I touched his cheek. “This is my friend Brody,” I said, giving Aiden my best reassuring smile. “I heard you guys have been talking.”
His brown eyes gazed up to him and his arms loosen from around my neck.
Brody smiled at him then, waving slightly and my heart eased when Aiden lifted his hand and did the same. I squeezed his arm. “Brody’s here to help,” I paused, staring up at him, and he nodded, confirming with a smile.
It started slow, but Aiden managed to smile at him. “Thank you,” he whispered, and Brody lowered his chin to him again.
With shaking legs, Aiden started to stand and I helped, telling him we needed to get him changed. Brody left the room without being told, letting us, and while I found some fresh underwear and pants, I went for a cautious question.
“Aiden, you called us,” I started, slipping his arm into a new shirt, too. He’d sweated this one out. The portable phone still sat in the bottom of the closest, confirming the call, and Aiden breathed, gasping. His body shook again like he was cold.
“He hurt mom,” he whispered, dipping his head. Tears filled his eyes once more. “He twisted her arm and told me to leave the room. I didn’t want to, but Mama told me…”
“Where is she, sweetie?” I asked, chilled. I didn’t know if I was strong enough to know, but awareness that my sister never left her son unattended made me.
A small hand came up to his eyes, wiping the tears away. He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t, shaking his hand.
I covered his head. “It’s okay. It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” Pausing, I swallowed. Gazing around the room, I spotted his overnight bag. “Let’s get you a bag. I think we should leave for a little bit.”
Barely a second passed before Brody came into the room after I called him. I was slipping the last of Aiden’s clothes into his bag. Aiden had stopped crying at this point, but I was quite sure that took everything he had. I passed a glance over my shoulder, to Brody. “He doesn’t know where his mom is.”
“What do you want to do?” he asked me.
I grabbed Aiden’s bag standing. “Get out of here. I don’t want to run into him. We’ll call the police when we get on the road.”
The tears started again, dripping down to my nephew’s fresh t-shirt. “They’ll find Mama?”
The last thing I wanted to do was lie to Aiden or give him false hope, but at this point, I had to do anything to get some of that fear out of his eyes. I touched his cheek. “They’ll handle everything. Don’t worry.”
Brody took Aiden’s bag. I got my nephew’s hand, heading toward the door of the apartment, but he jerked me back and I nearly lost it. I faced him. “Aiden—”
“Joe!” he called, tugging at my hand again. “I left him. We have to go get him.”
I didn’t want to spend another moment here, but anything I could do to make the transition leaving better for my nephew, I would do it. I turned to tell Brody we were going back. There was no way I was letting Aiden go by himself, but Brody was already leaving my side.
He set the bag down. “The action figure, right?”
God, why was he so perfect? I nodded, watching him leave behind us. Bringing Aiden close to me, I lowered. “He’s going to get it. He’ll be right back—”
Something spilled. Liquid hitting tiles. It came from the kitchen ahead and wet steps had every hair on my neck standing on end.
My legs froze. They froze in place and I couldn’t make them move.
“Aunt Alex,” Aiden whisper shouted, tugging at my hand.
Move. Move.
Gripping Aiden’s hand, I pivoted, but the sight of something familiar caused me to stop. I stopped because I knew her. I knew that messy brown bun and the matching freckles that dusted that light complexion of her cheeks.
Elena had a mop in her hand when she came into the door frame. Sighing, she moved the mop over the floor, soaking up whatever she spilled, but she only did so with one arm. The other she nursed, cringing like she’d been hurt.
“Mama!” rang beside me, and she looked up. She sniffed up, rubbing her nose, but I saw no tears in her eyes, no. She hadn’t been crying at all. It was a different sniff and she wiped her nose, squinting at him like at first she didn’t know him. But then something clicked. It must have because that’s when she dropped the mop.
