Page 18 of All Your Lies

“Indeed. There was none of that watered-down shit like I make at the strip club.”

“So did you get that guy’s number or…”

“Of course. I told him we’d be back soon. Real soon,” she says as she does a little happy dance.

I shake my head. “Once was more than enough for me.”

“Oh no you don’t. You had fun, and we both know it.” She points a finger in my face. “That guy, Jace, I think his name was, says the front area is only like twenty percent of the entire club. Can you believe that shit?” Her eyes are wide with disbelief.

“Do you remember coming to get me? In the back, in that other room,” I ask vaguely as I take my beef kebab and dunk it into hummus.

“Barely. I was trashed.” She shrugs.

“You didn’t see the guy with me?”

She squints like she’s trying to remember. “I think I saw a guy’s back, but not much else.”

Well, at least I didn’t imagine him.

My phone ringing startles me and I see the caller ID flash with an unknown number before reluctantly answering.

“Lex,” Rosie says from the other end. Her voice causes my back to snap straight.

“Oh my fucking God. I thought something happened to you. Why haven’t you answered any of my calls or texts?”

“I broke my phone when I fell out my window.” I laugh as I imagine her hanging from the trellis outside her window at her parents’ house. “Not funny. It hurt like hell.”

“Maybe a little funny,” I say with a smile. “Are you okay? Where did you end up, anyway?”

“A small town on the border of Illinois and Indiana.”

I quirk a brow. “But I thought...”

“I got intercepted.”

Intercepted?

“What the hell does that mean?”

Rosie pauses, and the silence stretches, making me worry we lost the connection. Then she speaks, uttering the one sentence I never expected her to say.

“Gage found me.”

With a creak, my back meets the chair while my mouth hangs open and my eyes widen in disbelief. I’m unable to form a sentence, let alone a word for Rosie, or even Jenna, whose face shows concern. My stomach is in my throat, and it seems the world has stopped moving.

“Hello?” Rosie asks.

“He-he’s back?” I say as I swallow down the lump in my throat.

“Yeah, and he’s not the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“Imagine him from before. Honest. Sweet. Understanding. Now throw that version in the trash. He turned into a hard man, Lex. You can see the ruthlessness in his eyes, but he did hit one of the guards over the head to knock him out cold to save me, so maybe he’s not all bad.”

Jenna’s hands go up in question, and I mouth to her, “Gage is back.”

I can’t wrap my mind around Gage being back. I want to ask her a million questions. What does he look like now? Does he still have that same smile, where his upper lip subtly tilts upward as if he’s attempting to hide his delight? Where has he been? How is he doing? But what screams in my head the most is why did he find her and still leave me behind? It’s not a jealousy thing because he’s her brother. I’m glad she has him back. I’m just heartbroken and feel insignificant. But I don’t ask those questions or tell her the way I feel because my heart hurts too much to know the answer.