The way he’d watched.
The comments he’d made.
Always right there, gaze directed at me in ways it shouldn’t have been.
Tremors rolled, and I tried to hold them back when I slowly pushed to standing and cautiously swiveled around to face him.
He stood at the edge of the woods that grew up the side of the mountain behind him.
The same mountain where I’d played as a child. Ran and laughed and believed.
“Uncle Todd.” I attempted to send him a surprised, welcoming smile as if this were all one big coincidence when all I wanted to do was throw up again.
This was the man who’d hurt my sister.
Inflicted a kind of pain I couldn’t comprehend.
My mind flipped back through everything that had happened over the last few months.
My apartment getting broken into.
My grandma’s box stolen.
The notes on my windshield.
Caleb shouting at Ollie that he had no clue what he had been talking about.
It wasn’t until that second I realized he hadn’t been lying.
It wasn’t Caleb who had done all those things.
Todd cracked a smile that sent a cold chill skating over me. “Well . . . if it isn’t Nikki Lou.”
I tried to smile again. All I managed was a grimace with the way he was looking at me. “What are you doing all the way out here?” I asked, going for coy.
As if I were clueless.
A naïve little girl.
That’s what he’d always wanted, right?
“Looking for you.”
My knees knocked.
Oh, God.
I had to stay strong.
I frowned at him in an innocuous way. “Well, you could have just called. I would have been happy to come out to Grandma’s for a visit.”
“Think we both know it’s too late for that.”
My mouth went dry. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
It was a lie.
I knew it would be so much better to play dumb with a desperate man.
He laughed. Biting and hard. “Come now, Nikki. You think I don’t recognize it in your eyes? You think I don’t see the way you’re looking at me?”
So badly, I wanted to refute it. To stand my ground. To continue to pretend. But the denial of his claim won out. “You don’t know anything about me.”
An ominous chuckle rode on the dense, dense air. “I know everything about you, Nikki.”
My blood froze.
My heart stuttered.
I tried to remain steady. To draw out time. Studying the best way to beat him.
Fight or flight.
I still wasn’t sure.
All I knew was I wouldn’t let him win.
His nose curled in some kind of unknown disgust. “I should have known better than to trust someone to do what they’re told. Should have known that punk kid would get greedy and not follow directions.”
Confusion had me shaking my head. “I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”
It was true.
He was talking in circles.
Unbalanced.
I guessed I’d just missed out on the fact he was deranged.
He made a low sound. Disbelief and outrage. “He was supposed to dump that old car. Should have done it myself, but I figured the farther away I kept myself from it, the better. Hell, should have done it all those years ago, but I figured I’d better get gone.”
A disorder shifted through the breeze. Branches lashing as if they felt the tumult.
He took a step forward, coming out of the shade of the trees and into the light.
Depraved darkness standing in the rays.
Brown hair greasy and unkempt, the same way as it’d always been. Clothes a little ratty. Those few extra pounds prominent around his middle. None of those things mattered.
It was the evil in his eyes that made him ugly.
“Never imagined that tweeker would run straight to that asshole who was always watching you like he thought you belonged to him.”
Uncertainty moved through me, a niggle at the back of my mind that was quickly adding up.
He was talking about the Bel Air.
Ollie had bought the Bel Air.
“You know Caleb?” I asked.
Keep him talking.
Keep him talking.
“Of course, I know who Caleb is considering you do. Wasn’t sure if I should run out and protect you from him that night a couple months back when I followed you to his and that girl’s apartment. Had to stay back when the cops showed up a few minutes later.”
Dread spiraled.
He’d been following me all this time.
Since the first time Brenna had called me for help.
“About a week later, I found him downtown, all itchy and antsy, and I knew it wouldn’t take all that much to convince him to haul it away.” Todd smiled as if his thought process was genius.
“He was supposed to dump it in the river or the lake. Should have known, even with all the rust, he’d be seeing dollar signs. Didn’t want to get close to it, touch it, dirty it up more.”
“Dirty?” Fear blazed. So hot I could feel the bead of sweat slide down my spine.
I took a step back, trying to keep as much distance between us as possible. “What do you mean by that?”
His voice was nonchalant. “I was watching. Figured it wasn’t such a bad thing when they were gonna take it into that garage and fix her up. That might even be better than dumping it in the lake. But the second I saw that pig show up and the police take it away, I knew I had to speed things up. That you and I didn’t have that much more time.”
He was moving closer, rounding to the side. For every step of his, I took one in the opposite direction.
“And my apartment?” I asked, hating that I had to, but knowing my only chance of getting away from him was understanding his depravity.
