Shit.
I have to answer, and I can’t do it with this fucking voice box.
I slide the half-mask off and take a seat on Jeff’s lap so I can hold my knife against his throat while I’m chatting. He tenses when I sit, and I press the blade to his lips.
“Say a goddamn word while I’m on this phone, and it’ll be the last thing you do,” I threaten him.
He nods, lips pressed together tightly, and I bring the phone to my ear.
“Go for Gem,” I answer.
“Hey. Are you nearby?” Bonnie asks.
My heart melts at the sound of her voice, and I begin tauntingly stroking Jeff’s cheek. “I’m… maybe forty-five minutes away? Why? Is something wrong?” I ask.
“I was wondering if you wanted to come by the skate park,” she replies. “Darcy wants to meet you.”
The corners of my lips curl with a smile.
That’s pretty fucking cute.
“Darcy, huh? Have you been talking about me to your friends?” I ask.
My knife moves against Jeff’s throat when I see his lips part in the corner of my eye.
“I mean… maybe I have,” she replies. “So, are you in?”
I glance up at Jeff’s clock on the wall. “Yeah. I think I can make it. Give me an hour?”
“Sure. See you,” she says.
“Later.”
I end the call and toss my mask and phone onto the bed, standing. “Looks like it’s your lucky day, Jeff,” I say, cleaning my knife with one of his shirts on the desk. “But this isn’t thelast time you’ll see me. You and I are nowhere near finished chatting.”
“Is she your girl?” he asks. “Is that why you’re doing this?”
I slowly tilt my head. “You said you know who she is?” I ask. “You’ve known it was Bonnie?”
He blinks as if trying to figure out the right answer. “I…”
“Were you planning on selling the photos? Exploiting her in some way?”
“I… No. No, I wasn’t planning on that,” he stammers, and the way his face is beet red right now makes me reconsider leaving. “I wasn’t. That wasn’t my intention—” His eyes dart toward one of the photos on the wall, and before he has a chance to look elsewhere in an attempt to cover it up, I do the same.
And my stomach bottoms out at the photo in a broken wood frame.
I reach for it as uncontainable rage bubbles to the surface.
Fuck. I was doing so well with this ambush… keeping my cool as the photos came up, only one scratch…
Still now—
It’s a picture of Jeff with several friends. Though… not just any friends. I recognize a few of them, including a brunette woman who appears vaguely familiar, and the man with dark hair on the end who looks a lot like the guy Wren was running from last year. One man stands in the back with his arms up over them all, grinning from ear to ear. Still, there’s only one person my gaze staggers on.
Rad is in the group photo… along with the three others who were with him the night—
“How do you know them?” I ask, turning the picture around for Jeff to see.
