I couldn’t answer that. I wanted him to be. Desperately. But Micah wasn’t letting me in. Not the way I wanted to be let in. “We’ll see. I’ll let you know.”
“Alright. Call me when you can get access to the stalker’s phone or computer, and we’ll go from there. If he has something on your friend, I will find it.”
“Thank you.”
“Mm,” he grunted, and then the line went dead.
My family wasn’t big on goodbyes—short or long. We weren’t very affectionate to each other, but we loved each other. We would fight for each other. Kill for each other.
Die for each other.
And Tyoma knew that if I was going in this hard for someone, it wasn’t casual. He knew me better than that, and it was an odd comfort to be able to share a little about how I was feeling with someone, because I had promised Micah we would keep this to ourselves, but the burden was heavy.
And so was my heart.
But this was progress, at least. It meant whenever Micah talked to me again, I would have goodnews for him. And I would be patient, and I would wait.
However long it took.
I preferred when we were on the bus instead of crammed in a plane. First, I hated flying. It scared the shit out of me. Second, when the drive was long, I could stretch along the back two seats and knock out.
The other guys hated it back there. It smelled like shit from the bathrooms, and the constantly flushing toilets irritated them. But I could sleep through anything.
And did.
At least, until a big body shoved itself under my knees.
Peering one eye open, I groaned at the sight of Alexio, who was getting himself comfortable under my legs. Rene was across the aisle, staring at me, and I realized this was probably some kind of intervention.
“You know what we call you in Russia?” I asked, my voice sleep-thick.
He gave me a cautious look, like he thought I was going to say fart sniffer or butt licker. “What?”
“Lyosha.”
“Aww, so cute,” Rene said, leaning over to ruffle Alexio’s hair. A year ago, he wouldn’t have dared. A year ago, Alexio was untouchable.
But now he had a ring on his finger and a softnessin his smile no one thought he was capable of. Well, I did, but no one believed me until Jonah came along and changed everything.
A few of the guys had worried it was going to fuck his ability to play. Most of them didn’t like change. The rookies were the worst. They were all up front, shaking in their little boots right now about how the game was going to go.
But Jonah was Alexio’s good luck charm. Even better than his coin.
“So,” I said when I realized they weren’t going anywhere and had no intention of letting me finish my nap. “What you want?”
“To find out what the fuck’s going on with you,” Alexio said. He squeezed my ankle. “You yelled at Linny this morning.”
I winced. I had yelled at him. He wasn’t a rookie anymore, but he had the excitement of one, and while normally I would have joined him in his pregame joy, I couldn’t.
Not with Micah on my mind. Not with him missing again and ignoring my texts. Not with finding out that he’d been scratched for the next ten games.
I’d asked Jonah, who said all he knew was that his brother was fine, and Caleb hadn’t answered my messages, which wasn’t a surprise, considering how it had been the last time I’d seen him.
I believed Jonah that he was fine, but Jonah also didn’t know what was happening.
I didn’t think this was Hunter’s fault. At least, notdirectly. I had a feeling Micah was running, and for the next ten days, I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
“Vanny,” Rene said softly. “We’re worried.”
