Page 8 of Prey

“Bugs,” he responded straight up.

I groaned. “For the girl? You want to bug the girl’s room?”

“But I need the keycard to get back in,” he specified. “Have you still got it?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Gunner, you need to stop this shit. It’s fucking obsessive.”

“I’m sure it’s her, Ronan,” he wielded with conviction. “I swear, it’s her.”

“Look, let’s make a deal,” I reconciled. “You give me more evidence that girl-”

“Riley laws,” he educated me, not that I care what her name is.

“Fine. Riley Laws,” I sucked in my breath. “You give me irrefutable evidence that girl is Annika, and then I’ll give you the keycard copy back, so you can bug her room and wank off as much as you like. Deal?”

“What other evidence can I give you? Apart from my experience of living with her for eight years, Eight years, man. Eight fucking years,” his argument was lost under his one-eyed obsessiveness, but I understand his pain and anger at being betrayed by that little bitch. “She’s practically my sister.”

“That’s the deal, Gunner. Give me more evidence, and I’ll give you the keycard back,” I asserted, refusing to budge. “Deal or no deal.”

“But that’s why I want to plant the listening devices in her room, maybe access her phone, and plant a bug in there,” he argued like a Pitbull terrier with a stick. No matter how much you try to divert his attention, he won't drop it.

“That’s the deal, Gunner. You give me a reason to have her room bugged, and I’ll give you the keycard back,” I asserted, putting my foot down.

“I just want her to be found for when Mikael returns,” he tried to convince me.

It was never about Mikael; it was always about how much Gunner was blindsided and deceived, and it hurt him like hell.

When we found out it was Annika who screwed us over, Gunner fell into an ominous place and started self-harming, then disappeared, and it took three days to find him. Part of me wished we’d never find Annika again and that she’d fallen off the face of the earth, but Gunner saw her everywhere.

Every girl looked like her. Every girl’s voice sounded like her.

I exhaled, “Yeah, I know. But you might have to surrender to the fact that she’s not around anymore. I mean…it’s a huge country to hide in and an even bigger world. We have no idea if she’s still in the States.”

He fell quiet on the line, hating every word I was telling him, but someone had to say it.

I continued, “Gunner, you seriously need to calm the shit down and get yourself a nice, lil girlfriend that has a hot body and cool head and forget about Annika Kaiser.”

There were several beats of silence before he snapped, “Fine.”

“Fine? Are you going to move past this Annika shit?” I questioned because I didn’t entirely believe him.

“Fuck no,” he snarled down the line, and I had to stop myself from laughing at his stubbornness. Fucking thick-necked bull. “I’m still going to try and find her. I said ‘fine’ to the deal. I willfind evidence that Riley Laws is Annika so that you can give me back the keycard.”

“Alright, bro, it’s your life. Just a pity you’re wasting it on delusions and hunches over some piece of shit, girl.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, “Like you said…it’s my life.”

5

Do you have any experience working in a pizza restaurant before?” asked the manager of Picassos Pizza, who was only a couple of years older than me.

“No, but I have eaten enough pizza…” I noticed her eyes glaze over as if she’d heard that a thousand times before. “I’m a fast learner.”

“Ah, we’re looking for people with experience, as we stated clearly in the recruitment advert. You also don’t have any references.”

The bane of my life was producing evidence of my past when my past was as a different person. The only people I could thinkof to provide a reference was Judith and the family I lived with when I went underground into hiding three years ago. “I haven’t had a job before, so I don’t have a reference. And I have to start somewhere.”

She shook her head. “I'll keep your details, and if a new entrant job comes up, I’ll call you.”

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