“I can ’cause I am one too. Now spill.” She whacked me on the ass with a tea towel, and I scowled back at her.
“First of all, keep your voice down.” I glanced over to the living room area where Wesley was still watching our sappy movie. There were no walls dividing the kitchen from the rest of the apartment, but there was a dining area between us, so hopefully he couldn’t hear us speaking.
“There’s nothing to spill; I just kind of referred to Wes as my boyfriend inside my head and then panicked. That’s all.” I shrugged awkwardly and turned to browse the fridge. For what? I had no idea. Sometimes you just needed to browse the fridge.
“Uh-huh. But... isn’t he?” Lucy asked. “I mean, I heard you call Cole your boyfriend yesterday, and I can’t imagine River let that slide without jumping on board?” I blushed scarlet, remembering when I’d asked River to be my boyfriend. “What about Caleb?”
“No idea. We’re together, and he seems fine with the whole sharing aspect, but he hasn’t really been around much since we got here. He’s out doing God knows what every evening, then comes in and sneaks into my bed at night.” I turned back to my best friend who was looking severely unimpressed.
“Like... as a booty call?” she clarified, and I smiled.
“No, Lucy, you freaking horn-dog. Just to sleep. And cuddle. It’s nice; I miss him not being around, so I kind of look forward to late night cuddles.” I smiled. “But I don’t know. Wes and I... it’s so new, you know? I don’t want to go freaking him out by being all ‘Oh hey, you want to be my fourth boyfriend?’ kind of thing.”
“Uh-huh, I see how that could be awkward. But he does already know you’re involved with his team so... would it really be such a shock?” Lucy suggested. She had a point, too. “What about this Vali guy? It kind of sounds like you guys have an attraction there too?”
“Ugh, yes. No. I don’t really know. He has a girlfriend, Elena, and she’s stunning.” I sighed, then remembered his message I hadn’t read. I pulled my phone from my pocket again and flicked into the message.
Texting isn’t the same as talking. Followed by a sad-face emoji.
“Girlfriend, huh?” Lucy muttered, reading over my shoulder. “Sure doesn’t sound like it from his messages.”
“Oh stop it.” I locked my phone and put it back in my pocket before she could get too nosy. I’d been texting with Vali on and off all evening, seeing as I’d decided to hang with Lucy instead of jogging out to the property perimeter to call.
“And what about Austin?” Lucy prodded.
“What about Austin?” I repeated, frowning at her.
“Anything going on between the two of you?” she asked, the picture of fucking innocence, like she knew something I didn’t.
“Nothing. You know how he is, arrogant and dickish as ever.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why? What do you know that I don’t know?”
“Me? Nothing. Why would I?” She was suddenly dodging eye contact with me, so I knew for sure she was keeping secrets.
“Oh, I don’t know, Luce. Maybe because you two became besties while I was being kidnapped and sold at a slave auction?” I smiled so she knew I was joking. Subjects that heavy had the potential to turn a bit depressing. “What did he say to you about me?”
“A better question, Christina, is why do you care?” She smirked at me and sashayed out of the kitchen carrying the sodas that we had come in here for in the first place. Fuck her, she was right. Why did I care?
Just as I was about to follow her, my phone buzzed again, and I pulled it out to check it.
Hey, it’s Austin. I’m in trouble. Can you meet me? You can’t tell the guys, though. It concerns them, and I don’t want them hurt.
My eyes scanned the short message several times before I replied. Is this about me? What I am?
There was a short pause before his message came back. Yes. Then a second later, another message with just an address in San Francisco. Please come alone. And hurry.
Austin, this makes no sense. Why can’t I tell the guys? What sort of trouble are you in? I typed quickly and hit send.
After a few moments, no reply came back, so I tried again. If this is another one of your tricks, I’m going to kick your fucking ass.
Still nothing. My teeth worried at my lower lip as I thought it over. It was such a clichéd move, come alone and tell no one. But... what if Austin really was in trouble? I was hardly a poor, defenseless victim anymore, and had Sergei not surprised me with fucking chloroform, he never would have been able to kidnap me.
“Hey,” Wesley’s voice jolted me out of my thoughts, and I looked up from my phone to see him leaning on the kitchen counter near me. “Are you okay? You went kind of funny, and you’ve been in here for a while... I hope I didn’t, um, make you uncomfortable or anything?”
“Huh? No, sorry, I just...” I waved my phone. “Austin messaged; it threw me. He doesn’t really like me much, so I’m a bit confused why he’s messaging.”
“Ah, yeah. He’s... complicated.” Wesley ran a hand through his floppy blond hair, and I smiled. It was such an obvious nervous tell; he’d be awful undercover. “Did you want to finish the movie?”
“Yup, let’s do that, and I can deal with Austin later.” What I really meant was hopefully he would reply to my messages soon. Otherwise... I didn’t even know. Would I go to the address he’d given me?
Surely it couldn’t be too risky to go and see him for a day? He may not like me much, but he was one of my dianoch. For better or worse, we were stuck together, so maybe trusting him on this one, small thing might be a step toward building a better relationship between us.
16
The address that Austin had texted me turned out to be a tattoo parlor named “Ink Bats”, and thankfully it seemed to be open.
After hours of sending messages and getting nothing back, I’d decided to pull what was likely to be a stupid-as-fuck move and sneaked out of the apartment in the dead of night to drive some fourteen-odd hours from the Omega Base to San Francisco. By the time I’d arrived, I was tired, cranky, and my phone had lost all battery from the guys blowing it up with calls and messages. Granted I did have a charger in my car, and had recharged it, but that was the excuse I was going to stick with.
When they’d first noticed me missing, probably when Caleb got home and didn’t find me in bed, I’d answered their calls. But they hadn’t been happy accepting my vague answers on where I was, so I’d simply stopped answering.
A happy bell chimed as I pushed open the door, and a young girl behind the reception desk looked up.
“Hi, hon. You got an appointment?” she asked, eyeing me up and down as though it wasn’t believable I was here for a tattoo.
“No, I’m looking for a friend of mine, Austin King?” I hesitated only because he hadn’t responded to any of my recent messages, so I had no idea if he was still here or not. The girl’s expression seemed to frost over, and she gave me another look.