“Aiden,” she said, her eyes wide, and he tugged to be let go. He tugged, but I only let him get as far as the length of his arm. He stepped back and that’s when my appearance suddenly became known to my sister. I knew because her eyes narrowed and my name left low sounding from her lips.
“Alex?”
My name came from behind me, Brody. His hands settled on my shoulders, but didn’t tug me away. He only stood there, supporting, and my sister couldn’t have looked more confused, shaking her head.
“What’s all this?” she asked, and the question could almost come across as accusatory. Like I’d been the one to do something wrong by coming here.
I brought Aiden closer. “He called me,” I responded simply back. I jutted my chin toward her arm. “What’s all that? What’s up with your arm?”
Her hand moved back to it hanging limply at her side. She squeezed it before sniffing again and I recognized the action this time along with the hazy look of her eyes. She was high, a way I’d seen her too many times to count.
My next question was laced with something too, anger. “Where is he?” I asked, because now what was going on became clear. He did this and he couldn’t be far.
Her face clouded with her own anger. “Balcony,” she said. “We had to. Someone called the cops.”
The balcony.
Brody must have missed checking there and it was my sister’s words that drove even more fear. Even now, she was standing by him. Even now after all this time and yet another injury. The difference now, I didn’t have time for them. I had to act, quickly.
Brody’s hand slid down into mine. “We need go, Alex.” We were always so in sync.
Dipping down, I grabbed Aiden’s bag. Standing, I went to turn, but Brody squeezed my arm. His eyes narrowed and he couldn’t have looked more confused. He tipped his chin in my sister’s direction. “What about…?” he said, glancing at Elena before back at me.
I didn’t say a word. I didn’t because I had nothing to say about Elena. There was nothing more because I recognized the same ignorance in her eyes, the same refusal to think about anyone but herself and I wouldn’t fight with her. I had no energy for it this time.
Brody stood there during my silence, his head tilted. “She’s not coming with us, is she?” he asked, and something flashed over his eyes after that. It was something that had me uneasy, something that flipped my stomach in a million ways over. No, Elena wasn’t coming with us, and in my heart, I knew she wouldn’t even before I stepped into this apartment.
“It’s a reunion,” came a voice and I fell back into Brody.
An arm came around my sister, pale and laced with thick scraggly hair. That dark hair matched the scruff on his chin and the messy mass he had hallowed over his head. Nathan looked like he’d stepped right out of prison yesterday, far from the man he was before he went in.
Far from the illusion.
He had about a decade on my sister’s twenty-eight years. He had a maturity that should have sent off alarm bells for me from the jump, but I let him worm his way in. I let him because I think I needed something positive in my life, for my family, too, and he knew that. He preyed on that.
He preyed on me.
He got closer, tugging my sister toward him, and I drew into Brody. He glanced down at me, then passed a look over to Nathan. I felt a hand come down on me then, over my hip and pulling in. Brody left no space between us, and even tugged on Aiden’s backpack a bit, closing any gaps left between any of us. That got Nathan’s attention, boy did it. He grinned a bit, flicking something out of his teeth and onto the floor.
I cringed.
“I see you got yourself
another,” he said, smirking a bit. “Tell me, man. Did she get you with that little cunt, too?”
The very words caused Brody to shift behind me, as well as causing the thick bile to creep up my throat.
Nathan appraised me after that, hard, and I closed my eyes away, feeling every moment as if touched, caressed.
You can’t let him get in your head. You can’t. Not anymore.
I opened my eyes, fighting back. I wasn’t that young girl anymore and he wouldn’t make me feel that way again.
“Because let me tell you something,” he continued, a weird twinkle in his eyes. “She ain’t worth it.”
If not for me and Aiden as a barrier I know Brody would have moved. I felt the impact behind me and I squeezed his hand. I squeezed and he stayed put. He told me he wouldn’t fight and I held his hand so he wouldn’t. He exchanged a glance with me and though, unheated, I could feel the questions there.
