While pulling on a pair of jeans and a hoodie, I heard Vic answer the front door.
“Fuck. You okay, man?” Drake asked.
“I’m good,” I heard Vic reply as I went back to the bathroom to freshen up.
“What the fuck happened?” Drake said.
I didn’t hear what else was said but when I came out, I heard Vic saying, “—getting me back from when he tried hitting on my sister.”
I walked into the living room and Drake’s eyes hit mine, instantly narrowing. “Explain.”
“Sick fuck walked in on her while she showered. I beat him up then put up some flyers calling him a pedophile.” Vic snorted. “He said he’d get me back, so I guess that’s what this is.”
“Fuck,” Drake muttered, eyes still on me.
“Hey,” I said, going over to him.
“Hey, baby.” He bent and wrapped his arms around my waist, picking me up and kissing me. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he said when he pulled away looking me over before putting me down.
“I’m fine,” I confirmed, a little embarrassed that Vic was there to see that.
“Gonna go fix that fucking window,” my brother said.
“Need any help?” Drake asked.
“Nah. But thanks.”
When we were alone, Drake took my hand and led me to the couch where we sat.
“Tell me about this stepdad.”
“Tell me why you had to make some calls before you could get here,” I countered.
“Honor…”
Huffing out a breath I said, “Why should I tell you everything when you tell me nothing?”
I watched him purse his lips in aggravation.
“Uh huh. That’s what I thought,” I murmured, realizing I was tired and gripy, my adrenaline now having suddenly crashed and we probably shouldn’t have been having that conversation right then. But I was annoyed that he felt I should be so open while he held back.
“I didn’t come here to fight,” he murmured.
“Yeah,” I replied with a sigh. “Look. I appreciate your coming over but I’ve got class in the morning and I know you have to work.”
He nodded slowly, staring at a place on the wall and I knew he was pissed off, but whatever. I still didn’t know who the woman was he’d been out with or who Will was. And to me, it all just seemed like kind of a deal breaker at this point.
“Yeah,” he echoed then stood and walked to the front door.
“Goodnight, Drake,” I said, tiptoeing up and touching my lips to his, which by the way weren’t very responsive.
“’Night, Honor,” he said and left.
It took me an hour to settle down as I lay in bed listening to Vic repairing the window, completely disturbed that the men had been in the house with me and I hadn’t even known it. I also wondered why Drake wouldn’t open up to me and let me in.
I drifted off just as sunlight filled my room.
Chapter 18
I noticed Victor had cleaned up the ruined coffee table when I got up a few hours later, and I shivered remembering what’d happened.
Making the strongest pot of coffee I could, I poured it into a travel mug then headed to class. But even after downing most of the caffeinated java on the way, I found I could barely keep my eyes open as I tried taking notes. The classroom had been so cozy and the professor had droned on and on it seemed, and I was soon nodding off.
After class as I drove to Colonial Manor, I called Krystal to tell her what had happened the night before.
“What? Oh, my God! They were in the house with you? That’s so scary! Are you okay?” she cried.
“Yes, and it was scary as hell, Krys. Vic has a huge cut under his eye.”
“Oh, no! Is he okay?”
“I think so. I thought he might need stitches, but, of course, he wouldn’t get them.”
“God. I’m so sorry, honey. I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Me too. Hopefully, he’ll get things cleared up with his boss and those guys will leave him alone.”
“I’m gonna call him,” she declared.
I smiled huge but tried to keep the happiness out of my voice so as not to spook her. “Yeah. That’d probably be good.”
We hung up and I let out a squeal just because I could, saying a quick prayer that they’d get back together just as I pulled up to the nursing home.
After clocking in, I helped Alex change a few patients and make a couple beds before it was time to get the meds ready. When I got to Mrs. Johnson’s room, she was her usual crabby self.
“Holly. You look terrible. Didn’t you get enough sleep last night?” she chided as I handed her the medicine cup.
“No, sorry, Aunt Greta. We had some excitement early this morning,” I replied, now handing her water.
She looked up at me. “A young woman always needs to look her best. How do you think you’ll get Robert to propose looking this way?”
I rolled my eyes at her old-fashioned notions as she swallowed her pills with the water.
“Don’t you roll your eyes at me, young lady.”
Damn. She didn’t miss anything. “Sorry, Aunt Greta,” I said as I took her cups and threw them away.
“Love is a funny thing, dear. I know I’m always getting onto you about the way you look, but you have a beautiful heart, and if Robert doesn’t appreciate that, well, he can just go…jump off a cliff!” She let out a Hmph! which made me chuckle.
“Thank you,” I said as I pushed the cart to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“You will,” she stated firmly. “In the meantime, don’t you worry about a thing. If he’s not smart enough to let you in, then you need to just move along. Do you hear me?”
I raised my eyebrows at her sage advice. “I hear you. Have a good night.”
As I passed Mr. Avery’s old room, I let out a sigh, glancing in and smiling at the new resident who’d moved in. He didn’t need meds during my shift, so I kept going, making my way to the last two rooms.
