Chapter 2 #2
Admittedly, I had neglected to check my phone.
I knew I should have had it with me, checked it regularly.
It was one of the basic rules of my release.
Keep my phone on me at all times, and answer when the FBI called.
And I’d done neither, because I’d left my phone in the living room when I sequestered myself away.
Despite how much I hated cellphones, I should have been on top of checking it.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, careful not to accidentally flash Todd. “You could have knocked.”
“You didn’t hear me?” Shit. He had knocked? “I was out there for three full minutes before I let myself in.”
There was enough light coming in from behind Todd that I could see a familiar look darken his face. A look not many people beyond Jack and me had the privilege of seeing. Concern.
I needed to get ahead of it. I also needed to find a shirt before Todd realized how little I was wearing. “I told you and Jack that I was going to sleep for a week straight, I don’t know why you look surprised.”
Todd huffed. The familiarity of the sound made the corners of my mouth curve upwards.
“How much have you been sleeping?” Todd’s medic mode had been activated, but he kept from crossing the threshold into my room.
“Enough.” No shirt in sight, I grabbed a corner of the comforter and tucked it under my arms.
“Delilah—” He caught himself. His eyes must have adjusted to the dark. His eyebrows raised. “Are you in your underwear?”
“I was asleep and wasn’t expecting any visitors.”
Todd immediately averted his gaze and grabbed onto the door, ready to close it over. “We’ll talk out here. But come… dressed.”
I tossed on shorts and a t-shirt before joining Todd in the living room.
I brought my phone with me, giving it a cursory scan…
I really really should have been checking my messages.
Jack and Todd had both sent me check-in texts the morning after my run-in with the Muffin Man.
They waited twenty-four hours before following up, no doubt trying to give me my space.
From there the messaging had escalated. Four missed calls. And at least three messages from Fawzy.
I must have been growing on her.
“How much trouble am I in?” The sunlight in the living room was overwhelmingly bright. I squinted shielding my face from the light as I approached Mr. Grumpy.
But Todd’s phone rang before he had a chance to reply.
His dark eyes trained on me as he brought the phone to his ear and grunted.
His gaze locked as he replied to whoever was on the other end of the call with a series of rumbling acknowledgements.
It was situations like this where I was reminded that he was no longer in possession of his tongue.
With a final “mhm” Todd hung up. “Jack knows you’re alive.
” My heart clenched like a fist. I wasn’t prepared to face Jack yet.
I needed to figure out how I felt, to know what I wanted to do, before I could even consider broaching the subject with him.
If I was going to broach the subject with him.
“Told him you answered the door. And I gave you a lecture for not answering your phone.”
What? Why would Todd lie for me?
But maybe it wasn’t for me. Maybe it was for Jack. So, Jack wouldn’t worry about the person released into his custody.
“He got that from your grunts?”
“I texted him before he called.” Todd tucked his phone away, his concern renewed. “Did you really not hear me knocking?”
“You’re not going to yell at me for not answering my phone?”
In my shorts and t-shirt, the aged and fading bruises on my arms and legs were on display. Todd made quick work of sizing up how well they were healing. Fortunately, they were almost gone. Except for the bruising aggravated by the Muffin Man, but the evidence of that was hiding beneath my shirt.
“I think you learned your lesson.” Todd took a step closer, forcing me to look up. It might have been intimidating if I were just about anyone else. “Answer the question. Please.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. I was typically a light sleeper. Admitting that I’d slept through the knocking would no doubt set off alarm bells. But I didn’t have an excuse. My mind felt… slower. “I’d think having a pen thrown at your head would answer that.”
Out of nowhere, a familiar drop in my stomach hollowed out my insides. I needed to eat something, preferably candy, before the nausea set in.
To be honest, I couldn’t remember how pregnancy was calculated, so I didn’t know how ‘far along’ I—my passenger—was.
Despite being a woman, I never really paid much attention to that sort of thing, and I didn’t want any evidence of my search on my FBI-monitored devices.
Though I suspected I was probably more nauseous than was typical at this stage thanks to my sensitivity to hormones.
I spun, padding across the parquet floor to the kitchen and started rooting around in the pantry. If I couldn’t see Todd, he couldn’t lecture me. Not until I had something to eat. Fortunately, there was an entire unopened pack of cherry licorice.
I pulled out three strips, immediately tucking one between my teeth. When I turned, I found Todd blocking the path out of the kitchen. “Delilah, can you stop avoiding? I—”
“Want one?” I proffered the remaining semi-upright red sticks.
“It’s not even lunch.” Still, I held out the vines, wagging them back and forth. Todd exhaled forcefully, as he relented, taking one. It looked ridiculously small in his hand.
I made to pass, but Todd moved with me. “Delilah, I think I made a mistake.” That caught my attention.
I swallowed the bit of licorice in my mouth. “What do you mean, a mistake with what?”