I looked away so he wouldn’t seek them from me anymore, but couldn’t escape Elena. She stared at me, so hard it hurt, and I knew she hadn’t missed what Nathan said no matter how high. It had been the reason for so many issues between us.
It had been the reason neither one of us spoke to the other anymore.
Smiling like he knew he got to all of us, Nathan kissed the top of my sister’s head, and the pull he did to do so, shoved her wounded arm into his side.
The pain made her entire body shudder.
My fingers dug into my side, doing all I could to keep from reaching out and grabbing her. I pleaded to her with my eyes. “Elena,” I chewed on my lip. “Please. You don’t have to stay. We can go.”
“Go where?” The very notion made Nathan laugh, but it came out all phlegmy, raspy. He sniffed, and I assumed, he had his fair share of drugs, too. He wrapped his arms around Elena, possessive in their nature. He lifted his eyes to us. “Where’s the fire?”
“Alexa?” It was Brody who spoke behind me, an urgency in his voice. His hand braced Aiden’s bag, and the next step, I knew he’d be backing us out.
With slow steps, he started to, and maybe that’s when Elena finally knew what was happening. Shimmying, she moved from within Nathan’s grasp and I think he let go only because of sheer surprise. She fled toward us and a hope bubbled up inside me. She was coming. She was leaving him and coming with us, but the light inside snuffed so quickly. She started tugging on Aiden’s bag, yelling things like, “You’re not taking my baby,” and “And he’s not coming with you.”
The struggle made Aiden cry, the tears falling down his cheeks. He kept saying he wanted to go with me and he kept screaming for her to come with us. And me? I was caught up in the fray, one hand holding my nephew to me while the other tried to hold on to a piece of Elena, too. Despite myself, what she did to me and made me feel in the past, I couldn’t let her go.
Nathan rolled his eyes. “Bitch,” he snapped my way. “Just let the boy fuckin’ go with his mama.”
He made lazy steps my way, but stopped so abruptly it got all of our attention. His hands lifted then, backing away, and a look behind me told me why.
Brody.
He pulled something out I hadn’t seen in so many days, but this time the gun didn’t scare me. I knew it was there to protect me and my family.
Elena gasped, holding on to Aiden, but my nephew didn’t direct any fear that way. I think because he understood the protection, too.
The gun was pointed at Nathan after all.
Understanding that, Nathan shook his head, his expression untelling. “Stay cool, my friend. It ain’t gotta be this way.”
Brody’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I’m not your friend and you need to go in the kitchen.”
Whatever friendly banter Nathan was trying to give him was replaced with anger. He took a step back and Brody matched it, going around us. He tilted his head back to me, but not his eyes. “Take them to the truck,” he said, but I put my hand on his back.
“Not without you.”
His eyes nearly closed at my words. Like they weren’t what he wanted to hear. Like they frustrated him. He took more steps and Nathan must have known to keep backing up with each one. Together, we all ended up in the kitchen, stepping over a dark brown liquid on the floor. A bottle of whiskey and a tumbler sat the kitchen counter not far by and the thought crossed my mind that he sent my sister into the kitchen to get him a drink. I wouldn’t put it past him.
Nathan backed out onto the open balcony. He kept his hands up the entire time, even while Brody slid the glass door closed and locked him in.
“It won’t hold him for long,” he said, but he didn’t lower the gun. He held it there and I had a feeling if he pulled the trigger it would hit Nathan point blank between the eyes.
It was time to go now.
Moving, I tugged at Aiden. He unfroze easy, but Elena, not so much. She stared at Nathan, shaking her head, and I feared she’d stay here. She’d let him out and he would come after us. Her son started to move though and gratefully, whatever invisible tether Nathan had severed with the steps. Together, they turned their back on Nathan and he was left there, outside with his hands raised.
Brody and I were the last to leave and I didn’t fail to notice what Nathan did before we left him. Lowering his arms, he lifted a single finger and pointed.
He pointed directly at Brody.
