by Lexi Lewis
“Mrs. Abbot, it’s not likely that whoever did this actually wants Reese dead. Just…out of competition. I don’t think we’re dealing with a murderer here. Just someone who is fairly desperate.”
“So someone wants to hurt you bad enough that you can’t ride your bike around anymore, and that doesn’t even alarm you?” His mother asked, sounding incredulous.
Reese bristled at that. He hated when she made him sound like a child at play when it came to his sports, but it was apparently the only way they could even talk about it without her going into lecture mode. And really, it was too early in this conversation to say that she wasn’t going to start lecturing him, which did nothing to help his mood. The only thing that made it even slightly better was the fact that his father wasn’t home yet. He would get more dramatic than his mother even, and Reese already had a headache.
It hadn’t even been a month since he’d been released from the hospital after taking a nasty spill down a mountain in a snowboarding competition. He’d fractured his leg in three places, broken a couple of ribs, and messed his arm up pretty good, even though at least that part was healing pretty nicely. He didn’t have to wear the sling anymore, at the very least, which helped a lot because being practically an invalid made Reese want to pull his hair out.
So did this conversation, of course.
“Of course it alarms us, Mom,” Reese said, rolling his eyes. “That’s why we’re looking into it to try and figure out who did it. No one wants this to happen again.”
“It wouldn’t happen again if you’d do the sensible thing.”
And there it was. Reese should have known he wasn’t going to get through this argument without some commentary about his life choices. That would mean that something was going his way for once, and so far very few things had been.
“Let me guess. The sensible thing would be to let my injury be an excuse to quit extreme sports and find some cozy office job? Or better yet, quit and then go back to school, right? Become an accountant or a stock broker or something like that. That’s what you want me to do, isn’t it?”
His mother rolled her eyes. “I want you to be safe, Reese. And this is very clearly not safety.”
“What isn’t safety?” his dad’s voice interrupted.
“Oh, no. Paul, I am going to kick you in the face. This is what I was trying to avoid. This. This whole thing right here.” Reese watched as his father came through the front door, dropping his keys on the counter and frowning at the group seated around the kitchen table.
“What isn’t safety?” he asked again, but this time there was an anxious note to his voice, and Reese dragged a hand down his face and launched into the explanation in a flat voice. Because of course, even though this was his damned fault, Paul wasn’t going to say anything, which made sense because he was the worst agent in the world.
Actually, to be completely fair, he was a very good agent and had been working hard to try and find out who was responsible for what had happened to Reese, and Reese supposed that expecting to go seven months in this house with his parents without them knowing what was going on was kind of stupid in hindsight. They’d always been able to tell when he was hiding something from them, and this was a big thing to hide.
As predicted, Anthony Abbot didn’t take the news that someone other than Reese was responsible for his son’s injuries well. He sat down hard in one of the chairs, and without being asked, Reese’s mother was getting up and making him a cup of tea.
“But that’s horrible,” Anthony said. “Why would they do something like that? Just because you’re better than they are?”
“We don’t know just yet. It could be another competitor or someone who wants another competitor to win. Paul’s investigating it all right now,” Reese explained. “Look, I don’t want you two to get all worried. Chances are this person just wanted me out of the game for a little while so someone else can make their way to the top. They got what they wanted. But I’ll heal up and take my spot back in no time.”
“So that they can do it all over again?” his mother asked sharply, setting the cup down in front of her husband with a bang. “You really don’t use your head at all, do you?”
Reese closed his eyes and sighed. This was getting them nowhere. The conversation was clearly just going to continue to circle around and always come back to him needing to quit. Awesome.
“Reese,” his father said, voice soft. “Maybe…maybe your mother has a point. Whoever this is probably isn’t going to be too happy about you just getting right back into things. Maybe you should…” He trailed off, and Reese knew that he was expecting him to react poorly to his words.
He didn’t disappoint. If both his legs had been in working order, then he would have gotten up and walked out. But since they weren’t, and he didn’t really think hobbling away would make the dramatic effect he wanted, Reese had to make due with putting his hands down on the table hard.
“I know you’re worried about me. I appreciate it, and I understand. But I’m not letting some jerk chase me away from something I love. That’s crazy, and I can’t let that happen. I’ll be more careful and keep an eye on who gets to touch my gear from now on, but I’m not giving up. I don’t know how to give up.” His mother opened her mouth, and Reese silenced her with a glare. “It’s not up for discussion,” he said, getting up finally and making the slow tread off to his room.
He felt like a teenager all over again whenever they argued in this house. It was just like the night when he had informed his parents that college was all well and good, but he didn’t have a passion for anything that he could study, so he’d be leaving that alone to pursue extreme sports. He’d almost thought his mother was going to disown him that night. There had been so much yelling, and he was pretty sure his mom had cried a little bit, but he stood firm, reminding himself that this was his life and not hers. Hopefully this wouldn’t be that bad. Living under their roof for the next few months with his mom refusing to speak to him would be…
Well.
