“We have news about Stuart.”
“I already know. Stuart texted me. I think it’s cool.” He blew steam on my window and drew a skewed heart.
“It doesn’t mean…”
“Austin,” he said, smiling at me, “Peter loves me. You love me. We all love Stuart. I’m not threatened.”
“Peter is it? That’s new.” The new, adult Cai apparently had decided ‘Rabbit’ was juvenile.
“I have news, too.”
The heart. “You met someone?” Thank God. The reason we had sent him to Europe for a year was to get him over Agent Riley Cordova. Maybe that was why he seemed so grown up, despite the innocence and sweetness of his smile.
“No,” he said quietly. “You and Peter never did understand. I belong to Riley.”
Christ. “Cai, he’s my age. He’s rejected you three times. You need to get over it.” I didn’t mean to be harsh, but those rejections had nearly broken Cai. And dealing with a depressed, suicidal teenager was not fun.
“I was underage. Now I’m nineteen.”
“And he’s thirty. That didn’t change.”
“I never told you. I never told anyone.” He pulled out a beaded black necklace from beneath the neck of his sweater. I’d never seen him take it off. “He kissed me.”
I nearly ran us off the road. “What?”
“He kissed me?” Cai looked sideways at me while grabbing the dashboard for dear life. “Just a kiss.”
“I think you’d better tell me your news before I drive us into a ditch.”
“Oh. Um. Maybe I should…so you don’t…I don’t want to die.”
“Cai,” I warned.
“Pull over?”
I took the next exit and stopped in a motel parking lot. “Please tell me you didn’t shoot anyone.”
“Shoot? Oh. No, I didn’t shoot anyone.” He scraped his teeth along his upper lip. “But um. I’m um… kind of in… not trouble. Not really. Maybe a little. But…Well. Interpol has a file…”
I gaped at him. There weren’t words enough to describe how utterly devastated I felt. “Now is where you tell me you’re innocent.”
“Oh, well, Um. I’d like to tell you that. I really would. But if they question you…” He lifted his shoulders and winced a smile with raised brows. “Plausible deniability and all that.”