Page 55 of Indigo Sky

"Oh, all right," she replied hesitantly, albeit understandingly. I assumed exhaustion was something she knew well. "Okay. Well, I'll get going. I'll call you in a couple of min—"

"Call me as soon as you close this door," I interjected, opening the driver's door for her and gesturing inside. "Don't make me waste more than a second out here alone when I could be hearing your voice instead."

She stared for a second longer than I would've liked, just watching me as her fingers fidgeted with the straps of her bag. Her lips parted, her brows tipped, and her eyes widened with so much more than I wanted to unpack right now.

Then, without saying another word, she got in and buckled her seat belt.

"Call me," I reminded her, my hands gripping the edge of the doorframe.

She started the engine, then held her phone up. "Dialing your number now."

"Good."

I shut the door without saying anything else, afraid she'd linger. God, the dread in my gut was intense, andwhy? I felt insane, like the rope tethering my mind to reality was fraying. Maybe it was all just a knee-jerk response to the situation withTyson the night before—I didn't fucking know—but I needed to get some sleep, and she needed to get out of here.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I answered immediately.

"Hey," I said, backing away from her car to let her pull out of the spot.

"You're a little paranoid, huh?" she teased.

"Not usually," I admitted, walking around to the driver's side of my own car while keeping my eye on hers. "You wanna wait for a second before you drive away?"

"Gonna take me up on the offer you turned down years ago?"

Memories of her asking if I'd like to come back to her place rushed back in. My cheeks were aflame, and my dick twitched in my pants when I thought maybe that scenario could very well become reality someday. Perhaps even someday soon.

"Not tonight," I said, getting into my car and shutting the door. I turned on the engine and allowed the phone a second to connect to Bluetooth.

"That's not a no," she jabbed, her voice revealing a smile I was sure hurt her lip.

I pulled out of the parking space and pulled up alongside her car, glancing across our respective cars to meet her gaze and the tight smile on her face. "You said you weren't going to smile anymore."

"What can I say?" She shrugged. "You make it hard to keep my promises."

I gave her a half smile before looking ahead at the telephone pole and scanning the vicinity for any waiting cars or long-legged shadows lurking around.

"I'm going to follow you for a few minutes," I told her. "Just to be safe."

"You're seriously freaked out, huh?"

"Humor me, Kate."

She nodded. "Okay."

She started to drive, and I followed, leaving just enough space between our cars to prevent someone from cutting in—not that there was anyone else on the road, but still.

"So, what are we gonna talk about?" she asked, filling my car with her sweet, pretty voice as we turned out of the parking lot and drove past the corner where I'd seen the shadow lurking behind the telephone pole.

There was nobody there. No car. No man. Just a telephone pole with a flyer of some grinning lawyer stapled to it. His smile seemed to taunt me, laughing, poking at me, the way all those kids in school used to.

And yet the sense of unease hadn't left. If anything, it was only heightened as I wondered,Where the hell did you go?

"Anything," I said to Kate as we drove past, and I checked my rearview mirror. "Talk to me about anything."

***

You know, in hindsight, I can't believe she trusted me. Like, looking back, I was acting shady as fuck. But IknewI had seen something, and whether that something had truly been a threat or not, I didn't care. I wasn't risking anything. Better safe than sorry—you know what I mean?

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