Page 53 of Monstrous Serpent

Unknown number: Didn’t learn your lesson about that mouth yet

Me: go stuff your friend’s mouth

Me: he runs it just as much as me

I toss the phone onto the vanity, then step into the shower. Deleting Kincaid’s number is pointless. He has mine.

But I could block him. I should block him.

Water beats down over my skin while I stand there, the tension in my muscles unfurling under the steam as I try not to think about their hands or Trembley’s lips or the way I kissed him back.

Because it doesn’t mean shit. A mouth is a mouth. Friction is friction. Bodies react when they’re amped up.

That’s all it was.

I’m not letting it be anything else.

Chapter 15

Atlas

The kid at the counter won't stop staring at me. He's maybe seven, drowning in an oversized Serpents’ sweatshirt, and he's been doing that thing where he looks away every time I glance his way, and then immediately looks back.

I point at him with my burger. “Yo.”

His eyes bulge. He waves so hard his whole body moves with it.

I wave back, burger in hand. “You play hockey?”

He nods fast enough to give himself whiplash.

“I’m Trembley.” I tap my chest. “Number four.”

His dad mouths sorry and steers him toward a table. The kid is still looking at me over his shoulder, a grin plastered on his face.

“You just made that kid's whole year.” Rua reaches across the booth and swipes his thumb across the corner of my mouth. “Also, you have ranch on your face.”

I swat his hand away. “Dude, I had it.”

“You didn't. There’s ranch on your chin too.” The bastard’s gaze even goes to my tousled light brown hair, as if I somehow also managed to get ranch up there. “You eat like a feral toddler.”

I huff and glance at my phone on the table.

“Anything?” Rua nods at it, pulling a wing apart with his teeth.

“Not yet.” I take a swig of my pop. “They’ll find him.”

Rua tosses a clean bone onto the pile. “Worst case, Shaw's sitting on a roof somewhere trying to stab pigeons.”

My knee bounces under the table. Shaw disappeared a few hours ago. Left the dorm without telling Cap where he was going. Even turned off his phone. Hunter went to help find him before Shaw does something that’ll get him locked up again.

Rua grabs a napkin and wipes his mouth. “Between Shaw and me, Reyes deserves hazard pay. Can’t be easy being our roommate.”

“You mean your babysitter.”

“Blah. Blah.”

The waitress comes back to our table. “You two need anything else? More water? Wings?”