Page 75 of ClickBack

Zel: Home.

I call. This time she answers.

“Can I come see you?”

“Now?”

“If you’ll let me.”

I hear something scrape on her end. “I’m out back.”

Graves takes the elevator down with me. He tells me he’ll check on Dre in a few hours and let me know when Kim has news. At the garage, he catches my arm.

“You don’t need to give her the kid’s whole situation.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“All right.” He lets go. “Get some sleep after you fix what you can.”

There is very little traffic on the way to Cedar Mill. I keep seeing my shirt on the floor. She had to get out of my bed, find her clothes, and drive home in the middle of the night. Whatever she thought while she did it, I gave her nothing to work with.

The fire pit is lit when I reach her deck. Giselle sits on a chaise with a blanket over her legs and a wineglass on the table. She has washed her face, but her eyes look sore.

“You have a lot of nerve,” she says.

“Can I come up?”

She points to the chair across from her. I sit there.

“What happened?”

“Dre left where he was staying. His little brother and sister had been moved, and he was going to get them.”

“By himself?”

“On foot. We caught up with him before he reached the house.”

She puts her glass down. “And they’re all safe?”

“Yeah. He talked to them. We found him somewhere to sleep, and Kim’s working on the rest.”

“Who is Kim?”

“Graves’s sister. We’ve known each other since we were kids. She helps with Dre. She couldn’t get Graves, so she called me.”

Giselle looks toward the fire. “I heard some of that. I knew somebody was in trouble.”

“I thought you went back to sleep.”

“You put your hand on my ankle. I thought you were about to tell me something.”

I remember her moving under the sheet. Graves knocked, and I went to answer. By the time we reached the street, I was looking for a boy in a dark sweatshirt. None of that explains why I couldn’t send a message once we had him in the car.

“I should have told you I was leaving.”

“Yes.”

“And called when I knew we’d be a while.”