Page 25 of Love At Peace

“No, you idiot. He loves me. And I can swear on it that he’s not involved in anything with Eric falling or—”

“Who said he fell?” Marty asked. “You?” He raised his brow. “You want to commit to that statement?”

“Oh, shut up. Just get out of here, all of you. David has never done anything wrong.” She laughed once, airily. “He’s got no record. Nothing. He’s a good—”

“Liar,” I finished for her. “He’s a good liar. That’s it.”

“Shut up!” she snapped. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She would never listen to a thing I’d say. He had already gotten too far into her head.

“I know that my cousin wound up down here wounded.” I stepped closer, no longer in the mood to stand back and out of the way behind Gavin and Roarke.

Staying on the downlow was my goal, but not like this. If she knew anything about what happened to Eric, she had to tell Marty. If she was aware of anything David could have done to Eric, she had to speak up about it.

“And I’ll be damned if you try to act ignorant and protect David because you’re so deluded to think he cares about you. Not that he loves you. Just the bare minimum of him giving a shit about you at all.”

“He does love me,” she argued. “Not that you would know anything about that.”

I shook off the hit of her trying to needle me like that. “Tell us what he did to Eric.”

“I’m not saying anything.”

I gritted my teeth, fed up with her bullshit. Because I knew that she was motivated to be “obedient” to David and do as he’d told her, likely to never discuss what he had planned, I felt pushed to make her snap out of it even more.

“You don’t need to protect him.”

“You can cut this shit out of thinking you have any right to tell me what to do.” She turned to leave.

“Nevaeh,” Marty said, “wait.”

She shot him a dirty smirk, appearing just like the brat Roarke accused her of being. “No. I don’t owe you anything. I don’t know anything. And I’m not saying anything.”

“David doesn’t deserve your loyalty,” I told her before she could go.

“You don’t either.” She shook her head, taking the steps to walk up and away from us down here.

“What about me?” Roarke asked, raising his voice even louder. “All these times I’ve tried to help you, and I don’t deserve some damn answers?”

“No. None of you deserve anything from me. I’ve been looking out for myself all my life.” She stabbed a finger at her chest again, even madder. “Me. It’s just been me. No one has given a shit about me until I met David.”

I opened my mouth, trying not to repeat the hard truth she didn’t want to hear. But I couldn’t keep it in. “He doesn’t—”

She pointed at me. “Shut up. He does. David does care.”

“He cares enough to knock you up, I guess.”

Her mouth hung down as her eyes opened wide.

“What?” Roarke spun to furrow his brow at me for a brief second before he turned back to her. “What?”

“How dare you say that!” Nevaeh said between clenched teeth.

I shrugged, unafraid of making her mad. She had no right to think she could hide answers about why Eric was lying on the floor like that. “I’m guessing it’s David’s kid?”

“Are you insinuating that I’m some kind of a slut that sleeps around?” she screeched with fury blazing in her eyes.

“Is this true?” Roarke asked, still lagging one step behind.