Pinkie Promise

by Sarah Clay

  I try and hide the discomfort his hands are causing, hoping to prolong that conversation as long as possible.

  When the lift arrives on the ground floor he shuffles me in. Still not releasing his hold on me. Anthony keeps looking over at me too. His obvious curiosity growing by the minute.

  “S-s-s-sorry Coop” I manage to chatter out.

  His brows draw up as he squints down at me. I answer his unasked question.

  “For j-j-just showing u-p-p-p.”

  He starts rubbing his hand up and down my arm again, this time trying to generate some heat. I bite down on my lip to stop from flinching.

  “Don’t ever apologize to me for that Livvie.”

  The doors open up on the 12th floor, again; I think to myself.

  Anthony walks off ahead; in the same direction, I’d come from only an hour ago. Coop is trailing behind with me under his arm. We make it to the office in the back corner and he deposits my bag off to the side before ushering me into the office.

  Anthony is already seated at the desk, typing out something in a huff at the laptop.

  The Grumpy-Adonis, I didn’t catch his name; has his back to us. Again looking out over the skyline like he had been when I’d seen him earlier.

  He turns when he hears his door click shut.

  “The room will warm up quicker with the door closed.” Coop mutters while pulling me back into his embrace.

  I’m still shivering, I think it’s a combination of being so cold and tired. As well as the relief that he’s here now and he hasn’t sent me away; yet.

  “What the hell happened?” I hear Mr. Grumpy growl into the room.

  I don’t move to look in his direction.

  Instead, I’m selfishly trying to steal all of Coop's body heat.

  “She was dry an hour ago” I hear him mumble into the room.

  Coop pulls me away from him, keeping his hands gripped on my forearms while peering down at me.

  “You were up here?”

  He doesn’t let me answer before he spins around to face the other two males in the room, hitting one in particular with a nasty glare.

  “She was up here and you sent her to wait outside?” he grits out.

  Shit, I wasn’t here to start a fight.

  “Coop” I pull on his arm slightly and he throws it back over my shoulders pulling me into his side, but he doesn’t take his eyes off of the two men.

  “Jackson, Tony, this is Olivia” he introduces.

  Tony or Anthony; whoever he is, just gives me a slight head nod.

  The corner of his mouth turning up slightly, like he’s just solved a puzzle.

  It disappears just as quickly as it arrives and he goes straight back to frowning at the screen in front of him.

  The one by the name of Jackson aka not Mr. Grumpy, looks me over slowly, ending with a slight frown when he takes in Coops hold on me; turning his focus back to Coop.

  “Your dates not going to warm up with a wet coat on Coop, and we’ve got a shit ton of work to get done before any of us can leave.”

  I swallow hard; trying to focus on the part that brings at least a little humor to the situation; he thinks I’m Cooper’s date.

  But I can’t concentrate on it too long, I know what’s coming.

  “Shit, sorry Livvie, take your jacket off, the arsehole is right” he winks down at me but he loses the playfulness as soon as he notices me pulling it tighter around me.

  “Olivia” his stern voice cuts through me, he knows something is wrong already.

  I’ve always been a horrible liar. I start shaking my head at him, quickly glancing back towards the other two in the room. One of whom is pretending he’s not interested in what is going on right in front of him and the other being way too interested in knowing.

  “Take the damn coat off Olivia” Coop chokes out, his voice full of panic.

  I sigh, bitting down on my lip while undoing the strap on the coat. Coop pushes it off of my arms and it pools at my feet on the ground.

  I don’t catch what he mumbles under his breath but his eyes are darting to my arms, where big ugly bruises mare my biceps and forearms.

  “What the fuck?” I hear the Jackson guy growl out before storming over to where we are standing.

  “I’m okay Coop” I whisper to him; I can see the emotions playing out on his face.

  Anger and Sadness but he seems to be settling in on guilt pretty damn quickly and it makes the whole situation worse.

  He wraps his arms around me so tightly that there’s nothing I can do about it.

  I’m left to stand here, arms dangling by my sides, glancing between Anthony and Jackson; neither of whom can unglue their eyes from us, or maybe my arms.

  Both of whom are wearing different degrees of anger on their handsome faces.

  “Coop I can’t breathe” I finally whine when he squeezes me even tighter.

  “Shit, shit, sorry” he pulls me out at arm’s length but doesn’t drop his hold on me.

  “I don’t know where to start, shit” he grounds out, he looks so stressed out.

  It’s then I remember that one of the others had mentioned something about having a lot of work to do.

  “I can go; you have work to do.”

  He’s shaking his head before I can even finish speaking.

  “Coop” I try again, but he just puts his hands on my shoulders and turns me towards the two others in the room.

