“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. It was definitely there.”
“You don’t know what was inside it?” Seth asked.
I peeked down the short hall, watching him scribble something in his notebook.
“No. But it had a little lock. It probably looked like the only thing in the whole place that was of any value. Whoever it was is going to be sorely disappointed when they crack it open and find it’s probably nothing but a bunch of pictures I painted my grandma when I was a little girl. The only other thing I can see is missing is a silver ring I’d left next to my bathroom sink.”
Yeah, someone was going to be sorely, sorely disappointed.
Surely, they didn’t have the first clue that coming in here and messing with Nikki meant they were fucking with me.
Sometimes lessons had to be learned the hard way. I was going to be all-too happy to teach it.
The three of them moved back out into the living room, Seth talking while they did. “My guess is this is another case of punk kids running the streets and causing trouble.”
Seth said it almost casually.
“They probably took off running when your neighbor came out to see what the commotion was. It happens more than I would like to admit. They’re looking for anything easy to unload for a little cash, and if they don’t find anything, they don’t think twice about ruining people’s belongings, out of spite or fun, I’m not sure. Either way, it sucks that you have to deal with the aftermath.”
She nodded but looked unconvinced.
“Are you sure you can’t think of anyone who would have done this?” he asked for the third time.
Nikki’s gaze dropped to the floor, off to the side as she ran her hands over her arms and gnawed at that plump bottom lip.
She wasn’t saying something. I knew it. Knew it.
She accused me of not knowing her.
What bullshit.
I knew her better than anyone.
She went back to hugging herself. “I can’t think of anyone. I mean . . . I’m Nikki. Who could hate me?”
She gave a wide grin.
Honestly, it looked a whole lot more like a grimace than anything. Kind of pathetic and awkward and desperate.
She wasn’t fooling anyone.
“What about at school or the diner?”
Her head shook. “My classes are all online, and everyone’s wonderful at the diner. Who wouldn’t be after Rynna feeds them those breakfast pastry pies. Happiest people in the world. I’m sure you’re right, and it was just kids,” she continued with a resolute nod. “There are packs of them roaming the area all the time. It was bound to happen.”
Bound to happen.
I was bound to kick someone’s ass.
“Luckily, if that’s the case, they usually move on once they figure out there isn’t anything of value for them to take.”
Although Seth’s words were obviously delivered to offer her some comfort, he kept shooting me glances on the sly.
Nikki laughed a self-deprecating sound. “Well, then, I’m sure that ring was worth a mint, and unless they were after the VHS player my grandma gave me for my tenth birthday, then they are straight out of luck.”
Seth chuckled while he scribbled something onto a fresh sheet in his notepad. “You probably made yourself a prime target with that one.”
“I knew I should have gotten a security system with all my valuables. Oh God, what if they’d found my Discman?” Her eyes went wide with feigned horror. “Living the high life is dangerous.”
I would have laughed if I wasn’t so pissed. Only this girl would make light of the situation.
She’d also be the one to hang on to all those pieces of her childhood.
My insides clutched as I thought about her hopping into her grandmother’s car every Saturday morning.
Tagging along to yard sales and thrift stores like it was some sort of epic trip to Chanel.
Couldn’t count the number of times the girl had busted into our house with pride in her eyes to show off the latest gadget she’d picked up with her grandma. Half the time, it’d already be obsolete or missing pieces or just plain ugly, but she never cared.
She’d go on about why it’d called out to her. Why it was supposed to have belonged to her all along.
Sentimental to the skinny bone.
Hell, I wouldn’t have put it past her to be carrying a beeper in that huge-ass purse of hers, too.
“You should have been born in the seventies,” Seth teased.
“I know, I was robbed. Think of all the awesome music I missed out on in the eighties.”
He laughed. “Robbed. Vandalized. You really are a target.”
Anger soured on my tongue. Knew he was being cool. Setting her at ease. But her safety wasn’t a damned joke.
“All right, I think that’s all I need for now,” Seth said, ripping out the sheet and flipping the notepad closed. “You know where to get in touch with me if you think of anything else. Sometimes things become clearer after the shock wears off. We lifted a couple of prints, so I’ll let you know what we find, and I’ll send someone over first thing in the morning to get your door fixed.”
Nikki sent him a wobbly smile. “Thank you, Seth. I really do appreciate it.”
“Just doing my job, though, I have to admit, wasn’t a fan of doing it here. You need to be careful, Nikki.”
“I know.”
He hesitated. “Are you sure you’re fine?”
She nodded and pasted on one of those smiles. One of the ones that promised Nikki Walters was just fine.
Having a blast.
Even when the world tossed her shit and problems and trials, she chose to live life large and to its fullest.
“Yeah, I’m totally fine. No need to worry. I knew what I was signing up for when I moved in here.”
Seth shook his head. “All right then, I’m going to get out of your hair. Take care of yourself,” he told her.
