Page 26 of Double Down

I really need to figure out my neighbor’s real name so I can replace the placeholder, but right now I’m just thankful that she sent me a message.

Nelly Nice Neighbor

I’d take him but you know my kid is allergic in the ‘kill you’ kind of way.

Because I miss Scrappy. And there’s no reason he can’t come here.

Glancing over at the sleeping man by my side, I think about waking him up. Telling him what I need. Then I slip out of bed before he realizes that I’m moving.

I know this is the only time he’s vulnerable with me. The only time he lets himself hold me the way I crave. I really want to soak up as much affection from him as I can.

But I’ve still got something to take care of, so sleep is going to have to wait.

Instead of getting comfortable, I sneak a pair of shorts and shoes onto my body and creep out of the penthouse.

What’s one more lie, one more thing for Conrad to hate me over?

At least now, I won’t be alone while I’m surrounded by enemies and men I can’t claim as my own.

6

Phoenix

The service elevatorsmells like metal and lemon and the bones of other people’s nights. I catch my reflection in the brushed steel: hair still damp from earlier, the throat bruise from the men who tried to kill me faded to a shadow…my mouth set.

I look like a girl who knows where she’s going. Or the final girl in a horror movie.

I don’t. Know where I’m going, that is. But I know where I have to go first.

The lobby.

The elevator spits me out like I’m a bad drink after a night of terrible decisions, and I get lucky.

The night desk boy looks up, reads the look on my face, and decides to be helpful by pretending I’m invisible.

Out through the glass. Savannah breathes damp and dark and river-cold even when the heat sits on the street like a man with his legs spread.

Less than a minute later, I’m scheduling a rideshare driver.

I can do a rideshare now. I used to walk this path, used to scuffle past drunks and homeless people more desperate than I was with my head down, praying they’d ignore me. I had nothing to give them and more to lose.

Now there’s an app on my phone that’s connected to someone else’s bank account, along with a DoorDash and a Spotify and several other things I don’t question.

This is the first time I’ve ever had to use the rideshare app.

But while I’m waiting for the driver to show up, the idiocy of what I’m about to do hits me like a freight train. Leaving the penthouse alone isn’t my issue. To hell with any of the Titans if they think they can actually control me in the long run.

No. The idiocy comes with the fact that I’m leaving in the middle of the night, while I’m actively being sent messages meant to get me alone. I’m giving them what they want, and I’m not the stupid girl who walks naively to her death.

Instead of being stupid, I do the smart thing and pull out my phone to ask a favor.

Me

I hope you’re still up. I need your help with something stupid.

“What’s stupid? You leaving on your own…or whatever you’re leaving to go do.”

I’m pretty sure my heart would be on the ground between Maverick and me if I was capable of taking a breath and actually looking down. I don’t even remember slapping a hand to my chest, but I’m clenching Storm’s shirt in my first with one hand,and with the other I’m brandishing my phone like the weapon it isn’t.