“Um, hi, Mrs. Krivvy. Sorry to show up unannounced like this. I won’t be long,” I said as I managed to untangle myself from the woman’s arms.

“Take all the time you need. Our house is your house.” Mrs. Krivvy turned back to Josh with sparkling eyes and I returned to my attempts at contacting shaym.

I checked again to see if he had come online, but he hadn’t, probably because he was trying not to drop the soap at the Kismet pokey. I couldn’t believe how close I’d been to him and how horribly it all turned out thanks to Lexi and her cell phone.

Mrs. Krivvy patted me on the shoulder. “Well, I’m sure you two would like to be alone.”

Yeah. That would be my cue to leave.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Krivvy. I’m actually on my way out.” I quickly sent Shay a message apologizing for his wrongful arrest and possible imprisonment. With a sigh of frustration, I logged out; fate had thwarted me once again. “Thanks, Josh. Sorry about all this.”

“B-b-bye, Serena.”

“Check out San Andreas later. It now serves hot coffee.”

Josh’s mom turned to me with a questioning look on her face. “What’s that, dear? Did you say you wanted some coffee?”

“Oh, no, Mrs. Krivvy, it was nothing. Just an extra feature on an action game.” I had a feeling a woman with Louis V wing chairs wouldn’t understand about cyberhookers.

“I’m pretty sure after the cops Tasered his nuts that he won’t agree to meet me again. So, yeah, thanks, Lex. Now my chance at meeting Shay is completely blown.”

I sat my lunch tray down next to Cole’s in the cafeteria on Monday and shot a look at Lexi. I could have tossed her by the throat to the rectangle tables. The cops’ quick response time had nothing to do with randomness. The second I’d started walking over to the Acura, Lexi had called 911 to tell them there was a mugging in progress at the Mini Mart.

“I’m sorry, Ser, but it was for your own good. Besides,” she said, handing over a copy of the Kismet Courier that featured the story on its cover, “it says right here that he was in a gang.” Trust Lexi to believe that rag. “Front page. Why would they say that if he wasn’t?”

“Um, sensationalism maybe?” Cole suggested. Brittney’s father had been trying to get a new budget voted in for the police force—which really was just an excuse to buy a fleet of Swiss SUVs like Aspen and Vail have. So anything that even smelled like a crime spree ended up on the front page. “Gangs in Kismet,” Cole repeated incredulously.