Smitty?
Smitty where are you?
What the fuck Smitty we’re going to be late.
I tap in a quick reply.
I’m here now. Just need a few minutes.
How am I going to explain this?
“I am so sorry to dump you here and run,” I tell Nikki. “Make yourself at home. Food, drink. Have a shower if you want.”
Her eyes dart around. “Okay.”
And I’m off again almost immediately. I stop the elevator at fifteen. All three guys are waiting there. They pile in with dirty looks.
“Oh, look who’s finally here,” Dilly says. “Where the hell were you?”
“We came to your place,” Crusher adds. “Benny has a key.”
“What?” I jerk my head around. He stayed with me for a few months last year before he got access to his apartment. “Give that back.”
Benny rolls his eyes. “What if you’d been dead in there? Or out cold on your bathroom floor? Huh?”
“That didn’t happen.”
“But it could. I should keep the key for safety. So where were you?”
I slump against the wall and rub my face. “I was at Nikki’s place.”
They all stare. “Nikki?” Dilly asks slowly. “Nikki Sullivan?”
“Yeah.”
Benny’s jaw is slack. “Whoa. Is she okay?”
“Yeah. No. Fuck. I brought her back to my place.”
Three faces all regard me with equal astonishment.
“Don’t tell anyone that,” I warn them as we load into Benny’s vehicle. “There was paparazzi hanging outside her building. So I brought her here. Sorry I’m late. It was…” I wave a hand.
“Did she ask you to go to her place?” Benny fastens his seatbelt next to me in the back seat.
“Er. No.”
“How did you know where she lives?”
“Don’t ask.”
“Jesus.”
“This is amazing,” Dilly says, roaring up the ramp of the parking garage.
“Easy, there,” I say. “We’re gonna make it.”
“If they scratch us all for being late, we will set fire to your eyebrows,” Crusher growls.