“Sorry about that, but I had to get that box. Put some stuff in there for safe keeping ’fore I left. When I heard my ma was starting to sell stuff off, that she was failing, I knew it was time I came back. Been planning it for a while, needing to get back to you. It was a sign when your mama told me on the phone she’d been clearing out the attic. That was my collection, you know?”
Nausea surged and my heart hurt.
God only knew what was in that box.
“Didn’t help matters that you had to go and run those classes for women in that basement. Bunch of hens cackling and gossiping and saying things they have no business saying. Your head all filled up with that nonsense.”
“How do you know that?” I shouldn’t have said anything, shouldn’t have bitten, but the scraping words pulled free of my throat.
His chuckle could have been construed as affectionate—soft and warm—if it hadn’t skated through me like ice. “Told you, I know everything about you. Been watching you for your whole life. Knew the second I saw you that you were mine. ’Course, I had to stop watching you for a bit when things got messy, and I had to go away.”
Messy.
Sydney.
Sydney.
I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.
Bile prowled my throat, stomach twisting in sickness.
Vomit threatened at my mouth, and I struggled to keep it down. To stay strong.
But I was so close to falling to my knees and weeping.
For my sister.
For my best friend.
For me.
We’d begun to circle. Our footsteps crunched beneath us, his forward, mine back.
I was trying to figure out the best direction to run, the quickest route to help, when the wicked words strummed from his tongue.
“Didn’t mean to kill her.”
A stifled gasp jerked into my lungs.
The air stifling.
Suffocating.
“Why?” It was a plea. “Why would you hurt her? Hurt my sister?”
Why if he’d always been after me?
He shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “Some things you just have to test out.”
I choked.
“I had to protect us, Nikki. Everything I’ve ever done, I’ve done for you. So we can be together.”
My knees wobbled.
“They weren’t supposed to find her . . . and that damned car . . . should have burned it.” He said it all as if I should feel sorry for him.
As if the world was against him when he was the monster prowling in the midst.
“Now everyone’s gonna know. Means we don’t have much time.
36
Sydney
Sixteen Years Old
Tears stung her eyes, and her heart physically hurt. She hugged herself around her middle as she trudged along the side of the curving country road.
She should have called her mama like Ollie had suggested, but she needed to think. Clear her head before she went and said something she would regret.
She tightened her arms around her as a hot wind blew through, her skin sticky from the exertion and her face hot from the tears.
She was so over this. It was as if all four of them were playing a stupid game and none of them were gonna win.
She almost rolled her eyes.
As if she didn’t know about Ollie and Nikki.
She’d known for years that there was something extra special about the two of them. That they were more. Their spirits seemed tangled in a way that’d been intended before time existed.
Made for each other.
Did they really think she would consider that a bad thing?
Did they even know her at all?
She just wanted them to embrace it.
Live free.
The same as she wanted for herself and Rex.
And the only thing it felt like was they were clipping her wings.
Cutting little bits of her away as they pushed her further to the outside.
There was no reason for them to be hiding, just like there was no reason for her and Rex to be hiding.
Rex.
At the thought of his name, her chest pulled tight.
Stretched and yearned.
She loved him so much. She didn’t think she really knew how much until she’d had to watch him kiss that girl.
And she was the one who got to stay.
The one who was with him.
New tears pricked at her eyes.
He hadn’t come after her. Hadn’t stood up for her. Instead, he’d just driven a knife into her heart.
No more.
She stumbled to a stop.
No more.
Maybe Rex didn’t know what she wanted. That she wanted him to stand up for her. Make a claim.
Fight for her.
She’d just have to do it herself.
She touched the red, woven bracelet that she always wore around her left wrist. The other two matching pieces belonging to Ollie and Nikki.
Her best friends.
But they had to realize her life was changing, too.
All of them had to make room for something new.
She came to a stop.
Realization struck.
She was gonna turn around, go back to that camp, and demand Rex say it.
Tell Ollie.
She was his and he was hers and no one would have anything bad to say about it.
Because it was good.
They were good.
Ollie and Nikki were good.
She started to cross the road but froze when headlights cut into the night and a loud car roared around the corner.
She took a step back away from the road as it flew by before the red brake lights flashed, splashing the color all over the night as the old car skidded to a stop.
Her heart trembled with a dose of anxiety.
She squinted her eyes, relief leaving her on a breath when she realized she recognized that car.
Nikki’s grandpa.
He could give her a ride back to the lake.
She jogged that way with a smile on her face, and she saw his silhouette as he leaned over to fling open the passenger door as she approached. She started to duck her head inside to say hello when her knees wobbled beneath her.
Not Nikki’s grandpa.
It was Nikki’s uncle.
Todd.
He grinned, his teeth stained yellow from cigarettes, his hands still greasy from always working on cars.
