Page 64 of Volatile Obsessions

Ramsey: Lux, what the hell is going on?

Ramsey: Helllloooo?

Suki: I’m gonna kill you myself if you don’t answer! You can’t text us with an emergency and then disappear!

Suki: LUX!!! GET YOUR ASS BACK IN THIS CHAT!!!

Ramsey: Jesus fucking Christ! What the hell, Lux!

Ramsey: Suk, I’m starting to worry for real…

Suki: I know…

As worried as they were, my little black heart swelled as I read their messages. They loved me, and I them, hence why dragging them into dark places with me was a strict no go. I couldn’t lose them.

They were all I had.

Me: I’m here! I was driving dammit!

I giggled almost right after I sent it, imagining the both of them sagging in relief. Suki was probably cussing me out, too.

Suki: What in the hell happened?

Me: Him.

Ramsey: Who?

Suki: R-O-M-A-N.

Ramsey: Ooooh! Spill! What did he do now?

Me: Both of you free?

Ramsey: Sure am.

Suki: Just closing up!

Me: My place, half hour! Green light—gotta go!

* * *

“My question to you is,do you still want to put a bullet through his head or not?” That was Suki, curled in the corner of my couch with wine glass in hand.

We were twenty minutes into the Roman conversation and I was about done. Not because of opposing views or anything like that, I just didn’t want to talk about him anymore. They were having too much fun with this, and well, I wasn’t.

“I should, especially after today,” I admitted, taking a sip from my own glass. “But I don’t.”

“Why?” she hedged, and all I could offer was a feeble shrug.

“I don’t know. When he just Phantom, the thought was a no brainer...”

“But the second you met him…” Ramsey chimed in from her place on the tiled floor. “It disappeared?”

I nodded.

It was the complete and awful truth.

When Roman was just Phantom, hating him was simple, a given based on how he’d attacked me and what he’d done to my business.

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