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“While qualitative narratives offer rich tapestries of the past, woven with individual stories and subjective experiences, quantitative methods provide crucial sextants…” But it all seems like gobbledygook, even more so than it usually does.
Luca? I text after around thirty minutes.
A moment later, Lexi pushes my door open. Her cheeks are red, and she’s breathing hard. She looks like she’s just gone for a long run. “Ruby, I need to talk.”
My phone buzzes. I’m sorry. I can’t speak now. I’ll explain later.
“What’s going on?” I ask Lexi.
“It’s Nate,” she says, and invisible maggots crawl over my skin.
“I don’t want to talk about him,” I reply, wondering what the hell Luca is up to.
Lexi closes the door and spins on me. “I’m sorry, but you have to listen. Please.”
I sigh, the glowing feeling replaced by something dark and depressing. Please don’t let everything fall apart when we’re only one day out.
“What about him?” I ask.
“Yesterday, I followed him to a bar.”
“What?” I gasp. “How?”
“I searched ‘congressman’ and his name online. I found his social media. It’s public. He posted about going to the bar, so I went there and confronted his ass. He was wasted, and he started bragging about that photo. Ruby, he didn’t delete it. He showed it to me.”
I swallow, sickness gripping me.
“It’s not as bad as…” she trails off, shaking her head, looking ready to explode. “What I’m saying is it doesn’t show all of you. You’re wearing your underwear, but it’s still gross. It’s still wrong.”
“It doesn’t?” I ask, thinking back. “When he showed it to me, he just flashed the screen quickly. He didn’t let me get a decent look, and honestly, I didn’t want one.”
Lexi pulls up a chair close to me, laying her hand on mine. “Of course, you didn’t. Tonight, I decided to hurt that fucker. I was going to stab him right in his arrogant face with a screwdriver.”
My mouth falls open as I stare at my big sister. She’s completely serious.
“But before I could, this man, a friend of Luca’s…” Lexi’s mismatched eyes shimmer. For an outlandish moment, it’s like her armor cracks. It’s like she’s getting… dreamy? Smitten? Then the look vanishes, and she’s back to her usual tough self. “He stopped me before I could do it. I explained everything to him. I think he told Luca. I’m not sure what Luca’s going to do.”
“We were just texting,” I say, “but then he suddenly stopped!”
I grab my phone quickly, calling him, but there’s no answer. It just rings and rings.
“What about his friend?” I say.
“He gave me his number,” Lexi mutters. “He said whatever happens now is Luca’s decision. He said he’s not going to stop Luca from doing anything. He said a man has to make his own mistakes to win his own victories. He was very intense.”
Again, that dreamy look comes into her eyes, and she pushes it away again.
“Then what the heck am I supposed to do?” I yell. “I don’t want him to get himself hurt… or go to prison.”
I call Luca again, but it just rings and rings and rings.
CHAPTER 25
Luca
Two men leap off the couch when I kick the front door in. I feel my gun pressing against my side, but I keep it holstered. I want to tear this prick apart with my bare hands. My vision is blurring with rage. The first man, shirtless and covered in tribal tattoos, yells, “What the fuck?”
I step forward, almost praying for him to do something stupid. I haven’t wanted a fight this badly since the stuff went down with Russel and the Shanks. “Go get Nate,” I growl.
“Now, hold on a second…” the other man trails off, looking stupid when I turn to him.
“Go. Get. Nate.”
“Uh, sure.”
“Should we call the cops?” the man with the tribals asks, almost to himself.
“Please do that,” I snarl. “Please, call them. Do it now.”
The other man runs from the room. Throughout the house, I can hear movement and voices raised. When Nate finally comes downstairs, it’s with three other men. He’s wearing sweatpants and nothing else but a lazy grin on his face, looking me up and down like I’m dirt.
“Oh, hey, buddy,” he says casually, as though his door isn’t kicked in.
“You know why I’m here.”
He laughs, and I think that’s another broken bone. That’s another missing tooth. “I guess you’ve got feelings for little Miss Piggy.”
I grind my teeth. “Let’s talk outside.”
“Nah, I’m fine here,” he says, and then his buddies start puffing up like they think this is their big moment to be tough. “Anyway, I don’t take orders from a baby killer.”
“Last chance to handle this like a man,” I snap, ignoring his last comment, which makes no sense.
“Aren’t you curious about what I just said, buddy?” he says.
When I step forward, his four friends make a loose ring around him, telling me everything I need to know about this sad collection of people. Nate’s the one with power, who gets anything he wants from them, probably because of his congressman daddy. I bet he’s paying the rent for this depressing party house.
