Interdependent (Book 2 in EBTWOG series)

Chapter 14

Levi taps his fingers against the arm of his wheelchair, waiting for the guys to return. Sophie is unaware of what is going on around her, absorbed back in the game. I've been running my fingers through her hair, distracting myself by watching the movements on the screen and Sophie moving systematically. Levi has been silent ever since I told them of Tanner knowing what we were doing. I had attempted to say something, but Levi put a finger to his lips, and I was resigned to waiting patiently for the guys to return. Slowly, the guys that ventured off into the apartment come back one at a time. Brody falls into the seat next to me, again, resting his head against the back of the sofa. No one says anything yet, so I continue to stay silent, hoping for someone to tell me what's going on.

It's only when Ryder returns, with a shake of his head that Storm speaks up.

"Nothing." He looks to each of the guys and they all repeat the same sentiment, resulting in a groan from Storm. Brody drops his head down, his shoulders sagging. "He's not here Bambi, we look everywhere," Storm says, staring me in the eye. His expression is soft, yet persistent, and I believe him. It would be unlikely that they kept something from me that was this important, especially if he was in fact here. They would have done a thorough search.

"How the..." he trails off, looking toward Sophie, "does he know what we're doing?" He lifts his head, aiming the question at Jesse across from us. Jesse thinks for a moment, shrugging his shoulders.

"This isn't the first time. He's been following Bambi, we know that." Levi grumbles in affirmation, staring down at his leg. "He must be finding you, and then proceeds to follow you from there. He probably took an educated guess, seeing us all enter the building. He just got lucky." The last sentence comes out more of a firm statement, and I wonder if some of it is trying to act as reassurance for himself and everyone else in the room. Does he actually believe that? Do I believe that? Did he just get lucky? I know deep down that I don't believe it. The messages come across with such certainty that it's hard not to believe that he knows exactly what I'm doing. Indeed, how is doing it?

I massage my fingers into Sophie's scalp, thinking everything over. No matter where I go, or what I do, he'll be there. It's not like I'm going to obscure places. It's school, and then home wherever that is, so it's not exactly hard to follow me. It's certainly not a coincidence, though, so at least I don't feel 100% crazy at seeing him everywhere and thinking he's following me when he's not. There are no coincidences that could explain this... just the messages alone confirm it. But there are times where I think that I'm exaggerating things and blowing it all out of proportion and things aren't as bad as they seem, and then there are times like this where it's obvious I'm not. Doubting myself will always be a problem, ever since Sophie became my responsibility. She came into the world and I felt an instant rush of needing to protect her and be there for her. She became my responsibility overnight, and I've been learning ever since, but we've both made it through, and have come out the other side, and I can only hope that I can come out the other side of the situation with Tanner. At the moment it doesn't seem likely that it'll be any time soon.

Hi guys!

Not exactly a long part, but hopefully the next one will be a bit longer - I've been able to get more writing done recently, so future parts should be longer. When will the next part be up? The date I have at the moment is the 1st of December (can you believe we're already so close to December?) but depending on something else that I have planned, it might be the 2nd, or even 3rd, just to give you a fair warning.

What did you think?

What do you think will/want to happen next?

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CC ;)