He smirks when I peek over at him again. “I think I do.” He lifts his hands to wrap around the seat back. The way he’s lying there so casually, yet domineering, plays with my emotions. He can find a comfortable spot almost anywhere. Maybe that’s why I get that stray cat feeling when I watch him. “I think there’s a caged tiger in there just begging to be set free.”
I bear down on my jaw, trying not to let his words get to me. They shouldn’t hit so close to home, but they do. Being an outcast has always kept me in the background. The only place I’ve ever felt alive was in the mountains, and even then, it was the Jacobs who got all the attention.
“You think so, too, or else you never would’ve worn that outfit.”
Jesus Christ. That’s the second time someone mentioned this outfit. I’ve had it for years. Literally years. The only reason why the shirt fits me like a crop top is because it was one of mine from almost a decade ago. That’s what happens when you’re poor. You don’t get new clothes on whims. You have to make do. “I have clothes like this, you know?”
“So, why do you dress like a farmer at school?”
“You’ve been in my school for two days. You can’t possibly know how I dress.”
He chuckles. “That’s where you’re wrong. When you’re me, it’s easy to spot who people really are. If you weren’t comfortable in the clothes you wore to school, I’d be able to tell. But what you’re not comfortable in are the clothes you wore to the party. You keep pulling the shirt down despite the fact that you have nothing to be embarrassed about. You should have zero self-esteem issues on that front. Unless you were lying and you actually do let Meghan get to you.”
I glare at him as we hit the city limits. “Sounds like you fancy yourself a therapist, Lucas. I got a question for you then. What’s up with you and Stone claiming me like some sort of possession?”
His lips pull up, and he immediately turns toward the window to hide it. It takes him a while to answer, and when he does, he only psychoanalyzes his friend, not himself. “Stone likes pretty things and puzzles. I guess that puts you at the top of the list at Saint Clary’s.”
“And Meghan?” I ask. I can’t fucking help myself even though I feel petty for even bringing her up. She was all over him for the past two days, but things turned after I jumped off that truck bed with them.
He turns heated eyes toward me. “Meghan? She’s basic,” he says, mimicking a girly voice. “He can see through her ten miles away. She’s not strong enough to keep his attention. Someone like you though...”
I turn into the dorm parking lot, marveling at the quiet engine and obsessively trying not to disseminate all the information Lucas just gave me. The last time I pulled into this parking lot with Dad’s truck, I swear everyone within a five-block radius could hear me.
Lucas jumps out once I’m parked. He stretches his hands above his head, revealing a toned set of abs. I gaze away before he catches me looking and chastise myself. Lucas is just as off-limits as Stone is.
I push the truck door open, and he’s right there, pulling the open door wider for me so I can jump down. He keeps doing the opposite of what I expect him to do. It’s unnerving to say the least. I’m used to being by myself. Even when my dad was there, he wasn’t really there.
“You know you don’t have to stay with me,” I tell him, half hoping he’ll take me up on this offer. “I’m locked into this now.” My attention turns to the letter that’s currently sitting at the top of my closet. If I find the treasure, I’ll find my dad. There’s no going back now because no matter what, I have to find out what happened to him. I owe him at least that, and despite my feelings toward Stone and his friends, I can’t let that derail me from getting what I want.
As much as it sucks to admit this, Stone, Wyatt, and Lucas will be helpful up in the mountains. I mean, if I can’t have ol’ Dickie, then they come in second place. It’s a far back second place, don’t get me wrong, but they’re second place, nonetheless.
“We take care of our own,” Lucas says, that purr back in his voice like he’s trying to trap me. If it wasn’t for the meaning behind his words, I would probably fall right to the ground in a pile of mush. The tenor in his voice strikes a chord in me. A drawn out note that turns something on inside me with the ferocity of a lightning bolt.
“And here I thought I was taking care of you. Stone told me to make sure you were safe.”
The grin Lucas gives is straight from Lucifer himself. If I didn’t know any better, I’d drive right back to the Devil’s Hole and try to force him back underground where he belongs. “That’s Stone trying to make you feel important. He has a way with people.”
My lips thin. “You know, you’re kind of a dick.”
“Oddly not the first person who’s said that to me.” He steps in closer. “But I’ve also been told other things…”
His voice trails off, letting the innuendo hang in the air between us. “If they said you have a sparkling personality, they were lying.”
The corner of his mouth tips up. “Told you. Caged tiger. Your daddy was right to keep you locked away in that house when you weren’t up in those mountains.”
I push past him. I don’t mind verbally sparring with the asshole, but let’s not bring my dad into it.
“Aww, come on, Dakota,” he says from
