“I have questions.”
“I don’t have answers.” Ryan shrugs, turning away, shutting his locker.
“Are you sure about that?” Bam steps forward. Ryan takes a step back. I don’t blame him. I’m sure he caught sight of Bam’s tattoos. I should get one of them if it gets people talking. I don’t think Bam will be a fan of this idea.
“I come in peace.” I hold up my hand and do the Vulcan salute. Everyone gives me a strange look. “It’s Star Trek.” I get nothing, so I drop my hand. “We need to talk.”
“We already did.” Ryan steps forward.
“Don’t be a dick,” Bam warns him.
“Hey.” I put my hand on Bam’s chest, giving it a slight pat. “We’re only trying to figure this all out, and hopefully that might stop the throwing of the games.”
“Throwing games?” Shane asks. “Cole is off the team. He’s missed too many practices, so we’ve got no answers for you.”
“Work with me, and the big guy here”—I point to Bam with my thumb—“will be out of here.”
“What?” Ryan gives, his arms still folded over his chest.
“Do you guys share locations on your phone with Cole?”
“That’s girl shit,” he responds. Yeah, I kind of figured these macho men weren’t sharing their locations.
“He could have his Snap on, and those show your last location,” Shane says.
“Look,” Bam orders them. Shane takes out his phone, pulling it up. It takes him a second, but after a beat, he flips the phone around to show us. Right there on the screen is Cole’s profile. I quickly snatch the phone from his hand without thinking and begin swiping through Cole’s previous Snaps.
“What the fuck? You can’t just take my phone and start going through it,” Shane protests, but that doesn’t last long. One glance from Bam and he zips his mouth shut.
“Weird,” I mutter, showing Bam. “A laundromat.” That’s a dead end. Bam stares down at it, taking the phone from me before handing it back to Shane. “Well, thanks,” I tell them.
Bam’s hand goes to cup the back of my neck, leading me out of the locker room. “That was a bust.” I was so excited when Ryan mentioned Snapchat. “Maybe we should go there anyway,” I suggest.
“I’ll go. It’s probably better if I take you home.”
“What? Home, why?” The hell? I don’t want to go home.
“Because I can check it out and then come back.”
“Bam, I want to go.”
“No.” His hand gives a slight squeeze on my neck. I glance over at him. He said the word with such finality.
He’s not telling me something, and I don’t like it. A million and one things race through my mind about what he might be hiding.
“Rebel,” Bam says when we make it to my porch. “Let me handle this.”
“But—”
“Please.”
“Fine,” I huff, turning to unlock my door. Bam follows me in, turning off the alarm.
“I’ll be back.” He drops a quick kiss on my lips before he resets the alarm and practically bolts out of the door, not giving me a chance to try and protest more.
I stand there annoyed, and before I can think better of it, I turn the alarm back off and head out the front door, sneakily following Bam. I want to do some investigating myself.
It’s probably a terrible idea, but he is the one that gave me the nickname “rebel”, after all.
