“She’d be more comfortable in bed,” I say, still crouched beside her.
“Yes, she would,” Callum agrees. “But that doesn’t give us the right to put her there.”
“Let’s go,” I say with a sigh, my knees creaking as I stand and head for her apartment door. Archer and Callum get to the door before me as I look around one last time, cataloguing everything before I leave.
“Do you think he’ll try asking her out again?” Archer asks, pulling the door shut behind us.
If we hadn’t fucked things up so badly, one of us could have stayed and watched over her as she slept. We lost that right. She wouldn’t want us to touch her, and she wouldn’t want us to stay. Everywhere I look on our way down the four flights of stairs, I see a problem. A broken elevator. Holes punched into the walls. Cracks.
I consider Archer’s question. She said she’d agreed to go on a date with Oscar, but she’d had a bad feeling that had kept on growing. Enough for her to have canceled the date. Her description of the silver car outside had set off alarm bells. It had been the catalyst for her calling us. She’d thought he was outside her apartment, and for him to have found out where she worked and been at a laundromat minutes from her home, I can’t help but think the same.
On our way out, we pass a nearly overflowing trash can near the building’s front entrance.
I share a glance with Callum, who shakes his head. Even the simplest things—jobs any building super should be on top of—are not being done. If he can’t even be bothered to empty the trash, what the fuck else isn’t he doing?
Outside, night is setting in, and the street down this downtown side road is quiet. I look for the silver car, but I don’t find it. June said the driver had left, but there’s no reason to think he won’t come back.
“She told him no, and she didn’t answer when he called her back. He probably knows we told her who he was. He won’t try again with her being so wary,” I say.
That doesn’t mean he won’t go back to my mom, or she won’t send someone else.
Callum leads the way to his car parked feet from her apartment door. I’d panicked and shoved him off the couch to wake him up, thinking something was wrong with June. He offered to drive here to wake himself up. He gets in the front, Archer takes the passenger seat while I slide into the back, and we all shut our doors.
But Callum doesn’t start the engine.
We have a lot to talk about, and I don’t feel right doing it anywhere other than where I can see June’s apartment.
I’d heard the fear in her voice when she’d called, and I’d told her that our conversation was too long to have on the phone.
Part of that was the truth.Mostof it was true. But not all. She’d sounded scared, and I’d needed to know I wasn’t hearing what I thought I was. The second she’d swung open her apartment door, dressed in gray sweatpants, a navy hoodie, and light brown socks, I’d known I was right to want to have our conversation face to face.
Archer sighs from the passenger seat, his head tipped back and his eyes on June’s apartment. “That was my fault. I shouldn’t have told her someone would hurt her if she left us.”
“She needed to hear it,” Callum says.
“Not like that,” Archer snaps. He takes a breath, massaging his forehead as he lets it out, and from his quieter tone, most of his anger. “Now she’s never going to feel safe again because of it.”
“You didn’t tell her about the gardener,” Callum says.
“Do you think it would have helped her to know that my mother paid the gardener to use her?” I ask him.
He doesn’t respond, but I’d expected that.
We’ve exposed Juniper to more than enough hurt.Too much. She doesn’t need to know this. Maybe one day I’ll tell her, but not now.
“So, what do we do about Juniper?” I ask.
“Make her feel safe,” Callum says quietly.
“Keepher safe,” Archer adds, his voice vibrating with intensity.
The problem with that is we can’t do it alone. I can only think of one person who wouldn’t immediately stab me in the back or betray Juniper.
“Who's watching her apartment tonight?” I ask.
Callum and Archer glance at each other, and Callum says, “Not me. I need to call someone about the state of that building tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll stay then,” Archer says and twists around to look at me. “Why can’t you do it?”