  Who are unfortunately still staring at us, trying to gauge what is going on?

  “Jackson Turner, Anthony Michaels meet Olivia Matthews, my baby sister.”

  Their curious expressions are still caught up in the ugly marks on my arms.

  Although, I’m sure I see a look of relief pass quickly over Jackson’s expression before he goes back to frowning at my arms.

  “Better get used to having her around boys, she’s not going anywhere.”

  Chapter Three

  Jackson

  Well, fuck me.

  The little blonde stunner isn’t one of Coopers fan girls; she’s his younger sister.

  Hot damn, I don’t know why I feel relief with that thought.

  Another lie, of course, I do.

  How fucking old is she anyway?

  “Baby sister? How old are you?” I watch on as she rolls her eyes, jabbing her elbow into Cooper's side causing him to snicker in her direction.

  “I’m nineteen” she smiles softly in her brothers’ direction.

  Well fuck, she is younger than I thought, but she’s legal so at least I’m not too much of a fucking creeper.

  I watch on as Cooper leads her over to the sofa I’d had delivered earlier this week, mumbling something softly to her.

  “Shit Livvie, Jack is right though, we do have some shit to get done before I can leave, but you can wait here; then I’ll take you back to my place and we can figure this all out.”

  Now that her jacket is off I could see her frame. She may have a tiny little waist but her body definitely made her look older than her nineteen years.

  Noticing her still shivering, I stalk across the room to where I threw my suit jacket earlier, picking it up and carrying it over to her. I sit down on the coffee table beside Cooper, and just in front of her; before passing it over.

  “Thanks” she mumbles out before taking it from me.

  She doesn’t make a move to put it on though, so I take the time to look her over now that I’m up close. The bruises are angry purples and blacks. Finger marks spread around her delicate arms. I know it’s bothering me more than it should, but I want to know what the fuck happened.

  Then I can go return the favor to whoever thought that it was okay to put their hands on a woman.

  But instead, I shake the thoughts off, for now, and I do what I know I should.

  “Sorry about earlier” I grumble, I fucking hate apologizing. “I’ve been dealing with a bucket load of work today and I was distracted when you knocked on the door,” I say while rubbing the back of my n
eck with my palm.

  “It’s okay, I shouldn’t have just shown up unannounced” she offers with a shy smile; before wrapping my jacket around herself.

  It was the first time I’d seen a genuine smile grace her face and I don’t like how much I want to see it

  again.

  “Have you eaten?” I hear Cooper ask her as I stand back up and move back towards my desk.

  As curious as I am about the breathtaking blonde, I’ve got shit to do and I’m sure Cooper will fill us in.

  ∞

  We’d been at it for a few hours when Tony had called from his office downstairs, he’d finally found the problem and patched it up. We’d just pushed the new update out to override the last one and I’d sent out an alert to our followers on social media that the error had been fixed. I took a moment to breathe before looking up from my computer. I notice Olivia is curled up on my sofa; fast asleep.

  Cooper is sat on the other side of my desk, his laptop is open, but he’s not typing.

  “What’s going on with your sister?” I speak quietly as to not wake her, but I know he hears me when he huffs out a breath and slams his laptop closed.

  “I haven’t spoken with her yet, but if I had to guess; I’d say it was our father, or at least it has something to do with him” he spits out, the anger in his tone obvious.

  I knew Cooper wasn’t close to his dad, they’d had a falling out about him going off to college and studying Visual Arts and Technology, rather than stepping into his father’s business.

  His dad had cut him off then and there and that was that.

  I also knew he had a sister too, but they didn’t speak often and she’d never visited so it wasn’t a big topic of discussion for us. Family as a whole wasn’t a big topic for any of us actually.

  Tony didn’t bring up his and we didn’t ask.

  It just seemed like something that was meant to be left off the table of discussion.

  Me, I’d been brought up in the system, bouncing from home to home; with no family to speak of, so no family discussion worked for me just fine.

  “What do you mean your father, he did that to her?” I can’t quite control the growl that follows.

  We both glance over in her direction when she shifts around, getting comfortable again.

  “He has a hell of a temper when he doesn’t get what he wants” I look at him with annoyance, raising my brows in question.

  If he knew this; then why the hell did he leave his sister with him.

  “Shit, I’m an arsehole Jack, but I didn’t leave her there to be his punching bag, fuck give me a little more credit than that” he huffs out at me.

  I dig my palms into my eyes, rubbing away the tension there; I know he’s right.

  Cooper is a good guy, one of the best; he’d never stand for that.

  “He never raised a hand to Livvie, she always fell in line and did what was expected of her.” He grumbles out.

  But, I hear what he doesn’t say. Something must have happened that she didn’t go along with this time.

