Page 45 of Girl Like Me

“As flattered as I am, I don’t think a life of crime is in the cards for me,” I say and he laughs. I can feel the tension radiating from Rory and Levi but they’re smart to just stand there.

“It’s only a crime if you get caught B, innocent until proven guilty in this country.”

“Semantics, Uncle.”

“Maybe, but if you ever decide to continue your passion of becoming a lawyer, I could use you on my side. I better go make sure Echo is getting ready. The kid has talent but he gets distracted easily.” He places his hand on my shoulder and gives it a squeeze. It’s surreal that most of the people in my life I don’t remember yet with my uncle I feel in my gut that we were close.

My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out and see it’s an unknown number. I hold it up to the guys and motion that I’m going outside. There are still a couple of fights before Mercer’s so I have some time.

“Hello,” I say but the line is silent. I walk faster and step out a side door. Rory follows me out and Levi stands at the door so it doesn’t close over and lock us out. “Hello.”

“Bristol.”

“Yes,” I say. The voice is familiar but I can’t place it. “Who is this?”

“Shit,” whoever it is says under their breath. “It’s true that you have no memories.”

“Who is this?” I ask cautiously.

“I’m your cousin Arden, but you can’t tell anyone I called you.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t have time to explain, but you need to be careful of everyone around you and trust no one.”

There’s a second voice in the background but it’s muffled. “Get off the phone no one can know I’m here.” is all I can make out.

“I didn’t say shit,” Arden whispers. “She needs to be safe until we figure this out.”

The line goes dead and I look up at the guys and shrug.

“Telemarketer.” I lie, I don’t want to worry them until after Mercer is finished and we’re all together. I wonder if I should call Lissa, but she doesn’t want to talk to me. She made it clear that she’s pissed and doesn’t want Levi involved in my life. Which I understand and can't blame her, Levi is the only family she has.

I wonder how much more family I have that I don’t know about. I had never even considered having a cousin.

We all walk back inside and take our spot again; I notice Carter standing on the other side of the ring and he heads towards us. He is so out of place here it isn’t funny, he screams wealth whereas most of the people here look as if they really don’t care, they’re dressed for comfort, not for style.

“What are you doing here?” I ask Carter when he reaches us.

“I could ask you the same thing, this isn’t exactly a safe place for a girl.”

“I’m perfectly safe with my boyfriends, friends and our uncle.”

Carter scoffs. “You really trust our uncle and your gangbanger friend? And your boyfriends are not from around here, running in these circles is not the same as some small seaside town.”

“I could say the same for you, your outfit is worth more than most of these people make in a month.”

Carter's attitude towards me has started to change. He was nice in the beginning but the more freedom I have, the weirder he gets. Maybe he’s just being overprotective after everything that has happened. From what I can gather, I was close to Milo and he could possibly be trying to take over the big brother role.

“No one will touch me with our uncle here, they all want to stay in his good graces. I’m surprised he and our father are okay with you hanging around your boyfriends with the court case still pending.”

“Didn’t you hear, all charges have been dropped,” Rory states and Carter’s eyebrows drop before he smiles.

“That’s good to hear, glad you were able to sort it all out.”

“Carter.”

We all turn towards the voice and my uncle waves him over. He turns back to us and smiles again. “See you at home,” and walks off.

---