I sighed. “Yeah. I need to talk to you too.”
“Shit. Did you get another call too?”
“No. Did you?”
He nodded. “I couldn’t tell if it was the same voice or not. It was muffled this time. Like he was talking through a rag or someth
ing. Or maybe using some voice-scrambling software. I have no idea.”
“It was a man, though?”
“I think so. I couldn’t actually tell. The first one was a man, or maybe a woman with a really deep voice.”
“What did he say?”
“The same, that he was watching, but then he said something really disturbing.”
“What?”
“He said to watch my back.”
“Okay. That’s weird. If he’s watching, you’re obviously already watching your back.”
“It was the way he said it, Bryce. Almost like he meant someone close to me was betraying me.”
“Who would do that? No one but us knows about this.”
But chills rippled up my spine. Had this person somehow heard my conversation with Marjorie at the cabin?
No. Couldn’t have happened. The outside couldn’t be bugged. Could it?
If it could be done, it would require a huge level of sophistication that I couldn’t even begin to fathom.
But there was an easier way to eavesdrop.
Someone could have been in the woods with us.
More chills.
“I always have your back, Joe.”
In my heart, I knew it wasn’t a lie. I’d confided in the woman I loved, as he probably had as well. Marj had said she couldn’t imagine him keeping this from Melanie.
Then again, Melanie was pregnant. She didn’t need any extra stress.
I had to come clean, and I had to do it now. Coming clean also meant telling Joe about Marjorie and me.
It was time.
Joe and I were about the same size. I could fight him off if he decided to take me out. But he was a hothead.
“I have something to tell you.”
“Fuck. Are you telling me—”
“No. I mean, yes. I told someone.”
“Damn it, Bryce. Goddamnit all to hell!”