Chapter thirty-six Tai
Chapter thirty-six
Tai
Calvin looks ready to go round two as I unclip his leash, wheezing pathetically while trying to make it sound intentional. Ah, yes—the manly sounds of breathing. I’m definitely deliberately attempting to sound like a dying lawnmower.
The pupsicle nearly killed me when he decided to chase a bird up the hill on the way back home. It was very much a choice of sprint for your life or have my epidermis violently assaulted by the pavement.
Clearly, I’m an athlete though so I handled it like a pro.
Fuck me. Why do we have stairs?!
I reach the landing, desperately gripping the railing while having flashing visions of my corpse tumbling down the stairs like a trash bin in a storm.
At least the thoughts of my own mortality are distracting me from the other morbid thing.
Today’s the anniversary of Mom’s passing.
Oh, and all the drama like Ry being tossed around in a tin can and Bex getting arrested while her house is trashed. Just minor inconveniences, really. We won’t even touch on Hunter’s little problem involving Bex’s mysterious friend.
I’m still mad that I couldn’t find him. I’m positive that it’s because of my innocent confession that she’s barely provided information on this Lark guy.
I’ll keep looking.
My legs are seconds away from buckling and at this stage, I’m not above crawling on my hands and knees the rest of the way to my bedroom. Except someone moving out of the corner of my eye catches my attention.
At first I expect it to be Soph coming to mock my misery, but I straighten up so fast that my spine cracks blissfully.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, holding my breath so he can’t hear me dying.
Parker’s blank stare doesn’t change. The two of us just watch the other and I begin to panic, certain my face is turning red from the lack of oxygen.
“Oh, just breathe, you idiot,” comes the loveable voice of Sophia Beckett. “We already saw you out the window running for your life. Bad cardio runs in the family.”
I spot her hidden in the doorway, arms crossed, disgustingly joyful smirk at my obvious pain and suffering. “I am not bad at cardio.”
Lies. All lies.
“Ahuh,” she mutters, looking me up and down. “Maybe if you still had the new sneakers.”
“Don’t start,” I growl.
Soph’s lips twitch amusingly. “See here’s the problem, bro. All of your problems involve Calvin, yet you keep blaming me. Klein would never.”
Did she just… call me bro?
Whatever. I have little breathing capacity left to try to decipher the psychological mysteries of my twin’s brain.
“Sophia,” I drawl. “There’s a Cedar Heights person in our house.” My gaze flickers to Parker in an attempt to redirect the conversation.
She steps out into the hallway next to him. “If you want Bex here, call her, dipshit.”
Grumbling, I wipe the sweat off my forehead. “I can’t. She’s with Archer. And I have to work on some stupid decryption stuff.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she mutters exasperated, turning on her heel and stalking into the bedroom.
Parker doesn’t follow her, and I find myself holding my breath again, puffing my chest out.
“Decryption?” He asks with mild interest, thankfully ignoring my bizarre body language. “What keys do you use?”
My head bobs in surprise. “You know about keys?”
Parker’s eyebrow slowly raises. “Yes?”
“Oh,” I murmur. “That’s a new piece of information. I wasn’t aware you were a tech man.”
I know there’s a shit storm coming when the introverted Cedar psycho breaks into a dry smile.
“Who do you think accessed the Willowbrook cameras and stole the footage?”
“What?!” I bellow. “You posted the video of Hunter’s ass glued to the desk.”
Parker nods once. “And Grindr thing.”
My gaze drills into him with realization, suppressing the shiver as I remember the endless dick pics. “Yeah, well,” I pause, scrambling for anything. “You didn’t know about the social media thing.”
“If you’re referring to your fake Facebook profile lurking the Cedar Heights page, we were aware.
Probably shouldn’t have picked someone without a profile.
Though, to be fair, I’d do the same. The problem was we know he doesn’t have Facebook.
So, the moment you requested to join, all I had to do was check your IP address. ”
“I had a VPN set up.”
Parker nods slowly, a knowing look on his face.
“Linked to a Calvin Klein store in Thailand. Nice touch, by the way. I thought it was very clever using a homophone location. Though I’ve only recently made the connection to Calvin Klein.
” Pausing, he tips his head slightly, and in a monotone voice adds, “Woof.”
I’m completely stunned by this revelation. Irritated that I wasn’t as subtle as I initially thought… but also mildly impressed. Huh—go figure.
On the plus side, at least I can laugh about it now. Bexley really did have us fooled. That’s my clever cookie.
“Right,” Soph exclaims firmly, reappearing with her phone in hand. “Bex is coming over shortly.”
“Did you call her?” I gape wildly.
“You’re welcome. But also I’m not letting you interrogate Parker while he’s here or have you spy on me like some sicko.”
Gasping, I shoot her an offended look. “I wouldn’t dare.”
Soph folds her arms. “Remember the time I had to lock the door when Bex stayed over.”
“Yeah,” I start, waving my hand dismissively. “But that was because I want her. I don’t want to see your face. Gross.”
