Nicholas: Thank u so much!
Nicholas: I promise hell b a good boy
I put my phone down and ignore the vibrations. Walkingto the kitchen, I find Sam putting away the leftovers. Great, we'll have the same food for breakfast tomorrow. Sam is severely overestimating his personality.
“I need to go pick up Mickey from Oliver’s,” I tell him.
Sam straightens up and turns. “Your turn with your kid?”
I roll my eyes and walk away. The only response his comment deserved.
“You know, because he’s a child of divorce.” I hear as I close the door behind me.
I slam the car door harder than I needed to and start the car. I almost hit the pavement when loud music blares from the speakers, and Taylor Swift’s voice fills my car.
Ugh, Nicholas must have messed with my playlist. Why is he everywhere?
I sigh and just let it play on the entire way to pick up his dog.
Chapter Four
Undercover Work, Unfinished Business, and Unexpected Jealousy
Nick
I check my phone again when I hit the next red light. Still un-vibrated. I asked Elliot to send me visual proof that Mickey is with him. That’s eight hours of no reply. I hate that I’m worried. It’s Elliot, of course, he’s not going to indulge my sneaky ways of collecting his cute pictures.
But I’ve not seen him in three days, and if we’re stuck here tonight, it’ll be four. This is the longest I haven’t been with him in weeks. I can easily call him, I know. I could also have driven to his place late at night for the last three days. I really should have.
It’s just that I know the next time we talk, I’ll blurt out everything about the copycat killer. And it’s one of those face-to-face long conversations that require non-sleepy and non-angry people. Elliot after one am is unfortunately not one.
“You know it’d be easier to talk to him if we didn't die on the way,” Sloan comments from the passenger seat just as the car behind me blares its horn.
“Fuck.” I hit the gas and manage not to give Sloan and her giant bag of beef jerky side-eye. I’m sure she got my hostility on the topic from my silence.
“What did you do now?”Clearly not.
Wait. “Why do you thinkIdid something? When did you become Team Elliot? Didn’t you guys have some weird beef?”
She waves me off, taking a bite of her jerky. “We’re buddies now, Nick. Keep up.” The first time Elliot met my friends after we made things official, things weren’t looking all that good between Elliot and Sloan. But now that I think of it, them being them, they had to be best buds or mortal enemies. I guess I should be happy it’s not the latter.
“Why do you need that much food for an hour drive anyway?”
She takes another bite of her jerky and chews it viciously. “If I’m driving to a different city, I’m having my jerky.”
I roll my eyes and take the exit to Long Beach.
Sloan turns in her seat to face me. “Don’t think you distracted me from the tiny cat in the room. You’ve been very hard to talk to lately, and I’d have understood if it was because of the honeymoon phase thing, but you’ve been weirdly cagey around us too. That’s very unlike you,” she says, between chewing.
If she knew how accurate her assessment is, she’d never shut up. That’s after she’d make me confess all my secrets. So, yeah, she’sneverknowing. Good thing I have just the magic bullet in my arsenal to stop this inquisition. “Oh, why, Sloan, I’d love to tell you all about that.” Her smiling face turns into a frown. “But first, why don’t you tell me about this fun impromptu salon trip you and Serena took? She your buddy now, too?”
She looks everywhere but my face.Interesting. “Uh… We just… You know… You don’t…Youwent to the salon with her.”
Whoa, that was a journey. “I guess that's all for the relationship talks for today, don’t you think?”
She flops back on the back seat and folds her hands across her chest. “Whatever.”
I take the last turn and finally locate the house we’re looking for. Talk about perfect timing. I park right in front of a rundown one-floor house with a broken picket fence and arusted gate.
