Page 44 of Bottoms
I smiled, stacking the pages together again as I looked up to see Nik peeking up from his phone to glance at me. Looking down at my watch that Fynn had replaced my GPS bracelet with, I saw there wasn’t much time left. I looked back to Nik, and he must have had the same thought because I could see the sadness in his eyes from where I sat. My lips formed into a kiss, discreetly sending one his way.
He shook his head no, but smiled back. Lifting my heart with the hope that he may just pass this first test.
14
Dealing with Death
“Ican’tbelievehejust let you go,” Fynn grumbled like he was upset that when the hour was over, Nik had called time and remained at his desk until I was out of sight. “I wouldn’t let you go,” he mumbled again as he fished a cigarette out one-handed. His other hand was on the wheel of the car. We were getting close to the house.
It was a long drive twice a week for a one-hour class, but it was worth it.
“He says he wants me to be able to contact him once a day, or it’s no deal. He doesn’t care about the means. He said something like, ‘waking up to my eyes is the only way he knows it’s not a nightmare,’ or something.” I leveled Fynn with a glare.
He responded by rolling his eyes. His cigarette stuck between his lips without him holding on to it. I had never been able to do that.
“He just going along with it because he got some ass,” Fynn laughed.
I narrowed my eyes in his direction. “I agree with him. You get to see all the messages, anyway.”
He shook his head like he was considering the trade, but needed more to sweeten the deal.
“What do you want, Fynn?” I asked, exhausting my mind of what else I could add. Being able to communicate with them in some way would help us toward our goal.
“I want the first boy named after me,” he said, entirely serious.
“What?” I asked, wondering how exactly we got on the topic of pregnancy. I would die with my implant in for all I cared. There would be no baby making in this body.
“Whenever, by whomever. I don’t care. The first boy baby to come out of you is named Fynn, and I will give you backyourcell phone. It’s in the car, charged, and I already have the software installed. So really, it would save me a lot of time.”
Fuck.
“Fine,” I huffed. It wouldn’t matter, anyway.
Fynn flipped up the armrest, and then another secret compartment below that, revealing a hidden storage compartment that held a lot of weapons, a grenade, and my phone. The purple glittery case shone back at me. I picked it up and powered it on to find that the battery was almost full.
“I should have a charger at the house. That should be a C, right?” Fynn asked. It was probably the most mundane sentence that ever left his lips.
I couldn’t hold back my bubble of laughter and the wonderful light feeling in my chest. For once in a long time, I was happy. Genuinely happy. A grin split my cheeks, and I loved every second of the burning sensation that settled in after I had spent too many moments smiling.
“If I had known it would have made you smile like that,” Fynn said, his voice soft. “I would have given it to you a lot sooner.”
I gave him a smile, hugging my phone to my heart.
“It wasn’t the phone. It was you.” I turned back to my screen, not wanting to see the look in Fynn’s eyes as he momentarily turned away from the road.
I pulled up the secure app and navigated toward the direct messaging section. I had all my contacts in here, including Hannah. Nothing had been changed, deleted, or tampered with in any way. I knew Fynn could see everything inside it. Fuck, he could probably tap into it to record a video if he wanted.
Death was always in control.
I clicked on Nik and typed out a message.
Nessa:Did you tell the others?
His reply started almost instantly. I watched the little dots bounce as butterflies floated inside me. It was like I was a fucking teenager all over.
Nik:Of course I did. Do we have a time limit?
Nessa:Nope. I get my phone back. He sees everything, of course. But he’s always seen everything. I don’t even think about it anymore.
