Page 77 of Tainted Romance

I wasn’t a social person, so I didn’t have sleepovers. Sometimes I would crash at Blake and Chase’s, but that was different.

They weren’t in my room, and I would usually be sharing a bed with one of them.

Having someone else in my room felt odd.

Much to my distaste, I had managed to tune into Zane’s every movement. It didn’t help either that he seemed to have no plans of actually going to sleep. Instead, he was on his phone, messaging who knows who.

Every so often he would sigh or grunt, and every glance I stole at him, he had a smile on his face.

So, who was he talking to?

And more importantly, why was it bugging me so much?

It was when the phone started ringing that I cracked. “You know, Zane, I’m actually trying to sleep here,” I snapped, sliding up the bed.

Zane looked over his phone at me. “Not my phone.”

Frowning for a moment, I then glanced at the bedside table. Shit. That was embarrassing. Scooping up my phone, I answered it before checking the caller ID.

“Hello?”

“Allie? It’s Jace, can we talk?”

Well, if it wasn’t the freaky stranger who clipped that bracelet on me.

“I don’t really want to talk to you.” It was true. Because of him, I had Zane following me around.

“I get that. I guess you know about the bracelet now.”

He knew? “How did you know about that?” He wasn’t one of us, was he? “Scratch that, did you know what it did before you clipped it on me?”

Had he wanted to kidnap me? My mind started spinning ideas and theories quite quickly.

He sighed. “It’s kind of a long story and not one I want to tell you over the phone. Can we meet?”

I snuck a glance at Zane, and I seemed to have his full attention. He wasn’t even looking away. Most likely he was listening to every word of this conversation.

“Can you hold a minute?” I asked.

“Sure.”

I threw the blankets back and glided across the room.

“Where are you going?” he asked as I headed for the bathroom.

“None of your business.” I gave him a tight smile and closed the door. I turned the shower on then the taps before returning the phone to my ear.

“Ok, you were saying?”

“I need to see you.”

“Not going to happen.”

“I know you don’t trust me but…

I didn’t let him finish, “Darn straight I don’t trust you! You clipped a bracelet to my wrist that blocks communication. Do you have any idea how much trouble you have caused me?”

The only good thing about him contacting me was he may be able to tell me how to take it off, and that was the only reason I hadn’t hung up yet.

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