Chapter 7. Ophelia #5
“If you’re about to say be friends—”
“You should go, Alex. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Is that really what you want?”
No.
I turn to face him in the quiet darkness of my room and give him half of the truth. “I don’t trust myself to share a bed with you and just sleep.”
His eyes soften between wet, clumped lashes, like he really does understand. “Tell me we still have a chance, Winters.”
I flick a nervous glance to the door, voice barely audible as if there’s an invisible third person in the room who might be listening, waiting to take him from me. “We do. I just need … I just need time, Alex. I have things to … sort out.”
The fierce green of his irises seems to dilute with relief, a small smile on his lips. “I’m gonna roll a double.”
Were his lips always this tempting? How did we ever get any studying done last term?
He cups my face in his hands and plants a searing kiss on my lips. What happened outside Achlys’s Hall was pure, unadulterated lust, but this? This is something else entirely. A soft, tender sort of love that’s melting all my broken pieces together.
“I’ll walk you back,” I blurt out, panicked for his safety.
But what if my presence only makes him more of a target?
I’ve not had someone to worry about for a very long time. I’m out of my depth.
“I think I’ll survive.” His unbothered smile only makes me more uneasy. The pad of his thumb skates a lazy line along my bottom lip. “Stay out of trouble, Twist.”
And then he’s walking backward, away from me. Away from harm, I hope. I’m relieved and disappointed in equal measure, watching as he pulls open the door and leans against the doorframe and oh god, why does he have to do that?
I’m blushing like he’s just done something unthinkable, looking anywhere but the inch of exposed skin where his shirt has untucked beneath his jacket.
He’s fighting a smile when I finally manage to make eye contact, like my thoughts are projected onto the wall behind me for him to see. “Four letters, first letter F—”
I splutter, squeezing my thighs together beneath the skirt of my dress. “I … we … no, I wasn’t …”
“Such a dirty mind, Winters, I was going to suggest you get some food.”
And then he’s gone, taking this ridiculous sexual tension with him. I catch sight of my reflection in the mirror. If horny and anxious was a facial expression, I’ve really nailed it.
Pull yourself together, Winters. Jesus Christ.
Pressing my phone to my ear and my forehead to the window, I watch Alex’s oversized silhouette pace up the path away from the mansion.
The voice on the other end of the phone is way too cheerful. “Joe’s Pizza.”
“I … what?”
“It’s Mack. You might be the first person to fall for that. You’re in luck; I’m with Brendan. What can we do for you?”
“Can you have someone check, double-check, and triple-check Alex’s plane home?”
I hear fingers against a keyboard. “They do that anyway.”
“Quadruple, then.”
“On it.” I hear muffled voices. “Oh wow.”
“What?”
“The picture of the plane.”
“How did you …”
“Even if Brendan wasn’t capable of hacking into almost any system anywhere in the world, I think I would’ve guessed Gandalf1 was your password in my first three tries. Did you tell Alex about this?”
“No.”
“You know, if you guys went to couple’s therapy, the first rule is always communi—”
“Alex cannot be in danger, Mack. I can’t let anything happen to him.”
“We’re in agreement, then.”
“I don’t understand why you can’t trace—”
“The texts to a specific person, yes, we know,” comes Brendan’s voice. “You’ve said that twelve times. Ophelia, if you were going to send someone anonymous texts, would you do it from your phone?”
“No,” I grumble.
“No. Exactly. You’d buy a burner phone. The issue is not that we can’t hack the phone. It’s that it’s a cheap burner phone with nothing on it. No email address, no bank details, no addresses, nothing. All I can tell you is that the texts are coming from Sorrowsong and that we—”
“Think it would be below Cain to stalk me, yes, I know. You’ve said that twelve times.”
Brendan interrupts me with a victorious-sounding laugh. “It’s from the internet, the airport picture. It’s just taken from a plane-spotting website.”
Relief washes over me, but it leaves plenty of unease behind. What are they playing at? “Just because they used an old picture, doesn’t mean he’s not in danger.”
Mack sounds like he wants to block my number. “We are being paid to keep Alex and his family safe, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. As soon as you have any evidence to suggest we’re not doing that well enough, we’ll gladly accept this miserable attitude of yours—”
Alex disappears from my view, lost to the ominous darkness beyond the mansion’s gardens. “I liked Joe’s Pizza better.”
I hear Brendan’s laugh. “You ever been to New York?”
“I’ve never been on a plane.”
“Great pizza.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it. Goodnight.”
They hang up, but I don’t move, stood with my breath held and my phone in my hand until it finally pings with a text.
Alex
Made it to my car in one piece.
Alex
You were beautiful tonight.