After work, I thought about going by the garage to see Drake but decided against it. I knew we’d left things kind of up in the air, but I felt the ball was in his court now. And Mrs. Johnson’s words had struck a chord with me. Drake hadn’t let me in, so maybe I should move on. I mean, he kept telling me he had to be sure, but I felt that I’d proven to him that I was trustworthy and hadn’t given him a reason not to be sure. Well, except for maybe being sort of bitchy to him last night, but I felt as if that was warranted. At this point, I didn’t know what he wanted. And maybe I wasn’t the one who could give him what he wanted anyway.
Although it broke my heart, I decided as I pulled into my drive that maybe we weren’t meant to be. And I was just going to have to find a way to be okay with that.
~*~*~*~*~
Tuesday night, I did go by the garage to see if we could talk but it was closed up tight.
Same on Wednesday night.
Thursday evening when I drove by, Drake was outside talking to a blond woman who had her back to me, and I was pretty sure it was Chanel. When I saw her Porsche, I knew it was her. Hoping he hadn’t seen me, I hit the gas trying to get the heck out of there as tears stung the backs of my eyes.
Of course, I had to share my humiliation, so I called Krystal.
“I’m officially a stalker,” I muttered, putting my phone on speaker. “And a bad one at that.”
“Why? What happened?”
“I haven’t heard from Drake since after the break-in, so I’ve been driving by the garage every night after I get off work wanting to catch him so we could talk,” I explained with several sniffs.
“Oh, honey, you’re okay. That makes perfect sense to me,” she consoled. “We’ve all done it.”
“But t-tonight, he was outside talking to Chanel,” I said, dragging the last syllable of her name into about five as my tears caught up with me.
“That bitch,” Krystal snapped. “Hey, come over! Mom brought me a casserole dish of her chicken enchiladas and I know yo
u love ‘em.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice because, yes, her mom made amazing enchiladas, but more importantly, I needed my best friend. “Okay,” I replied with a snuffle. “Be there in ten.”
I’d somewhat composed myself on the drive over, but when I walked into her apartment and she immediately gave me a big hug, I got all teary-eyed again.
“You go sit. I’ve already got your plate heating and I’ll bring it to you,” she said.
I plopped down on the sofa then looked at the TV to see that she had the movie She’s the Man—one of my all-time favorites—paused and ready to roll just for me. Of course, this caused me to tear up again that she was such a good friend.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, coming in and putting my plate on a trivet on her coffee table.
“You’re s-such a g-good best friend,” I choked out. “And I’m just a big bawl baby.”
“Oh, honey,” she said, sitting next to me and hugging me again. “It’s all gonna be okay.”
“I just don’t understand why he won’t open up to me. He’s so closed off.” I wiped under my eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“Like I said before, whatever he’s hiding must be important to him, On. He asked for time, right?” I nodded. “If you want this to work, you have to give it to him.”
“Pretty sure he’s over it. I haven’t heard from him all week,” I pointed out.
“Then it’ll be his loss, right?” she said softly, squeezing my hand.
I bit the inside of my lip and shrugged, hating her answer.
“You stop it right now, Honor Isadore Justice!”
I jerked my head back at her sudden chastisement since I’d expected compassion and not anger from her.
She kept going. “You are amazing. You’re beautiful, smart, funny and you have an absolutely stellar career ahead of you. One you’ve chosen because you love helping people which means you’re kind and caring! So stop this moping around.” She looked me in the eye to make sure I was listening, which I was because you have to listen when someone uses your whole name. “I know you’ve had a lot going on what with Mr. Avery, Jeremiah and those assholes who roughed up Victor. But you need to suck it the hell up.” Damn. She was definitely giving me the business. Then she threw out a real zinger. “And your happiness doesn’t hinge on whether Drake Powers wants to be with you! I get that you care for him, but he’s one guy in billions! If he’s not all in with you, then…fuck him!”
I stared at her because I so needed to hear all that. And she was right. I’d been acting like a weepy, stupid mess instead of being strong.
“What’s wrong with me?” I whispered.
She chuckled. “I want you to think back when Vic and I broke up. How did I act afterward?”
I thought for a second. “You cried. A lot.” She nodded. “You were a mess for weeks.”
“And what’d you tell me?”
I snorted. “I remember being so pissed and saying, ‘Vic is a great big dumbass of a cunt if he thinks he can do better than you.’ Then I told you how fabulous you are.”
“Was I in love with him?”
“Yeah. You were,” I said, nodding my head.
“So…does this mean you might be in love with Drake?”
My brow came down. “I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.” I looked at my plate then gasped and turned to her. “Oh, God. I think I am.”
She shrugged. “That’s probably why you’re so emotional then.”
Huh. I was in love and didn’t even know it. I guessed since I’d never been in love before, I hadn’t known how it felt. “That explains why I’ve completely fallen apart.” I looked at her. “Well, if this is being in love, it sucks ass,” I murmured.
She giggled as she smoothed a few pieces of hair back behind my ear. “You’re gonna be fine.”
I looked at my best friend, giving her a sad smile. “I wish I’d known how it feels so I could’ve been nicer to you when you and Vic broke up.”
