I swing my legs off the bed, reaching for my phone. The screen lights up. It’s my brother. I frown slightly.
Then, I pick up the call. “Finally,” he says. “You alive?”
“Barely,” I reply dryly.
He huffs. “Same.” A beat. “Still can’t believe you actually called me last week. Thought you fell off the face of the earth.”
A pause. Then, “I got something for you.”
I lean back slightly. “Yeah?”
“Job. Private security. Good pay. Solid team.”
I go still. “Where?” I ask.
He hesitates. “San Francisco.”
Of course, it is.
“They heard about you,” he continues. “I told them what you did. They want you.”
I drag a hand down my face. “Of course you did.”
“What? You’re good at what you do.”
That’s the problem. “When do they want an answer?” I ask.
“Soon.”
My gaze drifts to the door.Cammi…
“You’d have to move,” he adds.
Yeah. I figured. He’s the only one who knows I’m out. I told him that much last week—that I left, that I’m in California now. Not why. The real reason stays with me. The rest of thefamily still thinks I’m finishing my contract overseas, and I let them.
Calling him at all was a first. I’d told myself I’d disappear clean, no loose ends. Then a dirty-blond girl with hazel eyes started looking at me like I might be worth something, and I picked up the phone.
“We’d be working together again,” he continues.
That part hits differently. Familiar. Easy. Safe. But then, another thought cuts through. Cammi. I’m lying to myself if I think she has no hold on me. She has crawled into a space in my heart that can’t be erased. She belongs to me. And I, her.
The earlier I accept that, the better. I can’t leave without her.
“You still there?” my brother asks.
“Yeah.”
“So?”
I exhale slowly. “I’ll think about it.”
“Don’t take too long.”
“I won’t.”
He hangs up. Silence fills the room again. I stare at the phone for a second. Then toss it onto the bed. San Francisco. New job. A clean break. That’s what I should want. And for the first time, I’m not sure I can.
What if she wants to leave with me?
