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She smiles softly. “Yeah, that’d be nice.”
I sigh, rubbing my jaw. “Anything I can get you right now?”
Eilish rolls her eyes. “Honestly? A decent cup of coffee. They’ve been limiting me to one cup in the morning, but that’s like a quarter of my usual intake, and I’m losing it.”
I grin. “One contraband coffee. I can do that. Back in a sec.”
I get up to leave the room. As I brush past the door to Eilish’s ensuite bathroom, the gym bag that was hanging on the doorknob falls off. When I turn to pick it up, I freeze.
“No, you’re not crazy,” Eilish says quietly. “It’s Elsa’s, I know.” She shrugs. “She left it by accident when she came over a few days before”…her face darkens…“you know,what happened. I guess Neve thought it was mine and packed it with my stuff to bring here.”
I swallow, unable to tear my eyes from the bag I’ve seen in Elsa’s office over a dozen times. In her bedroom.
In mine.
“You know how I know she didn’t do any of this?” Eilish says quietly.
I grit my teeth as my eyes raise to hers.
“Because she really liked you, Hades.” Her mouth twists. “I mean, I think she loved you. Or…loves.”
Pain slices into me.
And I love her.
I still fucking love her.
And that’s why this hurts so much.
“I’ll be back with that coffee,” I growl quietly as I turn to leave.
A metallic beeping sound chirps through the room. When my brows knit as I glance at the gym bag on the ground, Eilish sighs.
“Yeah, it did that twice yesterday. Once this morning, too. It just beeps like that. But I’m pretty sure the bag’s empty. Maybe it’s like fob for the front door to her gym or something?”
My frown deepens as I lean down to pick up the bag. Eilish is right: it’s totally empty. No smart watch, no gym fob, no anything like that that might be the source of the beeps. My eyes scan it inside and out, my hands running over the nylon material.
Suddenly, I go still.
Thereissomething in the bag. It’s just notinsidethe bag.
It’s in the lining.
My pulse thuds as I grab my knife out of my back pocket and flick it open.
“Hades?” Eilish peers at me like I’m insane. “What the hell are you—”
I slice open the lining of the bag just as the beep goes off again. My fingers close around the little metallic disc as I pull it out and hold it up into the light.
A small round circuit board, with a tiny wire, like an antenna, sticking out of it. And a little black circle glued to the back.
No, not a circle.
Amicrophone.
Someone’s had Elsa’s gym bag bugged. And when my eyes land on the letters printed right above the small watch battery on the circuit board, my whole world goes numb.
It says “battery”.
