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I snort. “What are you going to do, tell on me?”
“Maybe,” she says, then sighs. “Should we talk about anything I said to you through the door now that you’ve mentioned me telling on you?”
“Depends. Is there any part of it you want to talk about?”
“Not really, but I thought you might want to. You’re the wronged party between the two of us.”
“Am I?” I cock my head, looking her straight in the eyes. “We were out there that day being followed because of me. You kept telling me we had to go back, and I wouldn’t listen. Now you’re on lockdown right along with me when you wouldn’t have been out if it weren’t for me.”
“I followed you around for weeks,” she countered.
“On my mother’s and your father’s orders.” Surprise registers on her features when I say it, but I know it’s true. My parents told me. “I was really pissed off at you at first, but all I’ve had lately is time to think about it. Your dad and my parents also told me why you were assigned to me in the first place. None of them would’ve let you say no once they’d decided you were the best fit, and logically, it makes sense. You were the best fit.”
“You’re really not going to make me grovel for your forgiveness?” Her eyebrows twitch upward when I shake my head. “Why? You hate me. This seems like the perfect opportunity for you to write me off forever.”
“It’s been brought to my attention recently that I’ve tended to be somewhat childish. I don’t want to be childish with you, Olivia. The situation we find ourselves in isn’t very childlike, is it?” I rake my palm over the stubble on my jaw. “Do you know why they’re all so freaked out about this?”
“Sure.” She nods slowly, her eyes searching mine. “It’s because of Vincent and the kidnapping after he got shot. None of them have ever been the same after it. I think my dad even still blames himself sometimes. Vincent wasn’t part of the band, but Joe had your mother, who he had sworn to protect.” She gulps heavily. “If you really think about it, we’ve been lucky to have the freedom we have after all that. They know how ugly the world can be, yet they found the courage to not only bring us into it but to let us out into it. It can’t be easy.”
“Well, when you put it like that, maybe it’s not so crazy that my dad threatened to move me into their room if I didn’t agree to stay put.”
“Your mom wanted to take you home,” she says, looking at me like she’s wondering if I knew. “She suggested they cut the tour short, and they really considered doing it.”
“No shit?” I breathe, shockwaves radiating through me. “Why did they decide against it?”
She shrugs. “I don’t think they have. It’s an option on the table as far as I know, but I think they want everything to appear normal so they can catch the guy. He likely followed us over here anyway, which means he’ll also just follow us home again.”
“Why do they think he followed us here? He could be European.” I exhale on a harsh groan. “Fuck. No one has been telling me anything. They said they’d keep me in the loop, but they just keep telling me they haven’t found him yet.”
“That’s because they haven’t. Dad has reached out to some people he knows who specialize in computers, but what they do isn’t completely legal, so they’re keeping that on the down-low.”
“Your dad knows hackers?” My eyes go wide, but I don’t know why I’m surprised. Back when Joe kidnapped my mom, Lize, and Ashley, he brought in some guy to track them down and wouldn’t even tell my dad and the others his name. “Damn. I’m annoyed at him for making you spy on me, but he really is kind of badass. Wait, does that mean you’re going to know hackers one day?”
A coy smile spreads on her lips, and she bats her lashes innocently. “Who says I don’t already know them?”
I let out a low whistle between my teeth. “You just got a little bit hotter.”
“Hotter?” A burst of surprised laughter comes out of her. “That implies that you thought I was hot before.”
I roll my eyes at her, my lips curling up at the corners. “You already knew that I think that. Or at least you should’ve known that’s what I think if you really are as perceptive about the details as you claimed to be when you were speaking through the door.”
Pink tinges her cheeks, but she lapses into silence after that.
I frown at her. “You really don’t know how to take a compliment, do you?”
“Not from you,” she says almost shyly. “Thank you, though. I feel like I’ve made my fair share of admissions to you tonight, but I’ll make one more. I think you got pretty hot too.”
“Thanks, but I also already knew you thought that.” I wag my brows at her playfully. “You should see the way you look at me sometimes. Jeez. Talk about undressing someone with your eyes.”
She was pink before, but she turns bright red now before she laughs, ducks her head, and hides behind her hair when it falls forward over her face. “Vincent! You can’t say stuff like that.”
“Why not? It’s true. Besides, it’s not like I haven’t been doing the same thing. You said we should be honest with each other earlier. That’s all I’m doing.”
“I said it when I thought I was speaking to the door,” she squeaks in protest, laughing some more before she finally sighs and looks up again. “I guess it is true, though, but enough of that. What have you been up to while we’ve been shut in? I haven’t seen you at all.”
I shrug. “That’s because I didn’t want to see you, so I got the guys outside to tell me when you got back from doing whatever you were doing, and then I went to the gym or whatever. I’ve also been reading a lot, working, and binge-watching anything that’s available to binge on.”
“So pretty much the same thing I’ve been doing, except I wasn’t actively avoiding you. In fact, you’ve taken up pretty much all of my time.”
