BLIND: A Mastermind Novel (5 page)

The guys stripped off their suits and hung their packs in the vault next to the Justice League costumes. Ash didn’t bother. He went right to his private office and shut the door.

Flashing on his computer, he searched her name. Knowing it was unethical and not caring, he punched her name into GeekPeek’s database—something he’d resisted the urge to do a million times before, out of self-preservation.

“Bingo.
”
There she was. His heart gave a slight stutter at the sight of her profile picture, still the same beautiful girl, only now she was a woman. She lived in the same area where the
y’
d grown up and Elliot was right, she taught sixth grade at their old middle school.

He scanned through her statuses, noting the usual, but found it odd she didn’t seem the social butterfly he’d assumed she’d be. Taking a deep breath, he clicked on her photo albums and exhaled jaggedly.

She was more striking than she’d been in high school. Those eyes, those sharp green-blue eyes, so many fantasies had been entertained regarding those eyes—and her breasts of course. He swallowed and scrolled down.

Her information claimed she was single. There were no pictures boasting of engagement rings or babies. How was that possible?

There was a knock at his door and he minimized the screen. “Come in.”

Jet stepped inside and plopped in the Dr. Claw chair across from his desk. “You looking her up?”

His instinct was to lie, but this was Jet. He was a friend. “Yeah.”

“Think it’s her?”

“Could be. I’m blown away she’s single.”

Jet tilted his head, his full black hair falling to the side. “Took me a while to place her, but now I remember. She’s the one who stood you up for homecoming, right?”

Stood him up, ripped out his heart, humiliated him, and destroyed every hope of ever knowing her. “I guess you could say that.”

Scarlet Farrow was always a little bit quiet, but light years out of his league. She’d been on the cheer squad, hung with all the popular kids, was invited to places his kind were never welcome.

Asher had started crushing on her in sixth grade when she returned from summer break with a fresh spattering of cocoa freckles and a crisp bronze tan to her usually lily white skin. That was also the year she developed boobs. He used to sit behind her and get hard from the soft scent of her hair, then spend the rest of the day praying he wasn’t called to the board in front of the whole damn class.

As the years went on her loveliness bloomed. She never wore a lot of makeup and her body always appeared so soft under her
Chic
jeans and those worn-in sweaters.

She had her own sort of style. A lot of girls from his generation went with the grunge look, but not Scarlet. She always looked like she’d just returned from a sailing trip around the Cape, hair a wild tousled mess of copper waves and cheeks always a tinge rosy. Her natural beauty warranted a kind of Kennedy esteem, making her somehow untouchable, like American royalty.

The older she became, the longer her hair grew. Those strawberry blonde curls darkened to the most vibrant shade of red and by the end of freshman year, she’d been nicknamed Lettie Red Riding Hood. She could very well be the woman writing under L.R. Riding Hood.

He could imagine her as a teacher, probably driving the present middle school boys as crazy as she drove him. If what the article said was true, she was incredibly lonely. He knew what that was like. If not for the guys and their joint ventures, he’d have nothing.

“You should call her,
”
Jet said.

Ash’s lusty recollections slammed to a halt. “Are you out of your mind? She never had a clue who I was until homecoming, and the times I tried to talk to her were painful enough. No need to relive the disaster that was my pubescent years.”

“You’re different now, Ash. We all are. You own one of the most successful companies in the world, you’re worth millions, and you aren’t some pint-sized pipsqueak rocking a retainer and acne anymore. She might be interested.”

Funny, all that was true, but deep down he was still the nerd he’d always been. Relationships with women only interested in his money and success held no appeal. It was a little too familiar to his teenage years when the popular kids were nice to him simply because he could do their homework and help them pass. He’d always wanted a woman to appreciate
him
. “I don’t think so.
”
Not to mention he hated her.

“Why? What are you afraid of?”

Jet wasn’t an original to the gang. He’d discovered them in Ash’s garage sometime during high school when Elliot promised to do his science homework for a hefty sum. They’d used Jet’s money to help purchase a life-size Storm Trooper—not the smartest investment, but a necessary mascot for every dweeb lair. Jet had paid for at least two legs of that collector’s item.

“Look, we love you, Jet. You’re like a brother, but you don’t know what it was like for us. We were the nerd herd. We never got invited to sit with the cool kids, and we had food thrown at us when we accidentally looked their way.”

“And now you’re paying those dickheads
’
salaries. Look at Devon. He couldn’t survive if it wasn’t for you, Hunter, and Elliot.”

Jet wasn’t gifted like the rest of them. His SATs scores had been an accumulation of getting his name right and leaving a good deal of the questions blank. But he had something the rest of them didn’t. He had the face and charisma people were drawn to.

Over time, they’d stopped charging him for midterm papers and continued to do his homework in exchange for details about his dates with the girls who didn’t know that Asher, Hunter, and Elliot existed. Twelve years later and he was still that charismatic guy women couldn’t resist.

