Page 10 of Locked
I quickly copied the comment down verbatim onto a scrap of paper and decided to mull it over a bit longer. I'd probably delete it, though. Mother probably wouldn't care for it. And if there was any doubt in my mind about that, I should definitely delete it.
I tucked the scrap of paper safely into the storage pocket of my tablet's case. I wanted to save it. Rifyr's words made me feel things.
Where Kinden was handsome in a classic way, Rifyr was drop-dead gorgeous and honestly, I thought he was too pretty to be real.
And yet, he was.
His skin was tawny-beige, his eyes so full of light, it was impossible for me to tell what color they were in the picture he'd provided. He had shoulder-length black hair that was usually pulled back from his face into a high bun.
Oh.Andhe was shirtless. At any rate, he was in the photos. I was pretty sure he wore a shirt at leastsomeof the time in real life.
To sum him up in a word:Yum.
Rifyr didn't workorlive with Kinden and Sorrel, but he had known them since their school days. He was a rogue, much like his entire family. But he traded as a locksmith,unlikehis entire family, who were all into espionage and politics. Go figure.
The next comment down was from the anon user who couldn't be bothered to sign in, and the one following was from Sorrel.
"<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3. Listen up, long-hair. I DO care, so let me know if there's anything I can do for you, babe."
Sorrel was a kind soul. He was young, like me. And he had this smile that lit up his whole face. He was fair, his skin almost pink in his profile picture. He had warm brown eyes and flyaway blondish brown hair. He kept it short in the back, but longer and swept up in the front. He changed his avatar more often than the other two did.
But he always,alwayshad that same smile.
At that moment, my instant-messaging app chimed, loading all my missed messages from my guys.
I wondered what had taken it so long, but then I saw the sheer number of messages I'd missed and I knew why.
Sorrel had sent the most, and I decided to read them later. There were dozens and it would take too long to read them right now. A quick message letting him know I was alright wouldn't be remiss, however.
I sent one to each of them, but Rifyr was the one who messaged me back first.
"There you are. You had us worried."
I smiled. I don't know why I bothered, I knew he couldn't see me. But I liked the thought of them worrying about me. It solidified that this was more than just an online flirtation. Also, this was the first time one of them had verified that they talked about me when we weren't online.. "Us?"
"Yeah. Me, Kinden, Sorrel… you know… the three of us?."
Oh wow. They talked about me.
I tried not to respond too quickly. The last thing I needed was autocorrect messing up this conversation. "You're talkingwithoutme?Aboutme?"
"When you disappear for two weeks with no notice… yeah, we talk about you, Kitten."
Kitten!I wanted nothing more than to hear that word whispered into my ear from very,veryclose range.
I loved that pet name more than anything.
"I'm still here. And I'm fine, Rifyr."
"Can I see you? I don't believe that you're fine... send me a picture. Or just video chat with me?"
My heart sank.
"You know I can't…" I replied. The reason why was unspoken, but implicitly understood.
Even if I wanted to, I wasn't sure if Mother could tell if the video chat had been used or not.
We'd luckily found a chat app that Mother couldn't access, but once I started using my camera, all bets were off. I'd toyed with the idea of shielding my camera from Mother's sight, but I'd have to think of a roundabout way of searching for the information.
