Page 206 of The Unravelings

I blow out a breath, tuning his voice out. I can only handle so much right now, and hearing him isn’t one of them. Static fills my ears, and only Carter’s annoyed voice finds me still.

“I don’t have enough patience to fucking lie to you,” he says in a softer tone, not his usual voice. “I ain’t lying, Agent Princess. Whoever tried to kill you wasn’t them. Two of the jackasses didn’t leave Vegas until the next morning, and your fire was reported at midnight. There’s no way they snuck past cameras and toll booths and got back to Greenwood in time to murder your whole family and you and then get back to Vegas for an alibi. None of it makes a lick of fucking sense. You need to look in a new fucking direction. Fuck, I’ll even offer my assistance.” I can practically hear the smile in his voice.

“See? I knew you were my friend. You’re always so willing to help,” I say again, hoarsely chuckling when he scoffs at me again. “I’m having a hard time coming to terms with this.”

“That’s because I’m fucking bored. It’s the only reason you’re getting any sort of help from me. Also, hurry up and come to fucking terms with it, because this is the truth,” he grumbles.

I’ve got a long road ahead of me. I need to talk to all of them, like JJ asked me to do, and let them know what really happened to me. They think it was a house fire caused by faulty wiring. They don’t have a fucking clue that someone murdered me. Let alone knowing it was Franco all along.

“The men that were there, they were made up to look, talk, and act like them.” Minus the soulless gazes they gave me. They were familiar, yet they weren’t at the time. Maybe that should have been my red flag. Maybe I should have paid closer attention when I was dragged by my hair from bed and into the living room, where Franco stood in the center with a knife. But when I heard their names and saw the gleam in their similarly colored eyes, I was convinced something had shifted their view of me. “I swore it was them, Carter.” Despite the masks and the murder. In my head, it was them.

Carter is silent on the other end of the line for a few seconds. “You-uh, fucking good and all that shit?” he asks with a hint of worry in his tone.

“Well, I’ll be damned, Carter. You really do care about me and my well-being. I’ll put this date in my calendar as the miracle of the year,” I laugh lightly, feeling a massive amount of pressure falling off my chest.

“I’ll fucking deny it if you tell anyone,” he grumbles. “That and the whole friend thing. I don’t have fucking friends. I have…”

“You have friends, asshole. You’re too much of a fuckhead to realize it.” I shake my head when he scoffs at me, but doesn’t deny my words. “But don’t worry, I’ll take your caring friendship with me to the grave. No one will ever know Carter Cunningham cares about people,” I chuckle, earning a grunt and murmured curse words in return.

“Great, now that we have that fucking settled, I have shit to do. Take care of yourself, dumbass, and call me when you have more information.”

My lips flop open and closed like a dying fish when my phone beeps at me a few times, and nothing comes from the other end.

“Mother fucker hung up on me,” I grit out, staring at the bright screen of my phone displaying my non-discreet background. “Obviously, I can’t let you have the last word,” I huff, bringing up a fresh conversation between the two of us on my phone.

Oli: It’s rude to hang up without saying goodbye…

Carter: No one would ever describe me as fucking polite. Besides, you were getting too comfortable calling me your fucking friend.

Oli: Yeah, okay, friend…

Carter: You’re really fucking pushing my patience, Agent.

Oli: Jesus. You’re touchy today.

Carter: No. I’m. Not.

Oli: Fine. You’re not touchy. You’re actually being a human being for once. But… You know… Thanks for the help, bestie… It means a lot that you looked into all that for me.

Carter: Did you just call me bestie?

Oli: You know what? I’m going to change your name in my phone to Bestie Carter because we’re such good friends right now.

My smirk immediately turns into a frown when a new notification pops up in our chat.

**This user is no longer accepting messages from your number.**

Oli: Did you block me?

**This user is no longer accepting messages from your number. **

Oli: Oh, just wait, bestie. You’ll be crawling back to me when you’re bored!

Carter: See? You couldn’t even get the hint when I blocked your ass for 0.5 seconds. Fuck off.

Oli: Fine…

Carter: Better. Now, I have a Vixen to hunt down before she goes to class.