“Just like the trauma I suffered walking into your room when she was over?”
Huh? What does she mean by that? The only time she’s walked in when Bex was here was… oh. OH, HELL NO.
Ew. Ew. Ew.
I do NOT want to see Sophia sucking face with Parker.
The panic must be splashed across my features because she just nods, muttering, “Exactly.”
“Fine.” I growl quietly, turning toward my room. “Go do things,” I say absent-mindedly before shuddering violently and grinding to a stop. “No, wait! Not things. Not like that. No—I don’t mean… fuck! Don’t do anything! Argh. I—Why are we talking about this?!”
Both of them gawk at me and my one-sided conversation incredulously. Parker looks amused at my breakdown but Soph is horrified, eyes wide with promises of murder and blood baths.
“Shut up!” She hisses, cheeks aggressively red. “Go to your room!” Pointing, I nod rapidly, blocking them from view with my hand as I dart away with a sprint worthy of Calvin speed.
I might just throw myself down the stairs after all.
A short while later, there’s a knock on my bedroom door. I lift the pillow off my face, raising my head to glare at the door suspiciously.
“What?” I ask after a brief hesitation.
The door opens, and welcomed relief floods through me as Bex’s smug expression finds me on the bed.
“Please tell me she didn’t say anything,” I groan.
“Oh, she told me everything,” Bex snorts, confirming my worst fears. “Is that why you’re hiding?”
“I’m recovering.”
Bex closes the door softly, walking over. She climbs onto the bed, laying down next to me. I roll on my side to face her, relaxing as I break into a smile at seeing her.
“You doing okay?” She asks gently, reaching to cup my face.
I nod, closing my eyes as I lean into her palm. “Thanks for coming.”
Bex’s fingers tenderly graze my cheek. “I’ll always be here for you—especially on days like this.”
“Do you think that’s why he’s here?” I question, amused.
I admit I give Soph too much shit sometimes. That’s just part of our sibling charm.
She’ll never hear me say this out loud, but I’m glad she has someone now.
I don’t know what I’d do without Bex. Soph and I have never been the best at expressing our pain.
We support each other with dark humor and pretend threats of violence.
But the deep stuff? We’re still trying to figure out how to do that.
I blame my father. When Mom died, he treated our grief as though it was an abnormal problem that needed fixing. He’d scoff and demand we grow up, tell us to stop crying. Eventually, we learned to switch it off around him, bottling it up until he was out of the country and we felt safe to act human.
Neither of us had the chance to talk to each other about it. We’d sit in mutual silence, having unspoken conversations in a language only we knew.
It helped—because we could sense the other’s pain, but not being able to discuss it freely without consequence had a lasting effect on us.
Bex hums her agreement. “Definitely.”
I open my eyes, finding comfort in her mint green depths. “Just so you know… if he hurts her, I’ll have to kill him.”
She breaks into an amused smile. “You’ve seen Parker fight, right?”
“I can take him. If I can handle Calvin, I’m practically invincible.”
I burn holes into the side of his face, glaring intensely as Parker types. I’m mentally preparing for all the possible ways to kill him and where to bury his body if he hurts Sophia.
Bex wanted to check on her when we heard the two of them emerge from Soph’s bedroom, and when I heard footsteps returning, I was perplexed to find Parker standing in my room in place of Bex.
Apparently, the girls are determined to test my limits. They sent the Cedar Heights senior in while they scurried off to get snacks, suggesting he can take a look at the encrypted file with me.
I hate to admit it, but this could be handy. I’ve been following along with his techniques, and while I recognize them, we obviously have different preferences and strengths.
It’s better if we can get this cracked sooner rather than later, especially since both Ry and Bex were just targeted. There’s no telling what will happen next. We need to know what Marcus is hiding.
“So…” I say slowly, attempting to sound bored. “Do you know Lark?”
Parker pauses, suspiciously side-eyeing me at the question. “If you want to know information, ask your girlfriend.”
Asshole.
“I’m asking you,” I shoot back. “I already know he’s the one who bailed Bex out.”
Sighing, Parker swivels his chair to face me. “Look—you won’t trick me into being your spy. I already know where this conversation is heading. Lark’s good with computers and coding too. He’s also not an idiot. You and I both know you never put information online that you don’t want discovered.”
“I know that,” I growl. “But there’s no record of his existence at all. I’m just curious.”
Parker cocks an eyebrow at me. “There is,” he confirms dryly. “You were just searching for the wrong thing.”
“What do you mean?” I press.
He gives me a knowing look. “We all have our tactics and signature trademarks to cover our tracks. You can’t assume you’re the only one hiding in plain sight.”
My mind locks in, running through all the possibilities before I land on the most likely. “An alias.”
Parker taps his nose sardonically before turning back to the computer.
I can’t help but laugh out loud at the irony of it all.
Well done, Bex. Checkmate again.
I'm still fully prepared to take Parker out if required. But as we sit here, working away, I actually think the guy might be starting to grow on me.
I guess he is the Cedar Height's version of me.
And I’m pretty damn amazing.