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“After everything that just happened, don’t you think you’d be better off staying away from me?”
“Well, I don’t exactly know what just happened Nova. You won’t tell me.”
“Its better for you not to know.”
she crossed her arms, mimicking my posture. “Look, whatever the hell is going on, something tells me I’d be much better off sticking by your side. For your sake as well as mine.”
“What if I told you I can’t keep you safe? You were convinced I was going to shoot you five minutes ago.”
“All the more reason for me to come along.”
“That’s insane. You know that, right?”
She dropped her hands back down to her sides, offering up a casual shrug.
“If you want to leave before Rhett and his band of merry men show up here, you need to go pack our bags.”
“What makes you so sure he’s coming?”
She gave me a flat look as if to say, I know you’re not being serious? “Come on, Nova. It’s Rhett. I see the way he looks at you. Everyone does. I’m surprised he didn’t massacre Mickey for speaking to you the other night.”
Had I missed something? When he looked at me, he made me feel as if I were the only woman on the planet, sure. I thought that was a normal occurrence.
Rhett had the most intense gaze I’d ever had the pleasure of being the center of. How was I supposed to know it was reserved specifically for me?
Emery shook her head at me. “I can’t believe you never noticed. We can talk about that later. You need to go pack our things. Him coming here doesn’t seem like it would be good for anyone since you just tried to shoot him.”
I didn’t try, I purposely missed. “Em, I never said you were coming with me.”
“I’m going to go to work and get my credit card tips like I usually do, and then once I get back, we’ll find somewhere to go and recoup.” She continued as if I hadn’t spoken, nodding a few times, clearly agreeing with her own verdict. “Everything is gonna be fine.”
I wondered if that last part was to reassure me, or herself.
Had to be the latter.
She claimed not to be naïve, but that statement proved otherwise. Nothing was going to be ‘fine’. Not for me at least.
“Getting a quick shower,” she muttered, finally moving away from the front door.
I watched until she disappeared at the top of the steps. I was amazed I’d managed to hold a semblance of a conversation. My mind was still churning a mile a minute. Everything was getting more and more confusing, questions I never had before coming to light with no obvious answers.
Annika was hiding something that somehow let her have intimate details about my father and Rhett. Something Emery knew about too. Since neither of them felt compelled to tell me what the big secret was, I could only assume Nika had done her usual and slept with Rhett.
Ugh. A sleuth of disturbing images flooded my brain.
The two of them together, in that way, had a tightness taking hold of my chest. A voice in the back of my head was quick to deny it. Pointing out the obvious, that explanation didn’t fit with the facts. But I refused to entertain the alternative. Fucking. Refused. Or at least, I was going to do my very best to ignore the possibility of what may have been going down behind my back.
Closing my eyes, I counted to three to bring some clarity to my thought process.
Dealing with Rhett and Nika would have to wait. I needed to focus on getting my ass out of Legacy Falls.
Preferably alive.
I shoved the necklace into my back pocket and got to work.
I grabbed things at random, shoving them into the suitcase I’d purchased two years ago for an impromptu vacation. I knew it would come in handy one day.
The essentials were placed on top of my randomized bundle of clothes—toothpaste, deodorant, tampons. Whatever I forgot I could buy. My father had left me some unmarked cash in case of an emergency.
