Tasha’s got up from behind her laptop, waiting her turn for a hug, and she gives me a searching look. I step into her arms, finding some much needed comfort there, then meet her gaze. I can’t find anything to say, but she seems to know.
“Sit down,” she says. “Dario, get Raven a coffee, please.”
“Sure.”
“And Dario? Take your time.”
“Uh…” He shoots a glance between us. “…sure.”
Tasha steers me to the sofa like I can’t be trusted to get there myself, then sits next to me. “Spill it.”
“So… uh.”
Admitting I’ve let myself be manipulated by a man who has betrayed us all? Easy enough to rehearse on the road, but now I can’t bring myself to say it.
“I went home,” I begin. “To Salt Lake City. Broke my phone during the escape. Couldn’t reach you guys.”
“Why didn’t you get another?”
Her question throws me. Like that’s the important thing right now. “Don’t know your numbers.”
She stares. “What?”
I cut a hand through the air. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I’ve been your friend forsix yearsand you don’t know my number?”
Okay, it does matter. “Yeah? What’s mine?”
She reels it off without hesitating, and I narrow my eyes at her. “Dario?” I call toward the kitchen. “What’s my phone number?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Just answer.”
“It’s on my phone. One minute.”
“Never mind.” I give Tasha a pointed look. “You’re a numbers freak. I’m not. I don’t knowanyof you guys’ phone numbers.”Except Declan’s.
Dario mutters something insulting by the tone of it, and returns to making coffee.
“Okay, so you’re chronically innumerate.” Tasha gives a nod like this is normal. “Carry on.”
I jab a finger into her side hard enough to make her wince, and have to blink back tears. I’m just so damn pleased to see her, listening to her make jokes even when she knows this is serious.
It takes me a moment to pick the thread back up. “So yeah. Home. Stayed there a couple of days, then got kidnapped by Declan.”
She blinks twice. “You mean that in the hot, romantic, whisked-off-your-feet kind of way, right?”
“No to romantic.”Yes to hot.“Yes to whisked off my feet… in the drugged and shoved into his pickup kind of way.”
“What?”
“Woke up at a house in San Fran.”
“What?”
“You guys all right?” Dario asks.
