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“Funny.” I was not smiling.
She rolled her eyes. “Well, it’s true. You’re reading my texts. That’s what I need to say so she knows not only that there are other eyes on my phone but that I am okay. Also wanna tell her I might not get back to her quickly as my phone is probably gettin’ shut off soon. You’re kinda crushing my hip, by the way.”
It dawned I was still pinning her. And I was in just a pair of shorts. She was in just that bra-like crop top and those tiny shorts of hers. Far too fucking intimate.
I rolled off and stood, then typed out:
A-ok too. Phone might go dark tomorrow.
I hit send.
I could see the bouncing dots of Kailey typing immediately, so I waited, eyes on the screen.
Kailey: K so I’ll message you on Instagram when I can. Where ru?
“She’s asking where you are.”
“How? How did she spell it out?”
I showed her the screen.
“No. She’s being asked where I am. Or she’d spell it out. She’s not asking. You can just say I’m home.”
“If you’re feeding me some bullshit that’s some other code meaning something you’re not sayin’ and if you’re fucking us over here, woman…”
She sighed. “God! I’m not. You’re giving me a lot of credit I don’t want here. Don’t say anything then. It doesn’t matter. At least I know she’s all right and she knows I am.” She crossed her arms over her chest in a huff.
“She know you’re here?”
“No. I told her to get outta there. She told me to come there for safety. She had to hang up quick so there was no plan or anything. That’s why I’ve been worried about her. Kailey is easily persuaded to talk when she’s in the hot seat, so I’d never tell her anything. Short forms instead of typing things are an extra caution we use to let one another know to be careful.” She put her index finger against her mouth as she appeared deep in thought. She shook her head again. “Yeah, she knew how I felt about what happened to Edge’s woman. She probably knew I’d find a way to tell you guys about it. I said we should. She probably knew I’d come, definitely knew I wouldn’t want Jojo or anyone else over here gettin’ hurt like Jet did, so…”
“You knew Jet?” I didn’t know her well, but met her a couple times at club parties. If Spence’s words of earlier were right, Gianna was likely with Edge while he was still with Jet.
“No, I didn’t know her. But I know Edge and I can imagine how broken up he is. They were high school sweethearts.”
She scooted over to the far side of the bed and blew out a hard exhale. I continued to watch her, trying to read her, and keeping my eyes trained on her to see how she reacted to my observation. She wasn’t fidgeting. She wasn’t acting shifty.
“I get you don’t know me, Jesse, don’t trust me, and there’s not much I can do about that, but tell you I’m being honest. A hundred per cent honest about everything. Those guys are evil. They don’t care who gets hurt. And I know Kailey isn’t safe with them. Not like she could come here after all that happened, so all I can do is hope she’s looking for an opportunity to get away from them. Though knowing her, she’s never smart enough to know when to cut n’ run. Though honestly, I can’t make sense of her at the best of times. That’s for damn sure.”
I said nothing.
“I’m not sneaky, Jesse,” she added. “I’m probably the least sneaky person ever. Believe me, I do myself no favors.”
“We’ll see,” I said, eyes moving back to the phone screen.
I typed out “home” and changed it to the suggested house emoji.
“That’ll do?” I showed it to her.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
***
By the time I finished the smoke, nothing else had come through, so I turned the phone off and shoved it deeper under the mattress before flicking the lamp back off.
She was fidgety. And it was getting on my nerves. Another awkward night in my own fuckin’ bed.
“I’m not a double agent, Jesse,” she said in the dark.
“You’re sounding like a broken record, hostage.”
“And you can a hundred per cent trust me here in your room with you. I’m sorry I reached for the phone when I thought you were sleeping, but you didn’t move to check it and I’ve been so worried about her. Those guys are bad guys. Really bad guys.”
“Go to sleep, yeah?”
“She’s a fuck up. But we’ve got history. And you don’t just desert people you care about, even if they fuck up.”
“You do if they don’t just fuck up but are just a straight-up fuck up. You do if they’re puttin’ your ass on the line and could get you killed. It gets like that, you make new fuckin’ friends. You find new family. Fuck history. If you don’t learn from it, you’re doomed to repeat it.”
