The Sinclair Brothers ✔️

(55) Smoke Detectors Detect Smoke

"You have my ex-girlfriends location?"

Theo held up his hands in surrender. "Purely for honest purposes."

"I don't understand why he has to come," Matt pointed out, glancing into the backseat where Makennah lounged low with her black hood pulled up over her head.

"He has the location," she clarified again.

"You act like you don't want me to come," Theo said bitterly like his feelings might be a little hurt. Makennah rolled her eyes at that.

"I do want you to come," Matt answered nicely. "I'm just...pissed off."

"This is the final chapter, champ," Theo said, clapping Matt on the shoulder.

"Okay, coach," Matt said sarcastically, focusing on driving the Jeep in the right direction according to the GPS on Theo's phone while routed them to the location where they presumed she was hiding away with her lover.

"Break it up, kids." Makennah leaned forward between the front seats and pointed obscurely into the night. "That's the house. Park here."

Matt killed the car headlights and parked quietly by the curb around the bend, a few houses down from the property that Makennah and Theo previously trespassed on to spy on Cassandra the first time they tracked her down. "So what now?"

"Now we do the thing," she answered, kicking the back door open and falling out on the sidewalk. The boys followed suit while she reached back into the Jeep to grab their bag before she closed the door gently.

"Let's go," Theo instructed, taking the bag from Makennah and briefly sharing an intimate touch of their fingertips. Since he officially asked her to be his girlfriend, they hadn't been able to spend much time together.

"When did you break up with her?" Makennah asked since she hadn't heard a thing about it.

Matt shrugged his shoulders up to his ears and dug his hands in his black jacket pockets to protect himself from the chilly November temperature. "When Grandpa died. I realized it was stupid to keep holding onto someone and wasting time that isn't guaranteed to us."

Makennah glanced at Theo who watched his friend charge onwards into the night. Makennah understood the feeling. Even though she jumped into a commitment with Theo, a future with him did feel like a promise quite yet.

"Do you really believe she cheated?" Theo asked cautiously.

Matt gave them a sideways look. "I'm here, aren't I?" He said angrily. Makennah and Theo exchanged similar worried glances at his tone. "Besides, it's kind of hard to refute the evidence at this point."

Out of curiosity, Theo asked, "What evidence?"

"That she loves another man," he commented in a clipped tone.

Theo whipped his head sideways. "What did I miss?" He whispered to Makennah, walking backwards, as she lagged behind them.

She waited for Matt to explain because it was his story but he never did. He just stalked silently. "At your house, the night before homecoming I followed Cassandra into the house and overheard her on the phone. She told him - the guy - that she loved him."

Theo's eyes widened. She silently mouthed the word 'sorry' to him because she forgot to tell him.

"Damn," was the way he consoled his friend. "She take it well? The break up?"

Matt sneered with an air of humorless laughter. "Nope. For a girl in love with another man, she sure did hold on tightly. Which house?" He changed subjects quickly.