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“A burner phone.”
Ezra taps my backpack. “Didn’t you drop an old-ass flip phone in here?”
I squint at him. “Did I? I only remember grabbing my laptop and some papers.”
“Pretty sure you did,” he replies, scratching his jaw as he thinks back. “Yeah. I’m almost positive.”
I set my backpack on the coffee table and dig through it. Not that there’s much inside. And sure enough, the little gray burner phone is at the bottom, wedged under the corner of my laptop.
“What is that?” Riley asks, pointing at the envelope.
“It’s from my dad.” I survey the living room and shake my head. “But nothing we can talk about now.”
Riot nods his understanding and wanders toward what I hope is a bar. A cabinet door closes, and I realize he’s in the kitchen, which is almost as good. He reappears with two glasses of clear liquid.
Please, don’t let that be water.
“What is this?” I skeptically inquire as I take the offering.
“Tequila,” he says with a grimace, passing Ezra a glass too. “To take the edge off.”
“Right,” I agree, swallowing it in two sips. “Grand plans should come from tequila-drunk Jasper.”
Riley snaps to attention, his back ramrod straight as he glares at me. I wave his concern away, though I should watch my volume. The day is coming where I have to tell Kane who I am, and the thought of that aftermath makes me nauseous.
“He knows,” I mumble to Riot, keeping my voice down.
“You told him?”
“He guessed some.”
Ezra scoffs at me. “I used my mile for the truth.”
Riot shakes his head. “I still don’t understand that.”
“She told me if she gave me an inch I’d take a mile,” Ezra recalls.
“And then he took five,” I grumble.
He snorts. “Hardly.”
“You gave him a favor of information?” Riot asks, his brows raised in shock.
“I didn’t think he’d take it so seriously when he didn’t even know what it was,” I gripe.
Ezra points to himself. “I was curious.”
Riot chuckles. “Sure you were.”
“Yeah, well... Now would be a great time for you to crack that laptop open,” I sarcastically comment.
“It’s done.”
“What?” I whisper-shout.
Riley grins as he snatches the empty glass from my hand. I roll my eyes at him. The thought of throwing it hasn’t even crossed my mind yet.
“Yeah. Didn’t take long. Two days? I opened it yesterday, but I didn’t get the chance to tell you. I mean, I knew if I told you when I got to your place, you wouldn’t give me half an inch, much less a mile... So I was waiting to tell you. And then…” Ezra trails off, shrugging as if to say you know the rest.
