“Fuck off.” I smile, even though my eyes are burning.
“To what do I owe this honor?”
“I’ve been tracking Blue.”
The line goes so quiet, I can hear the tinkling of the dry leaves blowing over the forest floor.
“I don’t know if you have, too—”
“Nah,” Dove says. “You know none of them like me too much.” None being the Unit’s support staff with the capability of tracing Blue’s phone. Dove pissed off their head girl years back, and they’ve all blackballed him since.
I nod. “Well, Blue seems headed my way. I want you to tell him something for me.”
“Yeah?” Dove is quiet, waiting, probably with bated breath, for what I say next.
I inhale slowly. “Tell him I’m not doing it.”
“You’re— What are you saying?”
“You heard me.” I blink and grit my teeth as a slash of wind sends moisture tracking down my cheek. Then I swallow, because fuck if I want Dove to know this shit. “I’m not doing it.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“I think I must be missing something,” Dove says. Silence fuzzes on the line. I shake my head.
“Changed my mind.”
He waits a beat, probably stunned. “After all that. Changed your mind.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Well, hell. So are you leaving town?”
“Not yet.”
I can see the wheels in his head turning. “What are you doing down there if you’re not…?”
I think quickly, carefully before I give my answer. “Plotting my next move.”
“Which is what?”
“I don’t know. That’s what ‘plotting’—”
“I fucking knew it!”
“Knew what?”
“You have a boner for her. You have a hard-on for the fucking girl who—”
“Shut up,” I snarl.
“This is bad, Bear. Really bad. Bear… Fuck, man, this shit won’t go away. It’s never going to go away. Can you even fucking do that?”
“I can do what I need to.” My voice is thick. I lean against a tree trunk. “I could protect her. I don’t have a choice,” I rasp. “I love her.”
“Goddamnit, Bear. You went and got yourself fucked up.”