A shadow forms in the doorway. I pull out my gun, aim, and shoot. I don’t care who it is. No one is taking her from me. I hold her body against my chest. When someone else comes into view, I shoot again.
“Fuck, Emmanuel. Stop!” Paz yells at me. Something slaps my hand and the gun falls. My eyes snap open and I’m staring at my second-in-command.
“Where is she? Evie?” I call out, shoving the blankets aside and jumping to my feet.
“E, you were having a nightmare. Whatever happened, it’s not real,” Paz says calmly.
“Where is she?” I repeat.
“Call her.” He hands me my phone.
I sit on the bed and dial her number, hitting the camera function because I need to see her. “You know I’m starting to think my insomnia is contagious. Why aren’t you sleeping?” she asks me.
“Show me your wrists,” I tell her.
“What? Why?”
The click of the door lets me know Paz has walked out of the room. “Evie, please. Just show me your wrists,” I plead with her.
Evie sets the phone down on the bed and then holds her hands over the camera area. “Do you have some kind of wrist fetish, E? Because I gotta admit that’s a little odd, even for you.”
“I have ayoufetish, Evie. Anything you is my fetish,” I tell her. “Show me your face again.”
“Bossy,” she says as I watch her scribble something down on a piece of paper.
“What are you doing?” I ask her.
“I’m making a pros and cons list on you,” she says.
“Really? What’s on this list?” I can’t shake the image of her on the bathroom floor… “Wait, Evie, have you ever tried to kill yourself or had thoughts of doing so?”
“No. Why?”
“Just needed to make sure. Okay, now tell me what are the pros on your list?”
“Are you okay, E? You seem a little stressed.”
“You’re not in my bed. So, no, I’m not fucking okay,” I grunt.
“Grouchy,” she says as she scribbles on the paper again.
“Did you just write down that I’m grouchy?” I quirk an amused brow at the phone.
“Yep, it’s on the cons list too,” Evie tells me.
“Yeah, what else is on this list of cons?”
“You really want to know?” she asks.
“The list of items you’re creating to talk yourself out of falling for me? Yes, because I will find a way to cross every single one of them off,” I tell her.
“Okay, well, first you’re a…” She pauses.
“A what?” I urge her to continue.
“I don’t think I should say that part on the phone, E. What if someone is listening?”
I laugh. “Mi alma, no one is listening. Say whatever it is you want to say.”
