"Not complete assholes," Huck repeated, smiling. "That might be the nicest thing you've ever said about us."
"I know it is," Ayanna agreed, moving toward the island to grab a couple red cups, tossing some vodka and a hint of fruit punch in them before holding out to me. "Drink this," she demanded, giving me a smile. "Then you can meet me at the pool, once you're done with the guys."
With that, she was gone.
"She's adopted you now, you know," McCoy told me, shaking his head.
"What? We shared just a couple sentences."
"She misses Gus."
"My sister," Huck explained.
"Right. Before she fell for a biker and moved to New Jersey. If I am getting that right."
"That pretty much sums it up," Huck agreed. "Stay awhile," he invited, waving at the house. "It's good to be friendly with the neighbors."
I could have sworn he and McCoy shared a look after he said it, but I didn't know either of them well enough to interpret it. It was enough to put me on edge, though, to make me decide to hang out with Ayanna for a few minutes by the pool, then take my ass right back to my own house where I didn't have to wonder why the criminal biker guys were looking at me sideways.
"Don't worry about them," Ayanna said twenty minutes later as I sipped my drink with my legs dangling in the pool water, after I glanced over at the figures of McCoy and Huck as they lingered on the outskirts of the pool area, pretending to be casually drinking, but were absolutely keeping an eye on me. Almost as if they suspected me of something. But what?
"They're watching me, right?"
"Seems like it. Don't pay it any mind. They're a little paranoid right now."
"Right. Being criminals and all," I said, getting a cackling laugh from Ayanna, whose face was even more striking when she was smiling.
"Something like that," Ayanna agreed. "Ugh, not this one," she grumbled, shaking her head.
This one, meaning the song with its accompanying music video that was being projected onto a giant blow up screen a couple yards behind the pool, looking very much like some college spring break party.
I glanced up before I heard the first few bars of music. About a minute too late to catch the warning that would have been on the screen. Meant for people like me. Who couldn't handle it.
The flashing lights.
The misfirings they caused in the brain.
I had a split second of panic about being close to the water before I didn't know anything else.
Except finally coming to.
With Huck's arms around me.
Chapter Four
Huck
I felt like a dick watching her.
She was just sipping a drink, bullshitting with Ayanna, splashing her feet in the water. There was no reason to assume she was here for any other reason than returning one of Remy's dogs.
But McCoy's paranoia had been rubbing off on me, making me dig deeper and deeper into our neighbor, coming up with next to nothing other than her connection to her little brother, and the fact that her step-father was from an old money family.
She was mostly private on her personal social media accounts, but from what I could tell, her friends were all just random men and women she had lived near before moving all the way out to Golden Glades.
I could never figure out why she'd moved, what was the draw to the area. Especially without a car. There seemed to be no connections in the area.
And when there were more questions than answers, you had to be a bit suspicious.
Still, it made me feel like a creep.
I was just about to walk off, go find something else to do, when I saw it.
A tremor that turned into something more.
Until her body was violently shaking.
A seizure.
The word formed in my head at the exact second her body lurched forward into the water.
"Huck!" Ayanna screamed, already reaching out for Harmon, grabbing her convulsing body, trying to keep the two of them above water, and not doing a great job of it.
The guests—the useless shits they were—all swam away rather than toward her to help.
I was running before I even realized I'd told my body to do so, tearing across the stone around the pool, dropping down to my knees beside it, reaching outward toward Ayanna, grabbing Harmon from her, pulling her out of the water.
"Put her on her side," Seeley, our only prospect so far, demanded, running up and dropping down near Harmon's head as I dropped her down, pulling off his cut to put under her head. "In case she throws up," he explained to me. There must have been a question in my eyes because he shrugged. "You don't want to know how many people I've seen OD," he explained, proving yet again how rough a life the kid had led.
"Could someone have dropped something in her drink?" I asked, looking over at Ayanna, who had swum to the side of the pool, and was looking on with worried eyes.
"No. I made it myself. She's been sitting here with me. You know me, no one could get that shit by me."
That was true. Partly because of her own good sense, and partly because her man had hammered home how important it was to be aware—and therefore safe—in public, Ayanna missing some guy getting close enough to dose Harmon without her knowing seemed unlikely.
"Maybe she just has seizures," Seeley suggested. "That video is trippy," he added, nodding toward the screen.
It was then I became aware of the flashing lights. I probably never would have thought twice about them myself. But I wasn't someone who suffered from seizures, who knew anyone who did.
"Anyone got any idea what we're supposed to do now?" I asked, looking around, seeing no answers on any familiar or foreign faces.
"Looking it up," McCoy said, walking over while looking down at his phone. "I mean, we can call an ambulance."
"She doesn't like being inside cars."
"Don't think she would notice," Seeley reasoned.
"Well, it says she will come out of it. Might be disoriented for a while. Headache, chills. Nothing too severe."
My gaze slid to Ayanna, looking for her opinion. "She's not shaking anymore," she said, making my gaze move down to see she was right. "Maybe get her inside, away from all the prying eyes. Can't imagine she wants to wake up to being a spectacle," she added.
"Right," I agreed, tucking my arms under her body, lifting her up, carrying her with me back into the house. "It's okay," I said when I noticed her gaze looking up at me, open, but unseeing. "You're alright. You had a seizure. We think," I added as I walked her through the crush of bodies on the first floor and up to the second, down the hall into the master.
"You with me?" I asked, watching her slow blink up at me. "No? Not yet. Alright. I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to do right now," I admitted, taking her to the side of the bed, yanking down the comforter, and pressing her down onto it.
"McCoy said you might be cold. Can't imagine the wet thing is helping," I mumbled to myself since I was pretty sure she still wasn't completely alert yet. "Hold up," I said, jumping up to run into the bathroom to grab some towels, coming back out to wipe the water off of her, wrapping one around her center to squeeze some of it out of the fabric, then drying her hair. "Still nothing, huh? How the hell long does this take?" I asked, feeling an unfamiliar sense of helplessness overtaking me as I leaned back against the bed, reaching to pull her over my lap, trying to wrap the comforter around both of us.