Cassidy Jones and the Seventh Attendant (Cassidy Jones Adventures, Book Three) Read Free Page B

might be holing up by searching credit card reports, phone records, and whatever else he could dig up—or hack into —online. Once he located the fugitive’s whereabouts, Riley sent her bounty hunters—Mickey, Marky, and Marty—to track down her delinquent client. I had never met them, either, though I did glimpse Mickey once—burly, red Mohawk, leather and tats, thin scar across the right side of his freckled face like a slash from a knife blade . . .
    Emery cleared his throat to get my attention. He tapped his ear, signaling me to stop eavesdropping on his conversation.
    I smirked, because he was so wrong. My ears weren’t nosing around his business—this time.
    “Have fun.” I winked at him to throw him off and then left him to continue his conversation with his hottie.

 
    Two
    Boys Will Be Boys
     
     
     
     
    Darn it, Emery . I hesitantly climbed the attic stairs, listening to the boys hassle one another, breathing in their scents, and feeling very self-conscious about what I was wearing. Yoga pants and a tank. Big deal. Why’d you have to make me all insecure about something so stupid?
    Part of me suspected Emery had intentionally undermined my confidence. He hadn’t been exactly thrilled about my reconciliation with Jared, viewing him as a potential threat in regard to my secret.
    Jared was smart, but not that smart. In a million years it wouldn’t have crossed his mind to think, Ah-ha! Cassidy Jones is a mutant. Despite Emery’s qualms, I owed Jared an apology, so an apology is what he had gotten. Rekindling our friendship was the natural result, and we were just friends—frustratingly. Whatever romantic feelings he’d had for me prior to the horrendous 210 days that we weren’t speaking had definitely evaporated. But I had my friend back, so I should be happy. Right?
    Before going up the last few steps, I smoothed out my ponytail and my lip gloss with a finger, while rolling my eyes at Bobby Neigh’s bragging about his latest romantic conquest. The guy was so full of himself. Taking a deep breath, I dismissed the idea that my outfit was anything other than totally cute and patted my stomach to calm the butterflies fluttering about. I continued up the stairs, sporting a manufactured smirk.
    “Hey, gossips,” I said in greeting. The boys congregating on the sofa side of the attic looked at me. “You’re like a bunch of old women.”
    The cut received much approval. Amid the “oohs,” the laughter, and “takes one to know one,” Bobby demanded, “Dude, what did you hear?”
    “Everything, dude ,” I quipped, my eyes avoiding Jared. “But nothing worth repeating.”
    Nate grinned with pride at the slam.
    “Burn!” a few boys shouted as I strode toward them. I worked up the nerve to peek at Jared. Tousled, dirty-blond hair; perfect nose; rounded jaw; expressive, soulful, chocolate-brown eyes fringed with thick black lashes; sculpted lips; and a smile that started real slow at the corners of his scrumptious mouth. Heavenly, I sighed inwardly, careful to mask my succulent eyeful of Jared.
    “Birthday noogies!” Bobby shouted, and before I knew what was happening, the big oaf had me in a headlock. If Jared’s beauty hadn’t enraptured me, there’s no way I would have missed Bobby launching his stringy body off the sofa.
    “Bobby,” I growled. I fought the urge to sink my fingers into his mop of brown curls and flip him—a move Nate’s wannabe-Kung-Fu-master-twin-who-could-hardly-throw-a-punch wouldn’t know, let alone be able to perform.
    “One,” Bobby jovially counted, scraping knuckles across my scalp and messing up my hair.
    “What are you, five?” I snarled through my teeth, mentally beating down the beast. “You were even a pain back then.”
    “I love you, tooooo .” His knuckles grated again.
    “Okay, Bobby,” Jared said while the other boys snickered, deepening my humiliation. I could only imagine how ridiculous this looked.
    Enough! I jammed my heel into