“It makes no sense other than that she had an emergency, and I showed up, so she asked me for a favor. I could hardly say no!”
“And why the fuckdidyou show up?” I grind out.
“Because I’m an idiot, that’s why!” she fires back.
My fingertips go to my temples. “Make this make sense, please.”
“I overheard you might come up against danger on this trip, and it didn’t sound like anyone was all fired up to do something about it, so I rushed here to give you some things that might save your arrogant ass. You didn’t answer my calls and brushed me off by text because you can’t see past your own mountain-sized ego.”
She huffs out an exasperated sound before continuing with, “I messaged Dani and she had just gotten to the airport, so she dropped me off here asking me to go with you. She didn’t tell me what her emergency was but said it’s imperative you don’t go toRomania alone, so said it was fortuitous that I got here when I did. Like Fate is intervening or something.”
She rolls her eyes, shoves her hand in her shirt, and yanks something out of her bra, making me startle and avert my eyes.
“Here!”
She jiggles a plastic sandwich bag before slapping it into my palm.
I don’t know what’s in it. All I see is a sheet of paper towel. My eyes move to her face. I’ve never seen her this pissed off. She’s like a stranger to me right now.
“I got my plane ticket switched. I’ll get us a ride. We’ll get this done and then we’ll go home and you can do whatever while I finally do whatIneed to do.”
She storms off, pulling her phone out as she goes, and she’s gone before I get another word out of my mouth.
I growl out exasperation before I shove the bag she handed me into my pocket, reach into the room and grab my backpack, then head out, dropping the room key on the empty reception desk on my way out.
The front door to this small inn is locked and I don’t see Bailey outside. There’s a sign taped to the door that readsside door please.
I walk out the next entrance, where I see trash cans and shoulder-height gates, cordoning off the trash area. Bailey is just outside the gate, standing with her arms over her chest, face red, her bag by her feet.
“The ride will be here in five minutes,” she mutters, not looking at me.
I guess we’ll sit in the airport for the next five fuckin’ hours.
A black car pulls up to the curb not two minutes later and the driver rolls the front passenger window, greeting, “Buongiorno! Uh…”
“Ride share for Bailey?” she asks. “Aeroporto?”
“Si.”
“That was fast,” she says snatching her bag and reaching for the back passenger door handle, climbs in and scoots over.
I climb in beside her, shut the door and start to say, “Listen–”
But she cuts me off, holding her palm three inches from my face.
“Save it, Jason.”
“Save it?” I fire back with my brows up.
“I don’t need your platitudes or whatever.”
“Kiddo…” I try for gentle.
“No!Youlisten for a change. I don’t need your words. I don’t need anything from you. Let’s just get on the damn plane and go to the damn–” Her eyes dart toward the back of the driver’s head. “…place. And… and then we’ll go back home and that’s that. I don’t need you giving me crap for coming. I know how it is; you don’t need to make something clearer when it’s already blindingly clear. I came because I… I…”
A cloying floral scent hits my nose and things suddenly feel amped, but as I take in what’s happening around me, things mysteriously slow down. The driver is watching us in the rearview mirror with a calculated expression.
He’s now wearing a respirator mask. The vehicle is again against the curb instead of moving down the road. Bailey’s not speaking. She’s slo-mo flopping toward me, eyelashes shaking like she’s trying to fight it. Fuck! Now all I see are the whites of her eyes. I catch her as she slumps against me, a complete ragdoll.