Page 22 of Toy

Jolie’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?” she asked, a small smile creeping over her face.

“Come on,” I said, turning the volume up again. “Haven’t you always wanted to do this?”

“Maybe.” She giggled. “But people will think we’re teenagers or something, cruising around with the music blaring.”

“Who cares? You never got to do that shit as a teen, so do it now.”

I turned the music up even more. Jolie tipped her head back and laughed louder. Then she began to bob along to the music as she sang along. She got half the words wrong, but that only made her look cuter.

Seeing her smile so brightly warmed my heart. She deserved this, every single day. Music. Happiness. Laughter. Not all this stress about the fucking cult.

I gritted my teeth at the reminder. I’d been trying to keep up a stoic appearance for her sake, but I was getting seriously worried. No matter what we did to try and find her father and all the other men, we kept ending up back at square one. No one seemed to know jack shit about where they were now or where they’d been hiding all these years.

Jolie and I spent the rest of the drive back to New Orleans listening to old music and singing along like total idiots. It was a nice distraction while it lasted.

“You’ll make your appointment easily enough,” Jolie said, glancing at the clock as we finally turned into her street. “It’s only a quarter past four.”

“All that loud music must’ve made me drive faster,” I said, cocking one eyebrow.

“Well, be careful on your way to the doctor’s office,” she said. “I don’t want you to die in a car accident.”

“Aren’t you coming with me?”

“I can if you want,” she said. “But I assumed you’d want to go in by yourself, so I was going to clean the apartment up a bit and start cooking dinner so it would be ready when you get back. I was going to make your favorite so we can celebrate you being stitch-free.”

“Have I ever said I don’t deserve you?”

She smiled and rolled her eyes. “Only every day.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I asked. “You know I hate leaving you alone.”

“We have the security team watching the apartment. I’ll be fine.”

“Well, just in case…” I pulled out my cell phone and sent a text to the head of the team. “I’m going to get them to station a guy right outside the front door.”

“Okay.” Jolie opened her door and got out. Before she headed inside, she leaned back in and gave me a kiss. “Love you,” she whispered.

“Love you too.”

I watched her walk into her building, followed by a beefy security team member.

Forty minutes later, my stitches were out. All that was left on the right side of my abdomen was a fading pink scar. The doctor gave me some cream to rub on it in case it got itchy, and then he sent me on my way.

While I waited for the medical receptionist to get off the phone so I could pay for my appointment, I stood by the counter and browsed the internet on my phone, searching for the closest florist so I could pick up some flowers for Jolie on my way back to the apartment.

As if she somehow knew I was thinking about her, a text from Jolie suddenly showed up.

OMG!

That was all it said.

I frowned, wondering what it was about. Another message came through a second later.

I just realized who ratted on us.

---