Liar (Madison Kate #2)(32)

"Something like that," Archer mumbled back and turned the stereo up in a clear end to any conversation. It was the same song from his fight at the Laughing Clown, "Paranoid" by I Prevail, and I couldn't help feeling like it was becoming my anthem. I was constantly paranoid these days.

"It's about a four-hour drive from here," Kody told me quietly, leaning across the middle seat to be heard over the thumping music. "In case you really did need to nap. I know you haven't been sleeping well since... you know. Halloween. Or since you’ve been home, anyway."

I shot him a lopsided smile. Was it really any wonder I'd been struggling to sleep since being run off the road, then stalked through an abandoned amusement park and then stabbed by—in my mind at the time—someone I had started to trust? Yeah. I was a bit fucked up at the moment.

"You guys need to stop keeping such close tabs on me," I muttered back, staring out the window. "It's creepy."

It was one thing for them to insist on chaperoning me to and from university, but knowing that I went to the gym at three in the morning to run? Maybe Archer hadn't been bullshitting about that tracking device, after all.

"I'll take creepy over you being dead any day, MK," Kody told me, his voice low and serious. I didn't reply, but his words struck a chord with me. Maybe Bree had been right about their motivations after all.

I kept my gaze locked on the snowy scenery, but I reached out across the seat to take his hand in mine. All their secrets still hurt like crazy, and we were bound to have countless fights ahead of us. But damn, I loved the part where we got to make up.

It almost made all the fear and heartache and paranoia worthwhile.





13





At some stage on the drive, I took Kody up on his offer. I woke again when the car was still and silent, my face buried in the denim crotch of Kody's jeans.

Blinking to clear the thick fog of sleep from my brain, I rolled slightly away from his... uh... zipper.

"Hey," he said, giving me a shit-eating grin. "How'd you sleep?"

Frowning, I sat up and stretched some of the kinks out of my spine. "Like the dead," I mumbled, rubbing a hand over my face and grimacing when I touched the grooves his seams had left in my skin. Such a good look for when I needed to meet Archer's... uh... whoever the hell lived here. I peered out the windows at the impressive, old money mansion we were parked in front of. The front of the car was empty, and I wondered how long we'd been there.

"You could have woken me up," I told Kody, feeling a bit embarrassed for sleeping on him so long.

He scoffed a laugh. "Uh, babe, you were sound asleep with your face in my crotch. I wasn't going fucking anywhere in a hurry." He shot me a wolfish grin. "Might I also point out the extreme restraint I displayed in not getting a boner under your cheek?"

I grinned. "Oh yeah? Was that... hard for you?"

He rolled his eyes skyward, searching for some divine assistance after my shitty pun, then gave me a flat look. "You have no idea, MK. I had to picture Steele's mom in her underwear at least sixteen times."

I laughed, then yawned heavily. I hadn't been joking when I said I'd slept like the dead on Kody. Sometimes it was hard to understand just how deep exhaustion ran until slapped in the face with the promise of true, restful sleep.

"So, this is D'Ath estate, huh?" I peered out of the window again, and Kody hummed a sound of agreement. Neither of us was in any great hurry to get out of the truck, and I wondered if he was kind of enjoying the companionable peace between us as much as I was. "Not gonna lie, Kodiak Jones, I sort of had you guys all pegged as neglected, delinquent kids from broken, working-class homes. This... this is definitely not where I thought Archer came from."

Kody snickered a light laugh. "Yeah well, you'd be forgiven for thinking that. The only family you know of his are Zane, the gangster, and Cherry, the gold digger. Come on, let's go in before someone comes looking for us.

I shivered when we left the warmth of Archer's truck, remembering I'd tossed my coat into my overnight bag. Kody wrapped his arm around my shoulders, though, sharing his body heat until we made it inside the massive sandstone mansion.

As soon as the door closed behind us—I noted Kody hadn't knocked—a robust woman with a deeply lined face and silver-streaked black hair came to greet us. She was dressed in the classic black-and-white uniform of household staff, but the smile she gave Kody was all familial warmth.

"Kodiak," she crowed, reaching up to grab his face between her palms, "oh boy, you just get more handsome every time I see you. How is everything? You been looking good in those half-naked pictures you post online." She fanned herself dramatically, and Kody laughed. Her voice was heavily accented, but it wasn't one I was familiar with. Maybe from somewhere eastern Europe if I was to guess.

"It's good to see you too, Ana. You look like you're keeping well. Is the lady of the house treating you well?" He gave her a mock serious look, and she tittered a laugh.

"You know she is, Kodiak, my boy." Her dark gaze shifted to me, standing there like an awkward popsicle. "Ah, and you must be the princeza, yes?" I scowled, and she threw her head back laughing. "I'm just teasing, girl," she assured me with a warm smile, "Come along; the other troublemakers are in the sitting room with her ladyship."