Page 58 of Never Forget

“I’ll need a record of the numbers, dates, and times of all the messages you’ve received since you started working with us. Blake’s IT contact at the Waves App can hopefully pull something useful from it. And I’d like to see whatever messages you still have that you haven’t deleted.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Scott, I need you to be honest with me. When you got the message with the picture, why didn’t you tell me immediately?”

“Complete honesty? My first instinct was to make it to Naz’s side. Once I was here, I was worried about how it would look after being interrogated about the bomb threat. I… I can’t be separated from him until I know he’s safe.”

Cory sighs. “I told you this relationship was going to become a problem.”

“You also told me that this was more than a job. Not just because of the constant travel or the everyday, mundane things that can become threatening at the blink of an eye, but because this is more than just a band we’re protecting, it’s a family. And because we live alongside them, we become an extension of that family. I understand that I took that to another level, but by falling for him…”

“Falling for him made you reckless, Scott. Can’t you see how negligent this was?”

His words are blunt, and the more I process them, the more the top half of my body fluctuates in temperature. It flushes hot with shame and humiliation, then cold with terror. My heart is thrumming so harshly in my chest that I can’t get a full breath.

It’s not just that I feel chastised. I know he’s right. But more than anything, I’m worried about what the fallout is going to be if I lose my job here and now.

Because I refuse to go. They can’t make me leave him. Hell, even he couldn’t force me away. I’d sleep outside in the dirt on the other side of the property line like a junkyard watch dog. No one could pull me away.

I take a slow, deep breath

“With all due respect, my job is to protect Naz. Yes, I made a mistake by not disclosing the text messages to you, but I have not once faltered in my dedication to do exactly what I was hired to do. If anything, I’m even more determined to protect him, with my life if I have to.”

“And with all due respect, you fucked up, Scott.”

“I know.”

“What did you fuck up?”

I nearly fall out of the desk chair I commandeered for this conversation. My hands shoot out in front of me, gripping the hard edge of the mahogany desk to steady myself. The heavy desk screeches forward, jostling everything on top.

Naz steadies the ornate lamp on the corner, eyes serious and unblinking as he waits for me to answer his question.

“Naz—” I breathe his name, unsure of what to say or where to start.

I’d been so wrapped up in the consequences of my stupidity that I hadn’t heard him enter the room. How long had he been there behind me? How much did he hear?

Not that I wasn’t going to tell him, it was the first thing on my list as soon as I finished speaking with Cory. I’d wanted to tell him first, but the opportunity to speak to Cory alone presented itself, and Naz clearly needed a break. I wasn’t ready to put more on him.

I was going to tell him everything about the texts, but I really didn’t want him to overhear me confess to Cory that I’d fallen for him. That my feelings are deeper than just a role I play when he needs me. That I’ve imprinted on him like a dog to his master.

Swallowing deeply, I struggle to find my words at first. “I was going to tell you. I’ve been getting messages. What happened today…” Deep breath. “What happened today might have been my fault. I was ignoring the messages, not taking them seriously enough. I wasn’t positive that the unknown number was the same person we’ve been dealing with until this.”

I pull my personal phone from my back pocket and open up my text thread with the unknown number, showing him the last messages I received, including one that came through around the same time that Cory called.

Unknown: Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Unknown: Are you ready to listen now?

Naz stares down at the phone long enough that the screen goes dark again. Long enough that I know he’s processing more than just the text messages.

“If anything, I think the messages support our theory that they don’t know where you are,” Cory says, his disembodied voice cutting through the silence. “None of the texts suggest they know where Scott is or that he’s with you. Although my guess is they know you’re close and that’s why they targeted Scott with these messages in the first place.”

“It was probably those stupid social media posts,” Naz says almost robotically. “All those pictures that make it look like you’re staring at me like a lost puppy.”

I know him well enough that I know he’s not glossing over the issue of me not being truthful, or the very real possibility that he overheard me profess my love for him. He’s compartmentalizing, focusing on something tangible so he can process one thing at a time.

“Actually, it supports what I was just discussing with Simon, too.”