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“I can’t see them as being in a cult,” I chuckle. “Unless it’s a murdery one.”
“They’re not. It was just a lot for my brain to process at the time,” she admits.
We’re quiet as she picks at the edge of my ratty shirt, her teeth torturing her lips.
“So I have three phone numbers in my phone,” I murmur, reaching out to push her chin up to look at me.
“Ugh,” she sighs. “I don’t know what they expect. Do they want to date me?”
“Yeah. I think that’s exactly what they want.”
“Why me?” A stricken look hits her face and tears fill her eyes. “I don’t want them.”
“I think that’s not completely true, and that’s okay,” I say softly, rubbing a tear away as it fights its way down her cheek. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll play referee with a bat and a smile, baby.”
She huffs out a laugh as she shakes her head, her dark eyes shining pools.
“I have this odd feeling they may be different from when you knew them. One of them crawled across the floor for you,” I add. “But, the three of them together are overwhelming.”
“I can’t do that again. It makes me feel small,” she whispers. “I have too many memories where…”
“Did they cut your hair?”
Noor nods and I close my eyes as I see red. It doesn’t matter that it happened years ago, it’s still affecting her now.
“Okay.” My voice is low and clear. I’m trying hard to keep the gravel out of it as I open my eyes, but I need her in my arms to tether me to my control. I drag her into my lap to cuddle her, pressing my nose against her throat as I breathe in her vanilla scent. “Texts go through me. No phone calls. I’ll set up a date for one of them to come to San Diego, and he can take you out. The only problem is that our neighbors are nosy as fuck.”
Her giggle is loud, even if it’s full of tears as she nods. I rock her as I brainstorm, because I’ll be damned if she has to deal with this alone.
“Theo can probably handle surveillance,” she says. “I don’t get the feeling they want to hurt me, but I don’t trust them. I can’t.”
“Trackers were mentioned,” I drawl. “This makes me feel better. Do you know where they are?”
“I assume it’s somewhere on their bodies.”
“Okay. One date for each,” I say, despite how much I dislike the idea. I would crawl over glass for Noor, no questions asked. “Do you want input on the date?”
“No. I’ll be interested to see what they come up with. For everything that happened between us, they don’t actually know me, Arran. Ugh, I still call them the Devils in my head. I feel as if I haven’t left high school sometimes.”
“Why the Devils?” I ask.
“That’s the name of the mascot for the prep school I attended. My family founded the school. Alastair, Ciaran, and Draven ruled the student body,” Noor explains. “However, they were literal devils in my life.”
“Charming,” I mutter. “It’s hard to believe those are the same guys that sat in my shop and asked for another shot. The brokenness in their words was the reason I gave them my phone to input their numbers. Guys who peak in high school have a certain swagger I didn’t see in them.”
“But is it real?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
“For Zayn?” she asks in a small voice.
“For both of you.”
Cradling Noor in my arms, I pull my phone off the charger to find that I have messages waiting for me.
Emil
Are you up yet?
