The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy 2)

“Sure.”

TWENTY

Bailey

A week passed, and I fell into a routine.

Kash woke me up every morning, and after I fell back asleep, fully satiated, he left for work. I woke forty minutes later, went to Hawking. Hoda wasn’t there for the first three days. Rumor was that she found herself having financial problems. She got that sorted out, but I’d taken to sitting with Melissa and Liam. We ate at the same place for lunch every day, and because of that, other people and staff took note. It didn’t take long before my classmates’ pictures were being put on a couple social gossip blogs. Camille Story had remained quiet, but she was on the list for me to hack. Again. She was slippery, though, so I wanted to wait and figure out the best way to go at her.

Matt came over twice. He didn’t ask about Kash. He asked about school, and he had a look in his eye like he wanted to talk about something else, something important, but both times he never brought it up.

I was biding my time before I pushed to get answers from him.

I worried he would close up to me, so I wanted to wait until the right time.

I needed answers.

If he was going to Naveah. If he was going to see a new woman. If he was going to the Chesapeake Estate. But mostly, I wanted to know what was bothering him.

Until then, lots of studying. Lots of coding. Lots of reading.

I wanted to get ahead with my classes, so that meant even more reading and even more coding. Melissa dropped a hint that there was a big internship opportunity coming up. She looked at me as she was talking about it, got all squinty, and then clammed up. I asked Liam later about it and he told me that Phoenix Tech always offered a first-year graduate student in our program at Hawking an internship. That internship sometimes led into a job.

I understood why she clammed up.

Liam added, “Though I don’t think anyone will get too excited about it this year. It’s pretty obvious you’ll get it.”

But he didn’t know, and I didn’t know, and I realized then that I hadn’t heard from my father for almost three weeks. And I further realized I was okay with that. As for Chrissy, she’d been quiet, too. She had texted a couple mornings ago.

Checking in, sweetie. How’s everything going?

I didn’t respond to her. I didn’t know why, but as soon as I put the phone away, my mind was moving on to other things.

I was leaving our afternoon class when my phone started ringing.

Torie calling.

Melissa was with me. We were both watching Hoda, who’d been back the past two days. She stuck to herself, only talking once with Liam, who walked away, looking annoyed. Melissa asked what the conversation was about but he didn’t say. He just got that same annoyed look and left us, too. So we were standing, eyeing Hoda, who was sitting at a table in the hallway, acting as if she didn’t know we were mostly glaring her way. But she did, and we knew she did, and we were still doing it anyway.

I answered, “Hey, Torie.”

Hoda’s head snapped up. Her eyes jumped right to me.

“Bailey,” she breathed into the phone. “Tamara called, and her man broke up with her. We need a girls’ night, stat.”

“Torie—”

She overrode me. “Kash gave me the night off. I’m calling in reinforcements. Get over to our apartment in an hour. You got any girlfriends from school?”

I opened my mouth.

Melissa had heard. She piped up next to me. “She totally does! Me!”

“Well, whoever you are, get Bailey and your asses to our apartment. Just let one of those hottie guards know you’re going to Torie’s place. Now, I have a question. Are you the type of girls who want food before drinks and dancing? Or are you the Taco Bell after drinks and dancing type of girls?”

“Uh…” Melissa looked clueless.

I took the phone back. “We’ll bring something to tide us over—”

Melissa grabbed the phone. “No! Drinking. Dancing. Taco Bell. That’s what we’re doing tonight.”

Torie chuckled, still sounding all smooth and seductive but I was wondering if this was how she was, off duty. “Add in shots, and I’m not talking shots where they can be added into the drinking section. Shots get their own category. Trust me, Tam will be hurting a little less by the end of the night.”

She hung up.

I turned to Erik. He was the closest. I didn’t say a word. He nodded before I could. “We know her place. We’ll get you there.”

“You’re off duty soon.”

“Scott and the new guys know it. You’re covered.” He looked at Melissa, then back to me. “Are we giving your friend a ride to get ready, too?”

Melissa’s eyes got big. “That would be amazing.”