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“How did you find me?” Wiri eased onto the sofa next to her after passing her the coffee. He held his breath as his backside dropped onto the cushion. He exhaled and waved a hand at her. “Don’t bother. Mac told you, didn’t he?”
Phoenix shrugged. “I might have guessed the code for his phone whilst looking for something else and discovered a whole raft of texts between you and him.”
Wiri squinted in pain as he bent his left leg and put his weight into his hip. He turned his body and stretched out his left arm along the back of the sofa behind her. “So, Miss Du Rose, what did Mac have on his phone that you needed?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Phoenix sipped her coffee, wrinkling her nose as she burned her top lip.
“No. Tell me.” Wiri tapped her shoulder and then left his hand there, the bandaged fingers hanging at a strange angle across her sleeve.
Phoenix’s eyelashes fluttered, and she stared through the window at the scene beyond. Blurred by the net curtain, it gained the appearance of a foggy day. “He kept looking at something with great interest. You know what he’s like with tech. But it felt different, like he was monitoring something. Even at school.” She raised an eyebrow and studied Wiri with practised perception.
He frowned. “What was it?” When Phoenix moved her head, a lock of hair tumbled over his hand and he caught it, frowning as he tried to keep hold of it between his bandaged index finger and his thumb.
“You.” She narrowed her eyes. “He’s watching you.”
“What?” Wiri sat up straight and looked around him at the sterile room with the showcased furniture. “How?”
Phoenix giggled. “You shared your location data with him.”
“No.” Wiri straightened his legs and dug in his pocket for his phone. “I didn’t. He just has the address in case of emergencies.”
Phoenix twisted her lips into a pout. She laid her coffee mug on the table, which Leilah had placed artfully in front of the sofa before walking away from her childhood home. “He’s got real-time data for you. I know you spent a long time in a paddock without moving the other day. Perhaps that’s why he kept checking every few minutes. He got worried about you. It’s a pin on a map. I followed it here.” She rose and walked across the room towards the hallway. Wiri used the pause to examine the location settings on his phone. Mac had called him numerous times the afternoon he’d spent interred in the tank. He’d left no message.
Wiri held his phone up to face her when she returned. “He’s got into my Google account and added a backup email address. All notifications get sent to him.” He blew out a low whistle. “What a hacker!” He dropped his phone onto the sofa cushion and gnawed on his lower lip. “That means any notifications about location sharing in future will go to him. He’ll confirm it’s fine and I’ll be no wiser.”
“Until you need to enter your email and password for some reason.” Phoenix sat on the couch next to him. He noticed she took more care not to rock the seat and cause him pain. “It doesn’t matter anyway,” she said, holding up a device in her right hand. “I stole his phone and left mine turned off and hidden at home.”
“Wow!” Wiri feigned shock and his irises sparkled with humour. “You’re not the person I thought you were, Phoenix Du Rose.”
She lifted her chin and grinned at him. “Well, now he can’t track either of us.”
“I’ve missed you.” Wiri’s tone grew serious, and he slipped his arm around her shoulders. She scooted nearer, their hips touching as she leaned her cheek against his collarbone. It felt new and yet so ancient, as though someone had knitted them together before either of them were born.
“I missed you too.” Phoenix blinked up at him. “You’ve been a constant in my life.” She gulped. “Until I went to that awful summer camp.”
Wiri placed his index finger over her lips. “Let’s not talk about that,” he said, his tone soft. “Just sit here with me while I close my eyes. Then you can tell me how you made a two-and-a-half-hour journey south without a vehicle.”
Phoenix yawned, covering her mouth with her hand. “But I want to know how you got all those bruises,” she said. Her eyelashes fluttered as Wiri drew her against his side. He ran his index finger across the bridge of her nose and in less than a minute, he’d soothed her to sleep. Just like when she was a toddler.
