Page 51 of You are the Reason

“Fine. But I’m coming with you,” he says, leaving no room for discussion.

The next few hours pass by slowly. When Kinsley sends me a message letting me know Sophie is coming over, Tanner brings up the cameras he informed me he hid in her apartment to make sure she isn’t bluffing.

I was a little taken back when he told me he placed a camera in her bedroom, but I can’t say I was surprised. He did break into her house, offering sex and coffee, before things got serious between them. Knowing both of us are heading out tonight, we need to know Kins isn’t alone. The moment Sophie’s car pulls up, Tanner’s shoulders drop and he visibly relaxes, pocketing his phone and turning to look at me.

It’s go time.

The air between us is thick with tension as the GPS lights up with directions, the location is only forty-five minutes away. I can see Tanner out of the corner of my eye, he looks uncomfortable. I’m sure he is normally the one driving; he is probably the one in control of everything, 99% of the time. That makes me smile.Poor Tanner.

“Something funny, Jesse?” he questions.

“A little,” I say with a shrug. “I was just thinking how it must be hard for you to be sitting there in the passenger seat. You seem like the type to always be in control … That’s all.”

He doesn’t respond, instead he turns and looks out the window until his phone buzzes with an incoming text.

Glancing over as I drive, I see him reading over the message. “Everything okay?”

If looks could kill, I would be dead right now. I know it without even giving him eye contact. How does one man have such an evil stare? Whoever sent the message must have really ruffled his feathers.

Tanner’s fingers float across the screen before he tosses his phone back down.

“It was Soph,” he says on an exhale. “She said, and I quote ‘I hope you know what you’re doing’ with an evil eye emoji … Do you think she’s onto me?”

“Most likely, but she’ll keep that to herself even if she is. She might be a little over the top, but she’s not stupid,” I say, my eyes glued on the road. “Kinsley isn’t dumb either, if she wasn’t thinking with her heart right now, she would know exactly what was playing out. She’s just hurting.” Tanner shifts uncomfortably in his seat, but I keep my focus on the road ahead of us.

It’s not long before the GPS directs us through a small town on the outskirts of Melbourne’s northern suburbs and onto a dirt road where trees and scrubs span out along the edges.At least there are plenty of places to hide.I won’t be stopping tonight though, we will just drive past and scope out the area. Once we go past the location I will key ‘home’ back into the GPS, to look for any alternative routes away from here.

“Your destination is four hundred metres on your right.”

Tanner’s eyes flick across to the other side of the road. “Over there, I can see a light.”

I slow a little, not wanting to stop completely and draw any unwanted attention to us. Sure enough, a few hundred meters to the right is a driveway, if it were daylight we wouldn’t have been able to see the warehouse hidden back off the road. The only reason Tanner was able to spot it, are the large flood lights behind the building.

“You call that a light? She’s lit up like Luna Park in there. Seems like more than freight and cartage, I’ll tell ya that for free.”

As the light of the warehouse fades, I pull off to the side, keying in my home address. Tanner turns his body towards me, a mischievous look on his face; a look which sayswe are going to fuck shit up.

“Go on then,” I say. “Out with it.”

The crazy bastard gives a chuckle. “This Stanley guy you and Kinsley work with, he can obviously hack into cameras …”

“Yeah, he has eyes on the apartment. Why?”

“Is he good enough to see if there are cameras on this property? If he could access them, we could scope out the location better, learn more about them, their comings and goings.”

My eyes go wide. “That is so much better than my plan of hiding out by the trees.”

Tanner raises his left brow, looking at me puzzled. “You were just going to hide out on the road side? Waiting for them to turn into their driveway?”

“Well yeah — but when you put it like that it sounds stupid.” I scratch the back of my head.Stupid, Jesse. So freaking stupid.I know Kyle would be laughing if he were watching this unfold. Knowing that I was going to hide out in the trees like we did as kids …You’re a grown ass man now, Jesse, you can do better than that.

Tanner shakes his head. “Let’s get back, then we can call Stanley and get the ball rolling. I—” he pauses briefly, wiping the palms of his hands down his jeans “— I’m losing patience.”

The way he stumbles over his words tells me he is struggling with being separated from Kins. I leave him with his thoughts, he doesn’t need my smart-ass comments pissing him off. The GPS loads and reroutes us to home, taking us back the way we came.

Glancing sideways at Tanner, he huffs. “It’s only been three fucking days!” He throws his arms wide. “Have you ever gone that long without contact from her?”

I stay quiet, revving the engine and doing a U-turn. If I’m honest, I don’t think I have gone more than a day without some form of communication with her. He’s a more patient man than I am.

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