“Water under the bridge. Now, let’s get this movie started. I know you love how funny Amanda Bynes is and getting to look at Channing Tatum is just a huge bonus!”
Being with Krystal turned out to be just what I needed. The enchiladas were, of course, delicious and the movie had us both laughing even though we’d seen it a hundred times before.
~*~*~*~*~
By Friday, when I still hadn’t heard from Drake, I’d finally come to accept that we were over.
And I was kind of okay with it. I mean, what other choice did I have. But Krystal had been right. Whether I was happy or not was all on me and not based on if I was with him. So I sucked it up and decided to move forward.
But one good thing had happened during the week. Before I left her house after our enchilada-slash-movie fest, Krystal told me she’d called Victor Monday after the break-in, like she’d said she would, and they’d been texting and talking all week. I was so excited, I broke my code of silence and jumped up and down doing baby claps as I squealed. I told her I’d wondered why Vic had been in such a good mood despite being accused of taking money from the bar and having a black eye.
Now as I walked into the house, home from work, my phone rang. I stupidly held out hope that it was Drake, but looking at the screen, saw it was my brother.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Guess what?”
“What?”
“It was Ingram who was taking the money! The cops just left here with him in cuffs and he was singing like a fucking canary, telling everyone who’d listen that it was Albert Mitchell who hired him to steal the money. How fucking awesome is that?” He chuckled.
“Oh, my God. I can’t believe Albert would do this.”
“Yep. I heard he and Mom split up a couple months ago, and that she’s already seeing someone else. I think he’s pissed she moved on so fast and that’s what prompted him to try to come after us.”
“Wow.” That was a lot of information packed in those two sentences. Jeez.
“I know. But I’m in the clear and Ingram’s gone.”
“I’m so glad they know it wasn’t you. How’d they find out it was him?” I questioned.
“Dumbfuck used different employee IDs when he’d open the register to take money. When Finch started checking when money had gone missing, there were several times the person whose ID Ingram used wasn’t even working that night.”
“Good lord.”
He laughed. “Yeah. And they’re gonna pick up Albert tonight probably for burglary in the first degree, which Finch said is a class A felony so he’s gonna get jail time. Oh, also conspiracy to commit a burglary. He’s gonna lose his law license and be disbarred.”
“Dang. This is all craziness,” I said still trying to wrap my head around Albert trying to set up Vic, having held on to his anger for years now.
“Stupid crazy. Oh, and tomorrow, I’m taking Krystal to dinner—”
“Yay!” I yelled interrupting him. “I knew you’d finally come to your senses!”
He snorted. “’Bout time, huh? But we’d like to talk to you before we go.”
“About?” I inquired.
“We both think it’s time you knew why we broke up.”
“Oh,” I replied, somewhat shocked.
This was huge.
“Think you could be at the house tomorrow around four?” he asked.
“I can.”
“Good. All right, just thought you’d wanna know what happened to Albert, which is fuckin’ awesome!” He let out a whoop.
“It is!” I agreed, laughing. Not that I wished ill will on anyone, but Albert had so had this coming.
“Gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow, On. Love you,” he said and hung up.
I showered then putting on sleep pants and a sweatshirt over my tank top, went to the kitchen and made snickerdoodles just because. Then after eating half a bowl of leftover vegetable soup, I went to bed, checking my phone to make sure I hadn’t missed a call or a text.
; I hadn’t.
Chapter 19
Saturday morning I did laundry and cleaned around the house, finding myself nervous at what Victor and Krystal would tell me. I mean, what if it was something stupid and I had to gripe them out for keeping it under wraps for two years?
By the time Vic woke up and came into the kitchen around noon, I’d scrubbed it top to bottom and in the meantime had almost driven myself nuts thinking about what they’d tell me.
“Hey,” he said, coming in and looking around for something to eat.
“Want me to heat you up some soup?” I asked.
“Sounds good,” he said, getting a beer from the fridge then pulling out a chair and sitting.
As I ladled the soup into a bowl, I said, “I’m too impatient, aren’t I?”
He chuckled. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I’ve bugged you guys, well, Krys, for details since you guys broke up.” I put his bowl into the microwave and turned to look at him, leaning my butt against the counter.
He shrugged. “That’s just curiosity.”
“And I’ve driven Drake away now because he’s held things back from me.” I pushed off the counter and got him some saltines, placing the pack next to him.
“You guys broke up?”
“Pretty much,” I shared, going back to get him a spoon. “Krys kept telling me to be patient and trust him, but I just wanted to know everything now.” I set the spoon down next to him then went back to the microwave.
“You’ve always been that way, On. Like, since you were a fucking toddler. When you were three, you were on a mission until you found all our Christmas presents by digging through Mom and Dad’s bedroom closet.” He snorted.
The microwave beeped and I got his bowl out bringing it to him. “I did?”
“Yeah. That’s how I learned there wasn’t a Santa Claus. Thanks for that, by the way.” He grinned as he crumbled crackers in his hands letting the crumbs fall into his bowl.
Drake (The Powers That Be, Book 5) Page 15