Chapter Twenty-One
Brody
I tapped on the door, my hand rested on it while I waited for it to open. A darkness hovered over the peephole and I didn’t blame her for checking. She should check. She should always check, always.
The door opened quickly and sugar brown eyes cast their glow on me. She’d wrapped me up quickly, hadn’t she? Even from the beginning. Even from that terrible day I found her.
Alex stared at me, her shirt loose at her shoulders and a towel wrapped around her head. Her soft lily scent filled the air even in the wide abyss of nighttime around me. She also looked worried, her mouth in a frown, and that’s something else I didn’t blame her for.
I pushed my hands into my jean pockets. “Can we talk?” I felt we had a lot to talk about, so many things.
She nodded, then turned widening the motel door of the room next to mine. A mother and child revealed, him at her feet while she braided his hair into thick, perfect rows.
Alex dropped her hand from the door, looking behind her. “I’m gonna talk to Brody for a second.”
Aiden leaned out of his momma’s hands and his worry challenged Alex’s when she opened the door. “Where will you go?”
She smiled at him. “Just outside the door. Right outside.”
He sat back and all the while his momma didn’t react, especially to Alex speaking. Her hands just continued to move, ignoring anything but what she was doing. Aiden’s hand lifted, waving to me.
My eyes couldn’t help crinkling at the kid. He was the one bright spot that managed to come out of this situation today. I lifted my own hand, waving him goodnight before Alex closed the door behind herself. She went to the railings of the second floor, laying her arms on them while I lounged back beside her.
“How are they?” I asked her. Though Aiden seemed all right he couldn’t possibly be and as far as Alex’s sister, she said nothing, absolutely nothing the entire drive here.
Which only amplified my questions for Alex even more.
Alex covered herself like she had so many times in my truck. If a guy didn’t know her, one might mistake her for being cold, but I had been around her long enough to know it was something she did when she was uneasy, nervous. She breathed. “He’s been quiet,” she said. “But I plan on talking to him a little before he goes to sleep. I’m worried. He’s been through so much.”
And she was right about that. I’d only seen a snapshot today and couldn’t imagine. He was a strong kid to even be functioning at all right now, hella strong.
“As far as my sister,” she continued. “She’s not talking to me.”
That also remained consistent,
which brought me to what I wanted to talk to her about tonight. I had to admit I put that off until now, late in the evening. I needed time to think. I needed time to formulate the right words without coming across the wrong way. But no matter how long I considered, no matter how long I took, I still couldn’t come to terms with all that happened. Today, I saw a broken woman, one who had no intention of leaving her abuser. I didn’t think she ever had the intention despite what her sister had told me mere days ago.
“You lied to me, Alex,” I came right out with it. “You lied to me about your sister. You said there would be no way she’d stay with him. You said she’d do the right thing this time. I mean,” I paused for a moment, feeling my pulse tick and with it, my heart racing.
Calm down. Breathe.
I opened my eyes. “I feel like we pretty much took her against her will. She only came because we had Aiden.”
“I know.” The word came out whispered, light, and I knew, she knew exactly what she did. She knew exactly what would happen today.
“You knew,” I repeated, but not with a question. It had been a statement just as well as she was standing in front of me. I shook my head. “And you thought you’d take him? Just walk away and she’d let you?”
Her eyes closed over the lids, her lips tight. “I don’t know. I… I hoped to get her to come with us.”
She hoped. She hoped. I swallowed. “And what of the lie? Why lie to me?” Because that’s what hurt the most. For some reason she felt she had to.
Turning, those first few tears fell from her eyes and it pained me that I was such a big reason they were there. “It didn’t sound like you’d let me go,” she whispered, head down. “If I didn’t.”
She was damn right about that and she now confirmed what I believed that day at the cafe. She was going to go in there and get them. She was going to go in without a plan into a scenario that could have ended so badly.
I knew because I had to have a gun just to get us out of it.
Honestly, I didn’t know what frustrated me more, her complete disregard for the danger of the situation or her lack of concern for herself.
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