  Cooper rises from my desk and makes his way over to his sister, gently nudging her awake. I watch on as her eyes slowly drift open; she’s dazed but at least she’s not shivering away anymore.

  I’d turned up the heat in my office to hurry along the process of defrosting her.

  It was hot as shit in here now, but I wasn’t going to complain; not after practically kicking her out earlier. I knew all too well the feeling of being cold and yet I’d been so preoccupied with work that I didn’t even attempt to stop her from leaving.

  “Sorry, I haven’t slept. I didn’t want to fall asleep on the bus and miss the stop” she mumbles as she sits up and stretches.

  Her voice is gravely, still coated in sleep.

  I know I should leave the room, leave them to talk; but I stay rooted in my seat.

  “The bus Livvie” Cooper groans out. “What happened, you need to explain everything, I can’t concentrate on shit.”

  I laugh under my breath, he’s not lying, he’s been distracted since she walked in the door with him.

  I notice she’s wringing her hands in her lap, obviously trying to buy some time. Coop doesn’t let up on her though and eventually she caves.

  “I didn’t want you to know how bad he was getting Coop” she finally relents, “ever since you left, he’s slowly been changing. It was fine at first, but then his business kept growing and he was getting bigger, wealthier clients. He was busier and out of the house a lot. So long as I kept up my grades and attended the extra curriculums he wanted, he was happy.”

  I hear Cooper sigh heavily before moving over to sit beside her on the sofa.

  “He’s become so focused on the money Coop, Dad’s so much harder to deal with now. He was having me attend dinners and events with him to show his clients he was a real family man. Which was annoying, but fine, whatever.” She looks towards him and her heavy lashes flutter closed.

  “But then, in walks his biggest client; George Hunt. His son took an interest in me I guess.”

  She shrugs her shoulders like it’s a ridiculous thought.

  “Dad kept pushing me to go out with Alec, attend events with him and well, to keep him happy I guess.” She looks up and meets my eyes and I see the blush spread across her cheeks.

  I clench my fists below my desk, angry at what I was hearing.

  But apparently, she wasn’t done.

  “I tried to do what dad asked Coop, I swear. But I wasn’t interested in anything more with Alec, I’d told dad that. He told me I should do what was necessary. I mean what the hell am I supposed to say back to that.” She huffs out in annoyance and I can’t hide the grin I’m sporting at her temper rising.

  “So when Alec kept trying to take me on dates or inviting me over, I would just tell him I was busy or unwell, anything to get out of it; but not anger Dad either.” She tucks her hair behind her ear before she continues on.

  “But Alec must have mentioned it to his father because Dad comes home one night furious with me for blowing off Mr. Hunts son. I tried explaining it to him Coop, but he wouldn’t listen.”

  I hear her voice break as she starts to speak again. “Dad invited Alec and his father over for dinner at the house, the smooth it over type dinner. I’m sure you remember the ones.” She lifts the side of her mouth in a small grin, trying to lighten the mood.

  “Anyway, all too soon Dad and Mr. Hunt disappeared into his office to talk business and I was left to entertain Alec.”

  All I can do is watch on as a lone tear rolls down her face.

  “Alec was so upset with me for blowing him off, he wouldn’t listen to me. Kept telling me I had to make it up to him. That everyone was interested in ‘Alec Hunt.’ He grabbed me so hard Coop, he wouldn’t ease up, but I managed to push him off of me and then ran off to my room.”

  Alec Hunt, I store that name in a safe place.

  “The next thing I know Dad’s in my room screaming at me that I was losing him money and business and telling me to make it right. I didn’t speak, you know how dad can be. It’s best to let him cool off and then try talking with him, but when he asked me if I was going to make things right; I couldn’t lie. I begged him to understand, but he just got angrier and angrier.”

  Taking a few deep breaths, she stays quiet for a second. I have a strange urge to go to her, to comfort her. But before I can do anything stupid she speaks again.

  “He didn’t hurt me, Coop, not really. He just grabbed me a little too hard to try and stop me from leaving.” She shrugs as another tear runs down her face before quickly wiping it away.

  Cooper hasn’t spoken yet; he isn’t looking at his sister either. I can see more tears start running down her cheeks when she realizes.

  “Coop, I’m sorry.” It’s barely a whisper but I catch it, so does Cooper.

  In an instant, he stands, flipping my coffee table over before storming out of my office and slamming the door behind him.

  Olivia muf
fles her cry, hiding her face behind her hands.

  Standing up slowly, I move over to where she sits and kneel down in front of her. She hasn’t removed her hands from her face, so I do it for her; gently tugging them down.

  She peeks up at me, her eyes filled with more unshed tears.

  “I’m so sorry” She all but whispers.