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“Who does he work for? You said his boss, so he must work for someone?” I question, tapping my finger along the marble countertop.
“You’d be correct,” Jordy says, rolling his lips together. “Adrian is the muscle in the local gang we’ve been keeping an eye on.”
“Why is he stalking me?” River whispers with a horrified expression.
“That we don’t know. Liv and the gang back home are searching for him to question him as we speak.” Reaching over, Jordy puts a protective hand on River’s, earning several threatening growls. Jordy smirks, tapping her arm. “It’ll be okay. You know we’re the best, and we finally have some answers. Your safety is number one. But you still can’t leave this place, and we’re keeping you under lock and key. Just in case this person was hired for this. We don’t have definitive answers. So, stay vigilant.”
“Thank you, Jordy,” she says through a breath.
“Also, you dickheads should know I have my own girl. River’s great and all, but I like her sister more.” He winks in our direction and steps away, tucking the iPad into a sleeve. “We’ll be in touch.” Saluting us with two fingers, he makes his way to the door. Before I can even think about it, I follow him out into the warm September day.
“Hey, man,” I say. “Could I…um...ask you a favor?” I rub a hand over the back of my neck as nerves take over me.
“What’s up?” he asks, folding his arms over his chest.
“I want to do something special for River and kind of…make amends and shit for…”
“Walking away? Leaving her with a baby? I know all the deets, douche. You’re lucky I’m a professional.” With a frown, he brings his fingers to his ear and scoffs. “According to Agent Asshole in my ear, I am not being professional. Yeah, yeah, shut it…” He shakes his head, blowing out a breath. “What do you need?”
Anger heats my face. Who is he to judge what we did? It wasn’t our fault we were misled by our damn brother. “Listen, I know we fucked up, but there were other things happening that made it happen...”
“Like your brother, the pancake-maker, manipulating you all into thinking she cheated?”
“How the hell do you know so much about our lives?” I growl, growing tired of his cocky smirk.
He shrugs. “Hello, I’m a super-secret agent in a company that doesn’t exist on paper. I know things. Lots of things. So, what do you want?”
“Okay, so…” And I tell him every detail of the date I’ve had brewing in my mind since we stepped back into Central City.
Moisture leaksfrom every surface of my body, pouring like a damn waterfall. It stains my pits, and slickness coats my palms, making it hard to hold the flower in my damn hand. I bounce on my toes on the concrete patio just outside the back sliding glass doors leading to the beautiful backyard.
Calm down, dickbag. It’s just a date. With a beautiful girl. You used to be in love with her and fucking tore her heart out. Shit. That’s not the pep talk I needed to have with myself.
Tonight is the night I prove myself worthy to River with no expectations.
Noise from beneath me echoes through the glass doors, making me smile. Ever so slightly, my nerves die off when pride puffs out my chest.
First, it’s the random banging of Rad’s drums. Then comes the loud screeches of Asher’s guitar. Finally, like music to my ears, Lyric’s loud screech through the speakers fills the house, followed by deep laughs and applause.
I blow out a breath. This is it—the moment I’ve been planning for the past few days with the help of Jordy. When I mentioned my idea, he seemed impressed. Well, kind of. I’m unsure how to make that man believe I’m sorry for what I did.
“It’s a fucking start, dickbag. I’ll see what the team and I can come up with. But my advice?” He raises his brow.
“Yeah?” I reluctantly ask, anticipating his wicked words.
“Don’t fuck it up again, fuck boy. River West doesn’t need you. She’s only letting you close because Lyric means everything to her. You walk away again for any reason. I’ll cut your dick and balls off myself and feed it to you.” I swallow hard at the disturbing imagery.
“No dick-cutting necessary. We fucked up. I fucked up. I want to make it up to her.”
“Might work,” Jordy says with a shrug. “Now, if you’re done planning your romantic date. I have a stalker to catch, so we can all go home.”
For a split second, I thought he would blow me off and not pull through. But this morning, he discreetly showed up when River was in the shower and threw boxes filled with my requests at me.
“Good luck. You’ll fucking need it,” Jordy mumbles, silently slipping out the door.
“What’s that?” Asher asks, stirring something in a skillet on the stove. Lyric rests on the stool with her nose in her tablet, laughing at a random video, patiently waiting for Asher’s promised lunch.
“I’m taking River out on a date,” I say, clearing my throat from the emotions trying to bubble up.
