“Is there a kitchen? And water? I want to take a shower. I’m still gooped up with blood and dirt.”
The morning’s bullshit comes rushing back to me. I’d already forgotten about the kid’s drugged-up bike ride this morning. It feels so long ago. “Knock yourself out. I’m sure there’s a shower somewhere.” I pull Harper over to the couch. It’s just some old comfortable thing with a white sheet over it to keep the dust off, but I do not care. I plop down and then pull her into my lap. “We can stay a night, right? Have some alone time?” I waggle my eyebrows at her. God, I just want to settle for a little bit. Hold her close for a night and forget about shit. Is that too much to ask for?
“Shit,” Sasha calls from another room. “James, you better come in here.”
I push Harper up and we find Sasha in a pretty decent modern kitchen. It’s got new appliances and stone countertops. It even has a six-burner stove. “Nice,” Harper says as we look around. But then I notice what Sasha is staring at.
A phone.
“What the f**k?” I look over at Sasha and she’s shaking her head.
“I didn’t,” she insists. “I have nothing to do with this phone. At all.”
“And it’s lit up,” Harper says. “Like the one I found at your place, James.”
“What f**king phone at my place?”
“Remember? I told you about that phone that was waiting for me on your kitchen countertop. When I came in it was lit up and there was a message from Nick on it. That was the phone the assassin was sending messages to after he took Sasha.”
I shake my head. “No, you did not tell me that.”
“Yeah,” she insists. “I thought it was from Nick, and it said, ‘We’ll talk soon. Don’t forget why this is happening.’ And it had that little mushroom icon, like the one on the message this morning.”
I don’t want to hear about a mushroom. There’s no way that can mean what I think it does. I look away from her so she can’t watch me struggle to make sense of this. This whole f**king job is a mess. Nothing has gone right.
“James?” Sasha tugs on my t-shirt. “Should we listen to it?”
I turn back around but Harper already has it in her hand. “Listen to it?”
“There’s a message,” Harper says as her finger swipes the screen. It takes everything in my power not to snatch that phone right out of her hand. Her finger connects with the right button and there’s some static as a voice cuts in and out. “That was not in the plan.” And then the phone beeps to signal the message is over.
“What plan?” we all say together. I play the stare game with them. They look at me with narrow eyes. I shoot them back a silent don’t-fuck-with-me and then direct my attention to Sasha.
“It wasn’t me.” She’s shaking her head. “That message was not for me.”
I look back to Harper. “That was Nick?”
She nods. “But… I don’t know what he’s talking about. None of this makes any sense. And don’t even bother asking me what the plan was when we left last year. He never told me.”
I believe her. So I don’t ask that question. I just need some f**king time to think. I need some answers. I need a way to get those answers and I need to make contact.
“Well,” Sasha says as she puts her head on the counter. “I’m tired. Nick is obviously not gonna come try and kill us. That would make no sense. Let’s just stay here. I don’t want to drive any more. Besides, that message could’ve been for Merc, right? I mean, this is his house.”
Harper shoots me a look. “Your friend is working with my brother?”
I don’t answer, just let the question hang there. I change the subject back to Sasha. “I thought you were worried about snakes inside, Smurfette?”
She yawns and walks off. “You guys can do what you want. But Merc’s like my default adopted father, so the way I see it, I own this place. I’m gonna find a bathroom and clean up. Then I’m going to sleep.”
We watch her walkout of the kitchen and then Harper turns to me. “That kid is like a pendulum. She swings in every direction. I thought Merc was the devil?”
I don’t know what to say to that, either, so I change the subject. “Do you want to stay?”
She gives me a wicked little smirk. “Do you?”
My grin is so wide, she starts laughing. “I do,” I whisper in her neck as I pull her close. “We need some down time. It’s been go, go, go since we met. I can use some peace.”
She wriggles free and puts a hand on my chest. “No more sex.”
“What?” I almost choke.
“It’s not right. I have so many personal questions for you. Questions I should have answers to if we’re together. And if we’re not together, then none of this is appropriate.”
“Harper,” I say softly as I grab her hand and twine our fingers together. “How much clearer do I have to make it? You agreed to be mine when I took your virginity.”
She pries her hand free of mine and then walks back out to the living room and sits down on the couch again. I sit next to her and she lays her head down in my lap. “Things have changed though.”
I play with her long golden hair, making sure to touch the back of her neck with each pass once I figure out it makes her shiver. “What things?”