“Motherfucker did what?” Wire seethed. Another thing about being a Son. You respected women. There was a definite right way to treat them. And many, many definite wrong ways too.
They didn’t tolerate any of them.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
I had a bad feeling about this one. Something I couldn’t put my finger on, but the feeling was familiar, like before all the shit went down with all of the other women in my life. There was a taste to the air, something about the way Polly’s face looked.
Or maybe I was just being paranoid.
Though I had reason to be.
Maybe our life had reached its quota of disasters and rocky waters. Maybe it was time for some smooth sailing, finally.
Or maybe we hadn’t even seen rocky.
“On another note, you did good,” Wire said, jerking me out of my melancholy and grave premonitions.
“Oh I know. In life generally I do excel,” I replied. “Though what specifically are you referring to?”
Wire chuckled. “Your little disappearing act. You almost got me too. Didn’t even know about that third passport. And the diverting flight through Mexico. I taught you well, grasshopper. Too well. Almost.”
I gaped in the phone. Wire hadn’t just taught me how to kickbox, he’d also passed on some of his more basic hacking and counterfeiting skills too.
“I thought Cade said you couldn’t find me.”
“That’s what I told Cade,” Wire replied. “I hacked into the FBI before I started high school, do you really think I wouldn’t be able to find a rogue Rosie in Venezuela? I found you, kept tabs on you, made sure you didn’t do anything too stupid, like start the third world war, and then I left you to it.” He paused. “Figured you needed it. You don’t get much of that. Time. Peace.”
I laughed. “If you were keeping tabs on me in Venezuela, you know the time I spent there couldn’t quite be described as peaceful.”
“It’s all relative, chica. Chaos can be peace when wild is the way of life.”
I stuttered at this profound thought coming from the man with a serious Vitamin D deficiency and an addiction to Red Bull.
“Okay, I’ve got to go search through the Craigs. Try not to keep me too busy, okay?”
And without waiting for a goodbye, he hung up the phone.
Wire was pretty social considering he spent eighteen hours a day with only a computer screen for company, but that didn’t mean he was well versed in all social niceties. I liked that.
But I still didn’t like the reigning silence that followed the abrupt end of the call. Since the moment my plane landed, I hadn’t had silence. I had the hospital, all my ghosts screaming at me, I had my family in the waiting room. The family who, by chance had only just left after their second visit since I’d been back, with Cade promising he’d lock me up until I grew up if I got into any more trouble.
“You know I’m not ever growing up,” I’d said sweetly.
“That’s why I’ll throw away the key,” he’d grunted back, before yanking me into his hard and yet soft embrace, kissing my head. “Love you, kid. Don’t disappear again.”
I didn’t plan on it.
But the second it all stopped, and I had a moment alone to realize it, I wanted to. I wanted to run to the edges of the earth. The only thing that stopped me was that I knew the silence would follow.
There was another one too, but I was trying to convince myself that he wasn’t.
Because I hadn’t heard from him in weeks.
I’d dreamed of him pounding down my door, us having a screaming match followed by the craziest sex that had almost two decades’ worth of foreplay.
Dreams weren’t free. Not when they didn’t come true. They almost cost me everything.
Worse than that, I’d been scouring the gossip pages, as was my morning ritual now that I was back in civilization, and I’d seen it.
Luke’s hand on the small of a very small back. Almost brushing a very perfectly proportioned and toned ass, encased in couture.
On a red carpet.
Oh, did I not mention that she was one of the most famous actresses on the planet. I used to like her. Now I wanted to make a voodoo doll in her likeness and snap off her perfect blonde strands one by one.
I hated that. I’d always been one to support my fellow women, never blame them for the actions of a man.
With a few exceptions.
Ginger being one.
But that was necessary. That bitch had a hand in Gwen almost losing her baby, in my brother missing out on months of watching his daughter grow in her belly. Had to suffer while he knew Gwen was at home grieving the loss of her brother without him.
I bled during those months, watching the pain contort my brother into something almost unrecognizable. He went so close to that abyss that welcomed all brokenhearted men and women, when their love was taken from them. The one that Bull, before Mia, had resided in. A part of him was still there. I think a part of him would always be there.