My phone finally buzzed. “You’ll get a text once the coast is clear.” It immediately buzzed again. “Wait for it.”

I inched closer to my bedroom door.

“Wait for it.”

“I am waiting,” I texted back.

“Don’t ruin the suspense, baby doll.”

“Stop calling me that, RJ.”

“Wait for it.”

I sighed. RJ would never stop calling me weird nicknames. I was pretty sure it was a character flaw he picked up from his father. Because I’d heard Uncle Rob call my mother some very weird things in my lifetime. Inappropriate things. Yeah, definitely an inherited character flaw.

“Wait for it,” RJ texted.

Oh my God. I swear if this was just me walking out of the apartment when my parents were in their room, I could have done it myself. I already knew they were in there.

“Wait for it.”

“Wait,” I texted back. “Is wait for it the signal to go?”

“No. Don’t go.”

“But you said you’d text me once the coast is clear and you’ve texted me a million times since then.”

“Patience, baby doll.”

I was going to slap him whenever I saw him next. “Whenever I do go, aren’t Briggs and Porter going to see me?”

“No, Liam is busy flirting with them. Or seducing. I can’t remember what he decided on.”

“Liam, Briggs, and Porter are all straight.”

“Seducing their minds, baby doll,” he texted.

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, I was definitely going to slap him.

“Put some pillows under your comforter. So it looks like you’re there sleeping peacefully if anyone checks on you.”

Okay. I stuffed some pillows and my red panda stuffie underneath my comforter and looked up at the camera in the corner of my bedroom. I adjusted a few of the pillows for the angle and nodded. That would do.

My phone buzzed again and I looked down at the new text: “Go! Now!”

Shit, suddenly I wasn’t ready. My heart started beating faster in my chest as I slowly opened my bedroom door. I looked both ways to make sure no one was watching.

“Stop pussyfooting around, Scar. There’s no time.” Another text came almost immediately: “Go. Go, go, go!”

I’m not pussyfooting. I’m double checking. “Go where?” He still hadn’t told me what the plan was.

“Past your parents’ bedroom and down the stairs.”

I followed his instructions and paused at the bottom of the stairs. I was just about to text him, but he texted me first.

“Go through the living room.”

How did he know I was ready for my next set of instructions? Or that I had actually kind of been pussyfooting around a minute ago? I looked up at the security camera mounted in the corner of the wall. “RJ, are you watching me?”

“I hacked into the security cameras,” he texted. “Go. Now.”