15. Memphis

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

memphis

S tupid.

I was so stupid.

I hated myself for how stupid I was.

Nothing about his job was safe. Telling him to be safe was pointless. Utah was always as safe as he could be, regardless of being told to do so. If he were to find himself in a position that wasn’t safe, it was because of circumstances beyond his control. In which case, just fucking telling him to be safe would achieve precisely nothing.

I tossed my phone across the counter in sheer embarrassment. I’d already missed my window to unsend it without him realizing that I’d hacked his phone to retrieve it myself. He would’ve seen it by now and he was just choosing not to respond because he also knew how stupid I was.

“Problem?” Indy asked and looked between me and the phone on the other side of the counter.

“I think Tennessee and Akron should be up next,” I said and rubbed both temples.

“That’s why you’re mad at your phone?”

“No,” I admitted. “But, unlike Montana, Tennessee has been in this business a long time and I think I want the chance to talk to someone who’s been doing this even longer than I have.”

Indy was on his way around the island for more coffee when the text chime on my phone went off. I sat upright so quickly that there was absolutely no way to rebound from him noticing. I watched him smile while he reached for my phone.

“Would you like it back?” he asked. “If I’m dying to know what he said, I know you are, too.”

I nodded and he slid it right back across the counter to me.

Utah

I’ll miss you too, angel.

“Did your whole face just turn bright fucking red from a text message?” Indy asked as he laughed. “You’re adorable.”

I laid my phone back on the countertop face down and started picking at my nail polish, rather than even attempting to think about responding to that right now.

“I guess that means you don’t plan to share what he said?” Indy asked and laughed again. “Been a minute since you’ve liked someone? Forget how to do it?”

“ A minute ,” I repeated and laughed. “That’s being nice about it.”

“If you figure out how to talk to me about it, I can help you. I know the guy pretty well. I’ve controlled his schedule for the last three years.”

“We need to be focused on this ,” I said and nodded toward my computer.

“Right, Tennessee,” Indy said. I waited until he was sitting beside me, so I didn’t have to look at him for my next question.

“Is he seeing anybody?”

I hated myself again for my stupidity when he laughed.

“ Seeing anybody ,” Indy repeated. “I guess you’re probably not asking about Tennessee now,” he teased. “You and I both know how impossible seeing someone is in this line of work.”

“Is that a no, then?”

“Are you asking about actual relationships, or are you asking if he’s out there hooking up with random people on the road? Those aren’t really the same thing.”

Just thinking of it that way made my entire fucking brain hurt. And maybe my heart? Because I suddenly felt like I might throw up.

“I’m fucking with you, Memphis,” he said and pushed my shoulder. “God, you sucked the fun right out of that. I was kind of hoping for you to get hysterical and try calling him or yelling at me or anything exciting. The hurt face was not at all what I wanted.”

“You’re a bitch.”

“Guilty,” he laughed again. “No, you poor, innocent child. He’s not seeing anybody .”

“You’re going to tell him about this, aren’t you?”

“Oh, he would love the shit out of this. So, no. He doesn’t need to know that you’re sitting here pining every second that he’s gone.”

“I’m not pining.”

“Then what would you prefer we call it? Because we just halted all actual work to discuss Utah’s sex life.”

“Research.”

“Clever.”

We spent the rest of that afternoon and evening picking out Utah’s next teams, in the order that we thought would make the most sense. I wasn’t overly interested in what Montana might bring to this side of things, but I did want to know how Tennessee felt about our organization. He had us all beat with almost fifteen years in this business. I wanted to know if that would make him harder to convince to join us, or easier than the rest. He might know things that none of us could even imagine.

After that, I was very much interested in the team of nurses that we’d found. They had way too much of my attention. Mostly because I found their partnership fascinating from the outside perspective. Nevada moved from contract to contract in the form of a traveling nurse, a job that reached peak levels of demand when the COVID pandemic started. The demand was so high, and the focus shifted so hard to the safety protocols around the virus, that the rest of the regulations seemed to be forced into the backseat. She was able to float from job to job and handle her contracts with almost no risk of ever being caught, despite holding down what appeared to be a regular job in the public eye.

I sat next to Indy on the couch while he flipped through channels on the TV, and I pulled my phone out again to finally revisit Utah’s text.

But I just ended up staring at it.

“Ask him for a dick pic,” Indy said.

“I will do no such thing.”

“If you sigh at your phone one more time, I’ll ask him for one on your behalf.”

That was a dangerous game to play with someone like Indy. Calling his bluff usually wasn’t an option, because they weren’t normally bluffs.

His phone vibrated a second later anyway. He smirked and tossed it back on the couch beside him.

“He’s in his room for the night. Alone,” he said. “Probably thinking about you anyway. Prime dick pic opportunity.”

“He told you that he was alone?” I asked. “Does he usually tell you if he has company?”

“Only you would read that far into such a simple statement,” he laughed. “Text him, Memphis. He will respond to you in half a second.”

“And say what?”

“Literally anything, sweet girl. Say hi . He’ll take it from there. Trust me. Dare you. Just those two letters.”

I touched the screen of my phone and sighed again.

“That’s it,” Indy said and reached for his own.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” I shrieked and practically laid out across him to smack that shit right back out of his grasp while he laughed.

“You aren’t even a little curious?” he asked. “I am. You know that thing’s gotta be huge.”

“Indy.”

“Ew. Now you sound like him.”

Me

Hey.

“Did you do it?” Indy asked. “Two entire letters?”

“I used three.”

My phone chimed the moment that I locked the screen.

“Told you,” Indy said and laughed.

Utah

Everything alright, angel? I don’t usually hear from you on these outings.