Page 154 of Driftwood Daffodil

Well I just became an atheist.

“That’s great, now if you don’t mind…” I rolled my eyes back to the spots on the wall. “I’m trying not to pay attention to the game.”

Sixty-eight.

Sixty-nine…

“Hey,” Atlee nudged me with his elbow. “What’s the passcode to your phone?”

Seventy.

“0000.”

Seventy-one…

“0000?” He asked.

Seventy-zero… damnit. Now I had to start all over again.

One.

“That’s not a very secure passcode.”

Why would I want to be secure? What was someone going to see? My random conversations with Memphis. In fact…

“If you happen to find my phone…” I lost it somewhere between the bonfire and this morning. “Can you throw it in the swamp for me?”

Then I’d have an excuse to avoid calls. At least until Maw Maw got me a new one.

“When you say throw your phone in the swamp…”

With a sigh, I pushed off the wall and sat up to clarify. “I mean grab my phone, and chuck it as far as humanly possible.”

If he aimed right, he might be able to hit a gator. Not that I’d ever done that.

He stared at me dumbfounded for a second. “You’re a strange girl.”

“Thank you.” That was the nicest thing he’d said to me.

Now if only his asshole friend would be a little nicer, and leave my brother alone. Kato was already being punished for his crime. He would be locked away from us for another thirteen years. But was that enough? No. Gio wanted him to suffer too.

It felt like the card in my pocket was burning through my clothes. A part of me wanted to take special agent Jack up on his offer. Maybe he really could protect my brother. Then again, maybe he’d just get him killed. There had to be another way, I just had to figure out what it was.

I looked over at Atlee who was avidly watching the game. “Gio’s not completely unreasonable, right?”

His whiskey eyes remained trained on the game, “Depends on what you want to reason about.”

There was only one thing I could think of. If I let Gio know that his dad was being watched by the FBI, then he’d owe me a favor. At least I thought that was how things worked with their kind of people. Guess there was only one way to find out.

“Is Gio here?”

Atlee nodded, “He’s around here somewhere.”

“Great,” I pushed myself off the bleachers and moved to find a better view point.

“Nova,” Atlee called out. “Be careful what you ask for. Some deals can’t be broken.”

Deal? Weirdo.

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