WiseWave620: Happy accident.
Gl!tch.OS:
WiseWave620: Glad my penis amuses you. Back to the topic at hand, I know you’ve done an incredible job on your own. My point is that you don’t have to BE on your own anymore.
WiseWave620: & neitherdo I.
Gl!tch.OS: Which I love! You have no idea how much. I want there to be an “us” in the future. A real us with cuddles and kisses and bedtime stories and vacations and…everything.
WiseWave620: Me too. It’s all I dream about, Rose. I’m trying to make a life here worthy of you.
Gl!tch.OS: But I don’t know how to get from HERE to THERE. I know it sounds stupid and silly, and please don’t ever think I don’t trust you. But I don’t know how to let you in more than I already have. I don’t know how to come out of the shadows.
WiseWave620: Look, as much as I want to tell you to just tell Thorne to bring you here instead of to your new destination, I’m not going to. It has to be your choice. It’s always your choice, Rose. All I’m going to say is that my door is always open. You never have to worry about me not being here when you’re ready.
Gl!tch.OS: I am working on it, Keys. It might not seem like it, but I am.
WiseWave620: The fuck?!
Gl!tch.OS: What? I was being serious!
WiseWave620: No. No. Sorry, not you.
Gl!tch.OS: What happened?
WiseWave620: Um. I gotta go. Ghost just paid a prostitute $1000 in Knoxville when he’s supposed to be in Alabama at Ranger’s sister’s wedding.
* **
“Are you sure?”
Though nervous, Rose nodded. “I’m sure. I need to start stepping out of my comfort zone, and I’d rather do that with you here than not.”
Thorne towered over her, looking very much like a brick wall. The furnished condo she was renting this time was outside of Chicago, overlooking Lake Michigan. It was on the tenth floor of a high-rise and in a secure building. The older couple who was renting it out only had the listing available for three weeks, which was perfect. She never wanted her moves to become predictable, and lately, she’d been trying to stay in each location longer and longer for Oscar’s sake.
And Chicago wasn’t that far from Pennsylvania.
It was…a step in the right direction, even if it was a very tiny baby step. But Thorne was supposed to be leaving in a few hours, and she wanted to utilize him while she could.
Over the past several months, since Keys had been sending the brothers to escort her between locations, she’d gotten to know Thorne and Goose pretty well. Thorne was more aloof than Goose, who at least knew how to smile. She’d only met Grimm, the youngest of the three brothers, once, and she couldn’t help but think that his name was a bit on the nose. Based on her own research of the three brothers, they’d all been Navy SEALs, though they served in different units and over different years. Grimm was the most recent to retire, and from what little Rose saw, a part of him was still living in a war zone.
He couldn’t even look her full in the eye, and perceivedeverythingas a potential threat. He made her paranoia seem like blissful ignorance.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Grimm. Keys trusted him, which meant that she did, but there was an eeriness to him that made her uneasy. She wasn’t sure if it was by design that he hadn’t been back since, but she was secretly grateful for it.
Thorne was gruff and stoic, but he was also kind and patient. He respected her privacy, and like a dutiful soldier, did not ask questions. Goose also kept his mouth shut, but he was the most relaxed of the three brothers. Not jokingly, he didn’t have a class clown personality. Just more laid back. She’d even caught him making funny faces at Oscar once.
“If we do this, then I have rules,” Thorne informed her, crossing his arms over his chest. Rose nodded. “Sneakers and trackers on both of you. You will be armed with one of my spares, and never out of my sight. And you’re not going to like this last rule.” He bent lower to be more on her level. “I need to know your kid’s name.”
Rose frowned. “You can call him ‘OS’.”
“In an emergency, he’s not going to reply to OS. Also, I’d like to point out this is the first time I’ve had confirmation that he’s a boy. You keep him hidden with glasses and a baseball cap. I assumed, but I didn’t know.”
Rose cursed her slip up, but she supposed she had to relinquish that information at some point. Fuck. Maybe this was a bad idea. She didn’t need to do this now. There was nothing specific about today.
Looking over her shoulder, she found Oscar playing with one of the LEGO sets Keys had bought him. Oscar deserved this—and frankly, so did she. She needed to stop just saying that she trusted Keys and actually start trusting him. Especially if they wanted even a chance at a future together.
Crap. Not knowing what else to do, Rose pulled out her phone and typed one word.
