Page 85 of Oath
Just got up, walked off the mat, and went to change, passing Voodoo who stood laughing his ass off just inside the doorway. When Bones was gone though, he gave me a slow clap.
“He’ll get you back,” he warned, and I shrugged.
“You guys already said you were going to keep doing it until I figured it out, so… what have I got to lose?” I wasn’t sure if it was my sweet smile or my words that stymied him, but Voodoo actually looked less amused and more worried.
Three points for me.
Of course,my success was short-lived. Legend retaliated by hiding a motion-activated soundbox under my bed. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone when I discovered it at midnight. Voodoo was in bed with me and when a creepy child’s voice whispered, “I see you” into the darkness as he thrust into me, we both froze.
I didn’t scream or throw anything. I just stared up at Voodoo and he stared down at me, then he dipped his head, kissed me fiercely and pulled out and off. A moment later, he sat up from where he removed it from under the bed.
“I’ll be back.”
The thumping that came next was definitely nowhere near as fun as the thumping I’d been about to engage in. When he was done, Voodoo and I went to his room. Mine now officially creeped me out.
I wasn’tsure if that was the reason the “training war” began to die off or if it was because AB found me in the kitchen quietly unscrewing the battery case on one of Legend’s old motion sensors.
“Good,” he said, pulling up a chair. “Now let me show you how to clone a phone off a dummy SIM.”
Becauseobviously, that was the logical next step after surviving shaving cream, haunted beds, and salted coffee. I still don’t know what exactly they think Mark Sinclair is going todoat that meeting.
If I needed to wrestle him to the ground, I was about 60% confident I could land an elbow now. If he pulled a gun, I’d at least learned not to freeze. And if he tried to talk circles around me?
Please.
He didn’t stand a chance.
Because no way would I fail after all of this. The boys wouldneverlet me live it down, even if they killed Sinclair first.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
GRACE
Virginia.
It seemed almost surreal when Legend landed the plane at the private airport in Loudoun County. The distance from here to Alexandria where Am’s law firm was seemed as far as Am herself. After all these months, I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of not seeing her again.
We’d never gone this long without talking. The aching open wound of her absence tore open. The new damage split the scar tissue that had formed over the intervening time. While I could never forget her, the struggle to survive both the search and the time after while the guys helped their friends—it had numbed me.
A little.
The jagged swipes tearing down the walls and reconnecting me to those emotionshurt. Like a limb that had gone to sleep, the pins and needles were brutal in their assault.
“Hey,” Bones said and it roused me to the fact the guys had all deplaned and it was just me still in my seat, and Bones crouched next to me. “You good?”
“No,” I admitted. “Not really.” I didn’t have a lot more than that to offer.
While I could have made something up or just faked it until I made it, I didn’t. One thing had become almost second nature over the past few months with all of them, though it was the most true with Bones. Maybe because he aggravated me so much and didn’t retreat even when I snapped back.
They didn’t need me to pretend. I didn’t have to be sunshine or bright. I didn’t have to fake cheer I didn’t feel or be upbeat when all I wanted to do was wallow.
“You still good to do this?” The phrasing of the question was careful, even if his voice was matter-of-fact.
“I will be.” I sucked in a deep breath. Even though he didn’t ask, I added, “It just hit me all over again how long it has been. I’ve been so distracted that—” I hadn’t forgotten. That was the wrong word. Not to mention what a betrayal that would have been.
“That you let it slide to the back of your mind while you focused on what is in front of you.” Bones nodded. “Take a minute, catch your breath, and then we’ll go. Voodoo and Lunchbox are going to recon the firm and Sinclair’s house. Once we have all the data, we’ll work out the insertion.”
