same,” Torin interjected.
Minho’s hand tightened on the back of my neck ever so slightly. “I’m inclined to agree with Tor on this. Why even bother swapping Noah and Xavier if both rooms will be singles while Skye’s away?”
Ace’s cheek twitched as he clenched his jaw. “Because my room is on the opposite side of the house and doesn’t overlook the pool Noah drowned in just a few weeks ago.”
That statement seemed to silence everyone, myself included. Skye glanced at me with concern, his thoughts written all over his face: this was a terrible idea, but if it meant I could sleep without waking up in a panic after forty--five minutes, maybe it’d be worthwhile.
“It’s fine, guys. I don’t care where I sleep,” I said softly, reaching up to squeeze Minho’s hand reassuringly. “Like Ace said, he’s never there. Right?”
Ace nodded, finally meeting my eyes for a moment. “Right.”
“Nope, I don’t like this,” Torin announced, his jaw set stubbornly. “Ace has already proven he can’t be trusted when it comes to Noah’s safety.”
I inhaled sharply, my nerves on edge with how close we were to spilling my secret but totally at a loss for how to smooth it over.
“What? Why do you think that?” Xavier asked, offended on our team leader’s behalf. “Because some crazy fan hurt him?”
Torin scoffed. “I was thinking more about those bruises he left on Noah’s throat after breaking into his home the night he was discharged from hospital.”
Ace’s eyelids closed as Torin said that, and Xavier’s gaze slowly swung to his best friend, then to me with confused horror, and back to Ace. Who just pinched the bridge of his nose like he had a migraine coming on.
“That was an isolated incident, which will never be repeated,” I quickly assured everyone, glaring daggers at Ace when his eyes snapped open at the sound of my voice. “Ever.”
He nodded slowly, his throat bobbing as he swallowed hard. “It was a misunderstanding.”
“Well, fuck, now I don’t think I’m okay with this plan,” Augie said, adding his opinion for the first time. “What the fuck, Ace? Noah, you can switch with me. Torin would never hurt you like that.”
“Yes, let’s do that,” Torin quickly agreed, and if I wasn’t about to have a stroke from the stress I would have laughed. “I like that plan. Approved.”
“No,” Ace snapped. “Not approved.”
“Why not?” Augie asked, squinting with suspicion. “Torin is a great roommate, doesn’t snore, and the two of them already get along great, whereas—-”
“I said no, Augie. Leave it at that!” Ace barked, his fists clenched, and I recognized we were just a hair away from all the secrets being spilled.
Torin met my gaze, mischief written all over his face, and I shook my head at him in reprimand. There was no way Ace would allow me to share with him—-or Minho, for that matter—-and I didn’t need anyone blurting out the reasons.
“It’s fine, guys. I seriously don’t give a fuck. Ace knows better than to let his emotions get the better of him again, don’t you?” I directed a hard glare Ace’s way, and he jerked a nod.
“If he does…” Minho said in a quietly threatening tone, his fingers tight around mine, “it won’t just be a black eye.”
“Ace, can we speak privately, please?” Xavier snapped in a tense voice, his brow furrowed and his jaw clenched.
Ace shook his head. “Later. We still have other business to discuss.” He didn’t give any gaps for further arguments as he went on to detail the information he had about the footage from Camp Beaver and the ClikByte plan to air the episodes starting in a few days.
I tuned out for the most part, not really interested in what the rollout for ClikByte: Reality looked like because Minho had started finger combing my hair and tying it into a little ponytail with one of the elastics on his wrist. It snagged a couple times like it was tangled, and I made a mental note to wash it once Ace was done.
“Chicken?” he whispered in my ear. “You have clay in your hair.”
Ah. So not tangles after all.
“And a handprint on your ass.”
Whoops. On the upside, I was fairly confident Torin’s shirt was long enough that it covered my ass, and Minnie had only seen it when I bent over to sit. But then on the other hand…
“And you’re wearing one of Torin’s shirts.” His whisper was so quiet no one else could have heard it, and the way his fingers stroked the back of my neck reassured me that he wasn’t angry about it—-or that’s the conclusion I was drawing from his teasing touches.
Ace cleared his throat loudly, jerking my attention away from Minnie with an acceleration of my pulse. “Are you two listening?” he asked with a glower.
“Not really,” Minho admitted, making me smile.
Ace huffed a frustrated sound. “I said: one of the girls from Hyper Crew has been reported missing. There was a power blackout in their shared content house a couple of nights ago, and Emma was last seen arguing with one of the producers over why there wasn’t a backup generator installed.
Apparently she had an ice cream cake in the freezer she was worried would melt. ”
“So how does she go from ice cream cake to reported missing?” I asked with confusion. “The two aren’t adding up.”
“I have no idea,” Ace admitted with a tired sigh. “That was the last time anyone saw her. The producer said she stormed out after being told there was no generator, and she never came back into the house. That was a little over two days ago.”
Two days ago would be the same night we all got home from Camp Beaver. That seemed…suspicious.
“All I’m saying is, please be careful. My gut says that something bad is going on behind the scenes, and I’d hate to lose any of you insufferable assholes.” Ace tracked his gaze over each and every one of us, lingering a moment on me.
August was the first to get up when it became apparent the meeting was over, giving an uncomfortable sort of laugh as he did so. “Luckily, it seems like only the girls are being targeted, so I think we’re pretty safe. Imagine if we actually had women in the house to worry about? Fuck that.”
He chuckled to himself as he sauntered out of the living room with Z not far behind, also nodding and agreeing with his statement.
Minho’s hand tightened on my shoulder, and Torin cast me a panicked glance. Skye chewed his lip nervously, and Ace looked exhausted. Maybe he was genuinely worried about my safety after all.
Me? I just wanted to throw up.