Page 70 of Monstrous Serpent

“It absolutely counts.”

“Dad, tell him it doesn't count.”

“It counts.” Dad glances at the scoreboard and shakes his head. “Also, you're both beating me, so why are you complaining?”

My little brother sets up his next ball. His second shot hooks left but clears the first target and lands somewhere in the fifty-point zone. He pumps his fist. “Let's go.”

Dad chuckles, grabs his club, and makes his way to the green hitting mat. The screen mounted to the side of our bay updates Davis’s score with a sad little bloop.

I point to it. “Six points. Legendary stuff.”

Davis swings his club toward me. “Not for long.”

“You said that three turns ago.”

“Because I’m building suspense.”

“You’re building a case for lessons.”

Dad lowers his club. “Cody.”

I shrug. “What? That was constructive.”

“It was mean.”

“Constructively mean.”

Dad takes his swing. Clean contact, nice follow-through. The ball arcs toward one of the yellow targets and drops in clean.

My brother huffs, crossing his arms. “That was suspicious.”

Dad looks at him, one eyebrow raised. “Suspiciously better than yours?”

“Rude.”

I snort and stretch my legs out under the table.

Nothing like spending a Thursday night at Top Golf with my competitive little brother.

I grab my phone and unlock it. No new texts from Doyle. Two Snap notifications. One email from Professor Demir I’m absolutely not opening right now. I go back to my texts and open the thread that should've been deleted five days ago.

Five whole days since I blocked the number. Five days of checking anyway as if somehow a message might come through. Five days of wondering if they’re still even trying to get in touch. Or if they even bothered in the first place.

And five days of jerking off to the picture of Kincaid’s ass.

Awesome. Getting off to two complete psychopaths. Peak decision-making there.

I tap on the name at the top, biting my lips together to keep from laughing.

Temu Slenderman.

I hit settings and scroll to the bottom, thumb hovering over the option to unblock Kincaid. It would just be to check. Not because I want them to keep trying.

“Are you even listening?”

I jerk my head up. “What?”

Davis is leaning across the table, glowering at me. “I said, did you see Brayden's new girlfriend?”