62. Bull

62

Bull

Back at my place , I used the door frame of my trailer to lever the cap off a beer and then drank it sitting on the step. There was a pretty good sunset, but I couldn’t appreciate it...because she wasn’t with me.

What the hell’s going on with her?

It was the first time I’d ever been in any sort of relationship crisis. Hell, it was the first time I’d ever been in a relationship. All that whining Kirsten and her friends did when I didn’t call them started to make a little more sense.

A cold wind was getting up. That storm was still moving in—it’d be here by morning, maybe even before that. But I was too stubborn to get up and move inside.

Headlights suddenly swept across the side of my trailer and then hit me dead-on. I threw my arm up over my face as the sedan pulled up and a guy got out.

I stood up, still unable to see. “You want to kill the goddamn lights?” I growled .

The guy leaned through the window and flicked a switch. The lights died but I was still left with burning purple spots in my eyes. “You Bull?” he asked.

New York accent. Not so different to Lily’s.

“Who’s asking?”

He stepped forward. I hadn’t even been inside my trailer to turn on the lights yet and the gathering clouds were blocking the moonlight, so I had to scrunch up my eyes to see. A big guy in a suit. Dark hair. “Antonio,” he said. And stuck out his hand. “I’m out here looking for my cousin. I think you know her?”

I blinked. “Lily?”

For just a second, he hesitated, as if he didn’t recognize the name. Then he smiled. “Yeah. That’s right. Lily.” He peered around me at the darkened trailer. “She in there?”

“No.” My brain was still racing to catch up. “You’re her cousin?”

“That’s right. So, Lily found herself a cowboy, huh? You two...together?”

I straightened up. “Something like that.”

“You know where I can find her?”

I hesitated. She had said she missed her family. And the guy looked kind of Italian-American, like her. But…. “I don’t know you. How do I know you’re her cousin?”

He gave me a look. “I’ve known that girl since she was a tiny little thing. I used to take her to fucking band practice. Hell, she’s allergic to radishes. How about that?”

I relaxed. Okay, fine, he really did know her. “I’m glad you’re here,” I told him. “She’s got some shit going on with the law. ”

His face tightened. “Oh really?”

I nodded. “There’s an FBI guy hanging around. It’s okay, though. She cut some sort of a deal with him.”

He went white, then red. “Where can I find her?”

I hesitated. And then I told him where he could find her bus. I watched him drive away and then wandered inside to get another beer. Damn. Should I have offered him one? The guy was family, after all.

I was just opening the next beer when my phone rang. Lily. I snatched it up. “Hi!”

“Hi.” She hesitated. “I need to talk to you.”

I stood up straight, my breath catching in my chest. Every muscle in my body had gone tense. “Lily,” I croaked. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“ No! God, no! The opposite. I need to tell you some stuff. Stuff I should have told you a long time ago.”

Relief sluiced through me. I sat down on my trailer’s step. “Well, Jesus, girl, you had me going.”

“No,” she said. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay now. Can I come over?”

My heart lifted. I let out a long breath. “Yes! Hell, yes!”

“Okay,” Then she paused and I heard the puzzlement in her voice. “Wait—there’s someone here. A car’s pulling up.”

I’d almost forgotten about him. “Relax,” I told her. “It’s your cousin. Antonio, from New York.”

There was utter silence. Then an ear-splitting crash. I realized she’d dropped the phone.

Oh Jesus Christ—what have I done? “ Lily?!”

Running footsteps. I could hear her panting in fear and my stomach twisted.

The sound of breaking glass. And then the line went dead.