He puts his hand in mine and we walk down the stairs together. “Are you leaving?” he asks.
“Only for a few hours.”
“Where are you going?” he asks, looking up at me with sad eyes.
“Just to the movie and dinner. You can wait up for me if you want.”
“Okay. I’ll play with my action figures in your room.”
“Do that. But don’t pull any of their heads off because that’s weird.”
“Only assholes do that,” he says.
I mess up his hair. “Yep. Only assholes behead their dolls.” I lean down and kiss him again. It strikes me that I don’t have to lean so much anymore. My little bro is growing up. Maybe that should make me happy, but it doesn’t. It makes me worry.
“Bye, turd basket,” I say.
“Bye, Sister turd basket.” Jersey leaves me and runs up the stairs, no doubt to dump his entire box of toys onto my floor. I won’t let it piss me off this time. I feel like he’s slipping out of my life with all this growing up stuff. Maybe seeing Alissa pregnant and alone has me going all soft. Jersey won’t mind. He loves the attention. It makes me smile to imagine the look on his face when I get down on my butt to do a Han Solo war. He loves Han Solo wars.
I open the door and stand there with a frown on my face as the man before me smiles.
Does. Not. Compute.
Brain meltdown commencing…
“What are you doing here?” I finally ask.
“Mick asked me to pick you up for him. He got hung up at work.” Colin grins at me like only Colin can.
I cock a hip and stare at him some more. He looks way too happy. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say there’s trouble-making afoot here, but his explanation makes sense and I cannot imagine what kind of prank he’d be pulling by picking me up for his brother, so I walk outside onto the front porch.
“Okay. If you say so.” I shut the door behind me. “Where are we going?”
“Just come with me,” he says, walking down the front walk with his hand at the small of my back. “It’s a surprise.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
COLIN IS DRIVING IN A direction I’m not familiar with.
“So what’s the deal? What was so important at work that Mick couldn’t pick me up?”
“Car has to be delivered tonight. Last minute thing.” Colin seems distracted. He’s focusing really hard on the road which makes me suspicious. He’s usually way more interested in charming pants off, or at least trying to.
I take my phone out of my purse and stare at the screen. No messages. Wouldn’t Mick have texted me if he were going to be late? I look over at his brother. I guess not. Maybe Mick is one of those anti-technology people, so he used old-fashioned personal interaction to send his message.
“When will he be done?” I ask.
“Soon. Probably real soon.”
I remain silent for a few more minutes as Colin navigates the streets. It’s just too weird to be in a car with him driving and me not knowing our destination, so I can’t keep my mouth shut for long. “Where are we going exactly?”
“You’ll see.”
My phone buzzes in my hand and I turn it over to look at the screen. Before I can move my finger to see the whole message, Colin snatches the phone and drops it into the side pocket of his door.
“What the … Colin?! Give it back!” I go from confused to pissed in half a second.
“Just give me two minutes without interruption and it’s all yours.” He pulls up to the curb next to a big building. We’re in a ritzy part of town I don’t generally go to.
“That is seriously fucked up,” I say, both angry and nervous. “Why did you take my phone?” Sweat breaks out under my arms and I start to shake a little. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m mad or scared. This whole situation is just … weird.
He puts the car in park and shuts off the engine. “I just need your undivided attention for five minutes. That’s it. I promise, you’re safe.” He takes my phone out and puts it in his front pocket.
I back my chin up to my neck. “Safe? What the hell does that mean?” Okay, now I’m shaking from fear. This is wrong. I can feel it. It was stupid for me to just get in his car. He’s a felon for shit’s sake! I don’t know him at all!
Colin stares at me and the hard lines of his face along with the tip of a tattoo I can see coming up to his neck from his chest over the top of his shirt are adding up into something I never fully appreciated before. Trouble. There’s a reason he’s known as Trouble around town, and it’s definitely not because he’s a choirboy. Gah! I am such a stupid asshole!