Chapter 16

A chapter in which Regan is an awful person.

“Are you okay?” Milly demanded the second she saw me.

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Holly said there was trouble.” Her dark eyes searched my face.

“It was just Zo.” I sighed. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

For no reason I could put my finger on, I decided not to tell Milly about the Asian man. Maybe it was simply so I wouldn’t have to describe his heartbreaking eyes.

We were standing just inside the door. Milly had been crouched behind the counter, and had stood up when she’d heard the door open. I’d have to tell her later how stupid that would have been if it hadn’t been me coming in.

“Where’s Holly?” I asked.

Milly shrugged. “She told me to stay out of sight, and then said she’d be right back.”

It didn’t take a genius to realize that the Asian man was some kind of bodyguard or protector. Maybe Holly had gone to sic him on Zo and her stooges.

Just then I heard a door in the back open and shut. A few seconds later Holly appeared from the back. She looked at me, staring into my eyes for a minute. I don’t know what she saw there, but she nodded and continued towards us.

“I think you realize we have some things to discuss,” Holly said in her gentle voice. “But not now. When you’re ready you know where I’ll be.”

Milly’s eyes tracked between us, but she said nothing. If nothing else, I didn’t make friends with idiots.

As for Holly’s statement, I agreed. I nodded toward our table. “How much do I owe you?”

Holly smiled. “Consider this one on the house.”

Milly roared with laughter. “You did not!”

“I did,” I said, grinning. “It was perfect.”

“You kicked her in the crotch?”

“I really did.”

“Oh my God!” And there was more laughing

I shrugged. “Hey, she’s got automatic strength and speed advantages on me. And besides that, I play to win.”

Milly shook her head, shoulders still shaking.

We were in my car headed back toward town. My head still whirred with the encounter, and my hands were jittery with fading adrenaline. The enhanced vision of my battle-ready mind had already gone back to normal, and as the adrenaline left my system the intense focus went with it. It cleared up my mind for more rational thinking.

Not only had Ira not scared Zo off, she’d come back crazier than ever. I suppose a charitable soul might say that Ira had scared Zo, and that’s why she’d brought the back-up. But something cynical in me said that wasn’t the case. I don’t know why my head on a platter was so important to her, but I don’t think Ira tossing her into a bush was enough to scare her off. She was in the middle of something, and I was in her way. I needed to know more, and there was only one way to accomplish that.

The chirping of my phone startled me, and I jerked. Taking one hand off the wheel, I reached into my pocket and pulled it out.

“I don’t recognize the number,” I said, and Milly leaned over.

“It’s the local prefix,” she said. “Could be Ira.”

I put my thumb into the groove and flipped my phone open. “Hello?”

“Um, Regan?” said a voice that was already too-familiar for the amount of time we’d spent together.

I felt a smile moving across my mouth. “Yes, this is um, Regan. Is this um, Ira?”

He laughed. “Are you making fun of me?”

“A little bit,” I said.

“How rude of you.”

“I’m an awful person.”

He laughed again. “So, my mom called and gave me your number. Is that cool?”

“I wouldn’t have given her my number if it wasn’t,” I said wryly.

“Just checking,” he said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. “Mom said there was something you needed to talk to me about?”

There was just a hint of hesitation as his voice made it into a question. Almost like he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “I just thought you should know that Zo showed up at the cafe.”

There was silence for a minute, and then his voice got far away and I could barely make out him swearing. He must have moved the phone away from his mouth.

“Damn her,” he said, and then, “are you all right?”

I made a noise into the phone. “Perfectly fine, not a scratch. Takes more than her and her goons—”

“Her goons?” Ira sounded outraged. “She brought people with her?”

“Curly haired blond kid, dark haired guy in a green tank top, and some buzz-cut muscle,” I said.

“Sounds like Knox, Cam, and Trevor,” Ira said with a sigh. “I can’t believe her.”

I said nothing to that. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, as the saying goes. I covered up the phone for a sec and turned to Milly.

“You know a kid named Knox, right?”

She nodded, her eyes tracking as she thought. “Blond curly hair, I should have known.”

That meant Knox could possibly know who Milly was, and if Zo had seen her with me at the career fair…I cursed myself for using Milly’s perfume to cover my scent on my recon mission. But that was a worry for another time.

I turned my attention back to the phone. “I’m fine, even with her minions she couldn’t touch me.”

“She wouldn’t have with my mom right there,” he said.

That wasn’t exactly what had happened, but I couldn’t tell him I’d fought them off myself. Not yet, I thought, and then instantly wondered where it had come from. I wanted to ask Ira about the Asian man, but I hadn’t told Milly about him so I couldn’t do it right here.

“I want to know everything that happened,” he said, giving me a perfect opening.

“Sure, we could meet up somewhere,” I said.

“Normally I’d suggest my mom’s, but that’s obviously out.” I could still hear the edge of anger in his voice.

“Besides, I just came from there,” I told him. “Is there some place in town we could talk?”

After a beat, he said, “The town park has a bike path. No one would bother us.”

“Cool, where is it?”

He rattled off the directions.

“I’ll be there in a sec,” I said.

“Don’t hurry too fast, I have to come into town.” He sighed. “I’m so sorry about this, Regan.”

“It’s not your fault. Her issues are her issues.”

He didn’t say anything and I could tell he didn’t believe me.

It was my turn to sigh. “Look, I’m almost to town. We’ll talk about it then, okay?”

“Okay,” he said quietly. “Bye Regan.”

“Bye Ira.”

I let out a long breath as I hung up the phone. “Milly, you know that perfume on your dresser?”

“Yeah?”

“I used it to cover my scent when I went out to Zo’s. You may not to want use it for awhile, especially if this Knox kid knows you.

Milly shrugged. “I know who he is, we don’t hang out or anything.”

“Still,” I said. “It’s better just to be safe. I suppose it’s some one-of-a-kind thing?”

She laughed. “No, it’s from Wal-Mart. Hundreds of other girls in this town are wearing it.”

I felt my worry ease up a little. “Okay, that’s good. But still, be careful. God, I shouldn’t have used it in the first place.”

“Regan, you couldn’t have known that one of her back-up dancers went to my school.”

“No, but I should have kept you as far out of it as possible. Snatching something right off your dresser was a stupid move.”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t live anywhere near Zo’s complex, how would she even find me to begin with?”

Quietly, I said, “Because I pointed you out to Ira when I saw him at the career fair, and Zo was his partner at their college booth.”

“Okay, I admit,” Milly said, “that’s a little worrying. But she wasn’t even in the room when you first started talking to Ira, so she probably didn’t even see that.”

“Probably not,” I replied. “But I’m not going to risk your life on a probably. Just don’t wear the perfume, okay?”

“Okay, I promise.” Her voice turned teasing. “Now go drop me off so you can make your date.”

“It’s not a date,” I mumbled.