Page 403 of A Matter of Time

He squinted at Carrington. “You’re not mine. Who are you?”

“He’s nobody,” I said quickly. “I just need to drop him off at the airport.” Rego nodded and called out the airport to his driver.

“Have you forgotten about the party?” the man sitting across from Rego asked him.

“No,” he said, eyeing me. “Come here, I want to look at you.”

I got to my knees and crawled across the space to him.

“You look like you got beat up.”

“It was a while ago.”

He nodded and reached for me, taking hold of the front of my sweater and easing me forward between his legs until I was almost against his chest.

“I really appreciate this. The FBI agent was a pain in the ass.”

His eyes narrowed. “What?”

So I explained how I was in for obstruction, and how Special Agent Calhoun had put me there. “God knows how long he was gonna stay mad. He’s gonna bust something when he goes to look for me and finds out I’m gone.”

“Special agent?”

I nodded.

“FBI, Jory?”

I nodded again.

He punched me before I even realized he was planning to. The little mini fridge between the seats stopped my backward momentum. At least I didn’t hit my head.

We were dumped in front of O’Hare. Carrington climbed out unscathed, and I was thrown out, a bit bloodied—Rego had followed up the punch with a few hard slaps and one more closed fist punch—twenty minutes later. Carrington sat beside me on the sidewalk and used the sleeve of his shirt to pinch my nose shut, since it was bleeding.

“You’re amazing.”

I closed my eyes a minute so they wouldn’t water. I didn’t feel amazing.

“Your lip’s split, Jory, and I think you’re gonna have a black eye. Plus, I think your eyebrow is bleeding. Were there stitches in that?”

“Yep.”

“Well, he hit you really hard.”

It had definitely felt like it. I was surprised I hadn’t been knocked unconscious. I had seen stars.

“Now what?”

“Now,” I said, taking a deep breath and passing him my cell phone, “you call your mom.”

He took it, looking at me. “What should I say?”

“Tell her you’re coming home.”

I looked out across the parking lot from my sitting position on the curb and was surprised when he suddenly grabbed me.

“You’re the best friend I’ve ever had, and I’ve known you, like, an hour.”

“Promise me you’ll never come back here,” I said when he let me go.