I should have gone with him. I shouldn’t have stayed behind. Maybe if I was there I could help…somehow.
“Are you okay?” Slade asked me after a while—not sure how long—and I finally looked away from the door.
“Yeah. Uhm…I’m okay.” I glanced at the brioche dough and decided to put it in the oven.
Only then did I turn around and looked at Slade in the eyes.
“Are you hungry? Want pancakes?” Before he could reply I got to work. “I could do with some pancakes.”
“S-sure,” Slade added but I wasn’t listening anymore. I was too busy mixing in ingredients.
I could feel Slade’s gaze on me as I poured the batter on the pan but soon he turned his attention to his laptop.
In fact he got so distracted by it he didn’t even notice when I put a plate of pancakes with blueberries and chocolate chips drizzled with maple syrup right in front of him.
“Areyouokay?” I asked in the same tone he had, minutes before.
His eyes darted to my direction and his brows furrowed.
“What?” I asked.
“You know the working theory about your ex working with the local criminals?”
I nodded.
“Well, it’s all but confirmed now.”
“Huh?”
Slade pushed the pancakes to the side and turned the laptop screen in my direction.
“While the guys are going after him, I was snooping on his phone. Trying to find out whatever I can about him.”
There was a small window on his screen that looked like a phone home screen, all with apps and the generic background behind it.
“Oh. Okay. What did you find exactly?”
Slade clicked on various apps, but most were empty. His photo gallery, his contact list, his search history. All except for his text messaging app.
There were two numbers there. The first one was mine and when Slade clicked on it, he found all the messages he’d sent me and the one I had a few minutes ago.
But the number underneath also had various text messages. Slade scrolled through the top and we started reading the chatter.
Victor: Found him thank you for the help
Unknown number: You know my help isn’t free.
Victor: I know ill help you with your little cause as long as I get to play first
Unknown number: My little cause isn’t so little and you better lie low or I’ll get you before those so-called vigilantes do.
Victor: right I hear you ill wait your instructions and in the meantime ill have my fun
Unknown number: Be careful. They’re very smart and resourceful. Don’t get caught. And that’s an order.
I leaned in closer and looked at the dates the messages were sent. They were from three and a half weeks ago. Right around the time I thought I’d seen him the first time.
I knew I hadn’t been hallucinating right around the time my truck burned down but it was good to have physical proof of it.
