“What?” Fritz covers the phone with his hand to hear me more clearly.
“Her last text to anyone else was Thursday night. She’s ignored her parents and Isla for two days?” I don’t believe that for a second. They had her. They had herherein this apartment the entire time we were gone.
“They only knew when we would be back because I texted her last night.FUCK!” he corrects his story to his contact while I continue to search through her phone for any useful information.
Two daysthey had her here, preparing for my return. But why leave then? As Fritz hangs up the phone, I have so many questions. I know how they knew we were coming, but how did they get into her phone? They had to have tortured her to unlock it. How did Isla find out about Fritz and Bel? Why hold her here for two days? Why the picture? They didn’t leave any kind of clue as to where they’d taken her or what they wanted.
What the fuck am I supposed to do?
“How would Isla have found out you and Bel were also seeing each other?” I show him the proof in the texts, still trying to piece the puzzle together. It shouldn’t matter, and I’m sure it wouldn’t to Isla, but the betrayal of your closest friend lying would hurt anyone’s feelings.
He looks sheepish for a moment before quietly admitting, “I… I posted a picture of us on Instagram.”What the fuck is Instagram?“It’s like an online place where people share photos with others.”
“What kind of photo, Fritz?” I’m going to kill him.
“Hey!” he warns, backing up, “It wasn’t anything salacious. I got a selfie of us together at dinner, remember?” I nod, and he continues, “I was feeling… amorous between torture rounds and posted it. I honestly haven’t even thought about it since then.”
So Isla saw the picture and got mad. Bel’s going to be heartbroken, and she’s going to kill Fritz. Correction, she’s going to makemekill him. We have to fix this. All of it. After we get her back.
Gods damn this stupid modern world and its stupid fucking inventions.
“You’re going to fix this,” I tell him, pointing a finger at his chest in warning. “Isla finding out about you, andthemfinding out about you is completely due to your incessant need for attention.” If they had kept her here, waiting for just me, and we both showed up, this wouldn’t have been an issue. But instead, any element of surprise we had vanished, and they took her somewhere else.
“Hey, dickhead, we wouldn’t be in this situation at all if you hadn’t wanted to go exact your fucking revenge and leave her here, completely unprotected,” he argues back, shoving my hand away. His demon form starts to leak black into his eyes, fingers turning into claws.
“Donotblame me. You needed that as much as I did,” I try to keep myself contained, but I know the smoke is rising from my shoulders.
“ButIdid not want to hide it from her. She could have come with us, remained safely by our sides had she known,” he shouts, growing in size and shoving me with both hands. “Butnoooo,youwanted to keep it from her, pretend we were going away for a fuckfest so you wouldn’t have to step away from your torturing to touch base with her.”
“Idid notknowthere was a risk of danger for her here!” I yell, allowing the monster inside me to take over.
“Neither. Did. I,” he shoves me again, and I’m preparing to punch him right in his gods damned face. Before I can, he sighs in annoyance and softens his voice, “That’s the whole fucking point. There’s no use placing blame, Cas.We didn’t know.There was no warning, no reason to believe she was in danger.”
He shrinks back into his human body before plopping on the couch and burying his face in his hands, “One of us should have just claimed her. We both knew she was ours, we were just stalling so we didn’t scare her.”He’s not wrong there.“Eamon will be here within the hour,” he adds.
“The hour? Does he live in the city, too?” I ask. That would be quite the coincidence.
“No, he can travel through the Aether,” he answers, and my jaw drops in disbelief. “Trust me, I don’t understand it either. I know it’s fairly simple to push things through time and space, but pushing yourself through it? I thought that was impossible.”
“Well, we’ve done all we can for now,” I tell him, dropping onto the couch that still smells of her and her fear. I contemplate all the ways I’m going to kill the people who took her to pass the time. We sit and wait in bated silence for what feels like hours when there’s finally a loud knock at the door.
By the Way, I’m Going Out Tonight
Bel
“Are you sleeping with both of them?” Isla asks halfway through drink number three.Shit.
“No,” I answer, probably too quickly since she’s giving me that knowing smile.
“Hmmm,” she swirls her straw around her drink, considering, “Maybe you should be, they’re both fine as all hell.”
I mean, she’s definitely not wrong. Fritz looked so fucking handsome today, it was all I could do not to wrap my arms around his neck and plant one on his cute face. His big, nearly black eyes were like a kicked puppy dog when he didn’t get to touch me. I could tell right away he put Isla on edge though, and if she gets through drink number four before she’s had enough, I’ll ask her about it.
“They are both very handsome.” I agree, just to say something.Christ,she’s too perceptive. I have to play this cool. If I tell her about him, I have to tell her about Vegas. And if I tell her about Vegas, I have to give her a good reason why she wasn’t invited. Not to mention the absolute scolding I would get for going on vacation with a man I just met.
There would be no way to justify that without telling her everything. Nothing less than end-of-the-world type shit would be a good enough reason for doing something so reckless.
“Maybe I’ll make a pass at that one,” she blatantly lies. He’s too soft for her. “We could double,” she adds, but I can hear the disdain in her voice at that idea.
