Chapter 17

17

Cass

S ince I can't sleep, and only because I can't sleep and for no other purpose, I get up and quietly make my way down to the second floor to Cole's room.

I don't even really want sex. I guess I just want to maybe rub my date in his face a little, even if it was the most boring, awkward hour of my entire life.

Cole's door is unlocked, so I turn the handle and slip inside, finding him wide awake… sorting through a pile of something on his bed.

"Hey. Can't sleep?" he glances up and asks me as if my wandering in here at this time of night is the most normal thing ever.

"No. You?"

"Wide awake, obviously," he replies. "How was your date?"

I debate lying and saying it was wonderful. Instead, I tell him the truth. "He couldn't stop staring at my boobs for more than three seconds."

"Well, I can't say I blame him there." Cole lifts his eye from the phone in his hands to look directly at my chest. "Your breasts are perfection."

I don't point out that he doesn't usually stare at them while we're talking. He only seems fixated with my boobs when my shirt is off and I'm only wearing a sports bra. Or when they're falling out of the top of my dress.

"You're just saying that because you want to get your hands on them."

Smirking he adds, "And my mouth. Can't forget my mouth."

"But that's not going to happen," I remind him.

"Right. Because you and I are enemies," he says simply.

"Yep."

"There are no timeouts in this competition?"

"No."

"Too bad," he mutters with a grin before his attention goes back down to the phone.

Okay, then. "What are you doing?" I ask, wanting to know what's more captivating than my breasts if he thinks they're so perfect.

"Oh, I'm just sorting through my new goodies."

As I walk closer, I'm able to make out the shapes of two big black guns, a watch, various wallets, and two more cell phones.

"Where did you get all of this stuff?"

"The lost and found," he answers without missing a beat.

"The casino's lost and found?" I ask in disbelief.

"Something like that." Smirking while swiping through the phone in his hand that has a different case than his, he says, "Jesus. You want to see something seriously fucked up?"

"Sure."

He pats the space on the bed next to him, so I pull my leg underneath me to take a seat. Cole holds the phone's screen up in between us and hits play .

There's then a young woman undressing on the screen, twenty-something and pretty.

"Why am I not even a little surprised that you're watching porn?" I scoff when I see the woman undress down to a mismatching black bra and green and white panties.

"I wish it was porn," he murmurs.

Cole scrolls through videos on the camera roll and plays another one. This time it's a different woman undressing and putting on different clothes.

Tilting my head to the side, I ask, "Is that a changing room?"

"Took you long enough.

"Ew. You're disgusting," I tell Cole as I get to my feet to leave.

He stops the video and levels me with a look. "These are all videos on your date's phone."

"What?"

"Theodore is a pervy bastard," he remarks. "Let me guess, he works in his daddy's outlets' maintenance department, right?"

"Yes. How did you know that?"

"He has unlimited access to all the clothing stores, even when they're closed, right? So he must have installed cameras over the women's dressing rooms." Tossing the device to the mattress, he says, "Ew. And that means there are probably underage girls, which is a serious federal criminal offense."

"How do you…why do you have Theo's phone?"

"I told you—lost and found."

"Cole," I say with a sigh. "Really?"

"Aren't you happy to find out now instead of later that he's a nasty pervert?" he asks. "Now you can help me decide what to do next. How would you feel if you were one of those women? I can tell you how I would feel if it were my mother being watched like that without her knowing it."

"If I were one of those women…" I start. "I would probably kill him. "

"Prison would be a better punishment. Lots of people would try to kill him in there, every day of his miserable existence."

"Do it," I say with a smile.

"Yeah? His family won't be a problem?"

"Nah. Fuck them. If his father knew what he was doing, then he deserves to rot in jail too."

"Agreed," Cole says. "So, it doesn't look like there will be any wedding bells in your future."

"He's just the first; he won't be my last date," I tell him before I force my feet to walk out of his bedroom.