Sinner's Revenge(80)

“The middle part.”

“Why?” I ask, moving closer. She pulls back, pretending like she’s annoyed, but I can see her pulse throbbing in the side of her neck. She likes me this close.

“Business, Zeke. Everything is business.”

My smile widens. “You called me Zeke.”

She shakes her head in annoyance. “Yeah, well, it’s gonna take a while for me to adjust to all your pet names.” I burn holes into the back of her head until she finally lets out a breath and twists in her seat to face me. “You said you didn’t want to talk.”

“I didn’t.”

Her eyes narrow on the cut above my eye, then move to the one on my lip. Her face softens. “Does it hurt?” she whispers.

I laugh. “No, babe. It doesn’t hurt. I’m not that fragile, you know.” I shoot her a wink. “I can take a lick.” A small smile plays on her lips. “What about you?” I ask. “Did it hurt you?”

“Hardly,” she scoffs, but I can tell she’s lying. “It’s getting harder and harder to keep our secret when you continue to show your ass in front of everyone.”

“So let’s stop keeping us a secret. Everyone already knows something is going on.” I shrug, looking over at Clark, who pretends he’s not listening, even though I know the bastard is.

“First off,” she begins, pointing her finger at me. “There is no us and nothing is going on. We broke up. Remember?”

I roll my eyes to the roof, twisting my lips in confusion. “Nope. I don’t remember that. The way I see it, we had a disagreement. Happens all the time with couples, from what I hear. You should know that. You were married once. Remember?”

“How can I forget?” she asks, her eyes taking on a dreamy state. “The honeymoon was the best part.” My jaw tightens and she smiles at my reaction.

I lean back in my seat. If I’ve learned anything from being around women, it’s that they hate to be ignored. Pulling my earbuds from my bag, I plug them into my iPod and put it on shuffle. She says something, so to drown her out, I cut the volume up and look out the window. Eventually, she gives up and turns back around.

I close my eyes, knowing I’m too pissed now to sleep, but trying like hell anyway. Time passes and just when I start to doze off, the universe fucks me once again and “Girl Crush” by Lady Antebellum plays, reminding me that I won’t ever be able to forget what we had. And as long as I’m in this life, I’ll never be able to escape her either.


* * *

My phone vibrating in my pocket wakes me. It takes a moment for me to remember where I am. I look around the car and Diem is asleep, Clark still has his headphones on, the car is completely silent, and Rookie is looking at me. His eyes move to the floorboard and I follow them to find a cell phone laying at his feet. His gaze shifts to the back of Diem’s seat, then back to me. She must have dropped it.

He raises his eyebrows, silently suggesting that I pick the damn thing up. I don’t know why he wants me to snoop around, but my curiosity is getting the better of me by the second. My hand in my lap, I turn my thumb up so he can see, and his foot pushes the phone over to me. Stretching, I can feel Clark’s eyes on me in the rearview mirror and I yawn, then lean my head against the back of his seat like I’m napping.

I position the phone in my lap so that if Diem wakes, she won’t see me with it. Sliding my finger across the screen, I find it locked and smile. Some days, it is good to be a nerd. I crack the code and scroll through her apps.

Candy Crush—predictable.

Menstrual Cycle Tracker—ugh.

MyFace—of course.

Fitness Pal—naturally.

I scroll through her contacts, smiling when I find two hearts, a knife, and a gun emoji next to Zeke’s name. There is only one text that is still unread. I don’t have to open it to read the small message displayed on the screen.

Do it.

Hopefully, whoever Tampa is, isn’t giving her an order to kill me. I have two guns on me, one behind my back and the other strapped to my ankle. I make a note to keep them close even in my sleep.

The inbox in her email is empty and so is the trash file. Outgoing messages have been wiped too. If I knew I had the time, I could find anything that has ever been on her phone, but I don’t. So, I go to her gallery and discover that Diem is a selfie queen. Duck faces, smiles, pissed-off looks, edited pictures, and bathroom pics go on for pages. Then I come to pictures of me.

They were all taken when I wasn’t looking. I’m in the bar, at Dirk’s house, on my bike, and even some from when she was staying with me at home. Did she have a phone the whole time? If so, where the hell did she hide it?