Page 49 of Bleeding Outside the Lines

“Also,” Garrett paces in front of me, “I kind of expected Ruby to kill you by now.”

“She is not trying to kill me,” I hesitate. “Anymore.”

“Cass, she’s fucking playing you. She’s an assassin. The best assassin. The assassin that kills people like us just because she can.”

I feel the bones crunch beneath my fist before I register what I’ve done. Blood gushes out of Garrett’s nose, splattering the mat beneath our feet.

“Real friends tell you the truth,” he says and then he spits blood at my feet before turning his back to me.

A buzzing noise fills the room and then stops.

Garrett turns to look at me, eyes wide. “Is that?” He gestures with his head to my phone.

I nod before picking my phone up off the bench. A single text flashes on the screen.

Unknown number: Midnight ride. Alone.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Garrett asks from behind me, reading over my shoulder.

“It means I’ve gotta go.”

Garrett trails behind me as I leave the gym and head to my room to change. She wants to meet. What does this mean? Garrett’s words haunt me, even though I don’t want to believe them.

“Where are you going?”

“A place we’ve met before.”

“You’re not going to tell me where?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want you to interfere. If she wanted to kill me, she would have already.” But even as I say it, I check the mag of my 380 and chamber a round before putting it in its holster attached to my belt. “Besides,” I continue, “you need to go have your nose reset.”

Garrett exits my bathroom with a wet cloth, swiping at the blood on his face. “Eh.” He shrugs. “I kind of thought the crooked nose thing was in. Chicks love a good story.”

I smile because this is me and G. This is our story. Our truth. Our friendship. We have ups and downs and ebbs and flows, but at the end of the day, we’re ride or die.

“You know I can just track the Impala, right?”

“But you’re not going to unless you hear from me.”

Garrett looks at me pointedly, waiting for me to continue.

“Or don’t hear from me,” I relent. “If you don’t hear from me by 1 a.m., it means I’m probably bleeding out and you should kidnap a doctor to bring with you.”

“Not funny.”

“Wasn’t trying to be.”

thirty-five

I kill the engineand climb out of the car. The full moon illuminates the sky, providing barely enough light for me to see the beautiful redhead standing outside the guardrail at the edge of the cliff. I expect her to turn as I approach, but she doesn’t. She is a statue, a goddess of stone. A queen admiring her kingdom.

I hesitate to touch her, nervous that I’ll startle her and consequently lose her to the terrain below. Instead, I come to a stop next to her and wait for her to acknowledge my presence.

Minutes pass, the silence so thick that I clear my throat in an attempt to rid myself of the ominous feeling. She releases a heavy sigh in response before turning and stepping over to the safe side of the guardrail. She drinks me in, hollowing out her cheeks in a way that makes my cock twitch.

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