Her Destiny (12 page)

Just past eleven-thirty I see Reverie leave the restaurant and I’m out of my truck like a damn bullet, running across the street, darting in front of a car and earning a blaring succession of angry honks for my efforts. The sound catches Reverie’s attention and she stops, her expression going blank while she waits for me to approach.

I take her waiting as a good sign. I’ll cling to anything at this point.

“You’re here,” she says, though she doesn’t sound surprised, or that happy either.

I stop, keeping some distance between us so she doesn’t freak out or bolt. “I need to talk to you.”

She crosses her arms in front of her chest, making the black coat she’s wearing bulge in a weird way. Doesn’t detract from her beauty though. She’s the best damn thing I’ve ever seen despite my irritation with her for telling the detective about our night together. “I want to talk to you too,” she says.

Surprise fills me. I figured she’d want to send me packing. “Then let’s get out of here.” I take her arm and start to escort her across the street toward the parking lot but she drags her feet, making me stop and turn to her. “What’s wrong?”

Reverie nibbles on her lower lip, the little tell that she’s nervous. “Just because I’m going to talk to you, that doesn’t mean I think we should get back together.” Pausing, her gaze meets mine. “I don’t want to give you the wrong idea.”

Why is she so determined to rub that in my face? Remind me that I’ve blown my chance with her? I don’t get it. She’s not a mean person—she’s the farthest from that really. I thought at one point she was in love with me. I know I’m in love with her…still. I tried to deny it but I can’t. Seeing her, being with her again, even during these few stolen moments, reassures me that my feelings for her haven’t changed.

But it’s a false sort of reassurance I need to get over because clearly, she’s over me.

“Don’t worry, I get it. Whatever,” I mutter as I take her hand and practically drag her across the street. It’s hard to ignore the tingles I feel when I touch her but I do my best. “Let’s go.”

We get to the truck and I release her hand so I can open the passenger door for her. She stares at me warily, parting her lips as if she wants to say something before she changes her mind, shaking her head while she climbs inside my truck. The scent of her perfume lingers in the air, driving me crazy, and I exhale loudly, trying not to breathe it in.

Stupid.

Being close to her is going to be fucking difficult if I can’t touch her. She’s said more than once she doesn’t want to be with me and I’ll respect her wishes but damn, it’s gonna be hard. Complete torture.

But to keep her safe, to keep her happy, I’ll do whatever I can.

I round the front of the truck and climb inside, slamming the door and trapping her sweet scent so it completely surrounds me now. I grab the steering wheel, my grip white knuckled as I start the engine and chance a glance in her direction.

“Where do you want to go and talk?” she asks, her voice soft, her eyes luminous. My heart softens and I want to lean into her, so I can drown in her gaze. Pull her into my arms and kiss her until she can’t think straight. She’s thinking too much, I can almost guarantee that’s what her problem is and I want to convince her that two of us—we’re a good idea.

A most excellent idea, if she’d just give us a chance again.

“I don’t know.” She looks away, keeps her gaze fixed on her knees as she plucks at the fabric of her pants. “Where are you staying?”

I swallow past my embarrassment. I don’t want sympathy but I’m not going to lie. “You’re sitting in it.”

She lifts her head, her jaw dropping open as she glances around the small cab of the truck. No way will I feel humiliated by my confession. “Are you serious?”

“Where else am I going to stay? I can’t afford a hotel room.” I didn’t plan out this trip as thoroughly as I should have. I assumed Reverie would accept me with open arms and let me stay at her place the moment she saw me.

Guess that’s what I get for assuming.

“So you just came here to try and…what? Find me? Convince me we belong together? And stay in your truck like you’re homeless or something?”

Her words are pissing me off. I feel like enough of an idiot, I don’t need her to make me feel worse. “I’m not fucking homeless. You know I have an apartment,” I mutter as I crank the engine and throw the truck into reverse, backing out of the parking spot so quick, the tires peel loudly against the asphalt.

She flinches at my words, gripping the handle above her head as she glares at me accusingly. “I didn’t say you were. I just don’t understand why you came all the way here without a plan. You always seem to have a plan.”

“I wanted to see you, okay?” I hit the brakes at the parking lot exit and turn to find her watching me with a wild spark in her gaze, her fingers still curled around the plastic handle above her head. “I wasn’t thinking. Wasn’t planning. All I wanted was to see you again. You were all I could focus on. I was stupid.”

Reverie doesn’t say a word and we stare at each other for a long, tension-filled moment. Finally she looks away, averting her face so she’s looking out the window. I pull out of the parking lot, driving aimlessly until she finally says, “We can go back to my place.”

Relief fills me and she gives me directions when I ask, since I can hardly remember where I went when I followed the bus to her apartment complex last night. Other than her occasional guiding comment, she says nothing and I do the same, afraid I’m going to blurt out something stupid yet again.

I should’ve never admitted to her that she was the only reason I came to Los Angeles, but she had to know this right? There’s nothing here for me. Only her.

“Is your brother home?” I ask as we pull into the apartment parking lot fifteen minutes later. It’s starting to sprinkle, the rain dotting my windshield and blurring my ability to see but I still haven’t turned on the windshield wipers. I don’t want to face Evan. He would probably try and kick me out, not that I can blame him. I’m the asshole that took his sister’s virginity and made her cry.

“No, Evan’s at work. He won’t come home for hours.” She smiles ruefully. “We both work a lot now.”

“Complete turnaround from a few months ago, huh?” I park my truck and turn off the engine, pulling the keys out of the ignition. I clutch them in my hand, the metal digging into my palm as I turn to face her.

Her smile turns real and seeing it sucks the breath out of my lungs. “Yeah. It’s kind of crazy, how much my life has changed.”

