He gave the book a little wave. "Guess."
I knew whereI'dseen it last – tucked under the mattress of my single bed.
He set the book on a side table. "You need to find a better hiding spot," he said.
I gave Jake a hard stare. "You went in my room?" The thought was infinitely unsettling in more ways than one. "When?"
"Last night."
"When I was sleeping?"
"No. Before you got home."
I gave him a look of disgust. "Unbelievable."
"Want to know what's unbelievable?" he said, his voice growing harder now. "That you're hiding from some low-life when you could've called for help."
"From who?" I tried to laugh. "You?"
"Why not?"
"Because," I said, "we've lost touch. Remember?"
"If you wanted to, you could've gotten ahold of me."
"Yeah, right," I said. "And about Rango? I didn't know he was a low-life, okay? I met him at some club. We hit it off. He seemed nice."
"Uh-huh."
"And by the time I figured out he was a jerk, it was too late." I pushed a hand through my hair. "After things got too crazy, I figured a change of scenery would do me good."
"I saw your scenery," he said. "It wasn'tthatgood."
"Hey, it wasn't that bad," I lied.
"You're lucky you've been going by a different name," he said.
"Lucky?" I made a scoffing sound. "Try growing up with a name like Luna. See how luckyyoufeel."
His voice softened. "I like your name. You should stop changing it."
I gave him a sarcastic smile. "I'll think about it."
"By the way," he said, "you quit your bartending gig too."
My jaw dropped. "What?"
"Sorry."
He didn't look sorry. I slouched deeper into the chair, feeling utterly overwhelmed.
"So about Rango?" he said.
"What about him? " I said. "We had a bad break-up. End of story."
"The way I heard it, you trashed his Beamer."
"No," I said, considering Rango's once-beautiful car. "Hesmashedhis Beamer, and tried to pin the blame on me when the cops came. The idiot didn't even have insurance."