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“Hey, I’m only twenty-three!”
“Exactly. You might as well be a hundred!”
I laugh, thinking back to when I was eighteen, how people my age seemed older, which seems ridiculous now. Taking the next corner, I come to a dead stop behind traffic. Roadwork up ahead gives me a chance to sit back.
“How is it, though? Are you happy?” she asks.
“It’s new, well, newish. We met almost a year ago. It was… weird. Hot. I just felt connected to him in this really strange way. I knew something was there, but he gave me no signs, and I gave him none. Now he says he feels the same, but he’s so heavy.”
I bite down, stunned at myself. I didn’t plan on pouring all of that out. It’s like something was stuck in me, and now that I’ve shared this with somebody else, I’ve let it shift out of place.
“Heavy, how?”
“You know… hot. Intense.”
“I don’t know, actually,” Mia says. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, and I don’t want one.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because… reasons, okay?”
I sigh, sensing she won’t budge. It’s none of my business, even if I shared some stuff. “Okay, Mia.”
“Sorry. I don’t mean to snap. Is he too heavy?”
“Not in a bad way. I sort of like it. Not sort of. Just now, when we kissed for the first time, I almost just wanted him to keep going and take the choice away from me. Does that sound messed up?”
“I don’t know. Not really.” She has a musing tone. “The choice is still actually yours. You just want him to take the lead—old and old-fashioned.”
I laugh again. It feels so good after the tension with Colt, mainly because I can tell she’s joking, trying to cheer me up. “But it’s difficult…”
“Is that because of what I maybe think it is?”
It’s so relieving not to have to say it to her. She just knows, and that’s enough. “Yeah. It’s hard to be intimate after that.”
Mia sighs. “I’m so sorry, Lexi.”
“It’s weird. I actually believe you.”
Her laugh is infectious. “Why is that weird?”
“We only just met, but this, it feels… I don’t know.”
“Like friendship?” Mia says.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Maybe you don’t usually let yourself have friends. Maybe it took the universe shoving us together to make it work?”
“Destiny? Really?”
“Why not?” Mia says as people start to press down on the horns of their cars. “Don’t you believe in it?”
“No, I never have, and I never will.”
“Okay…” Mia trails off, shocked by my intensity, and so am I. There’s no need for me to get so passionate. Thinking of destiny makes me think of Colt and things that seem a million years away now.
“Why did you call, anyway?” I ask. “Not to talk about my love life.”
“I wanted to ask about the you-know-what.”
“The recording.”
“I’m trying to be secretive here, Lexi.”
We both laugh, and any awkwardness melts away. Finally, the traffic gives up and I inch the car forward. “It came out pretty good. We’re going to need more on him. Are you really going to let him take you to dinner?”
“Only if my sidekick backs me up.”
“Oh, I’m the sidekick, huh?”
“Okay, maybe we can discuss our job titles later.”
“You don’t have to do this, Mia.”
“He’s a creep, Lexi—a certifiable pervert. He bragged about what he did. Stop trying to convince me not to do the right thing.”
After taking another corner, I drive onto a quieter street, the road that will lead to the suburban route. In the rearview, a sleek red car pulls out, just like my story. I can picture Colt’s face when I told him the truth—the disappointment, the shock. It was like, You wouldn’t lie to me, Lexi.
I go around another corner, and the sleek car follows.
“Lexi, are you okay?”
“Uh, yeah,” I say, laughing awkwardly.
“What is it?”
“It’s just…” I think a car is following me. I want to say it, but I don’t want to sound nuts. “Just stay on the phone?”
“Sure,” Mia says. “I’ve got you on speaker while I paint.”
“Oh, what are you painting?” I ask, leaving the bulked-up city and driving down the quieter road to the ’burbs. Right behind me is that sleek red car, just like in my text to Colt, but he doesn’t exist.
“Any random, silly thing that comes to mind,” Mia replies as I try to catch sight of the driver.
His windshield is too bright. On purpose? The figure is vague, a silhouette.
CHAPTER 18
Colt
Dante is waiting for me out back, leaning against a black van. He’s got his hands in his pockets, that same calm demeanor from before. He pushes away from the van and approaches me. “Has Luca given you the details?”
I nod. On the way here, I got another text.
“Then we can get moving. Want me to drive?”
I nod again, head to the passenger seat, open the door, return to my car, and carry my weapons. Dante glances at them, biting down as I store them in the back.
