“This is part of your ‘I’m a good girl now’ plan, isn’t it?” Amy asked sweetly.

Miki took her hands away from her ears. “Yup. I’m a very good girl.”

Craig grimaced. “Don’t say that.”

“Why?”

“Because to guys it just means you swallow.”

“Grow up,” Miki snapped while trying not to laugh. “How about, I’m going to be a very respectable girl with a life.”

“We have lives.” Kenny grabbed his bottle of ale off the table. “Sad, lonely, bitter lives. But lives just the same.”

“But what about our plan to rule the world, Miki? Or at least Microsoft?” Ben pushed his empty bottle of ale away. “You and me. We had big dreams.”

“You guys are boneheads.” Yet she loved each and every one of them. She connected with all of them in junior high through an online game before online games were hot. Together they’d begun a minor reign of terror against big corporations. But Miki was the only one busted. She never turned them in, even though she could have gotten off scot-free by turning state’s evidence. Because of that they were loyal to her. She knew it was no accident they all ended up attending the same university.

“Okay. Let me make this clear. I’m here for one reason. To get my doctorate and to get a life. Sara and Angelina are passing me by. I don’t want to wake up forty, still living in Texas, alone and bitter. So, until further notice, I will not be doing anything remotely…” she cleared her throat, “…illegal.”

She didn’t know what expression she had on her face, but Amy was all over it.

“Except that you’ve already done something illegal.”

“What? No.”

Amy leaned forward. “Bullshit, Kendrick. Come on. Tell us. You’ll feel better. What was it? Corporate espionage? Credit card theft? Identity theft?”

Miki stared. “The fact that you would think for a second I would ever do that bugs me.” Then she shrugged. “I kind of drugged a man.”

“Did you kill him?”

“No! What is it with you guys?”

“We’re bored,” Kenny Liu answered.

“Clearly.”

“So did you just do this or…?”

She glanced at her watch. “About two and a half hours ago, give or take. Of course, that’s when he reacted to it. The actual ingestion of the drug—”

“Miki,” Amy cut her off. “Who the hell did you drug?”

“Just this guy. He’s an…associate of Sara’s.” She’d filled them in months ago about Sara’s new life, but she gave only the barest of details. To her friends it sounded like Sara had hooked up with this cool biker guy and ran off to live happily ever afterin Northern California. Left out was anything about shapeshifters, Packs, Prides, or vicious battles in Sara’s front yard. “He insisted on coming with me so he could be my big male protector.”

“How did you do it?” Craig didn’t even look up from the keyboard. Miki drugging someone didn’t even warrant a glance.

“I combined a few things. All tasteless. Quite effective. He went to get ice and I put it in his pasta. It took about an hour or so to become active in his system. Then he went out like a light.” But not before making me scream like a little whore.

Amy looked at Miki over her bottle of ale. “Is he cute?”

Oh, God, yes. “He’s okay.”

“Got a picture?”

“Maybe.” Miki grabbed her backpack and dug around until she pulled out a battered picture Sara sent her five months ago. It was a shot of the Pack with Sara and Zach in front. She knew Sara sent it to her so Miki would know she was okay.

“Here.” She handed the picture to Amy. “He’s the big blond one in the back.”

Amy looked at the picture while Kenny looked over her shoulder. He frowned and gawked at the photo in awe. “Jesus, Miki, is this guy standing on a ladder or something?”

“And you’re here why?” Amy demanded, incredulous.

“What?”

Her two friends looked up at her, but Amy spoke. “Come on, Mik. This guy is hot.”

Kenny shrugged. “I’m annoyingly straight, and I think this guy is hot. Freakishly large, but hot.”

“He’s a pain in the ass.”

“This guy?” Amy sounded unconvinced. “He looks like a—”

“If you say teddy bear, I’m going to kick the living shit out of you.”

“I was going to say he looks like a sweetie.”

“Well, he’s not. Far from it, in fact.”

“You’re an idiot. I’d be on this guy in two seconds.” And she would, too. Amy was a geek, but she was a horny little minx.

“I need safe and boring. He’s so not that.” Amazing at hand jobs, though.

“Why would you want safe and boring?”

“Because safe and boring gets you tenure.”

“And let me guess who your idea of the perfect safe and boring guy is.”

“You don’t have to guess. It’s Troy. Perfectly suited for me.” Her friends groaned in disgust. “What? What’s wrong with Troy?”

Amy sneered, “Dude, he’s seriously boring. And a bit of an idiot if you ask me.”

“No. No. He’s just brilliant.”

“Miki, he’s plain ol’ smart. You’re brilliant. And he could never deal with that. Ever.”