It would be bad and awkward, but it would be quiet at least.
Reese dropped onto his bed and swung his legs up, leaning back against the pillows and closing his eyes. There was another person he hadn’t told about this yet, and the thought of getting another lecture and having to go through all of the same stuff about how he was irresponsible didn’t exactly thrill him.
But then, probably Eve would react better. Probably.
She was the pretty nurse that he’d met in the hospital he’d stayed in right after he had gotten hurt. Eve had intrigued him from the moment they met with her wry humor and way of making him feel less pathetic. After navigating the rocky issues that had cropped up while he was still in the hospital, they’d settled into a comfortable routine of talking every day via text and sometimes calling each other, and while Reese couldn’t say that they were dating exactly, there was definitely a tone of them being more than friends at the very least.
Considering the fact that Eve had given him a blow job the last time she’d seen him, it seemed pretty likely that there was something going on between them.
Right now there was a very good chance that she would be at work, but she was the only one he wanted to talk to after what had just happened. It was just a little after six in the evening, so if she was working, he knew she would call him back when she got home.
To his surprise, when he called, intending to leave a voice mail for her, she answered with a tired sounding ‘hello’.
“Hey,” he said. “You sound beat.”
“Yeah. But that’s sort of the story of my life right now. Work’s been slammed, even though I managed to get off early today, and Devin’s apparently picked up being a little brat from someone at school, so I’ve got him running around the apartment throwing things because he’s in a mood or something. I know I should be stopping him, but I just don’t care right now.”
“That sounds stressful. I’m sorry. Anything I can do?”
“Want t
o look after a ten year old for the next few hours?”
He cringed at the very idea. “Uh…not really?”
Eve laughed softly, and he could hear her shifting position. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. How’re you? How are you feeling today?”
She asked him that everyday just about, and Reese wasn’t yet sure if it was because she actually cared how he was feeling or because it was ingrained in her from nursing. Either way, he appreciated her concern. Eve was so good at doing concern without making him feel pitied or nagged, and he thought that was one of the things that made her such a good nurse as well as one of the things that made him want to talk to her all the time.
He made himself comfortable on the bed and sighed. “I’m tired. Sleeping on my back sucks, and I haven’t come up with a better way to sleep without the cast weighing me down. Also my parents found out about something I’ve been keeping from them, and now they’re all worried and nagging me about quitting sports, and I’ve got the worst headache. Other than that, I’m fine, though.”
Eve was still laughing. “Oh, other than that, huh? Get some better pillows. Sleeping on your back takes getting used to, but in the hospital you had the benefit of being able to raise and lower your bed however you wanted. If you get some pillows that give you nearly the same effect, then you should be more comfortable.”
“You’re a life saver, I swear. I mean, you literally are, but also figuratively in this sense. I’ll have my dad pick me up some tomorrow.”
“I try. What did your parents find out about? The fact that your head isn’t as hard as they thought it was, and it’s been slightly cracked open?” she teased.
Reese sighed. “I wish. They’ve known that for years. No, it’s…” he hesitated, unsure if he wanted to tell her. She’d probably take it better than his parents had, but still. It was a big thing to tell someone, and he was pretty sure she had enough to deal with without having to add onto that. “Just how dangerous the tricks I was doing were. Paul was talking about them, and apparently they didn’t realize.”
He made a face at the lie. This wasn’t how he’d wanted to start things with her, but there it was. He wasn’t even sure how to tell her what was really going on, and the last thing he wanted was for her to get caught up in this. Especially since they hadn’t even really worked out what they were to each other yet.
“Oh,” she said. “I would have thought that went along with the territory, you know? I mean is it ever possible to be really safe doing those death defying stunts you do?”
Reese laughed, relieved that she had latched onto his answer. “Good point. I think it falls under the willfully ignorant category for them. They’d rather just not think about it, and they’ve been wanting me to quit practically since I started. Having this as evidence is just making them harp on the point even more than they were before. My mom, anyway. My dad’s usually good at staying kinda neutral about all this stuff, but I know this is going to be bothering him a lot.”
“Ah. Well, I can’t really blame them for being worried. I don’t really want to think about you doing that stuff either, considering how messed up you were when we first met. But I know you’re as careful about it as you can be. Or I hope you are, anyway.”
He felt a little pang for not telling her the truth then because he had been careful, and none of this had been his fault. But it was good enough. It was still early, and they were still feeling things out. There’d be time for him to come clean later. “I am,” Reese confirmed. “I mean, I’m a professional, right? Semi-pro, at least. I do all my safety checks.” Which barely matters when someone’s got it out for me, but that’s not my fault. “I’m much more responsible than you’d think.”
