Pretending (Westshore Series #1)

Chapter Forty-Eight: Little Goblin

Warner, Kenji and I are heading back from New Year's Day brunch with Tracey when I spot the note on the door first. Warner's eyes are on the dorm parking lot, inspecting it up and down like he is looking for something. I tug on his hand, earning those glowing green embers in return.

I shift my eyes in the direction of the door with a tilt of my chin.

Warner's attention shifts to the envelope that has been taped up. His strides get longer, making him pull me just a little as we close the distance to the dorm. He doesn't bother opening the door before tearing the blank white envelope across the top, yanking out an index-sized card from inside.

The first sign I have that something is wrong is the flexing of a vein in his temple, then the corners of his eyes wrinkle, and finally his jaw clenches. He looks up and turns around, sweeping up and down the street in one glance. His grip tightens before unlocking the building door and hurrying Kenji and me inside.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

His eyes cut over to me, wide and battling some unknown war I have no clue of. I kind of expect him not to say anything, to keep me from worrying but Warner shoots me a hard look instead. His hand tugs on mine. "I'm leaving for a bit. Stay with Kenji and lock the door after me. Don't open it for anyone you don't know."

Oh crap. I nod at him. "What if you don't come back?"

"I'll come back. I just need to show this to the police." He trails his fingers over my knuckles. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

Kenji and Warner exchange some sort of look I don't understand and before I can get a goodbye kiss I am shoved into the elevator and headed to our floor.

"Are you going to tell me what that was?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Nice try Jdawg you aren't getting any information out of me." Kenji ruffles my hair and I frown at him.

We get off the elevator onto my floor when my phone pings with a text making me look down at it.

Meet at the soccer field on Tuesday @8pm. Come alone and don't tell anyone. You break either of those rules and we break your boyfriends legs - Unknown

I gulp and try to hastily shove my phone back into my pocket but Kenji notices.

"What did it say?" he asks opening the door to our floor for me.

"Oh nothing, just a text to pick up—uh...tampons?" My voice has gone up five octaves and I feel myself break out into a sweat.

I couldn't have come up with a better lie?

"Really? Let me see your phone then." Kenji stops in front of me and grabs my phone before I can swat his hand away.

"Give me that!" I scream, kicking him in the back of the knee.

He holds the phone out of my reach using his height advantage against me. "Give it back!" I jump up, grabbing ineffectively.

His mouth purses, suspicious eyes calculating my flushed face and high-pitched voice. "Why are you so scared to let me see your phone?"

I'm not scared." He hears the lie, I'm sure of it. "Give it back." I scrabble desperately, but it's no use. He's too tall and I feel myself getting shorter with every jump. "I mean it Kenji, Hand it over! I'm serious. This is my personal property and keeping it from me is illegal."

Kenji's gaze slides to my phone and his thumb moves as if to tap the screen and bring my notifications to light. I freak out because I don't know if I am going to show anyone yet and the next thing I know, I'm hanging off his back. My arms are around his neck, which gets me closer to my target, but he is squirming to get me off.