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“I don’t know,” Jazz said. “Maybe we won’t be able to.” She raised her hand toward Nick when he started to retort. “I know how that sounds, but I’ve been trying to think of where we go from here. What can we do? We can’t kill them.”
“What about Chris and Mateo?” Seth asked. “You hear from them?”
“I called Mateo,” Gibby said. “Yesterday. He… well. He yelled a lot. Not at me, but man, I don’t know what Burke was thinking pissing off a drag queen. It won’t end well for him.Mateo said Chris is just as angry, but he’s at a loss of where to go from here.” She paused. “He wants to quit the force. At least that’s what Mateo told me.”
“Good,” Nick said savagely. “They don’t deserve him. He’s better than all of them put together.”
“We’d lose the only contact we have with the NCPD,” Jazz said. “But he needs to do what’s right for him.”
Nick’s phone began to vibrate in the front pocket of his bag. “And if it gets out he was part of this, he might have a target on his back. He’s gotta be careful.” He dug through his bag until he found his phone. A few notifications. Jazz. Gibby. Dad, saying he’d gotten Nick’s note and admonishing him for going out alone. Nick typed back a quick reply, letting him know he was with his friends.
The other notification, though. The one that had caused his phone to vibrate. Nick frowned at the screen. A missed call listed as private. No way to call it back. No voicemail left, either. He set the phone on the table and said, “And then there’s Owen. I don’t know where he is, and I know he helped us, but that doesn’t mean he’s on our side. We can’t trust—”
His phone began to buzz again, rattling on the table. The screen lit up. Private number.
“Who is it?” Seth asked, looking over Nick’s shoulder.
Nick gnawed on his bottom lip. “Don’t know. Blocked number.” He showed Seth the screen. “Should I answer it?”
But the call dropped before he could answer.
Only to have another notification come through in the form of a text.
ANSWER YOUR PHONE.
“Is it your dad?” Jazz asked. “Cap, maybe?”
Nick shook his head. “I’ve got their numbers saved. They know I wouldn’t answer if I didn’t recognize who was calling.”
The phone vibrated once more with another incoming call. Private number.
“Answer it,” Seth said. “Put it on speaker so we can all hear. Whoever it is, don’t tell them anything. Listen. Wait.”
Nick nodded, heart thudding. He swiped the screen, connecting the call before hitting the speaker button and laying the phone flat on the table. “Who is this?”
A heavily modulated voice said, “Shut up and listen. I don’t have time to—”
“Uh, rude,” Nick said. “Do you know how phone calls work? Like, you called me and so I should probably talk, at least a little bit.”
A pause. Sounds of traffic and people, a low rumble in the background. Somewhere in public? Then, angrier, “Nick, I said to shut.Up.”
“How do you know my name?” Nick demanded. “Are you stalking me? That’s illegal!”
More silence. All the silence.
“Hello?” Nick asked. “Did you get that? About the stalking thing? Honestly, I’m not sure of the etiquette when speaking to a stalker—”
“What iswrongwith you?”
“Many things,” Nick said promptly. “Some are diagnosed, but others are still a mystery. I probably won’t find out what those are until I’m twenty-five and working a dead-end job that’s sucking out my soul.”
“Who are you?” Seth asked, leaning over the table and glaring down at the phone.
A longer pause. Then, “How many people are listening to this?”
“Just me,” Nick said. “But also Seth. And Jazz. And Gibby.”
“’Sup,” Gibby said.
