Page 179 of Their Arrangement
But I had to. Because I knew. I knew she wouldn’t wait much longer. Sure enough—two messages. Selene. Time-stamped ten minutes apart.
I didn’t open them right away. Just stared at the screen. Wolfe’s name was still above hers in my threads. I hadn’t opened that one in hours. Not since the last message he sent.
You don’t lock your window.
Next time, I won’t ask to come in.
My stomach twisted.
I opened Selene’s thread.
Midnight.
Or it’s over.
Photo attached. I didn’t want to look. But I did. It was him. The ex.
Leaning against a lamppost on a side street I recognized too well. Two blocks from the building. Hands in his coat pockets. Eyes on the camera. Smiling.
You know how he gets when he’s hungry,Selene wrote.
Don’t make me let him off the leash.
My fingers went numb. The screen blurred. And for a second, I didn’t know where I was. I could smell him again. The inside of his car. The stale cigarette smoke he never let me ask him to stop.
The aftershave he used to rub into my skin when he said I smelled like someone else. I almost threw up. I dropped the phone onto the floor and braced my hands on my knees.
Breathed.
Hard.
In.
Out.
Once.
Twice.
“You’ve made it this far,” I whispered.
“Don’t fall now.”
I picked the phone back up.
Typed.
Deleted.
Typed again.
I need more time.
Wolfe’s watching everything.
Barron hasn’t let me out of his sight in three days.
… three dots appeared.
