In Plain Sight (A Hunted Rose)

Chapter Eighteen

The next morning, I decided I needed a sick day.  Because compulsion didn’t work unless there was eye contact, I asked Liam to call into the school for me and pretend to be my parent in order for my absence to be okay.  He did it, and when he got off the phone, he said he thought the receptionist was smitten with him because of his accent.  I had chuckled and shaken my head at him and his flirty ways. 

I spent the day lounging around on my couch, talking to Liam and reading.  I had just needed to be able to sit and think without any distractions.  Liam knew when to keep quiet around me, and he made himself busy by going around the house and cleaning.  Apparently all I needed to do in order to get the man to actually clean something was make friends with vampire hunters.  Who knew?

In the early evening, I decided I needed to actually do something, anything,so I went out and got some more groceries, plus some sheets for the spare bed so that Liam had no reason to steal my bed.  Even after I had told him not to, he still slept in my bed.  Not that I really cared, but I did like having a space for myself.  

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When I pulled into my driveway, I saw a black car I recognized as Seth’s coming down the street, and I watched it slow as it approached my driveway.  It pulled over and parked on the side of the street, and both Seth and Cameron emerged from inside the car.  Cameron had two shopping bags in his hand, and Seth pushed his glasses up higher on the bridge of his nose as they both walked over to me.  As they got closer, Cameron held out the bags.

“I brought a peace offering,” he said with a small smile.  “In case you’re mad.”

“I’m not mad,” I said on a sigh.  “If anything, you guys are the ones who should be mad.  I let the vampire out, after all.”  I tilted my head and looked closer at the bag.  For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what was in it.  I thought I smelled something that I thought was cookies, but I wasn’t sure.  I was in the process of opening my mouth to ask what was in the bags when Seth spoke. 

“Did something happen when Jason dropped you off yesterday?  When we saw him today he was acting weird.”

“How so?” I asked.  I was taking the way he asked me that as Jason didn’t tell them about Liam.

“I’m not sure.  He was just kind of off in his own little world,” Seth replied as he walked closer to me. 

“That’s odd.  Hey,” I nodded at the bags in Cameron’s hand, “what do you have there?”

“Don’t know.  Ryder handed them to me before we left school and told me to give them to you.  He also said not to look, but… he’s Ryder, so...”  Cameron gave me an easy smile, and I felt my lips twitching slightly in response.

“Will you let us in, or do you want us to leave?”

I sighed, and turned around, motioning for them to follow.  “Might as well.”  You were going to find out about Liam sometime, anyway.  They followed me as I walked into the house.  I hoped that Liam was somewhere out of sight so I had a little time to prepare.  He had to have heard our conversation from a few moments ago, and maybe he was being smart about it.

When I walked inside, I said in a slightly louder voice, “I need to go to the bathroom real quick.  Make yourselves comfortable.”  I booked it to the small bathroom in the master bedroom and entered, seeing Liam perched on the edge of the bathtub, waiting for me.  I put a finger to my lips and waited a minute or two.  Then, I flushed the toilet, and turned on the faucet in the sink, letting it run.  Only then did I start speaking, doing little more than just moving my lips.

“I think I’m going to tell them.  They’ll freak out more than Jason, but definitely less than Ryder and River will.  Just, give me a few minutes to kind of guide them into it.”  I gave Liam a timid smile.  He pulled me close and squeezed me tightly to him.  After placing a simple, quick kiss on my forehead, he let me go.  I turned off the water and exited the bathroom, reentering the living room where Seth and Cameron were sitting quietly on my couch.