Page 20 of A Damaged Soul
"Tonight. Shall I pick you up?"
I knew the answer even before she said anything. The hesitation was written all over her face. "I'll meet you at the restaurant."
I tried to not let her answer bother me but deep down it did. I had to remember we were just friends and me picking her up could be construed as a date. Something I wasn't ready to do; even if a small part of me wanted it.
"Text me the time and place, and I'll be there."
"Okay."
We said our goodbyes, and with much reluctance, I ended the call.
I only had the chance to rest my head back on the sofa for a minute before my phone was ringing again. Recognizing the ringtone as one of my siblings, I debated answering. In the end, I decided it was better to do so now before they sounded the alarm, and all of them started to harass me.
"Hello."
"He does know how to answer. Can you believe it, Colt? My brother actually knows how to answer the phone when I call."
I rolled my eyes at Alexa's antics.
"I'm going to hang up if you continue your shit," I told her instead.
"Ooooooh. Someone has their panties in a twist today. What's wrong, big brother, did a girl break your heart?"
"Alexa! Leave your brother alone." I could hear her husband Colt in the background.
"I would have to actually date for someone to break my heart," I reminded her.
"Oh that's right. You would have to talk to someone more than once in a blue moon, and we know that won't happen. You barely talk to your family let alone a woman."
"Did you call just to give me shit?" I asked after she went off on her tangent.
Alexa huffed at me. "No, smartass. I called to tell you the good news before you heard it from Mom and Dad on your monthly call."
The way she said monthly call had me cringing. I know my family hated that I restricted them to my life, but it was all I could do in order to keep them safe. The less they knew about my life, the better.
"What good news?" I asked when it was obvious she wasn't going to give me the information on her own.
"Makenna is going to be a big sister."
Makenna was Colt's fifteen-year-old daughter. She and Colt came into my sister's life two years ago, after Alexa had gotten arrested for murder. Obviously my sister hadn't murdered anyone, but it had looked like it when her CI showed up dead.
"Congratulations, sis. When are you due?"
"In six months. We decided to wait until we made it through the first trimester before we told anyone."
I remember my sister Lucy mentioning over a year ago that Alexa had been trying to have a baby, which made me wonder if maybe she had a miscarriage before this that I didn't know about.
"I'm so happy for you guys. I get to be an uncle again." I tried to inject as much happiness into my voice as possible even though in my heart all I could think about was how I now had another human being to worry about.
"Are you planning to see this baby or is work more important?" Leave it to a pregnant Alexa not to pull any punches.
"You know my job keeps me out of the country a lot."
"So you say, but how am I supposed to know if that's true since everything about your job is a secret?"
My family had no idea I worked for Black. Even my brother Zack who worked for Black's friend Wes didn't know what I did for a living, and that was how I preferred it. I didn't want them to have any idea the danger I was constantly in. Otherwise they would hover more than they already did.
"You just have to trust me."
