Page 49 of Those Heartless Boys

The guys and I settle down in the pristine living room to eat our pizza. It seems wrong to eat in such a beautiful room. I’m almost afraid to touch the fabric for fear of getting stains on it.

However, the guys are less worried. They dig into the pizza like rabid animals. Even though Stone seems firmly like a knife and fork type of pizza eater, he eats it with his hands like a regular person. I’m almost impressed. It’s like he’s thrown caution to the wind.

Me? I steady my calzone on my lap. The first piece is delectable. I almost moan. So much cheese. So. Much. It’s like heaven in my mouth.

As we eat, Lucas decides he’s going to be the mediator, starting the conversation where we need to. I gaze at him while he eyes all of us and wonder if he’s used to this role he’s filling. I thought him silent before, and he kind of is. He doesn’t speak much when one, he doesn’t care about you, and two, when he doesn’t have anything to say. It’s refreshing after listening to the idiots in Clary talk all their lives. They never cared what kind of ignorance came out of their mouths.

“So,” Lucas starts. “We need to plan our first trip into the mountains.” Each of the guys eye me. If they’re wondering if I know where to start, the answer is yes. I think. Though I could kick myself for keeping my distance from Dad in the last few weeks before he took his last trek into the mountains. If he was on a hot trail, I’m not sure I would actually know about it. The key in my pocket burns. I have to get to the safe sooner rather than later, and I still don’t trust these guys to show them where it is or what’s in there. “What do you need, Dakota?”

I swallow. When my dad went missing, I made trips into the mountains, but without the right gear. It was always tough. Whatever my dad had was with him. “I need the works,” I tell them, shame heating my face. “Backpack. Tent. Boots. You name it, I need it. My dad’s stuff went with him.”

It’s one of the reasons why I was never able to find him right after. I didn’t have the proper equipment, and I sure as fuck didn’t have the money to go buy it. I had to make do with Dickie’s old stuff, but it was ancient and worn. Not really suitable for my needs. I couldn’t even spend the night up in the mountains, which I know hindered my progress.

“We have most of the stuff you need, but we’ll get you some boots,” Stone promises. He even sounds decent about it. Not a hint of annoyance that he has to buy the poor girl things in order to take her into the mountains. “Also, I’ll have someone go into your father’s house and pack up all of his research. If it’s okay with you,” he tacks on. “I don’t think it’s safe there anymore.”

“I agree,” I say. “I can do it though.”

Stone shakes his head. “We have more important things to do.” He swallows thickly, eyeing his pizza. He sets his plate down on the coffee table and leans back, clutching his stomach. Wyatt glances over at him. “You feeling off?”

“No, I’m fine.”

I eye my calzone and wonder if the heavy head I’m feeling isn’t a headache coming on like I thought. The plate doubles then triples. There are three calzones which then merge back into one. I shut my eyes, and the world starts to tilt. “Guys, there’s definitely...” My tongue thickens in my mouth. I press it against my teeth, trying to get it to work correctly.

Wyatt, who’s been focusing more on eating than on the treasure conversation, slumps forward. He bangs his head on the coffee table and falls to the floor.

Shit. From the corner of my eye, I see Stone and Lucas attempt to go to him. Lucas stands, but he tumbles to the floor like he can’t hold his weight. A haze filters over the room like heat waves distorting the landscape.

The last thing I remember is the calzone slipping to the floor. I don’t even hear it hit because I’m out.

* * *

I wake with a pounding headache.I don’t even want to open my eyes because when I do, it feels like someone is trying to shove a screwdriver into the back of my skull. I groan, trying to turn over, to stop whatever the hell is doing this to me. “Hey,” a soft voice says. “It’s okay. I’ve got something for you to take right here.”

A hand caresses my head and pulls away.

“It’s Lucas,” he says. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” I mumble, thinking about what the fuck happened. We were drugged. We had to have been.

“You’re right, it’s not. But we’re okay now. Can you sit up? You need to drink this water, and I’ve got something for you to take for the pain.”

I push my hands against the mattress, realizing I am in fact on a bed for the first time. They must have moved me. I don’t get anywhere though. My limbs are still too weak.

“I got you,” Lucas says. He hooks his hands under my arms and hauls me against the headboard. The quicksand feeling drags away from my head, filtering down through my body. I can open my eyes now and find Lucas sitting on a chair next to my bed. He picks up his phone. “I’m just going to text the guys to tell them you’re awake.”

“Am I the last one awake?”

He nods as his fingers fly over the keyboard. “We think it’s because you weigh a lot less than the rest of us. Wyatt came out of it first.”

I can see why. He’s big and bulky. Not in a negative way, obviously. Most definitely in a hunky man sort of way.

Lucas smirks at me. “Pretty sure you didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

“Fuck. Did I?”

He nods.

“Let’s just pretend that never happened.”

---