He walked toward me and reached out to shake my hand. With the other, he slipped me the sheet he’d ripped out of the notebook.
Unease rumbled in my gut.
I gave him a tight jut of my chin. “See ya, man.”
“Yup,” he said before he and his partner slipped out.
Nikki followed them and did her best to wedge the door shut.
While her back was to me, I peeked at the note.
None of this sits right. Call me.
Nikki grunted, trying to get it shut but the wood was too mangled and disfigured.
What if she’d been there? Alone?
What would have happened then?
What had the intruder’s intention been in the first place?
Fear tumbled through me like a slow, excruciating burn.
Lava that sprouted from my soul.
Singeing my insides.
It was doubled by a bolt of that rage. A stake through my spirit.
It landed right in the midst of the rest of that bubbling fury, leaving me to barely hang on.
Sometimes I looked in the mirror and was terrified of myself, having no clue who I was gonna be when it happened.
When it all came to a head.
Where she stood facing away from me, I watched a tremble roll through her body. The girl refused to let on that she was shaken up by the incident.
She thought I didn’t see her.
Problem was, I could see her too well.
“You knew what you were signing up for when you moved in here.” There was no question behind it. Just an accusation.
A frustrated laugh jolted from her mouth, and from behind, she shook her head. “Sometimes there aren’t any other options, Ollie.”
She slowly turned to face me, and she lifted her chin a fraction.
Defiantly.
Proudly.
That was my girl.
Proud and way too brave and far too sweet.
A dangerously reckless combination.
“We work hard. We make do. We accept t
hat sometimes our lives aren’t as pretty as we might like them to be. We accept that our lives don’t look the same as we once imagined they would.”
Regret tumbled through me at that.
I was the holder of so many of the dreams she’d whispered about.
Dreams she’d trusted me with.
I was the image that no longer looked the same.
“It wasn’t like I was going to continue to live with my sister once she got married and became a mom. So here I am.”
She lifted her arms out to the sides like her reasoning was going to deter me. “Home sweet home.”
She started for the kitchen that was only separated from the living room by a change from old, worn carpet to dinged-to-shit linoleum.
I surveyed the disaster again. Unease knocked at my ribs. My voice was low when I spoke. “Looks personal to me. You sure there isn’t anything you want to tell me?”
She kept walking, dipping to grab three boxes of cereal that had been pulled from the pantry and dumped onto the floor.
But I saw it.
The misstep.
The way her spine went rigid in fear.
Hiding.
She was all too quick to cover the ripple of disquiet.
Her words shifted into an overcompensating rant that rode on her breath. “Little punks need someone to teach them a lesson. I mean, seriously, how uncool. Breaking shit for the fun of it. I just never have gotten that mentality. Making life harder for someone . . . because what? They’re bored?”
She sucked in a saddened breath. “And my grandma’s stuff . . . she’s gonna be so heartbroken that I don’t have it. It’s hard enough that she’s fallen sick. People don’t even realize the things they do really hurt. Or maybe that’s exactly what they want.”
There was an undertone to all of it as she tossed the boxes back onto the shelf. Like she was processing.
Like she knew exactly who’d done this.
“Do you have a bat?” she asked, whirling around to face me.
Her expression had turned eager.
Actually fuckin’ serious as she looked back at me like she just stumbled on the solution to all the world’s problems.
Or at least hers.
Unreal.
She had to be insane.
Or driving me there.
“You’re coming home with me.” The words were out before I could stop them.
Yeah, it was a bad idea.
But there was no chance in hell I was gonna leave her by herself. Not with the lock on the door broken.
Like a lock made a difference anyway.
“What?” Her brows lifted so high they disappeared beneath the long, wispy bangs that framed her face.
Her goddamned striking face.
Eyes wide and sincere and true. Color that shouldn’t be possible.
High, carved cheeks. Smooth, olive skin. Plump, pink-tinted lips.
That smattering of brown freckles that crested the bridge of her nose and dusted beneath her eyes made her appear so damned young and innocent.
But it was that body that bristled with an undercurrent of energy and fire that sent streaks of light radiating from her like the breaking day.
Couldn’t stand the thought of her energy fading away. This crazy energy that emanated from her skin like the glow of neon colors.
Couldn’t stand the thought of someone touching it.
Snuffing it out.
Dimming that light until it was cast into darkness.
“I said you’re coming home with me. You can’t stay here by yourself.”
Her mouth dropped open in offense, and she propped her hands on her narrow waist, trying to come off as valiant and strong when I saw the panic quiver through her veins.
Yeah.
I was fucking panicked, too.
“Excuse me, but I’m not sure when you decided you got to make decisions for me.”
“When some asshole busted in your door, that’s when.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going to your place.”
“No?”
“Nope.”
I dug out my cell phone. “Fine, I’ll call Lillith, and I’ll drop you off there.”