“Trust me, I get it. One minute everything is good and then the next, it can all change. In a blink of an eye, all because of what someone else did, not because of your own actions.”

She contemplates me, tilting her head, her long, wavy blond hair spilling over her shoulder. “You do get it, huh. After everything that happened to you, when your friend betrayed you, were you scared?”

“Yeah. I was.” More like I’m scared she’s gonna reject me for good and send me away. And I don’t want to get out of this truck. I like the way she’s talking to me, looking at me. Like she trusts me again. “Your parents betrayed you too.”

“They did,” she agrees, nodding once. “I feel…guilty.”

“You didn’t do it,” I point out, surprised she’d say such a thing. “You didn’t steal all that money.”

“But I spent it. I benefited from what my parents did. I lived an amazing life that was funded dishonestly. I wish I could pay all of those people back.”

“That’s not your fault. You’re just a kid, Reverie.” Giving in to my urges, I reach out and touch her, let my fingertips graze the ends of her silky soft hair. She doesn’t flinch, doesn’t pull away and I take advantage by touching her again. “You can’t blame yourself for your parents’ mistakes.”

She leans into my touch and I cup the side of her head, threading my fingers fully into her hair. Her eyes close and I swear she’s going to cry. “But I do. I can’t help it. Don’t you ever blame yourself for your friend’s mistake, when he said you killed that guy? Did you ever feel responsible?”

“No.” I never did. What David did to me was unforgivable. I don’t think I can ever accept his apology. He almost ruined my life. “But I do feel guilt over what happened to Krista.”

Reverie stiffens and pulls away from my touch, moving away from me so far that the distance between us suddenly seems endless. The air goes frosty as her expression goes completely blank and she reaches for the door handle. “Let’s go.”

I follow her up to the apartment she shares with her brother, mulling her lack of comment regarding my guilt over Krista’s death. Krista was a complete pain in my ass and tried her best to ruin our relationship any way she could. I can’t help but feel bad for what happened to her though. I’d known her since we were little kids. We’d been friends for years. Yeah, the bad stuff at the end sucked but no one deserves to die like Krista did. I want to help find her killer but it’s kind of hard when the cops focus so much on me.

Assholes.

We enter the apartment and Reverie flicks on the lamp near the front door, illuminating the room with soft golden light. There’s not much furniture and what’s there is simple. I watch as she moves about the room, setting her purse and backpack on the dining room table before she goes into the kitchen.

“Want something to drink?” she asks.

“Water is fine. Thank you.” I sit on the edge of the couch, bouncing my leg nervously as I wait for her return. I’m not going to put her out. I’m not going to stay long either because clearly this isn’t going to work. She doesn’t want to have anything to do with me and I’m not going to push it.

All I want to talk about with her is why she told the cop we were together the night of Krista’s murder and that was it. I’ll hop in my truck, buy a giant coffee or soda at a convenience store and get the hell out of here. Go back home where I belong. In Nowheresville doing nothing.

She brings me a cold water bottle from the refrigerator and I thank her, twisting off the cap so I can take a swig. Reverie settles in the overstuffed chair across from the couch, her expression expectant, her hands gripping her knees as if she needs to brace herself against whatever is about to be said.

“You shouldn’t have talked to the detective,” I finally say, earning an eye roll from her.

“What am I going to say? Leave me alone? Tell him to go?”

“Yeah, absolutely.” I set the bottle of water on the tiny table to my left. “You don’t owe him anything. Tell him to call your lawyer or whatever.”

“I don’t have a lawyer,” she admits softly.

Well, that’s shocking. I’d figured the entire Hale family needed a lawyer after everything that had happened. “I wish you wouldn’t have said what you did to him.”

“All I did was tell him the truth.” She shrugs. “Why didn’t you tell the police you were with me from the beginning?”

“Because I didn’t want you to be involved.”

“I was already involved, from the very beginning I’ve been a part of this but you pushed me away. You never came back for me, Nick. I had no idea what happened.”

“They stuck me in jail, that’s what happened.” I stand and start pacing, fighting off the guilt, the pain, the irritation…all the emotions that are flooding me at once. “They held me for questioning for forty-eight hours. Tried to break me down pretty much the entire span of those forty-eight hours too. By the time they let me out and I went back to your house, you were gone.”

I remember the feeling of rushing to get to her the minute the police released me, my heart racing the entire drive to Hale House. When I got there, the house was dark and quiet, the grounds seemingly abandoned and I knew before I even attempted to knock on the door they were gone.

For good.

“We came back here early. I told you that was going to happen,” she murmurs. “My parents wanted to get us back so they could…take care of legal matters.”

Huh. Yeah, that went real well for them. “You shouldn’t have told that detective about us being together that night, Reverie. I didn’t want to get you involved in this mess. I was trying to protect you.”

“By hurting yourself in the process? That’s the dumbest thing ever Nick, and you know it.” She stands, her cheeks red, hands resting on her hips. “I’m your alibi, proof that you couldn’t have been the one who killed Krista that night yet, you kept your mouth shut.”

“I know, but I didn’t want you involved in this.” I stand too, towering over her, hating how she cowers away from me ever so slightly. “I knew your parents would flip out if they knew we spent the night together and that’s how you became my alibi. I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

“They weren’t even paying attention to me. They were too wrapped up in their own problems.” She’d shed her coat when she first entered the apartment and she looks damn good in the simple white button-up shirt and black pants. There’s a stain on the shirt though, low on her belly, and the fabric is wrinkled. She’s nothing like the girl I left behind, nothing at all. “I missed you,” she admits.

My heart cracks. “I missed you too, baby. I was climbing the walls trying to find you.”

“I’m sorry. Maybe…maybe it was for the best.” She wraps her arms around herself and holds on, looking small and sad. “Things are so different now, Nick. And so am I. You probably wouldn’t like me anymore.”