She snorted. “That doesn’t actually surprise me all that much, you know. You act like a child, but that doesn’t mean you are one.”
“Oh, thanks so much,” he said, rolling his eyes, grateful for the subject change. “Anyway, how’re you other than tired? How’s Devin, other than being a brat?”
He made himself comfortable among the pillows, already dreaming of when he would get new ones, and settled in to listen to her talk. Her voice was such a soothing alto, and she always knew how to make him laugh when he otherwise felt like feeling sorry for himself. She wasn’t the kind of woman to coddle and indulge too much, even if she was a nurse, and Reese wanted to see her.
Talking on the phone and texting were all well and good, but he missed seeing her face. It wasn’t even about wanting to pick up where they left off. Not really, anyway, and that was how he knew that there was something special about her.
Maybe she would have some time off soon and he could go see her. The last thing he wanted was her coming here when there was a chance that his parents would be here and start grilling him and her for information about their intentions or whatever. He’d had enough of that when he was in high school, the few times he had ever gone out with any girls.
No, it would be better to go to her. Then he could see where she lived and maybe meet her brother. Get closer to her. And luckily, now that Paul had opened his big, fat mouth and bought him days (or weeks if he was unlucky) worth of worried looks and speeches from his parents, the idiot owed him a favor.
CHAPTER 2: MORE PROBLEMS
Reese wasn’t the only one who had been keeping secrets, even if Eve didn’t know that he was. Eve had one of her own that had been building up for the past couple of weeks, and she wasn’t entirely sure what to do about it. More than that, she barely had time to deal with it. She barely had time to deal with the things in her life that she didn’t have a choice but to deal with.
Devin was in some kind of phase where he thought acting out and being bratty was the way to get him what he wanted, and work had been ridiculous lately. So many people coming in with chronic illnesses and injuries that required long stays, taking up all of her attention and energy.
Just three days before, there had been a massive pile up on the highway, and four of the seven patients who had been admitted afterwards were still in pretty bad shape.
Eve barely had a moment to breathe, let alone deal with the thought of her father.
Since he’d called her about two weeks previous, he hadn’t made any other attempts to contact her. The silence wasn’t very helpful, though, since it just made her paranoid. She knew from experience that the man was used to getting what he wanted, and apparently now he wanted to be a part of his son’s life, no matter how disinterested in him he had seemed in the past.
Well, it didn’t matter what he wanted because Eve wasn’t going to let it happen.
Unless he had changed drastically in the last few years, the man was a menace. He’d hurt her mother and basically ignored her, and Eve didn’t even want to think about what he’d do to Devin. The little boy had experienced enough upheaval in his short life with the death of their mother and being sent to live with their aunt and then to live with Eve.
It had been three years, and he was finally in a stable enough routine. There was nothing their father could do but mess that up, and Eve wasn’t going to have it.
As soon as she had hung up with the man when he’d called, she’d dialed her aunt’s number, letting her know. Her Aunt Michelle had been the one who’d seen the most of what Eve and Devin’s father was capable of, and she was protective of the two of them in their mother’s absence, so Eve knew she could trust her.
Michelle had promised to keep her ears open and to tell the rest of the family not to give the man any more information about where Eve and Devin were than he already had.
All Eve could do was hope that he didn’t know where they lived. If he showed up on her doorstep, or god forbid at Devin’s school, she didn’t know what she was going to do, but it wouldn’t be pretty.
Eventually she was going to have to tell the Santiagos since they lived next door and watched Devin while Eve was working, but she was trying to put that off until it became absolutely necessary. Mostly just because she didn’t want to think about it. It m
ade her feel helpless in a way that she hated, and reminded her all over again of being a little girl and listening to her parents scream at each other behind the closed door of their bedroom. The screaming was bad, but she much preferred that to the inevitable moment when her mother would fall silent and her father would storm out of the room and then out of the house. Eve had learned to count the seconds until the soft sound of her mother crying would start, and it made her heart break every time, knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it.
But there would be no more of that, and she wasn’t letting Devin get involved in anything with their father. She would protect him however she could.
She let out a breath and rubbed at her head, listening to the sounds of Devin splashing in the bathtub. He’d come home from school that day absolutely covered in mud, with a note from his teacher that said he’d gotten into a shoving match with another boy.
Eve had no idea how to do discipline. She’d never really needed it as a kid, since the thought of disobeying her mother had horrified her even then, but it was clear that she was going to have to say something to Devin about this. Apparently it had been too much to hope that losing his mother and moving around and going without wouldn’t affect him. Or even that he wouldn’t succumb to the behavior problems of other kids his age. He’d been so sweet so far, but this couldn’t keep happening.
Eventually he showed up in the kitchen, dressed in his house clothes and clutching one of his toys. “Can I have ice cream?” he asked, looking up at her with those big brown eyes.