Page 85 of Pulse
“Are there parameters on that? Like are you talking dinner or sponge baths?”
“Burt, behave.” I pause. “And, Burt?”
“Yeah, sweet pea?”
“I’m so sorry.” My voice cracks, heavy with sorrow and guilt. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. It’s all my fault and I?—”
“Nah, I’m not listening to this bullshit. None of this was your fault. But I gotta go. Someone’s standing over me with a needle.”
“I’ll see you very, very soon.”
“Bye.”
The call ends.
My heart pounds now that the deed is done and all that’s left is to face the music … or Troy. And he’s not exactly going to be a beautiful symphony over this.
It’ll be more like a symphony of destruction.
I reach for the power button but hit the voice mailbox instead. The top message is from Joseph Dallo with a time stamp of this morning.
Curiosity gets the best of me, and I hitplay. Then because my hands are trembling, I turn on the speakerphone.
“Hi, Dahlia, it’s your dad. I’ve been trying to call you for a few days now. I hope you’re okay. I just want to give you a heads-up that much is going to happen very soon. You might want to keep your head down for a while, just in case. I’ve spent my whole life trying to keep you safe and I don’t want to fail you now. This will be over soon. I promise.”
I press the power button and turn to shove my phone back in my bag. But I only get partially turned when my gaze is met with a set of steely gray eyes.
My body runs hot. My cheeks flame. I try to control my breathing so I don’t panic …because he’s pissed.
“What will be over soon?” he asks, his eyes blazing. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I can explain.”
“You better do it quick.”
I take a quick breath. “Troy, hear me out. I had to know how Burt was doing. It’s all my fault and I know it was stupid. But?—”
“You think?”
He fills out the doorway with his towering body and powerful presence. I can’t imagine being on his bad side and how terrifying that would be. But I’m not scared of him. Moreover, I know his reaction is because I’m on his good side.
“I can’t help it,” I say, holding my hands out in front of me. “He has no one, Troy. Not a soul on this planet to check on him and I’m the reason he’s hurt.”
He snatches my phone out of my hand and slips it into his shorts pocket.
“Keep doing shit like this and you’ll be the reason you’re hurt,” he says, his jaw flexing. “You’ll also be the reason I’m in fucking prison for murdering the person who hurts you.” He groans, running a hand over his head. “How could you be so careless?”
I fight the tears that want to come. “This is hard for me, okay?”
“I understand that. But you work for a security company. You know how phones are tracked. We say it all the time. Small mistakes make big problems. And this …”—he removes my phone from his pocket and waves it in the air—“this is not asmall mistake.”
“Be mad at me. I was careless. I know you’re coming from a good place with this, and I screwed up,” I say, fighting so hard not to break down in front of him. But the enormity of the past week just hit me like a ton of bricks, knocking me flat on my proverbial ass. “But I’m doing my best here not to panic, not to think, not to worry … not to focus on the fact that someone wants to fucking kill me. And, in the meantime, my friend just got hurt and I’m his only friend and …I’m having a hard time today, okay?”
Tears spill down my cheeks as I step away from him.
He bristles, his breathing turning ragged.
“When it was just me, it was fine,” I say. “But it’s hard to know that innocent people are paying the price for my life. For my choices. I’m the one that dated the asshole.”
