Page 80 of Live for Me

Me

Got drunk for the first time ever last night and killed somebody. Used Seph to get the body back home. Now there’s blood everywhere in the backseat.

Jersey Boy

There’s a pond at the back of the property that nobody would know how to find. Almost 19ft deep. Concrete shoes will fix your problem.

While I sat there smiling at Jersey’s text, a different one came from Trista.

It was just a picture of Jersey standing at the end of what looked like a boat dock with his phone in his hand.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

utah

She went from smiling at her phone to looking like she might cry over it in a matter of seconds. I knew it was about New Jersey just because of the timing. That didn’t make it any easier to swallow. It was a super fucking weird relationship. Trista had referred to it as abrother-sister/daddy-daughter trauma bondonce. I hadn’t come up with a better description for it myself yet, but something about that still didn’t quite explain it either.

They loved each other, but they weren’tinlove with each other. There was nothing remotely sexual about it. They both acted like the thought of the other being sexual in any sense was repulsive. At the same time, she’d been having an incredibly difficult time adjusting to his absence. It was hard to understand, given the nature of their working relationship before all of our jobs went to hell. They’d never actually spent time together. They hadn’t even met one another. Whether it was the physical distance now, or the fact that she felt like she couldn’t talk to him on the phone all day without being a burden to his mental health, it was clearly painful for her.

And I didn’t like that shit one bit.

He and I weren’t fans of one another. He didn’t like the fact that I existed, and I wasn’t particularly fond of the fact that he’d been given the ability to speak. He would absolutely despise the knowledge that this tiny shred of physical intimacy had developed between Memphis and me. But I also had to be ready to just fucking deal with the fact that he wasn’t really going anywhere. He might have been in the middle of the ocean somewhere currently, but he was in her life to stay. She obviously wanted him back in her life around here. She just didn’t know how to make that request without feeling guilty about it.

“Will you tell me what happened in the bar last night?” I asked.

“No,” she said so quickly that it made me laugh.

“Some guy was dragging you out of that building,” I continued anyway. “You didn’t want to go with him. Why didn’t you do anything about it?”

“I knewyouwould do something about it,” she said, and laid her menu back down when the waitress interrupted that conversation to take our order. I continued to stare right at Memphis even once the waitress was gone.

“I panicked,” she finally whispered. “There’s nothing to tell. I’m not good in crowds, or just with people in general. I can barely sit here and talk to you right now. I’m supposed to be holed up in a room in front of a display of computer monitors. Probably with thick velvet curtains drawn and the door locked from the outside. Like a vampire.”

“You know a lot about vampires,” I said. Wasn’t a question; I saw some of those book titles.

She glared at me. “Iknowyou looked in that box.”

I smiled at the fire in her eyes. “You know you’re even cuter when you’re mad.”

“You know I like you a little less every time your mouth opens.”

“You won’t feel that way once my mouth makes you see God, angel.”

I laughed while she choked on her coffee. She looked all the way around us as she laughed and tried to wipe her mouth with her napkin before her giant, panicked eyes landed back on me.

“Nobody was paying any attention at all to either of us before you decided to spit your coffee out,” I chuckled. “Stop worrying about what they think. You don’t know these people.”

“Do you have some sort of quota to meet for how often you’re able to embarrass me? Is there a goal you’re trying to achieve?”

I leaned on the table so I could reach across it and grab her hand. “I just like the way your face looks when you smile, Memphis. I want to be the reason it happens.”

While she sat there and stared at me like those words had somehow confused her, it took me all of about two seconds to decide that I was keeping her to myself for the rest of the day. And all night if I could get away with it.

She never did admit that her greasy pile of food made her feel better, but she ate the entire cheeseburger, all of her fries, and then some of my fries.

“What are we doing today, angel?” I asked when she was done. She rubbed her hands over her face again.

“I need to compare the Marshalls to Indy’s list of missing kids,” Memphis said with a heavy sigh.

---