Page 17 of Deadly Cravings

“Hello.”

“Hey.” Peter sounded winded and there was an edge to his voice. Something was wrong.

“Why are you whispering?” Silence and then he cleared his throat. “Peterrrr...”

“My cell phone was taken away.”

“What happened?” I curled my toes within my slippers—very much on edge. He was lucky he wasn’t in front of me because I’d be dragging him by the ear to get him to spit it out.

“Nothing,” he whispered and cleared his throat. “Catty, I fucked up.” The dejected tone wrenched into my heart.

“Peter, what happened?”

“Um . . .”

“Peter,” I repeated and even though my voice sounded normal, my eyes watered.

“Fine,” he breathed in my ear and he went silent. “Catty.” He paused. “I’m so sorry. I can get a job and help pay—” Dread tightened my stomach.

“What happened?”

“I should have known better ... I’m so sorry, Cat.”

“You’re freaking me out here.”

“I took a car out for a joy ride.” I snorted an incredulous laugh, but quickly stilled it. I pressed my lips between my teeth. It better not be what I thought he was insinuating.

“I crashed it.” He shouldn’t have done it, but at least he was safe— “Into the side of the administration building.”

Worry swelled to life.

“Are you injured?” I said, rushed.

“Nothing happened to me, but . . .” He hesitated. “They’re sending you a bill.”

I thumped my head on the wall.

I said nothing, instead squeezed my eyes closed. This was no good. My headache worsened to a category five level.

“I’ll deal with it,” I said stiffly. What else could I say?

“I’m sorry.” The frustration seeped from his tone. “I can get a job to help pay?—”

“No,” I snapped. I blew a raspberry. “I will handle it, Peter. What were you thinking?” He inhaled sharply and I could feel another revelation coming.

“It was stupid, I was trying to impress this girl.” A girl. My little brother had an entire life he was building over there . . . without me. I struggled to swallow.

“I’ll handle it, but I have to go. I need to figure some things out.” Clicking the call off in the middle of what he was saying, I navigated to my emails and opened the one from his school. I was already gritting my teeth before I read it.

They had wasted no time sending me the bill, whoever had drafted this email must have sent it during the night.

But sixty thousand dollars?

That was more than my next book advance that was scheduled to deposit in four months. I whimpered as I typed my response informing them I would have their money by their deadline when all I wanted to do was call and go off about the charges. But it would be a waste of time, the school had been such a peach and sent attachments ofeverything. Peter fucked up, and I had to fix it or he’d get kicked out.

I needed to get a hold of my agent, Erin, to ask about getting my advance sooner.

So much for getting a new anything.I thumped my head again and dropped the phone in my lap.