Page 24 of Fall onto me

“Foster?” I breathe into the quiet night as he takes a razor blade across the window seal.

He turns like he’s been burned, a fury billowing in his eyes. “What are you doing here?” He doesn’t turn to look at me. He’s still faced at the window, his head tilted sideways.

“What areyoudoing here?” I repeat.

He shakes his head. “Give me five minutes, then we’ll talk. Stay here.”

“We talk now.”

He ignores me, continuing doing whatever it is that he’s doing. Then, he disappears through the window. “Foster!” I’m still whispering, but I attempt to pull a little grit into it.

One second later, his inked hand comes out of the window, and he holds up a shaky, annoyed ‘one’.

I cross my arms and impatiently stand there until he returns ten minutes later. There’s a file in his hands now and the black bag is stuffed into his pocket, no longer full.

He shakes his head. “Not here.”

“Tree,” I decide, stomping away before he can say anything else.

* * *

When we takeour separate modes of transportation, it’s a quiet ride for me. Aside from the constant questions in my mind that won’t seem to shut up.

They won’t calm until I get some kind of answer. What was he even doing back there? I would worry he’s cheating, but I know with certainty that he wouldn’t hurt me like that. No, this is something else.

We both pull behind a thicket of bushes across the street from our banyan, and I slam the door when I get out. Not a word is spoken until we’re sitting on the sandy grass, our backs against the too large tree. “What is happening?”

He sighs, collapsing his face against his inked hands. “Keeper,” he mutters. A pop of thunder rumbles overhead, fitting. Even the gods get angry when they hear his name.

“What?”

There’s a beat of quiet, and in that long stillness, I hear the ocean meeting the shore. “He contacted me,” Foster finally tells the truth.

A searing fear courses through every vein. “Okay? So why are you breaking into people’s houses?”

“He told me to.”

I want to say something snarky like ‘If he wanted you to jump off a bridge would you do that?’ but I would sound like my mother, and I don’t ever want to sound like her. “I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t want you to know about any of this.”

“Well, too late for that.”

He shakes his head, turning the tables on me. “How did you know where I was?”

“I saw Sophie at Rita’s.”

He shakes his head. “But how do you know where to find me?”

“You said something about a dock to someone on the phone? I put two and two together.”

“I was talking to Barnes.” He pulls something from his pocket, a walkie talkie. I haven’t seen one since I was a kid. Barnes helped us get away from my father’s house when Foster hit him.

“Are you like a secret agent now?” I scoff. “He’s in on this too?”

“No,” he sighs. “I’m trying not to bring him into it, but we agreed that I would let him know the basics in case I go missing.”

I throw my hands up. “Incaseyou go missing. So it will be easier to find your body?” I cry.