There was something about him Sydney had never liked. The way he looked at Nikki. Watched her too close.
“Well, look who it is. Sydney Sue. Where’s my Nikki Lou?”
Unease rippled through her consciousness, a cringe rolling through her at the stupid, creepy nicknames he’d give them, as if it was actually their middle names.
“She’s at home,” Sydney lied. Not sure why.
He frowned. “That so?”
His eyes moved over her, and a cold shiver rippled down her back.
“What are you doin’ out here all alone?”
“I’m just heading home,” she said, angling back.
“I’ll give you a ride.”
She backed away. “No, that’s okay. My brother should be coming this way in a second, anyway.”
She pinned on a smile and hoped he’d fall for the lie.
He wasn’t exactly the smartest guy she knew.
His eyes flicked from her face and down to her chest. “You look different than her.”
He said it as if she should be ashamed of it. As if it were disappointing.
Then he shrugged. “Guess for tonight, you’ll have to do.”
37
Ollie
“Don’t do anything until I get there, Ollie. I’m right behind you.”
“No promises, man.”
Not when it came to Nikki.
My Nikki.
My girl who’d been desperate to be there through this with me, and I’d been too much of a fool to see it for what it was.
Thinking I forever owed a debt, the girl nothing but a tease, a torment of what I couldn’t have.
When in reality?
She’d been a gift, always right there, waiting for me to accept it.
I tossed my cell to the seat beside me and made a sharp right onto the drive that was close to being hidden under a thicket of trees that ran the land.
Engine roaring, I gunned the accelerator. My Mustang bounced on the dirt road, wheels kicking up a cloud of dust as I flew down the narrow lane.
The heart I thought I no longer had thrashed at my chest, my teeth clenched just about as tight as my hands were clenched on the steering wheel.
I barreled around the corner, and the old house came into view.
There were a million memories here. I could get lost in them. Stuck like I’d been.
But I realized when Sammie had stood there in the hall, I couldn’t change the past, no matter how fucking badly I wanted to.
I had nothing but this moment and the future.
Nothing but Nikki.
Swinging into the rounded drive at the front of the house, I rammed the brakes and jumped out, not bothering to shut the door when I thundered up the rickety porch steps that had seen far better days.
I pounded on the door and then began to pace, roughing a hand over the top of my head as I waited.
As seconds ticked.
As I felt myself going insane.
I couldn’t let this happen.
I couldn’t let someone hurt her.
I promised I’d protect her.
That I wasn’t ever gonna let anyone hurt her.
I could hear the car coming up the road, and Seth’s cruiser rolled into view right when Nikki’s mom swung open the door with a smile on her face.
A smile that slid off the second she saw me.
“Oliver Preston.” She looked around, spotting the approaching patrol car. Worry took hold of her expression.
“What are you doing here? What’s going on? Is Nikki okay?”
Each word came faster than the last, panted pleas winding into her tone when she stepped outside.
Anxiety fisted my throat, and I pushed the gritted words through it. “I was hoping you could tell me that. You haven’t seen her?”
She shook her head, and there was no missing the glimmers of fear that streaked through her expression when Seth stepped from his car.
Her brow pinched with confusion. “No . . . I haven’t seen her for a couple of days. Sammie called a few hours ago, wondering if she’d come by, but she didn’t say anything else.”
Apprehension trembled her voice, and she reached out and grabbed my arm. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I need to find her.”
“What’s happening?”
“Where’s that piece of shit Todd?”
The question knocked her back a step, and her brows twisted into a knot. “I . . . I don’t know. Heard him leaving late last night. I don’t think he’s been back.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I fisted my hands in my hair, searching for the air. Desperation climbing.
“Does he still stay in the trailer in the back lot?”
Warily, she nodded.
I spun around.
Seth caught me by the arm as he came up to the door. “Where are you going?”
I ripped my arm away. “To find Nikki.”
I bounded down the steps and ran for the trailer that sat a little more than a quarter mile back from the house.
“Ollie,” Seth shouted from behind me. “Wait, man. We need to let the warrant come through.”
I didn’t even stop to ponder it. I pounded the heel of my fist on the door.
Nothing.
No movement.
Holding on to the railing, I leaned back and lifted my leg.
“Fuck, Ollie, you can’t just bust in there.”
“Watch me.”
There was no way I was sitting idle.
Waiting.
Not when waiting meant we could be running out of time.
I slammed the sole of my boot into the door at the side of the flimsy knob. The old wood splintered and gave. Nothing holding it together.
I wrenched open the door, flying inside.
The place was a disgusting mess. Dishes piled in the sink, garbage everywhere.
Decay and rot.
Silence hung in the air.
Fight for Me: The Complete Collection Page 101
