Page 79 of Wicked Brutal

asleep. safe.

A pause. Then:

Ryan: tremblay touch you?

I stare at the screen. Of course that’s his question.

nothing bad.

Ryan: ally

hand on my back. held my hand. that’s it.

Longer pause.

Ryan: i fucking hate him

My eyes burn.

me too

Ryan: you have to see him again?

sunday

Three dots. Disappear. Come back. Disappear again. I can practically hear him swearing. Finally:

Ryan: we’ll talk tomorrow

Ryan: love you

I stare at that one longer.

love you too

I delete the conversation.

The next afternoon, I leave Edgewood with Penny. Ryan leaves with Kaiden, Danny, Xander, and Iz. Nobody looking at the parking lot would have any reason to connect us.

Penny drops me at a bookstore across town twenty-five minutes later, tells me she’s going to get coffee, and drives away. I browse for almost ten minutes before Ryan appears.

He doesn’t come straight to me. He moves through two aisles first. Checks the front. Waits for an older couple to pass. Then he steps into the aisle, and his eyes go over me immediately, head to foot, the way they always do — like he’s counting me to make sure all of me came back. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Tobias?”

“Fine.”

“Your mom?”

I blow out a breath. “I don’t know.”

His expression sharpens. “What happened?”

“A lot. Let me start with dinner.”

Ryan pulls his phone out, and I look at it. “Notes?”