My molars grind down, jaw locking.
Sulli steps back in horror, bumping into Akara’s chest. He hooks his fingers in her belt loops.
“Booger…” Sulli breathes out.
“Hey, they didn’t take the tires,” Akara says more positively.
I glance at the wheels. Sure enough, tires are on. Perfect condition. I laugh. “What kind of fucking stunads are we dealing with?”
We all turn to Derrick. He’s busy searching for something on his phone. “I was able to get face recognition from the cameras coming down this road.”
Camp Calloway is incredibly popular, and on drop-off day, a line snakes miles outside the entrance. The road gets congested, and someone, one year, opted for some better streetlights. Cameras.
Any competent soul who pays attention in Kitsuwon Securities or Triple Shield security training knows this fact. ‘Cause there are still clients who regularly frequent Camp Calloway.
“It’s up to all of you, if you’d like me to file the police report,” Derrick says. “Looks like the guy is already in the system. Name is…Colin Donnelly.”
He might as well have sucked the oxygen out of the mountain. The air stills.
“Say again,” I mutter.
“Colin Donnelly.” Derrick frowns, eyes pinging between the three of us. “You know him?”
“Not personally,” Akara says in an exhausted breath. He might be a cousin of Paul Donnelly’s. Not 100% sure of the relation.
I clench and unclench my fist, anger surging through me. “The fucking Donnellys.”
“Paul can’t know about it, right?” Sulli holds her elbows.
I shake my head. “No way in hell.”
“Yeah, he’s not in on this if that’s what you’re asking, Sul,” Akara says tensely. We both know Donnelly would sell out his family before hurting the Hales, Meadows, or Cobalts. Everyone on Omega knows that.
Akara expels a rougher breath, his hand aggressively pushing back his black hair.
I nod to him. “What are you thinking?”
“This is going to kill him,” Akara whispers, mostly to me.
Yeah.
“Maybe we don’t tell him?” I ask.
Sulli hears and says, “Yeah, we shouldn’t fucking involve him more.”
Akara nods stiffly, then pulls Derrick aside. “Can we talk for a sec, Derrick.”
“Sure thing.” Twigs crunch under their boots as they walk further away and chat quietly. Sorting out the logistics, while Sulli and I inspect the forest-green muddy Jeep a little closer.
I yank off branches, and Sulli checks the inside again. The windshield wipers are missing. Easy fix. She’ll be good to go soon enough. Just need to find all the right parts.
Coming back out, Sulli skims her fingers over the dirty window, leaving streaks. “I know I should be fucking devastated that she’s just a bunch of metal, but I’m so fucking relieved.”
I slip her a smile. “We’ll bring her back better than ever.”
“Risen up from the dead,” Sulli smiles at that thought. “Like a fucking phoenix.” I stare at her for a long moment, watching Sulli clean the twigs off the tires. I’m stunned by her resilience—her strength of pursuit and ability to keep on going.
She’s been dragged down a lot just this year, but she’s always had some sort of grit.
My chest rises, lungs filling with the same loving feeling that draws my lips upward. Once we’re done clearing the car of tree branches, we lean against the shut hood, our eyes on the creek below the cliff.
We listen to the world around us. The sounds of rushing water and a hawk squawking in the distance. Our easy breaths that drift into the September air.
I peek over at Sulli. “You remember the day we first met?” I lift a shoulder. “Guess it’d be more like the first day we met when I was off-duty, alone. We’d probably run into each other before then, but never really talked much.”
“The day you were off-duty…” She thinks, then bites her lip, starting to smile. “Fuck, that day—you were in the townhouse garage.”
She remembers.
I can’t take my eyes off her, shocked she remembers. Didn’t think she would. “Yeah, I was in the garage.”
Sulli stares out at the open sky, smiling more at the memory. “You know, when I moved into the townhouse with Moffy, Jane, and Luna—I hadn’t really thought too hard about how I’d be living next door to our bodyguards. Not until that day—it hit me.”
“That’s why you remember?”
“Yeah.” She tries to hold my gaze but glances away shyly. “Fuck, you were under Jane’s blue Beetle when I walked into the garage. All I saw were your legs, and I kept glancing from your legs to my parked Jeep, to your legs, to my Jeep.” She pats the hood next to her. “But I didn’t want to open the car door and scare you. So I called out your name. You didn’t hear me.”
“And then you kicked my ankle.”
“I kicked your ankle,” she laughs, nodding. “You rolled out from under the Beetle. AirPods were in your ears, and I shouted way too fucking loudly, ‘I’m Sulli! I’m about to go! I didn’t want to fucking scare you!’ And you…” She stares faraway. “You had this shadow of a smile just looking at me—the kind you always have that just utterly fucking melts me.” Her eyes flit to me, back to the sky. “You were really hot, scorching levels—and like instantly, I knew I was in trouble, but I just figured you probably wouldn’t be attracted to me.”