Page 78 of Never Forget

I would have handed it over, gotten rid of the number, whatever it took.

I don’t know if this is the right time to say it. I don’t know what’s happening between us or if Naz is ready for anything more than the strict parameters of the relationship we’ve cultivated over the last year, but it needed to be said. I can’t hold it in anymore, not after everything that’s happened.

At first all Naz does is blink at me, but then his brow furrows. “Wait… You just said if it had come down to it. And we haven’t even gotten to… Scott, what exactly happened today?”

Naz pushes himself up, forcing me to do the same, awkwardly adjusting so we’re not tangled together anymore. I stand and pull my pants up, but leave them unzipped, and sit facing Naz on the other side of the couch. Even the few feet between us feels like too much, but it seems like our bubble might have popped, as if we’d momentarily forgotten all the events that led us here today.

“Long story short… Blake and Cory came up with a plan to catfish whoever’s been texting me. And it didn’t work.”

“Wait, so you weren’t really stealing Blake’s laptop?”

“Well, I did steal his laptop and his work badge. But he was aware it was going to happen. At least, I’m ninety-eight percent sure he did.”

“Okay. I’m going to need you to tell me everything.”

Earlier that afternoon:

“I’ll do whatever it takes to protect him, Emmy.”

Whatever it takes.

His bright blue eyes on mine are clear and serious. I think he understands my meaning.

Emmy nods but doesn’t say anything else. Instead, he steps forward and wraps me in a hug.

I shouldn’t be too shocked, Emmy hugs most of the guys, but he hasn’t hugged me before. He’s pretty tiny. My bulk is more than enough to shield him from the overhead camera in the corner, but I shift us the slightest bit to the left to be sure.

“Back left,” I whisper.

Even if this hug is a means to an end, it’s still strangely comforting. It’s almost like he’s actually hugging me while simultaneously picking my pocket.

“It’s all going to work out,” he murmurs, low enough that only I can hear. “One way or another.”

“I hope you’re right.”

He gives me a reassuring squeeze and looks up at me with a saucy expression. “I usually am.”

“So I hear.”

As I pull away from him, Emmy slides my phone smoothly into the front pocket of his chinos before he pats me on the shoulder.

“Hang in there, big guy.”

Then, with the theatrical timing worthy of an award, he wipes an imaginary tear from beneath one eye.

“I should go collect myself,” Emmy says, gesturing vaguely to the bathroom doors. “I’ll be right back. Take a seat, and Mr. Holland will be out shortly.”

Sinking into a chair in the small waiting room, I watch Emmy disappear into the restroom. It’s far too quiet, my thundering heartbeat filling the space and making me somehow more nervous. I rest my elbows on my knees and lace my fingers together, trying to keep them from shaking.

I hope this plan works. For sure, it’s a last resort, and I think Cory is putting a lot more faith in me than I deserve right now, counting on me to improvise.

The first part is done, I responded to the texter as Cory instructed. I asked what they wanted and made them believe that their half-baked fireworks display frightened me enough to comply with their demands. Except now they’ve asked for something and I’m not sure what, if anything, I’m supposed to do with that.

When I spoke to him early this morning after picking up a burner phone, Cory told me not to mention anything about my personal phone or the texts, just to hand it over to Emmy without being noticed, and they’d take care of getting the information they needed from it. Emmy made that part easy.

As far as I know, my job is done here.

Cory didn’t tell me what this meeting was supposed to be about or if Blake even knows about the texts. All I really know is that I have to be careful about what I say, that we’re all pretending we don’t know that the whole office is being recorded. I’m walking into the unknown here, and the longer it takes, the less confident I’m feeling.