Safe With You (12 page)

A knot forms in my throat. She still makes me so nervous. Half the time I don’t know if I’ll get a smile or a disappearing act from her. “Can I take you out Saturday night?”

She bites her lip and looks down, the prettiest blush covering her cheeks. “Like on a date?”

I tip her chin up, looking into those green eyes that are a shade different every time I see them. “Yes. I want to take you out on a real date.”

She nods again, and she still can’t fully meet my gaze. “I’d love to.”

Another weight lifts off my shoulders. I pull her face to mine and kiss her again. Her kisses turn more urgent and with a tug, she’s out of her seat. Her nails run across my scalp and it ignites another fire inside me. I drag my lips down her jaw and neck as her breathing becomes more labored. Just as I’m about to push my luck with her, there’s a giant bang on my door.

“Kyle, stop making out with the munchkin and let’s go!” Cam yells with a laugh from somewhere down the hall.

“That sounded mildly fetish-like and I’m not sure I enjoyed it.” Olivia bursts into laughter, burying her head in the crook of my neck. She places a chaste kiss on my cheek and it affects me way more than such a small gesture should. “Have fun.”

“Oh, tons.” I roll my eyes.

“Don’t keep João Bravo waiting, go. I’m already hungry.” She sits down and flips on the TV.

I burst into laughter, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t you mean Johnny?”

“Cam’s Brazilian, right?” She salutes me, probably patting herself on the back for her cleverness.

“I’ll see you in a bit.” I kiss her forehead.

My head pounds from lack of sleep as I brush my teeth and throw some cold water on my face. I never expected this to happen when I woke up yesterday. I didn’t expect us to be a thing for a long time, if ever.

“What’s going on with her?” I ask Cam as I walk into the kitchen. “She seemed fine last night.”

Natasha is standing on the balcony off my living room, staring out over the harbor. Her leg bounces with the fury of a nine-point earthquake as she grips her coffee mug.

“I don’t know.” Cam shrugs, taking a water bottle out of my fridge. “She’s been up since before five.”

This whole thing with Natasha is shady and something isn’t adding up. At first, she dodged all of our questions on the ride back from Lafayette. But we all thought she didn’t want to talk about it and understood. But now, seeing her like this, it’s sending up a thousand red flags. But I’m not sure of the connection about to blow this situation to shreds.

“What do you think it is?” Cam walks toward the sliding door. Regardless of what I think, he wants to get to the bottom of it.

“I have no idea. But we can’t just grill her again like the police did.” Clearly, she’s in no state of mind for that. I glance over to the window and catch her wiping the side of her face. Cam nods and I pull the door open and walk outside.

“Everything is going to be okay, you know,” I coax, in a horrible effort to calm the shit-storm of nerves brewing inside her.

Or at least I think that’s what this is.

“Nope.” Her head shakes with the same intensity as her leg. “It’s not going to be okay. And I can’t fix it. No one can.”

“Love, look at me.” Cam squats in front of her, taking her hands. He kisses her knuckles and I can’t believe he’s already hooking up with her. I’m not stupid, I just wish he didn’t use her vulnerability to get some ass.

“This is my fault. But I … ” She won’t even meet Cam’s gaze as she clenches her jaw. I have a feeling there’s something huge clawing to get out.

Cam takes her cheek in his hand, his massive palm looking like a baseball glove against her slender face. “What is it? By now you have to know we’d help you.”

Natasha whips her head toward me. “Has Olivia said anything to you about why she moved?” she blurts.

“Uh.” I pause, doing a double take toward Cam. “Kind of?”

“She hasn’t told you a thing about what happened to her, has she?” Her eyes are as red as the lip she’s been gnawing. “Un-
fucking
-believable. This whole thing … ”

“What are you talking about?” This is so awkward. I barely know Natasha, yet I feel like if I don’t run with this, it’s going to make things worse.

Cam wraps his arms around her shoulders. “What’s going on, sweetheart?”

“Everything.” Tears rise in her eyes and Cam holds her closer, rubbing her arm. “I know who it was,” she whispers, looking at her hands.

“Who?” I grit through my teeth and turn, squatting in front of her.

“Give her a minute, dude.” Cam shoots out his hand, squeezing the fucking hell out of my shoulder.

