Page 32 of Live for Me

“It’s a percentage thing,” Memphis giggled. “Executioners were told about the contract price. Not the overall job price.”

“Alright. Let’s go end this asshole of a President.”

Indy laughed and Memphis smacked him in the arm.

Memphis had it on good authority that Montana was somewhere in South Carolina. Neither of my Judges believed this team was involved in the human trafficking side of our President’s organization. The plan was to start with the regular teams who had jobs like mine or New Jersey’s. Having a handful of those Executioners on our side seemed like an easier place to start. It put us all into a massively shitty mood to have to wonder if the teams involved in the trafficking side knew what their jobs truly entailed. Convincing those Executioners to jump ship if they’d boarded it already aware of the end result for the people they picked up seemed daunting, whether their start with this organization was buried beneath lies or not. That felt like they would have to be a set of people even more dangerous than me. Even my ability to shift in and out of feeling my own humanity had its limits. A job in trafficking didn’t seem like it could come with a conscience on any level.

I was only three hours into the twelve hour trip to South Carolina before my phone was vibrating with a text from Memphis.

Memphis

Be safe.

I felt like an asshole for laughing at it.

She wasn’t even with me, and I still felt like an asshole. The girl had barely said goodbye to me before I left the house, and I was starting to wonder if she’d changed her mind about me entirely.

Now, I couldn’t stop myself from picturing her staring at her phone for the last three hours trying to work up the nerve to send me a two-word text message just because she could do that without the pressure of Indy being there to watch us interact.

The tech twins had sent me out on countless errands since we all landed in that house in Indiana, but this was the first time she’d bothered telling me to be safe on one of them.

Progress.

Progress made at the pace of a motherfucking turtle.

But progress, nonetheless.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

memphis

Stupid.

I was so stupid.

I hated myself for how stupid I was.

Nothing about his job was safe. Telling him tobe safewas pointless. Utah was always as safe as he could be, regardless of being told to do so. If he were to find himself in a position that wasn’t safe, it was because of circumstances beyond his control. In which case, just fucking telling him tobe safewould achieve precisely nothing.

I tossed my phone across the counter in sheer embarrassment. I’d already missed my window to unsend it without him realizing that I’d hacked his phone to retrieve it myself. He would’ve seen it by now and he was just choosing not to respond because he also knew how stupid I was.

“Problem?” Indy asked and looked between me and the phone on the other side of the counter.

“I think Tennessee and Akron should be up next,” I said and rubbed both temples.

“That’s why you’re mad at your phone?”

“No,” I admitted. “But, unlike Montana, Tennessee has been in this business a long time and I think I want the chance to talk to someone who’s been doing this even longer than I have.”

Indy was on his way around the island for more coffee when the text chime on my phone went off. I sat upright so quickly that there was absolutely no way to rebound from him noticing. I watched him smile while he reached for my phone.

“Would you like it back?” he asked. “If I’m dying to know what he said, I know you are, too.”

I nodded and he slid it right back across the counter to me.

Utah

I’ll miss you too, angel.

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