Hunt Me! I Crave the Chase (Spooky Boys #3)

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to get to know him.

I was just…scared of what he might ask.

He saw through me.

I could tell.

Saw through my cracks.

Collin took pity on me for the first ten minutes of the drive. Let me drop my guard and everything, my head bobbing to the beat as I sang under my breath, the weight of the guitar pick in my pocket centering me.

And then, music and windows be damned, he ambushed me.

Collin’s silence broke as he twisted to look at me, face all screwed up tight like he’d been sucking on a lemon. I wanted to ignore him, so I pretended I hadn’t seen him very obviously trying to get my attention. Or at least…tried to pretend. Because the longer I went without acknowledging him, the more obviously he stared at me—and the more his face scrunched up.

“For fuck’s sake.” I turned the volume down, my heart in my throat. “What?”

“What’s your deal?” Collin asked without preamble. It was our first time alone together, and I suppose I couldn’t blame him. He’d patiently been biding his time, waiting for this moment.

“My deal?” I played dumb.

“Yeah,” Collin buckled down, crossing his arms.

“I don’t have one.”

“Everyone has one,” he countered. “Like me.” He pointed to himself. “My deal is that Mom and Dad want me to turn. I don’t want to. It’s shitty and annoying—but ever since they found out you’re alive they’ve backed off.”

I’d been in town for over a month and hadn’t seen either of my parents, if that was any indication of how much they actually cared. “They’re dicks,” I said softly, my heart thumping.

“Yeah,” Collin shrugged. “But I’m not.” He glared at me. “So what gives? Why’re you always looking at me like I slit your tires?”

“I’m not—I don’t?—”

“Yeah, you do,” Collin huffed. “Look, I get it’s weird. You’ve been gone. Things are weird. I’m new and you don’t know me.” His long fingers tapped his biceps. “But I’m not gonna bite your head off. And I may not know you either, but you’re still my brother. And maybe…I dunno. Maybe I want to know you.”

“You don’t want to know me,” I countered, glaring out at the road so I wouldn’t have to look at him. He was naive if he thought that.

“I do.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I do,” Collin glared at me.

“No, you don’t,” I repeated, harder this time. This was juvenile. And it was too hard to focus on the road when we were arguing. So I pulled over to the side, a splattering of tree shadows hitting the front dash as I twisted to look at him. “You want Markus. You all fucking want Markus. Hate to break it to you but he’s dead. I’m sorry, but he is.”

“Markus.” Collin repeated the name like it was a swear word. “Markus is a fucking ghost, man.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want him.” Collin stared at me. He stared at me for a long time. My heart was pounding, my palms were slick. I couldn’t breathe—I couldn’t. “I want you.”

“You don’t,” my voice broke.

He has no idea what he’s talking about.

“I do,” he argued again, softer this time. “Look…” Collin sucked in a breath, shifting to face me better. He crossed one leg over the other, his ankle hanging over his knee as he stared me down. “My whole life I had to live inside your shadow. You know…Mom and Dad only had me because you died, right? I’m like…the replacement for you. Except the second they had me they forgot why they’d wanted me in the first place.”

“What the fuck?”