She’s good at that. Nate did inform me that she’s been difficult today. She was pretty aggressive in her physical combat training. Although she’s been cleared, Nate’s worried about her injuries.
“I had to get some work done to send back home.”
She chews on her cheek for a few seconds. “Are they asking you to come back?”
“No, not yet.”
“Oh.”
“You want to talk about what’s going on? You seem… high strung. You should be pacing yourself.”
“I thought you weren’t here to talk about that,” she says with a pointed look.
I hold my hands up. “I’m not. I actually wanted to see if you want to get out of here. You, me, and a bar. What do you say?”
She looks up at me cautiously. I smile and tilt my head to the side. I know she’s been wanting to get outside these walls. I figured it would be good for her and admittedly, I thought I’d find out what’s going on in her head.
“You buying?”
I broaden my smile. “Always. It’s not in me not to treat.”
“Fine, but I need something to wear. I’m not going out in one of those Men in Black suits.”
I reach into my back pocket and toss her the other reason I’m here. I watch her face as she drops the rope and catches the item. It’s adorable how confusion turns into realization, back to confusion.
“A wallet?” she says as she turns the blue custom-made leather gift over in her hands.
I shrug. “There’s some money and a few cards in there. You’ll have to hand the cards back over after, but you’re welcome to use them to get whatever you want while you’re out.”
She wrinkles her brows. “They give you this?”
“Does it matter?”
She slants her pretty eyes at me. I hold her gaze as I grin. No, the money, cards, and wallet didn’t come from Nate and his team. The ID did, but the rest are on me—and man, did I have to go to bat so she could have them.
I needed her to have this. No, I couldn’t tell anyone why because I’ve been avoiding that answer myself. Along with the answers to why I’m still here, why I want to spend more time with her away from here, and why I can’t wait to see her in something other than workout clothes or the suits everyone here wears.
“Yeah, it does.” She pauses and licks her lips. “It does, John. I don’t know why, but it does.”
And we add another to my millions of questions. Nate has nothing on Roni or where she’s from. She hasn’t told him a thing to help with the background check.
It’s like she never existed before she was taken. No facial recognition has come up, her prints didn’t get a hit. She’s a mystery. Yet, the way her words come out tells me something deeper is at the root of everything about her.
“The ID is from Nate. I asked him to get it for you.”
She pulls the ID from the wallet and frowns as she reads it. “Roni Black?” she says, looking up at me. “That’s some racist bullshit.”
I laugh and shake my head at her. “Black is my last name. I’ve had brothers all my life. Now I can say I have a little sister.”
Her face crumbles and I’m not too sure what to think of it. “Little sister?”
I open my mouth to reply when Torque walks over. He’s the only other person Roni talks to. The kid seems to cling to her.
“Hey,” he says as a blush takes over his cheeks.
“What’s up? Listen, I need to make a few calls and get some more work done. Paige, Bobby’s wife will take you out shopping. Be nice.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Roni murmurs.
I stand watching her for a moment before I smile and nod. One way or another, I plan to get answers about the anomaly before me. Roni has history and I plan to pull it out.
Roni
I look in the mirror, fidgeting with my T-shirt. Biting my lip, I wonder if I’m reading too much into this. If I am, this off the shoulder black Tee might not be appropriate.
For that matter, the skintight light blue jeans and patent leather crisscross heels probably make me look ridiculous. I shake my head at the reflection in the mirror.
With a sigh, I think of how much more I look like I did when I first reached that place they kept us in. My cheeks are fuller, my eyes aren’t sunken in.