“God, we are such a shitshow,” Natasha mumbles, glancing inside. “It was Braden’s cousin, Miles. I kept telling myself I was nuts, there was no way it could have been him.”

“Whoa. Why didn’t you tell her when we came back here?” Cam turns to her, tucking the strands of her hair behind her ear and out of her face. I didn’t tell Cam the extent of Olivia’s past, just enough so he got the point about what a piece of shit Braden was.

“She would have taken off. I can’t tell you everything that happened. I’m sure you know about an eighth of how bad it really was.” Tears spill down her cheeks.

“Okay … ” Cam entices her on, glancing at me. I shrug. “Did you tell the police this?”

“Yes, of course. I told them everything. But, I don’t know if Miles told Braden that I beat the shit out of him and stopped whatever he was trying to do.” Natasha buries her head in her hands and the sobs fly.

“What does Braden have to do with you, anyway?” I don’t understand where she’s going with this. The little things I know about Olivia’s past don’t add up, and I know this is going to be the missing link.

“Braden’s a fucking asshole with a vendetta against anyone that got in his way when it came to money. So are all of the people in his crew. That’s why she left. She couldn’t change him and he was treating her worse by the day. If I stayed in Shreveport, they would have gotten it out of me. They would never have stopped until I told them where she was. I should have seen this coming. But, I didn’t.”

“So you think he’s going to look for you again?” Cam unwraps his arm from around her and stands, pacing across my deck.

“I don’t know. But if I go back there, someone else will be waiting. It might not be this week or next, but they’ll come.” She tucks herself into a ball, resting her forehead on her knees.

“What did you mean by ‘getting in their way’?” Cam leans against the balcony, folding his arms. He’s getting pissed. Really pissed. I know that vacant look in his eye when all he wants to do is throw punches. Not that I’d stop him from beating the shit out of all of them, but he also doesn’t need to be thrown in jail for fighting. Again.

“Olivia flushed his entire stash one night. She thought it would wake him up but it made things worse. The only reason he didn’t go ballistic was she immediately cleaned out her savings for college to pay him back. She realized her
mistake
.” Now she’s trembling, probably on the verge of a fucking panic attack. In a million years, I never thought this would be why Olivia is the way she is. She was right: that lifestyle wasn’t who she is and getting out of it probably took everything she had.

“Jesus.” I slump into the chair next to her, rubbing my eyes. “What about her brother? Did he know anything?”

“Tyler’s an asshole. Braden and him were really good friends in high school, they played baseball together. But, Tyler never gave a shit about her regardless.” Natasha wipes her face and downs the rest of her coffee. “I mean none of us even knew Braden was dealing until it was too late to intervene. So I doubt Tyler even knew anything either since he was gone already.”

“So what? I would think he’d be pretty fucking pissed if one of his boys was treating his sister like that, especially involving her with bad shit.” I’m about to hop in my car and drive to Shreveport to beat the piss out of Braden. Then, get on the next flight to LA and waterboard Tyler until he gives me some insight. Fucking prick. “Natasha, you have to tell her right now.”

“No, no, I can’t. Please don’t say anything until I can figure out what the hell to do. I don’t want her to leave because she’s scared. She’s way better off with you than alone.” Natasha stands and crosses the room, slamming the door behind her as she exits. I glance at Cam. This is going to end so badly.

Fuck my life.

***

My giant knee brace squeaks with every step. Cam is probably miles deep in kill mode and I don’t even know where he is on the track. The park running along the Mississippi in downtown New Orleans has been my favorite spot to run lately. I get lost in it, the big loop offering as many miles as I need to get over my shit.

I think I might die if I run until I work through all my shit today, though.

Cam jogs up to me a few minutes later, slumping into the bench. “I have a plan.”

“Yeah, for who?” I unhook my brace and pull it off.

“Natasha.” He takes a long drag of water, heaving another few large breaths. “Marcela needs a roommate. I thought maybe your dad could help Natasha get out of her lease and she could move to Baton Rouge?”

“What about school?” The idea isn’t horrible on the surface, and Marcela, Cam’s cousin, knows eighty-seven ways to kill someone by blinking. Most of Cam’s cousins go to LSU and all are on some sort of sports scholarship. If Natasha is worried about being free from harm, Baton Rouge is the best place for her. And this is a better idea than anything I’ve come up with at this point.

