“Wait—” He lunges at the door before I can shut it. “My brother… is he okay?”
“Ice on the backs of his legs and some ibuprofen. He’ll be fine,” I tell him before pivoting on my heel to walk away.
I’m tucking my gun away when I feel my phone vibrating. Knife still in hand, I tuck it under my arm so I can press the answer button, then send the call to my helmet.
My heart skips a little at the picture Bonnie added as her contact photo yesterday.
“Hey,” I say as I lean on my bike. “Do you already miss me?”
Bonnie’s laughter makes my knees weak. “I mean, I might,” she says.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“I was wondering what time we’re leaving tomorrow,” she replies.
“Whenever you want,” I say. “I can be there at sunrise.”
“What about before sunrise?” she asks. “What if we watched it come up while driving south?”
I chuckle, stomach twisting. “If that’s what you want.”
“Yeah, that’s what I want,” she says. “Where are you?”
“Running errands… How was lunch with your dad?”
I glance a few rows over to where I left the twins, making sure they’re both still there, and didn’t follow me to my bike. And when I can see them, I start walking my bike toward the exit.
“It was nice,” she says. “Anyway, I… We got back, and I was bored out of my fucking mind, so I thought I’d see what you were doing.”
You don’t want to know what I’m doing.
“If the guys heard you saying this, they’d tell you to move your shit already,” I tell her.
“Yeah, yeah. Maybe that’s what I can do this afternoon. Start packing,” she says.
“I think that sounds like a great plan,” I say, reaching the exit.
“Yeah… If you get done with your errands, you could come over and help me,” she goes on.
God, that’s cute.
“We’ll see,” I say. “I’ll text you later.”
“What if I need you before later?” she asks.
I can’t help my chuckle. “Then you text me.”
There’s a pause, and I can almost hear her smiling as she says, “Bye, Gem.”
“Goodbye, Bonnie.”
I end the call with a heavy sigh, head hanging as I will my heart to slow the fuck down.
BONNIE
Have you found anything?
It’s been barely twenty minutes since I got off the phone with her, and in those twenty minutes, she’s already decided to turn to her stalker for answers. I never anticipated that it would hurt like this—that I would feel betrayed by my own mask, my own doings.