Horror crested those pink lips. “Don’t you dare, Oliver Preston. It’s almost midnight. You’re going to freak her out. This is Lily we’re talking about, and you know the last thing I need is for her to get all worried over me. She’ll have Brody trying to build me my own sky-rise apartment or something.”
Sounded like a good plan. I knew there was a reason I liked the guy.
“Rex and Rynna, then. Or maybe your sister Sammie. I’m sure she has a cozy couch.”
So what if I was goading her.
“Are you crazy? And wake up their kids?” she screeched as she pointed at me. “And don’t you dare say Hope and Kale. Chances are, we’d catch those two right in the middle of something they don’t want us to interrupt. They can’t keep their hands off each other. I think that was one of my best matches to date.”
Her voice got all dreamy on the last. The girl thought she was some kind of arrow-shooting cupid, responsible for every relationship each of our friends had fallen into.
It was cute and eccentric and ridiculous.
Crazy talk.
That’s exactly what this was.
What I was.
Crazy.
Crazy for even considering this. Crazier for insisting on it. Because I knew she was gonna refuse every single one of my suggestions and the only thing she’d be left with was me.
“Looks to me like your options are running out.”
She stamped her little foot in defiance. “I’ll go to a motel.”
I spun on my heel and headed into her bedroom, dragging the duffle bag from the top shelf of her closet. I tossed it onto her bed, doing my best to suppress the images of the last time I had been there.
But they came fast.
An assault of greed and lust.
The girl under me. Skin so soft. Body so warm. Wrapping me in all that comfort.
Sunshine.
Had to grit my teeth to force out the words. “You’re coming with me, Nikki. Don’t fight me on this because you aren’t gonna win.”
“Why do you even care?” She was in the doorway, her pretty face pinching. I saw it, her eyes on the bed, picturing the same damned thing as I was.
Hurt hit her, wave after wave.
My stomach knotted.
Regret and need.
I turned away.
Ignoring it, that feeling that struck in the space between us. Something that’d always been there.
Always.
As we’d grown, it’d just transformed and gotten bigger and become something we shouldn’t have let it be.
None of it mattered—not the mistakes I’d made, not the way I felt, not what I wanted.
I’d rather die than let something bad happen to her.
“Pack your shit, Nikki, or I’ll do it for you.”
And the last thing I needed was to be rummaging around through her underwear.
5
Ollie
Six Years Old
His mom knelt in front of him and squeezed him by the upper arms. “You’re such a big boy. I’m so proud of you.”
He looked up at the big yellow bus that rumbled at the curb, his belly full of something that felt like wings, and his chest bigger than it’d ever been.
“Now, do you remember what I told you?” his mom asked as she adjusted the straps of his backpack on his shoulders.
He tightened his hold on his little sister’s hand. “I’ve got to take care of my little sister. Always and always.”
His mom smiled and it made his chest tighten more. “That’s right. You’re the biggest and the bravest, so you always watch out for your little sister. She’s going to be scared going to school all by herself, but she doesn’t have to be because she has you right there to protect her.”
Pride swelled inside him. “I’ll watch her the b
est, Momma. Just like Daddy said.”
She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I know you will, brave boy.”
“Beast Man,” he corrected.
His momma laughed a soft sound and brushed her fingers through his hair. “That’s right, you’re The Beast now.”
He proudly held up his The Beast lunchbox that his dad had given him yesterday when he’d gotten home from work. His dad told him he was a beast, destined to be a linebacker, bigger than any of the other boys.
Last night, his daddy had come into his room to tuck him in and told him he needed to watch out for his little sister.
Just like his momma was doing right then.
Their momma looked at his little sister, who was swaying in her pretty dress that she had picked out especially for this day. Ollie was worried it was gonna get messy if she played in the dirt, but their momma said that was okay. “You stay close to your brother, okay? He’ll help you get to your classroom until you know your way around.”
Sydney looked up at Ollie and beamed. “Okay, Momma.”
“All right, you two, you’d better get on that bus.”
She pressed a long kiss to Sydney’s cheek, like the way she did when she was sad.
“It’s okay, Momma,” he said, “I’ve got her. I won’t let nothin’ bad ever happen to her.”
She nodded at him and wiped a tear from under her eye. “I’m just sad my babies are getting so big. I know you’ve got her. Now go on and have a great day. I’ll be right here waiting when you get finished.”
“We will!” Sydney said, grinning wide and then even wider when she saw another little girl walking up to the bus with her hand in her mother’s.
The girl’s eyes were so wide and so blue they were almost purple. Like one of those purple flowers that grew thick in the fields and filled their momma’s garden.
Though, somehow, they were shiny and iridescent.
Like a big bubble floatin’ in the sky and getting caught up in the rays of sunlight.
The girl’s mom hugged her before she nudged her toward the bus. “Go on.”
The girl’s feet dragged on the dirt as she looked behind her.
“You wanna sit with us?” Sydney called out, not the least bit shy.
Fight for Me: The Complete Collection Page 72