Page 59 of Chaos Crown

“And you taste delicious.”

Naturally, Ivy had no more protests, and my plate became my sex toy.

We messed around in the kitchen for hours, then I took my meal upstairs and messed with her up there. It wasn’t until she was softly breathing underneath, wrapped around me like a garland, that recalled that everyone came home and walked past us while we were having our fun on the table. Everyone except Jacques.

Untangling myself from Ivy, I crossed the hall to Jacques’s room, shoved on the door, and peered at an empty bed. A glance at the clock read two in the morning.

Where the hell is he?

***

“YOU DON’T NEED TO TELLme he’s missing. I’ve been after him since he blew me off yesterday morning.” Cairo loaded his golf clubs in Legend’s trunk.

The tournament started in two and a half hours. We were done waiting for Jacques. The decision had been made for us. We had to go to Hunter’s Crest and turn Steven, Jeremy, and Micah’s night into a bad one.

“He was looking for members of the Black Letter Crew,” Legend said. He was the only one of us that didn’t look idiotic in that polo and khakis get-up. “I’m thinking he found them.”

Silence pressed in on us.

“If they have him, we need to do something.” Ivy slammed out of the house. “You’re not going to know anything until the mail arrives, and that won’t be today. We can’t sit around doing nothing if they really have him.”

“We can’t sit around doing nothing because if we do, my old man is dead,” Cairo replied.

Ivy shot him a withering look. She had not forgiven or forgotten.

“We go on with the plan, but Roan stays here,” he continued. “Jacques was supposed to play while you caddied. They’re not going to let you walk about with a bag of clubs doing nothing, so you’ll stay, find him, then bring the bastard to the club when he finally decides to show up.’

“I wasn’t only going to hold a bag. I’m supposed to cause a distraction in the kitchen and pull as many guards away from the east door.”

“We’ll improvise,” he barked. “But it won’t matter because you’ll find him before then. Let’s go.”

We split up—half going to Legend’s car and climbing into the gift I bought myself over the holidays. It wasn’t my father’s Chevrolet Corvette, and for that I was still tempted to hunt the Crows down and make Jeremy piss himself crying on a stake again.

We all made for the cars except for Roan... and Ivy.

“I should stay and help him look,” she announced. “I don’t play my part until tonight. Until then I... I know what those guys do to people. If Jacques is with them right now, I have to get to him—”

“If I’m with who?”

Five necks twisted, landing on the cool and collected prodigy walking down the sidewalk.Wait—I squinted.Not so cool and collected.

Jacques was wearing the rumpled version of the clothes he wore the day before. Mud decorated his shoes, and red bled into his eyes telling of how much sleep he’d gotten the night before.

None.

“Where were you?” Cairo asked, shoving out of the car.

“Listen—”

“We’re out of time. Did you find the five or not—?”

“Listen,” Jacques growled. “I found three I’m uncertain of, and one I’m not. They’re one of them, I know it, and I looked for them all day and all night. They’renowhere! If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were on to me, but it’s not possible. I was careful.”

Boop. Boop.

“Who are you talking about?” Legend asked. “Their name, Jacques.”

“You’re not going to believe this. It’s—”

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