3
Me: Where r u?
Riley:
The more I thought about the last few weeks, the more everything made sense. The police turned up that night in the gardens, and I’ve seen police hang around her before, too, but didn’t put two and two together. But that lady cop was trouble. Trouble for Riley and trouble for us, too. If she had her eye on Riley, she could also be watching us closely. I mean…police clawing at our backs was nothing new, as they often popped into the club to speak to Ronan, asking questions about Mikky. Mikky made them nervous and likely relaxed a little while he was in prison, but hounding Ronan didn’t work either. Eventually, they cooled down, but it won’t be long before they’re on our backs again.
For once, we’re the innocent ones in this scenario, and the more they focus on Mikky being the bad guy, the more they’ll lose sight of who the murderer is. But maybe they didn’t care. Perhaps the whole gig was a setup to get Mikky behind bars so they could destroy the family name.
Fuck, we had the chief of police frequent the club in Larsson, and we knew who his favorite girl was and which hotel we went to while his wife was home with his kids. We had a ton of dirt on him, including his coke habit, so we assumed we were safe until he stepped down from his position and a new chief was assigned, and that’s when life became difficult for us. Then my father was shot.
Coincidences are worth noting because nine times out of ten, they’re not coincidences at all but strategic and deliberate acts conducted by someone who wants you dead.
There were many coincidences then, just before my father was murdered, and there were many coincidences now with Riley Laws.
She wasn’t in the science library where she liked to study and hang out with a girl who looked just like her, except shorter and weirder, so I started walking toward the Mustang to drive to her dorm.
As I stepped out into the open car lot, I felt an icy hand clasping the back of my neck. I was suddenly aware I was out in the open and immediately pulled the hood over my head. Something urged me to look behind at the admin building, and movement from the window on the third floor caught my eye. A girl hiding behind a curtain of hair seemed to be wearing glasses, although it’s hard to tell due to the gleam from the glass. But she seemed to be watching me, then pulled away from the glass as soon as I noticed her.
Damn. That girl looked like Riley. And if it was Riley, did she see me without my mask? Had I just been found out? My mask was in my Stang, but instead of walking back there, I turned back, pulled my sweater over my nose, ran around the front of the building, and swung the doors open.
I hadn’t decided what I would do once I got to her if it was Riley, but all I knew was I needed to get up there because she saw me without a mask before I spotted her. The elevator was in use, so I ran up the stairs, holding my sweater over my nose so only my eyes could be seen. Once on the third floor, I entered the deans’ offices with their receptionists at the helm.
“Can I help you?” one of the receptionists asked, looking at me strangely because I had my hood over my head and sweater pulled up over my face. Fuck, I was getting sick of living this way.
If Riley were still here, she’d be in the office to the left, facing out over the parking lot.
“Are you lost?” the receptionist asked, her hand twitching toward the phone as if she were about to call security.
“No,” I answered and backed away to the stairwell until one of the doors to the dean’s office opened, and a girl with long brown hair and glasses walked out. I waited a couple of beats to see if Riley would walk out behind her, but the door shut, and my heart sank when I realized I’d mistakenly seen Riley when it was that girl.
I was pretty sure that that girl was Riley’s friend, and she studied with her sometimes. She glanced up at me under those glasses, quickly looking down again shyly as if she wanted to discourage my attention, but she might know where Riley was.
I stepped toward her, but the receptionist was still wary about me lingering as she picked up the phone receiver to call security. The elevator door slammed shut before I could slip inside, so I turned and ran down the stairs, pausing halfway down to check my phone to see if Riley had replied to my message. Nothing.
This didn’t sit well with me. She might be in class, or perhaps the battery ran out on her phone, or something, but seeing that blond lady cop in her room put me on edge.
I threw the door open out into the sunshine, scanning the area for that little geek girl. I couldn’t see her, so I resigned to heading back to the parking lot until a soft, accusing voice said, “I know who you are.”
A small figure leaning against the wall behind a flax bush frowns at me while chewing her bottom lip. “Huh?” I point to my chest. “You’re talking to me?”
“There’s no one else here,” she sighed as if weighed down by something. “It’s not a particularly effective disguise.”
I knew I still had my hood over my head and sweater over my nose. “It’s not a disguise. I have a cold and forgot my mask.”
“Sure,” she rolled her eyes.
“I’m not hiding anything,” I lied, suppressing a smile.
“Sure,” she hit back. Her resemblance to Riley was uncanny but weirder, with a strange left-eye twitch and a stare similar to a hare in the spotlight.
“Do you know where Riley is?” I asked, hoping she’d tell me, but I suspected she wouldn’t.
“I’m not her minder,” she hissed, unsurprisingly. I liked her style. I liked her loyalty toward my girl and even enjoyed her snotty attitude toward me. “And that mask you sometimes wear to terrorize Riley is stupid. I knew it was you. Why do you pursue her?”
“What? That’s a lot of nosy questions that you don’t deserve answers to,” I snarled back to her, although I was curious to know if she knew who I was. “Do you know where Riley is right now at this very moment, or are you just having difficulty?”
