Admitting that she needed help—she made Ryke just as proud too.
“Oh I forgot.” She reveals two blank envelopes. “Uncle Lo said these are for you and Kits.”
I frown. “You sure it’s for me?” I’m thinking it has to be a check for security. Maybe the parents felt like Kitsuwon Securities extended their services to them.
“Yeah, he said, your boyfriends, Akara and Banks.” Her cheeks redden, embarrassed about something. “And he also fucking teased me about ‘putting rings on it’…and I stupidly asked, like proposals? And he said, no, I want you to go to Mordor and destroy the Ring.” She touches her forehead, flustered. “And I don’t know….that’s stupid, right?”
“Mordor or proposals?”
“Proposals. We can never really get married?”
I stiffen and sweep her head to toe. Marriage. Haven’t contemplated it for too long. Christ, I used to always take less. But now I just want to take more than anyone says I can be given. Two people to love.
A union.
A commitment of forever.
Why the hell not? Why can’t that be for us?
“I think,” I say as I’m thinking, “this is something we should talk about with Akara.”
“Where is Kits?”
Before I can answer, her mom shouts, “Caw-caw!”
Sulli whips her head and returns a, “Caw-caw!” Quickly, Sulli says to me, “I’m going to tell my mom goodbye. Then I’ll be back.”
I nod, and as Sulli leaves, I skirt around to the front of the SUV.
Akara is leaning on the hood and pinching the bridge of his nose. Phone still to his ear.
Mother of Christ, this is bad.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I start packing on armor.
“Yes, that’s my email…correct. I’ll be in touch,” Akara says, tensed. “Thanks.” He hangs up.
“Nine, talk to me.”
He pockets his phone and lets out a frustrated, distraught noise. Closing his eyes, he says, “The Jeep was stolen.”
Stolen.
Stolen.
Pressure wells in the back of my head. Thumping like a panic-induced migraine.
I couldn’t have heard him right.
“Say again.”
“That fudging Jeep is gone. Stolen. Robbed. How many synonyms do you want?”
“Fuck,” I curse hotly, gaze narrowing on her family. They’re blissfully unaware of their most prized possession gone. Booger…that Jeep—fuck.
Akara crouches at the tire, face in his hands. He’s a heartbeat from screaming, and I squat down to him, tucking my hair behind my ears. Trying to cool the fuck down for him. He’s going to take the brunt of this disaster on his shoulder.
I wanna pry some off.
“Maybe there’s a good explanation,” I start out.
Akara drops his hands, eyes bloodshot. “We know why they took the Jeep. It’s the most famous, recognizable vehicle.”
“But how the hell could a thief get through apartment security? That parking garage is like Fort Knox.” On the chance they entered, they’d have to find the right level and then break through a passcode-protected metal gate that stores everyone’s vehicles from the penthouse.
“I have no idea,” Akara sighs heavily. “I told Sulli it’d be safe there…and it wasn’t.” He runs a stressed hand through his hair. And when I put a hand to his shoulder and stand up, he rises with me, saying, “The building’s security is sending me footage of the parking garage’s cameras. Someone broke in. They’re hoping we can identify the thief.”
My brows furrow. “How do we know this isn’t an inside job?” It seems more reasonable that someone who had access to the parking garage would take the Jeep.
“It could be.” Akara massages his knuckles. “Maybe staff or another resident. We won’t know until we look at that footage.”
“Footage of what?” Sulli peeks around the hood.
Akara and I both go quiet, just as Price’s SUV passes our vehicle. Passenger window rolls down, and Ryke waves a hand outside. “See you guys soon. Pack for warm weather.”
We’ve been invited on a Meadows family trip. As Sulli’s boyfriends first. Bodyguards second.
Where we’re going—hell if I know.
Ryke and Daisy decided they’d surprise all of us, and Sulli and Winona’s guesses have ranged from Alaska to Chile to Costa Rica. I don’t care where we go, as long as we’re together.
And packing isn’t even on my list of things to do when we haven’t even unpacked from this trip yet and some shitbag has Booger.
“Will do,” Akara waves a hand.
I nod curtly.
Ryke gives me a weird look, but he loses time to respond as the SUV drives on by. Leaving the tarmac with other cars. The only ones left are Luna, Maximoff, Farrow, and Baby Ripley. Looks like Farrow is snapping Ripley into his car seat.
Sulli spins back on us. “What’s going on? What footage? And why do you look like you stole a cookie from the cookie jar?” Her eyes are on me.
I look that fuckin’ guilty? I explain, “We have intel that we’re trying to keep discreet.”
“Am I in the need-to-know category and I don’t need to know?”
“You need to know,” Akara and I say together.
She sighs heavily and rubs her eyes wearily. “It’s bad news, isn’t it?”
Fuck, I hate laying this on her. We’re getting pounded with shit storm after shit storm, and even if I like being on my toes, I wouldn’t choose this disaster in a million fucking years. Give me a normal overly excited fan to tell, stay back. Give me an annoying cameraman who’s slightly pushy.
Hell, give me twenty questions about me and Akara fucking (even though we’re not fucking)—anything but this.
I want Sulli to bask in the high of her Olympic wins, but we can’t keep this secret from her. Not for a day or an hour or even a minute.
She’d hate us for it.
I’d fucking hate me.
Akara opens his mouth and his phone chimes. Sounds of planes taking off the runway rumbles the ground. Sulli focuses on me for answers as Akara checks his cell.
“There’s no good way to say this, Sulli.” I gear her up for bad news. “Booger was stolen.”
She doesn’t say anything. Has no expression. She’s in clear shock. “What?”
“Stolen,” I tell her. “The Jeep. Booger. She’s gone. But we’re gonna get her back.”
She fights tears. “She’s the only thing I have of his.”
Adam Sully. Her dad’s best friend. A rock climber who died on a mountain in front of her dad. The guy she’s named after. That Jeep is sentimental in ways I understand. I was willing to miss my brother’s wedding for Booger when she broke down on the road trip out west.
I did miss most of his wedding.
That Jeep means too much to the people I care about, and I would do almost anything to get her back. I know Sulli and Akara would too.
I remember how Akara said Booger is famous. So famous, some fan even made an Instagram account to document sightings of the Jeep in public. “Maybe the fan page has spotted her.”
Hope lightens her green eyes. “Maybe.”