Where the Darkness Goes

Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

GARRETT

She didn’t say a word for at least five minutes.

Chuckling to myself, I shut my bedroom door. In the guest bedroom next door, Tessa is unpacking in what would appear to be stunned silence. I pull my drenched shirt over my head and grab my phone, dialing my idiot best friend.

He answers quickly, his voice distant, clearly in the car.

“Yes?” he sings pleasantly. “Did you get her?”

“Oh, I got her.” I scrub a hand through my hair, a finger tangling in one of my curls. “You didn’t think it might be helpful to mention to her that I live here?”

“I thought you could break the news.”

“You’re an asshole.”

He hums with laughter. “It’s fine. You guys haven’t seen each other in a few years. It’ll be good to catch up, won’t it?”

“I guess that depends on whether you define ‘catching up’ as me having to listen to Mark Summers nailing your little sister through the wall,” I groan, letting that thought slip out before I’d prepared for it.

I hear him turning the heat down in the car as I pull my pants down and kick them aside before picking a pair of sweats from a pile of clothes I should really put away. Someday. “You’re one to talk. Also, what did you just say?”

“You heard correctly.” Pinning the phone between my cheek and shoulder, I pull the pants over my hips.

“Since when is Mark Summers nailing my sister?”

He should be angrier than this. Why am I always the one who has to play jealous—er, protective—big brother?

“He’s not…yet. But he will be, if he has his way.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you sound jealous.”

“ Please. More like disgusted.”

He laughs again, and we both know he doesn’t believe me. What-the-fuck-ever. I don’t need him to believe me. I need him to stop this before it happens.

“Mark’s a cool guy,” he says eventually. “If he wants to date my sister, fine by me. But I’ll tell her to keep it down. Better yet, I’ll let you borrow my headphones.”

I scowl, pulling the phone away from my ear to put my shirt on, and when I come back, he’s saying, “…talk to her if it’s weird or whatever. She can stay somewhere else.”

That’s even worse. “No, don’t be stupid. I’m joking. It’s fine. It’ll be fine.”

“Seriously. It’s half your house too, man. Just say the word.”

“I’m not going to kick Tessa out, dude, chill. It’s fine. We can be civil, you know.”

“Oh yeah? You should tell your voice that.”

I bite my tongue.

“Oh, shoot. I’m getting a call from a client. Gotta go.”

“Okay, well, if?—”

The call ends before I can finish my sentence. I drop my phone on the nightstand just as I hear the shower kick on. As a sudden headache announces itself deep within my skull, I drop onto the bed and cup my temples with my palms, trying hard not to picture Tessa in the shower right now.

Fuck me.