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I shoved my hands into my pockets, carefully keeping my smile in place. “She’s said the same thing to me, Jack. She’s behaving.”
“Good.” Turning around, he moved back to the helm and added power to the engine.
I braced myself for speed.
I’d told Jack the truth.
While we’d been gone, Neri had sent me photos of her homework spread over the dining room table, her bare feet as she watched a movie in the lounge, her bed covers as she read just before sleeping, and...a stunning selfie of herself, hair wet, eyelashes dripping, ice-blue eyes dancing as she swam in the pool.
She’d been warned about going in there alone while we were gone, but...with a nickname like little fish and more salt in her veins than blood, it was a given she’d break that rule.
All her messages had been friendly but not too friendly. They’d been funny and sarcastic and sent between classes as she darted from subject to subject.
But it was what she didn’t send that had my hackles rising.
I didn’t know if she thought I was an idiot when it came to technology. That she believed I’d come from a third-world country where I’d never had such things as laptops or cell-phones. And I supposed that was mostly my fault because I refused to talk about my past, my experiences, or my privileges.
Turkey was as metropolitan as Australia, and I knew how to use a damn phone.
I knew what apps came with factory hardware and which were manually installed.
And on the first night away, while I lay on the deck of The Fluke and watched a shooting star from my sleeping bag, I’d stumbled over an app called Sleuther.
As long as my GPS location was on, my whereabouts could be tracked.
The only person who could’ve installed that was Nerida, and my heart had raced at the thought of her tracking me. That she felt that strongly about me leaving, she’d gifted me a phone with a hidden agenda, all so she’d always know where I was.
A rush of anger had made me hot but then understanding made me pause.
I could rest easy at night knowing that Neri was back in Port Douglas, safe in the house she’d been raised in, doing what she was told.
But...if she was off somewhere else with people I didn’t know...I couldn’t deny I wouldn’t worry. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from imagining a situation of her in danger or doing something she shouldn’t be doing. Doing someone she shouldn’t be doing.
Pity for her, I’d clicked on the app and stumbled over a two-way street. She’d downloaded the app to stalk me. But by doing so, I could stalk her. It was as simple as installing the mirroring app, entering her phone number, and boom. Her whereabouts appeared like an accusing red dot on the map of a country I’d been washed up on.
And it told a whole other story to the one she messaged me.
My phone vibrated, almost as if she could feel me thinking about her. The Fluke increased in speed. The boat was a far sight more graceful in the water than on the large trailer Jack had used to haul it down here with. Out of the ocean, it seemed so much bigger than what it felt like, and I hadn’t minded sleeping on the deck while Anna and Jack took the cushions off the bench seats and made a bed below.
Stalking to the handrail to watch the sea churn behind us, I pulled out my phone and checked Neri’s location.
I stiffened.
School had finished, but she wasn’t at home.
She was in town, somewhere, doing who knew what. Unsupervised and terrifyingly free.
Bringing up her new message, I clenched my teeth.
Neri: That picture is stunning! Here’s my view. Wish you were here to help me with my breathwork. I really want to push for seven minutes retention. Kate Winslet did it, which means I can too!
The photo she sent was of the Taylors’ pool with its sandy bottom, man-made boulders, and ferns growing around the edges. Only problem was, the photo wasn’t a snapshot of where she was at this very moment. And I couldn’t call out her lie without exposing the fact that I was tracking her in return.
Me: If I was there, I have a feeling you wouldn’t be swimming.
I pressed send before I could re-read it. I groaned as I did, cursing myself that it sounded so suggestive. I only meant if I was there then I could prove she wasn’t by the pool at all.
Neri: What exactly would I be doing if I wasn’t swimming?
Shit.
She’d seen the same undertones I had. Too perceptive on any hint of sexual tension.
And fuck me, there was a lot of that.
Enough to make me cross-eyed and rock hard, and it’d gotten to the point where I really, really needed to figure out a way to enjoy some female companionship without the very real terror of being deported.
