Page 79 of A Fine Line

I look over at Matt, who shrugs, so I shake my head again. “So, do we have a ride or what?”

Matt’s already packing up a bunch of his electronics and stuffing them into a bag. He smiles at me over his shoulder.

He continues to creepily smile at me, so I ask, “What?”

He laughs, then says, “I was contemplating if it ever gets old.”

“If what gets old?” Nettie asks. “The fuck around?”

Matt nods and says, “I don’t think it does because it doesn’t matter how many times it comes around, those words still fall off the tongue like magic.”

“You are truly fucking disturbing,” I say, rolling my eyes.

He gives me an incredulous look, his hands going out as he says, “Tell me I’m wrong, Tony. Either say the words or tell me I’m wrong.”

I narrow my eyes at him, contemplating telling him he’s wrong just for fun, but I can’t do it. Because he’s not wrong. It never fucking gets old.

I glare at him, then spin around, and walk toward the door. “Let’s go fuck around.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Carolina

Tonymustbepissed.

That’s basically all that’s been going through my head the entire time I’ve been on this plane. I stopped verbalizing this after about the tenth time I said it for fear that Lilith will stab me in the eyeball, but it’s still running through my head on repeat.

In my defense, when Lilith knocked on the door shortly after Tony fell asleep, I had no intention of listening to any grand schemes. But the more she spoke, the more sense it made to me, and I had to accept the shortest path to a resolution was the path of least resistance.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Tony must be pissed.

No sooner did I tell the man I love him for the first time, did I scurry off in the middle of the night without a word. For all I know, he’s back to thinking I’m the devil and is out to stuff me back in the box.

“Will you fucking cut it out,” Lilith sputters. “Tony Andersen may be a hothead, pain in the ass, but he’s the first person who understands when it’s the right choice to take a road that may appear to be a bit more dangerous. You can’t be going into this situation surrounded by your posse because these types of people don’t stand up to a posse. They hide in their little fucking hole in the ground until they find a good opportunity to slither out and stab someone in the back.”

I say nothing because there isn’t anything for me to say. Even if I did decide this was the wrong choice, it’s a little too late now. Our course is set, and we’re going to stay on it regardless of the forecasted outcome.

“We’ve got movement,” Agatha says as she walks over to where Lilith and I are sitting and takes the empty seat across from us. She slides her phone over to show us the little green blip on the screen.

I look closer, laughing at the label. “That bitch? That’s not very nice.”

She smirks at me and says, “Have you met Antoinette? It’s accurate.”

“Is she going to be as pissed as Tony?”

“No,” Agatha replies. “She’s had to take her own path too many times to be judging anyone else for doing the same thing. She’ll probably be glad we didn’t tell her and ask her to keep a secret because secrets are not her thing.”

“Because she has to tell Dare everything?”

Lilith laughs as she slides the phone back to Agatha. “She’s still capable of keeping a secret when appropriate, but she’s definitely a full-disclosure kind of girl. She was raised with too many secrets, and now, they leave a bad taste her mouth.”

“So, they’re like six or eight hours behind us?”

“Probably six to start, but I imagine they’ll cut that down, assuming they figured out a relatively close flight plan to ours, and Matt will definitely secure a faster jet. Antoinette has been sending me unamused GIFs for at least the last hour, so they’ve had some time to prepare.”

I grimace. “They’re all gonna kill us. Or at least me. You two will get a free pass for being blood relations. I’m just gonna be dead.”

“You’ll be fine,” Agatha says flippantly. She picks up her phone and points the screen at herself, putting her middle finger in front of her face and taking a picture. She taps on the screen a couple of times, and then laughs as she sets it back down. “That’s right, she’s gonna love that one.”

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