Which is nothing.

“She said she’s only taking a few art classes and didn’t care if she lost the money. I would care if it were me, but it’s her decision.” Cam stretches forward, grabbing his feet and flexing them toward himself.

“Yeah, me too.” I punch his arm and he gives me a half-smile.

While Cam’s out buying half of the food in New Orleans, I call my dad. I give him the flyby of Natasha’s story and Cam’s idea. I hate lying to Olivia, but I’ll be fucking damned if I let her get hurt.

Cam and I say nothing on the way back to my apartment. While he starts to cook, I grab my other knee brace and an ice pack. Seeing Olivia and Natasha stuck together like superglue makes me see how important Natasha is to her.

Olivia is fiercely adamant about holding her own. We still barely know each other and don’t do much together besides takeout and softball. But if she needs to pay for dinner sometimes or have a night where she doesn’t want to do anything and stay at her place, so be it. She has this aura that it’s important to her to be able to stand on her own two feet. But with all of this shit, I want her here next to me every second of the day. But I know that won’t happen. She will never quit her job or move in with me.

I sulk into my room. My knee burns and I know I ran too much. I’ve been doing everything too much lately. I don’t know how else to help her. After I take a shitty recharge nap, Olivia comes into the room. She crawls up the bed and lies right on top of me. I wrap myself around her, reassuring myself she’s okay for now.

It takes me by surprise when she kisses me again. Each kiss is different. This one is screaming for me to hold her. She slides down my side and wraps her arm around my stomach. I love having her this close. Within minutes she’s asleep, and the smell of breakfast floats through the air. Instead of stuffing my face, I stay here. I don’t want to be anywhere else.

Natasha pokes her head in a little while later. “Your dad called Cam. Can I talk to you?”

“Sure.” I ease out from under Olivia. Natasha smiles as she looks between us and nods me to the living room.

There’s a hint of tears I know she’s trying to hide when I walk into the kitchen. “You’re a good guy, Avery. I’m glad Olivia found you. She deserves someone like you in her life. Thank you so much.”

I shake my head. “No, I’m the lucky one.”

Because the thought of her going through this alone makes me sicker than it does mad. The worst part, hands down, is that I have to lie to her. I wish I had a clue how to handle it. I don’t want to keep going to my dad for help, but I need to talk to someone, get some insight because no matter which way I swing it, this is something that needs to be handled legally.

But how do I protect her without letting her know about what really happened? To her and Natasha. I’ve spent so long showing her she can trust me, and now I’m ripping it all to shreds.

Chapter Eleven

Nerves

Olivia

My bottom lip is raw and chapped. The edge aches as I plaster on more lip balm, my favorite rose-tinted tube that tastes like lemonade. Regardless of the twenty-dollars-a-tube price tag, it’s been my number one beauty indulgence for years.

“Liv, you need to relax, big time.” Aubrey tugs a strand of my hair, wrapping it around a fat-barreled curling iron. “You and Kyle go out all the time. This time, you’re wearing a sexy top and jeans that make your ass look phenomenal.”

“And fuck-me heels.” I down another giant gulp of Riesling and breathe deeply through my diaphragm. “I can’t do this.”

“Yes, you can. Do you want me to call Natasha? Because I will.” She runs her fingers through the long curls before setting it with a gallon of hairspray. “We had a chat when she was here.”

“Oh God, no.” I shake my head, groaning at the hour-long pep talk from hell I got from Natasha this morning over the phone.

“Is Man Meat Cam still at Kyle’s? He is seriously like a Greek god come to life. That body and that jaw line … ” Aubrey sighs, closing her eyes tight. “I also love how he acted all big brother around you this weekend. It was adorable.”

Aubrey and Zach know nothing about what happened to Natasha. It was an easy front, to say we both had friends coming to visit, but I hate keeping things from Aubrey. She’s done nothing but be a superb friend the past few weeks, but I don’t want to involve her in this.

“No, he left last night. He’s really nice, I know.” I stand and shimmy my dark skinny jeans up higher. “Is my underwear hanging out?”