“Yeah.” My voice cracks, but I try to hold it together for a moment.
I maneuver the car into the parking lot, and Z clears his throat. “I know you have no reason to, but could you do me a favor?” he asks quietly as I open his door.
I just look at him, not sure what he’s gonna ask.
“More so, can you do my parents a favor?”
Even if things were exactly as they seemed, I could never say no to doing them a favor, and he knows it.
“What?”
“Can you make sure Drew’s safe?”
“What? You told Axe to…”
“I know, but you know how she is. She’s fucking defiant, and so far removed from this life right now, she probably doesn’t realize the severity of it.”
Nodding my head. “Yeah,” my voice cracks again. He looks at me for a second before I start again. “I’ll make sure she goes out there.”
“Thanks, man.”
* * *
Collins ends the call, and I sigh, leaning my head back onto the headrest. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the light in her apartment shine dimly through the window.
“Why couldn’t you call her?”
I don’t answer him, just shake my head.
“Man,” he laughs this time. “You’re in love with your best friend’s little sister.”
“Fuck you.” I mumble as my eyes remain glued to the window.
“What are we telling them when they ask?”
“That her car wasn’t here.”
“And what are you gonna tell Z when he asks?”
“That she’s safe.”
My breath hitches in my chest as she clears the door of the apartment building and walks across the parking lot with her bag slung over her shoulder and the phone pressed to her ear.
“You should go with her.” He tells me.
“I can’t do that.” I mumble.
“Why?”
But I can’t tell him.
She pauses with the phone still to her ear as she looks around before landing on her own car, tilting her head. And starts again.
“I can only intervene if she does anything to jeopardize them.” I mumble, reminding myself more than him.
“You don’t have to punish yourself.”
“I have promises to keep.”