Ash sighed and flipped around some papers on his desk, knocking a few Lego men to the ground in the process. “You’re going to have to make a press release next week about the changes being made to GeekPeek.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t change the subject, Ash. You liked this girl. She’s lonely as hell and begging for a nice, smart guy to rescue her from all the losers out there. That guy could be you. We aren’t seventeen anymore.”

“I’m aware we aren’t kids, Jet. But look at me. I’m sitting behind a desk covered in Legos. Anakin’s light saber is mounted on my wall and my ring tone screams
By the power of Greyskull!
I haven’t changed. Girls like Scarlet Farrow are taught to laugh at guys like me. She laughed then. She’d laugh now. I can do without the kick to my pride.
”
He didn’t want to have to hide who he was with anyone.

His friend’s expression turned sympathetic. “Man, she really messed you up.”

His mind went back to the last time he looked kindly on her. She’d been wearing her Cougars cheer uniform, the short red skirt only reaching to her mid-thigh. It was Homecoming week and they’d been at the pep rally, which turned into the annual bonfire on the field.

Everyone had been scrutinizing the lineups and screaming for the athletes, but Asher’s eyes had been glued to Scarlet. When the cheer squad launched her into some crazy flip and she landed wrong, he’d jumped to his feet.

Ash didn’t hit his growth spurt until he was nineteen, so back then he was rocking a pathetic five foot one and a quarter. Frantically, he tried to stare over the taller spectators, waiting anxiously for any sign of Scarlet’s red hair. The nurse and team medics were on the field immediately and she disappeared before the bystanders returned to their seats.

Slipping through the crowd, Asher had gone to find Scarlet. When he spotted her, she was sitting at a picnic table in the dark, icing her ankle.

“How’s your leg?
”
He winced as his voice cracked at the most inopportune moment.

She glanced up, her green eyes shimmering through unshed tears. “Do I know you?”

“I’m
…
Asher. Asher Roan. I’m in your chem class and we’ve gone to school together for years.”

Her brow tightened. “Oh, yeah. I remember. You used to sit behind me in Mrs. Delanie’s class.”

Yeah and they’d shared numerous teachers since then. It never got old; the pain of realizing the people that made up his world didn’t even know he existed.
“Right. Are you okay?”

“I sprained it. It hurts pretty bad, but my coach said it’s not as bad as it could have been. They’re trying to find crutches for me.”

“Guess you won’t be able to cheer for a while.”

She shrugged
.
“Probably not.
”

Her hair was in a high ponytail, the waves reaching to her lower back. It was tied to with a thin red ribbon, and he wanted that ribbon more than everything on his next Christmas list.

“Hey, Red, that was a pretty nasty fall!
”

Asher turned and shrunk a bit when Bobby Westerman loped from the field gate. Great. This was the guy that taped Elliot to a locker last week. Asher sidestepped into the shadows, praying the guy wouldn’t start any trouble in front of Scarlet.

She grinned at the oversized linebacker. “Hey, Bobby.”

The two started talking and Asher’s presence was forgotten. Skulking away, he didn’t return to the bonfire, seeing no reason to be there now that Scarlet wasn’t cheering.

After finding his mom’s station wagon parked amongst the muscle cars belonging to the jocks, the paneled vehicle as unambiguous as a milkmaid on a battlefield of knights and dragons, he drove home.

Several days later, Asher had been minding his own business at school, searching in his locker for something, when he was shoved face first into the metal door. His stomach pinched at the inevitable shaming that would follow.

Bobby Westerman gripped him by the scruff of his neck and painfully twisted his arm behind his back. Certain he was going to wind up crammed inside his locker until he peed his pants or puked from discomfort, Asher was shocked when Scarlet’s voice snapped, “Bobby!”

Averting his eyes, unable to face her in such a mortifying situation, Asher’s body crumpled like an abused sack of bones as Westerman snuck in a final shot. Forcing back the urge to puke from the direct blow to his kidney, he shut his eyes.

Her silence spoke volumes and when he got the nerve to peek at her, such scorn burned in her eyes it halted Bobby from beating him to a pulp. Perfect. She was coming to
his
rescue. His shame was complete.

Without saying another word, she stalked away with her chin high and posture severe, despite her crutches.

Bobby cursed and kicked him. “Got off easy that time, dick.
”
The bully loped off after Scarlet, and Hunter and Elliot came out of hiding to help him up.

The following week the inconceivable happened. He’d been returning to chemistry class from the lavatory when he spotted a folded up note on his textbook. Glancing around suspiciously, he opened it.

Dear Asher,

I can’t lie. I’ve been watching you and I think you’re really cute. Do you have a date for the homecoming dance? I’ve been hoping you’d ask, but
…
you haven’t.

Hugs,

Scarlet

His face burned as he shoved the paper in the pocket of his constricting corduroys. Scarlet wasn’t looking at him. When the bell rang, he held his books over his crotch and bolted out of class. That afternoon he’d told Elliot and Hunter about the note, but they were equally skeptical.