Jake’s brow slowly furrowed. “Of course he can. We all can, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to check in.” He paused. “The rest of us have been so busy with the move—”
“So what? Dominic gets some weird spidey sense about me and calls in the cavalry because my usual babysitter is gone?”
“Babysitter?”
I ignored him, on a roll now. My skin felt hot and prickly, as if I was under a microscope. “I’m dealing with a lot right now, and it has nothing to do with Red Snake.”
It had everything to do with Red Snake, but he couldn’t know that. I prayed to God that he and the other bounty hunters never found out.
“We aren’t damsels in distress,” I added hotly, heart drumming in my ears now.
“Never said you were,” he replied.
“Great.”
“Okay.” He adjusted his glasses, cool and casual. “So you’re okay?”
“Just peachy,” I quipped.
“All right. That’s all I needed to hear.”
“Tell Dominic to stop analyzing everyone he comes into contact with,” I ordered as Jake stood, packing his bag.
He chuckled, unaffected by my bitchiness. “I’ll pass along the message.”
“And the next time you come in here, it better be for the coffee and not to check in on me.”
I watched, huffing and puffing as anger boiled in my gut, spreading throughout my veins, tainting me. Deep down, I wasn’t angry at him, and if I hadn’t slept with his coworker, maybe I would’ve enjoyed how much Grayson’s men cared about us. Because of him and Carrie, we were all close, like some weird blended family, Rossy being the weird uncle.
Jake threw his backpack over his shoulder, swiping his to-go cup off the wooden surface. He smiled at me. “Thanks for letting me hang.”
Great. Now I really felt like a bitch. Out of all the Red Snake crew, Jake was by far the sweetest. He was just a big red teddy bear at the end of that day. I lifted my chin, my arms falling to my sides. “I’m sorry.”
He smiled and shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry for.”
“Can you do me one more favor?” I asked just as he turned to leave. He paused, looking over his shoulder, waiting. “Can you tell Hayes that he doesn’t have to check in on me anymore?”
“Sure, but that might be a while.”
I stepped forward. “What do you mean?”
“The job he’s on isn’t stateside,” he answered. My stomach dropped as he delivered the rest. “He’s in Japan, underground. We probably won’t hear from him for a bit.”
“Oh,” I breathed, a million questions on the tip of my tongue.
Jake winked at me. “Mitchell is a big boy. He can handle himself.”
The image of him kicking in the shed door, covered in another man’s blood, his knuckles busted open, shot to the front of my mind, and suddenly, I was drowning in a sea of worry and regret I never expected to get lost in.
Chapter Eight
Margo
“Okay, okay,” I hissed to myself, my heart racing, chest tingling, matching the sensation at the tips of my fingers. My Docs hit the freshly paved sidewalk in rapid succession, carrying me to the administration building oncampus. “There’s nothing to worry about,” I whispered, keeping my head down. I felt like I was going insane, but until I had some definitive answers, I needed to pretend that everything was okay.
Everything was okay because everythinghad to be okay.
I’d gone through enough shit in my life. The bad times were supposed to be over. I’d climbed the hill of hardship, pulled myself up from the depths of depression, and fuck me, I was getting my life back on track. I couldn’t afford to fall behindagain. If I did, then I would drownagain, and this time, I didn’t know if I had the strength to survive it, to hold my breath long enough for life to be worth livingagain.