They snoozed together on the sofa like collapsed dominoes. Phoenix woke first, rising from beneath Wiri’s arm with her hair in tangles over her face. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Where’s that noise coming from?” Her voice sounded over loud in the quiet house.
“What noise?” Wiri forced himself to a sitting position and groaned. He ran a tentative hand along his ribs. “I never got those painkillers. That’s why I went into the bedroom.” He shifted to the edge of the cushion and Phoenix rose. Her soft steps padded across the rug and into the hall.
“That girl left her socks.” Her voice echoed in the narrow space. A ball of pink fabric pinged against the lounge doorway and bounced into the centre of the rug. A second joined it, hitting the door frame and flying back in the opposite direction.
It took three attempts for Wiri to stand, the ultimate effort involving the coffee table. He winced as Phoenix’s abandoned coffee slopped over the side of the mug.
“Is this hers?” She appeared in the room without warning, holding a phone out in front of her. “I found it on your bedside table.”
Wiri took it and peered at the screen. Black and lifeless, it gave no indication of its owner. Turning it over, he examined the floral pattern on the case and nodded. “Seline’s I guess. Perhaps she’s phoning it to see if she left it here.”
Phoenix’s pupils flared, and she set her jaw in a hard line. She took it from Wiri’s open palm. “Good. Then I’ll answer it next time she calls.” She twitched her shoulders up to meet her ears and grinned at him. “I’ll teach her to get naked with my boyfriend.”
Wiri smiled. He leaned forward and stroked her cheek with his right hand, smoothing his thumb over her top lip. “I’ve missed your sass,” he whispered.
Phoenix wrinkled her nose. “I’ve missed it too,” she admitted. “I lost myself for a while there after summer camp. A black cloud descended over my head and when it lifted, you’d gone.”
“Well, we’re both here now.” Wiri dipped his head and his lips covered hers. Only their third kiss ever. It packed a punch and Phoenix stepped closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and lifting her face for more. She held the phone in her left hand and it bumped the waistband of his jeans as she pressed herself against him, their mutual craving threatening to move into dangerous territory.
Wiri pulled away first, making his best decision of the day. “You’re only fifteen.” He kissed the end of her nose. “You might change your mind, and I need you to be able to do that.”
Phoenix pouted and wrapped herself around him, causing him to wince as he tried to pull away from her. “I’m ready,” she whispered, her eyes sparkling with danger and mischief.
The phone rang in her left hand and she jerked backwards and dropped it. The rug absorbed the impact, and she bent to retrieve it, scrabbling to lift it to her ear. “Hello,” she said, her tone biting. When no one spoke, she frowned and looked back at the screen. “Oh, oops.” She pressed the green flashing icon of a telephone and waited.
“I told you to be ready!” a male voice snarled into Phoenix’s ear. Wiri heard it as a muffled echo. Her jaw dropped, and she drew it away from her face, holding the device out between them. Wiri shook his head, not wanting responsibility for it. She pressed another icon to activate the speaker, and the voice boomed into the lounge. “Do you think it’s easy for me? I can’t just use the phone when I want to. You know that. Answer next time I call you!” His voice rose to a shout, and Phoenix inhaled. “Are you there?” he demanded.
“Yes.” The answer came from a reflex, drawn from her lips with great reluctance.
Wiri spread his hands in question, mouthing, “Keep him talking.”
“What do you want?” Phoenix swallowed, the hand holding the phone shaking between them.
“You know what I want,” the voice snarled. “I want both of them dead. Stop mucking around and get it done.” The call ended, and the screen flared before morphing back to black. Phoenix dropped the phone onto the rug and Wiri snatched it up again. The fingers of his uninjured hand moved fast, pressing the buttons on the side of the phone to activate the screen. The security settings had allowed them to take the call, but required a code for any other function.
“What do we do now?” Phoenix’s eyes filled with fear, wide and unblinking, as she looked at Wiri for all her answers.
“I don’t know,” he whispered, realising he’d already failed to protect her. “Logan’s gonna kill me,” he breathed.
