I don’t know what kind of psychopaths willingly got out of bed before the sun was up, but apparently, I was one of them now. I felt half dead when my alarm went off, and I came within inches of chucking my phone across the attic before Vincent reminded me sleepily, “It’s for Jess, just remember it’s for Jess.”

It was enough to finally push me out of bed.

I understood why Lucas was so irritated about the whole thing. He was fiercely loyal, but only once you had his trust, and that was extremely hard to come by. Jess was confusing to him, likely in the same ways she confused me. Every time I expected her to pull away, to fall back into her old habits of sneering at everything we did, she managed to surprise me.

Seeing her cheer for me during the competition had me flying so high I hadn’t had the slightest doubt I’d win. She didn’t need to do that. Our agreement had nothing to do with dating, or supporting us in our endeavors…but she still did. She was still genuinely excited to see me do well, and I was struggling to understand why.

The only reason I could think of, the one that kept running through my brain again and again, was that she was falling for us as much as we were for her.

Not even in a sexual way. The lust was already there; we’d all acknowledged that a long time ago. It wasn’t about that. This was different. It was like she was falling for us, for who we were and what we brought to her life.

I saw the way she looked at us, and the way the others looked at her. Even Lucas wasn’t exempt. I’d seen the furious, pining looks he shot her way.

It was dangerous to feel this good. Defaulting to pessimism usually felt safer, especially today.

There was a bad feeling in my gut, telling me something else was coming. I didn’t know if it would be Reagan, or more shit with Alex McAllister and his group, but something was stirring up alarm bells in me and I didn’t like it.

I arrived at the gym early, getting inside as soon as they opened. It was a massive place, still new enough that everything smelled like plastic and disinfectant. It was going to cost me double the monthly rate as my old gym, but whatever. I’d just been handed my new membership card when an incredulous voice said from behind me, “Jason? What are you doing here?” and I whirled around.