Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
MIRA
“ M att, hi.” I lower my phone, hoping I was able to get the right words quickly typed out and sent to Mason. It’s after midnight and we weren’t going to talk until tomorrow. I have no idea if he’s even up to see my text. This isn’t the same phone I had out during dinner since it’s my real phone, not the track phone I use for communicating with Matt.
I should have saved Mason as Maisie in my phone, though I’ll have a hard time explaining why I’m texting anyone from a different phone.
“W-what are you doing here?”
Elsie loops her arm through mine, not knowing what’s going on, but knowing this isn’t good. Her eyes go from him to me and back again before they widen.
“Oh shit,” she mouths and I give her the tiniest nod.
Enzo crosses the street, big grin on his face. “Didn’t expect to see me, did you?” He looks proud to have startled me. What a creep.
“Um, no. What are you doing here?”
He shrugs. “The bar scene gets old so I thought I’d check out this place.”
“Oh,” I say again and take a stumbling step forward, pulling Elsie with me. My mind whirls as I think back. I didn’t tell him where I was going. No…there’s no way. I wouldn’t even tell a guy I was actually interested in where I was going. You just never know with people and one date certainly isn’t enough time to get to know someone.
Hell, I was married for years and I didn’t truly know Cory until he had nothing left to lose and his true colors came out.
“How did you know I was here?” I turn my head and widen my eyes, looking at Elsie. She knows I’m trying to tell her something but can’t figure out that I want her to act drunk by my half a second stare.
“I saw you turn onto Kinzie Street and took a guess. Didn’t get it at first but good timing, ‘eh?”
My mouth opens and closes, at a loss for words. What the hell did you get me into, Mason fucking Harris? I swallow my pounding heart and put on a fake smile.
“Almost good timing, but I have to get this one.” I wince, inhaling through my teeth. “She drank too much.”
“I think I’m gonna puke,” Elsie groans, leaning onto me. Thank god she’s a good actress.
“She’s such a lightweight.”
“Hmm, been there,” Enzo chuckles. “Need help? I can make sure she gets home and then the two of us can continue the night.”
“That’s so sweet of you,” I go on and Elsie pretends to gag, putting all her weight on me like she’s going to pass out. “But I probably shouldn’t leave her alone.” Enzo comes closer and I think he might help with my fake-drunk friend. Ya know, like a gentleman would. But instead he comes up to me, stopping just inches from my face and leans in, inhaling as he pushes my hair back.
“There’s something about you, Mya. Something I can’t stop thinking about.”
I swallow hard, eyes wide and I stare back at him. Part of me wants to fuck the mission and tell Enzo to shove off. Just tell him I’m not interested and he should get lost. But the vibes coming off of him are unsettling, and in the back of my mind, I can’t stop thinking about the very real fact that his man is suspected of breaking every single bone in people’s arms so they can be tied together.
“I don’t know what to say,” I confess, though I force another smile so I look like I’m speechless from his flattery. “Only that I hope you keep thinking about me enough to call tomorrow.”
He smiles back. “We’ll see, we’ll see.”
“I think that’s our car,” I say when I see a red Mazda coming toward us. “I hope to hear from you.” Elsie keeps up the act of being super drunk until we’re in the car and are at least a block away.
“The fuck?” She sits up, shaking her head back and forth. “He saw your Uber turn on this street and went looking?”
I inhale, quickly putting my psychologist hat on so I can disassociate from this situation. Could this be seen as a grand romantic gesture of sorts? He knew I was going to a club nearby—because I did say that—and he put two and two together when he saw the car take me down Kinzie Street? I don’t give off nightclub-loud-music-dance-with-glowsticks vibes, so Unscripted makes sense.
What had he been doing for the last two hours? Had he actually been inside, watching me talk and laugh with my friends? Shit, my friends . Zara and Kat left before us. I reach into my purse for my phone so I can check their locations. I see a bunch of texts and two missed calls from Mason. Suddenly, I’m a little shaky again as I call him back.
“Are you all right?” he asks.
“Yeah. I think so,” I tell him and take a steadying breath. “Startled, that’s all.”
“What happened? Don’t leave anything out.”
“Um, I walked outside with a friend to get our Uber and he was just there. Across the street.”
“By himself?”
“Yeah. He said he saw the Uber turn onto Kinzie and…I don’t know…went up and down looking inside for me.”
“Did you see him inside?”
“No,” I say. “But I wasn’t really looking or paying attention.”
“Where are you now?”
“In another Uber. Headed to my friend’s house.”
Mason pauses for a second. “Don’t go home. I’m going to text you an address and have the driver drop you off there. Are you still on Kinzie?”
“Yeah. We’re headed toward Nobel Square.”
“Share your location with me.”
I nod, forgetting he can’t see me and put the call on speaker while I give him access to my location. A minute ticks by before he texts me an address.
“Go here,” he says and I have the driver pull over, ending our current trip so we can go to a new destination.
“Where are we going?” Elsie asks and I shrug, letting her know I have no freaking clue as I tap the address so I can pull it up on the GPS. It’s an apartment nearby, looking like nothing out of the ordinary.
“Take me off speaker,” Mason says and I do, bringing the phone to my ear. “Is your volume down?”
I click it a few times. “It is now. Where are we going?”
“A safe house.”