“I’m in Colorado Springs,” I say, under my breath. “I’m just staying a few nights to clear my head. It’s—”
“What’s going on? I’m one of the closest friends you have. If you can’t tell me, who can you tell?”
She’s not wrong. I know I need to open up to someone about what’s going on, but saying it out loud is too painful right now. Besides, Angie is still so young. I’m not sure she’d really understand where I’m coming from.
“I’ll call you back in a bit,” I say. “I promise I won’t be gone more than a week.”
“A week?You have that campaign speech outside the tattoo shop on Monday.”
I pull in a deep breath and let it out so softly that there’s a light hissing noise that erodes unintentionally.
“Okay,” Angie says, “I’ll let you be. At least tell me where you are so I can send out a search party if you don’t come back.”
“And then you’ll let me be?”
“I won’t call you again.” I hear the nuance in her voice and I’m not sure I believe her. Something tells me that her nervous nature will take over and she’ll be knocking down my door, but my brain needs the reprieve.
“I’m at the City Line Motel. The one by—”
“The City Line?” Her voice drops. “The one with the prostitutes and the drug dealers? Jules, you have money. Why are you there?”
I bite the inside of my cheek. “You said you’d let me be if I told you where I was.”
She sighs. “I did. I sure did.” Her voice lightens. “Well, it was nice knowing you. At least check in with me every day, or I’ll worry.”
My eyes roll so far back that it hurts a little. “I’ll text you.”
“Text me? Well, we need a code word then. Otherwise, how will I know it’s you?”
“Bananas.”
“Bananas?Someone could just look at your phone and retype the same word to me every day. It has to be some kind of code.” She pauses, and I’m not sure why I’m still entertaining the call. “What about the first line in a book you brought with you? Send me the first word in every chapter. What book did you bring?”
I let out a heavy breath. “Nora Roberts’Witches. I really need to go.” The scuffle outside the door is getting louder and I know the second she hears anything further worrisome, she’ll have half the town here torescueme.
“I think I have a copy of that. I love Nora Roberts. She’s got all the best books. There was one where this realtor goes missing and she’s kidnapped by this guy who—”
“I’ll text you tomorrow,” I say as kindly as possible. “Sleep well.” I click the disconnect button before she can respond, but as I do, the yelling outside my door gets louder, and the fight goes to the ground, followed by the loud distinct ring of a gunshot.