back out, and we can talk.” I tip my head and stare between the three of them. I need them to see how serious I am about the next part. “If I’m not back out in… say five minutes, that means I can’t go. That my mom needs me and that comes first.”
Milo steps forward. “What’s wrong with your mom?”
I shake my head in denial “I’m not talking about this right now. Are you guys going to wait, or you will just go now?”
“We’ll wait,” Milo mumbles and looks at the ground.
“Promise you won’t knock on the door if I don’t come back?”
Dante tightens his fists. “I don’t like this. Why won’t you let us near your house, are you afraid of someone, of something?”
I throw my hands out wide. “Take it or leave it.”
Dante grumbles, turning partially away from me, and Milo places his hand on his shoulder in support. In the next instant Dante is striding toward me. I take two steps back before he grabs my wrist, slamming a cell phone into my open palm. “You don’t come out in five minutes, I get a call telling me you’re okay. If not, I won’t knock, but I’ll be in that RV.” He leans in even closer and I swear the color of his eyes shifts from a honey brown to a molten gold. “Take it or leave it,” he snarls quietly.
I close my fingers over the phone and peer over his shoulder. My eyes are probably about ready to bug out of my head. I swallow once and give a terse nod.
Pulling free from Dante’s grasp, I look at the phone. The sleek screen is lit, showing a picture of the black Nova. This is Dante’s phone. “It’s locked,” I murmur.
Dante takes the phone from my hand with gentle fingers, his jaw is clenched tight with the effort. The picture changes to the home screen the second it’s in his hand. With a few quick swipes he turns the lock feature off. He reaches out to hand the phone back, only to pull his arm away when I move to grab it. Dante turns to look at Ollie and Milo, who have been completely quiet through the exchange. “Shit,” he curses. Dante grabs my hand, flipping it over so my palm is exposed. He studies my eyes intensely. “Anything you see on this phone was from before we met you.”
My nose wrinkles. “What do you mean?”
Dante’s eyes close on a long blink. “Nothing, just that….” He looks over at Ollie. “Can I do a master reset? How long will that take?” I close my fingers over the phone in question. Before he said anything I never once thought to look through his phone, I mean people’s whole lives are on their phones nowadays. But now my curiosity is piqued. What is he worried I’d find?
“I won’t go through your phone,” I promise. I might want to, but that would be a huge violation of his privacy.
Dante looks at the ground. “I believe you,” he mumbles but glances away, his shoulders slumped. What’s that about?
I reach up and place my hand on his shoulder. “Your secrets are safe with me. I promise I won’t touch your phone unless I’m using it to call you guys.”
“I would.” Dante’s eyes meet mine. “I would go through yours if I had the chance. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself, hell I wouldn’t even try.” He spins away from me, heading toward the other end of the car. Ollie approaches with a small grim smile.
“Okay, so me and Milo both have our cells, we’re under the contacts. If you’re not going to come back out, just ring one of us to let us know.” I nod biting my lip.
Without looking at Dante, I slide the phone in my back pocket. It feels warm and foreign, but also comforting. I’ve never had a cell phone. Not even the burner kind the kids at school would get if their parents took theirs away.
I trek past the front entrance, grateful they parked far enough away where Mike wouldn’t see them and ask questions.
Before I unlock the door, I know she’s not in there, and she hasn’t been back since she left. There’s something about the stillness that makes loneliness invade. I take a good look around to see if anything has changed just in case before leaving a note on the dinette.
I pull the phone from my pocket, only to check the time. I’m