“I’m processing.”
“I’ve never told anyone any of this.”
“Not even Bram?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
I reach forward and take his hand in mine. What a terrible thing to have to go through by yourself. “We’re going to figure this out…together.”
Something in his features shift, a sadness replaced with something resembling hope. Like maybe he’s finally realizing he doesn’t have to handle everything on his own.
He lets out a breath. “Yeah?”
“You’re stuck with me, remember?”
Johnny pulls me over and hugs me super tight, kissing all over my face. “I don’t know what I did to get so lucky.”
I can’t help but wonder the same damn thing.
Sure, he’s got some baggage, but don’t we all? He might seem like a bad guy who doesn’t care about anything on the surface, but he’s actually got the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met.
Bram really was right after all.
“Okay, where’s that list?” If we’re going to figure this out, we need to get to work. As much as I’d love to be loved on, we have to prioritize to pull this off.
Johnny shoves his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulls out the crumpled-up paper. He unfolds it and offers it to me.
I take it and skim it over. First names only, and some weird descriptors.
I point to the last one. “This foot guy, his name doesn’t happen to be Jared, does it?”
Johnny nods his head. “Yeah, I think that’s it. Do you know him?”
“If it’s the same dude, he’s in my math class. I made the mistake of sitting near him on the first day and now I’m sort of stuck in his stinky corner of the room.” I scan the list again. “And this guy, Steve, sits near him.”
“See, detective. You’ve already made more progress than me.”
“What do you remember about that night?”Other than almost dying in an alley and passing out in your bathtub.
“Um…” He seems to get lost in his memory. “Besides you saving my ass?”
“Try to recall anything. No detail too small. Go back to the beginning if you have to, before it happened.”
“Franklin was pissed, because I had been like thirty seconds late making a delivery. He had me go out on another run, but basically demanded I get it done immediately. Gave me almost an impossible time limit.” He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees while he goes through the chain of events. “Usually, I go home, change clothes and make a game plan, then head out. It’s how I’ve managed to make it this far, but that night, Franklin left me no time for that. It was like he knew the quickest path and was certain I’d go that way. I walked into that alley and they came out of nowhere. They were expecting me.”
I don’t mean to, but I cut him off. “They? There was more than one of them?”
"Two guys. Bigger than me." He strains to consider something. "They had on ski masks. I couldn't see either of their faces."
“Did they say anything? Would you be able to recognize their voices?”
Johnny bobs his head back and forth. “No, not a word.”
“Okay, anything else?”
“They knocked me to the ground pretty quick. And they kept hitting me. I could barely keep my eyes open, they swelled up almost immediately.” Johnny’s gaze steadies. “But there was this flash of white.” He holds his palm to his rib. “His shoe.” He turns to me with wild eyes. “What’s that brand with the black stripes?”
“Adidas?”