“That’s a nosy question you don’t deserve an answer to,” she parroted, pointing her finger accusingly at me.
That snotty attitude again. “Just tell me if she’s okay,” I demanded as my patience ran out.
Her nostrils flared as she looked up briefly under her glasses before looking away again, unable to connect her gaze with me. Which could mean that she was socially awkward and shy or shifty as fuck. I didn’t think she was crooked or high, but you never know these days.
She shrugged those narrow shoulders. “I haven’t spoken to her since…” she gazed up at the sky as if trying to remember and screwed her face up when the sunlight struck her eyes. “Yesterday. And she seemed okay to me.”
“Fine,” I exhaled and turned to walk away because it was like squeezing water from a stone. Although I was curious to know her name and perhaps do a little digging on her, it occurred to me that she appeared at Riley’s dorm door not long after the blond cop left, and they had a conversation that I assumed was about the cop.
“You’re from Larsson,” she called after me, and my feet stalled. I turned slowly around to face her again.
“I’m sorry?” Many people here at Gotland knew who I was and kept their distance, but I pursued Riley from behind a mask. How did she know it was me under the Scream and ski masks?
“Larsson. You’re a Kaiser, ain’t you?” She pointed that finger at me accusingly.
I shrugged my shoulders indifferently. “So what?”
“What do you want from Riley?” I couldn’t figure out if she were possessive of Riley, being a good friend, or something else.
“Why do you care?” I challenged her to see if she’d crack. “And have you told her who I am?”
“No,” she swallowed, looking a little nervous. “Not yet. I wasn’t sure until now, although I had my suspicions. I can’t figure out why you always chase and watch her like a freaky freak.”
“You’re calling me a freak? Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Yeah, like I was ever going to confess to this scrawny thing what my plans were.
“Have you ? You’ve got your sweater covering half your face. Geewhizz, that doesn’t look suspicious at all.” She’s bitter and brave, as if she had a bone to pick, but I couldn’t see what her resentment had to do with me being a Kaiser.
I cocked my head to the side. “Geewhizz? No one has said geewhizz since nineteen fifty-four.”
“I notice you’re avoiding my questions.” I was bored with her rant, so I stepped away to find out who she was.
Just as I turned the corner, I heard her squawking at me, “Kaiser scum.”
Did she want to go there? If she knew I was a Kaiser, then why would she do something as stupid as calling me a scum. Not that I cared, and I wouldn’t do anything about it because she seemed a little unhinged.
I checked my phone again and still no reply from Riley, but she had a shift at the club tonight, so I’ll wait for her to show up there. Once back inside my Stang, I pulled my hood down and started a search on who that little weirdo in glasses was. I didn’t get far in my search because I didn’t know where to start, so I’ll ask Riley when I see her next.
Or I could ask her now. I swiped Riley’s number, but it went straight to voicemail, so I assumed she was in class and had turned her phone off. But I still felt uneasy about it, so I called Ronan, who answered after the third ring.
“Yep, sup,” he answered.
“Have you seen Riley recently?” I asked him. “I’m concerned about her safety after seeing that cop, and I can’t find her. She’s not answering my messages, so I'm worried something has happened to her.”
“Cool it, bro. I’m watching her now, peering inside a glass tank of seaweed in a laboratory,” he stated, and my shoulders relaxed.
“Where are you?” I snapped, jealous that he was with her and I wasn’t.
“I’m waiting to go into class, and I can see her through the lab window. She’s alive and doesn’t look too upset, although she’s too busy concentrating on whatever she was inspecting in that glass tank.”
My heart rate dropped, knowing she was okay, but I’d rather be there perving at her through the window than Ronan. “You know, I don’t remember her being a water baby when we were kids.”
Silence fell down the line for several beats before he said, “Don’t you mean Annika?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m struggling to separate the two because I’m convinced they are the same person.”
“You mean you wish they were the same person,” he challenged me and I could tell by his tone that he was hoping that Riley and Annika were not the same person, so he could continue to fuck her.
“In a way, I wish they weren’t the same person, and it would make life so much easier, but I know deep down that she is, but I need solid proof.”
He sighed. “I think sometimes, Gunner, you are blinded by your obsession with Annika,” he stated slowly, and a cut of pain jolted my chest with every honest word he spoke. I knew he was telling the truth, but it didn’t make it easy. “It’s getting in the way of you having healthy relationships with girls.”
“Yeah, I know,” I mumbled as the weight of grief landed on my shoulders, wearing me down. “It’s not working, by the way.”
“What?” he snapped. “What’s not working?”
“You’re trying to convince me to walk away from Riley and find another girlfriend so you can have her for yourself.”
His deep laughter radiated down the line. “Sure, dude. I didn’t think I could convince you of anything.”
“We can share Riley until we find out she is Annika,” I told him.
“That’s very sweet of you, bro,” he stated sarcastically. “But I don’t need your permission to pursue my selkie.”
“Selkie?”
“Nothing,” he chuckled. “I need to go to class.”
“Wait. Tell me where Riley’s class is,” I demanded.
“Gotta go, bro.” He clicked off, leaving me hanging. At least I knew she was alive and okay, and Ronan was watching over her, too.