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Nic’s eyebrows shoot up. “Is that so?”
I fill him in on the rest of the story, even telling him about the blowjob.
“It looks like you’ve got yourself a situation there.”
“Tell me something I didn’t already know. The point is to give me a clue how to get out of it.”
He lifts an eyebrow the way I’ve seen so many times. “You really need me to tell you? You’re sure you don’t already know?”
For the second time tonight, it’s either count to five or lose my shit. “I’m not in the mood for this. What do you think I should do?”
“I don’t think. I know you need to get that girl out of your apartment. There’s no reason for her to be there.”
“Aside from making sure she stays away from Aspen?”
“Remind me again what she’s ever done to Aspen. Last I heard, she didn’t have anything to do with it. She was mixed up with the wrong people, that’s for damn sure, but she wasn’t there at the time. Kids are stupid.”
“Not this one. She seems pretty sharp.”
“I still go with stupid. Everybody’s stupid in one way or another.”
“So you’re defending her?”
The sonofabitch has the nerve to roll his eyes. “No. I would never do that. Why would you even think it?”
“She might’ve put the whole thing together for all we know. I’m still not sure.” And I’m no closer to finding out since she’s damn good at dodging my attempts to know her better.
“Regardless. You need to get her out of there. What happens next? Fucking her? Maybe hurting her?”
It would be so easy, too. I didn’t have to force her to suck me off today. She got on her knees and got to work. All it would take is her screwing around again, testing her boundaries and my patience, and I might lose control. “I don’t like the idea,” I insist anyway since letting her go means giving up control.
“What were you going to do otherwise? Keep her locked up with you forever? Because that’s the alternative.” He brings the phone closer to his face. “Get her moved into a dorm room. Send her to class. Pretend this is all normal.”
That’s going to take some pretending. Nothing about this is anywhere remotely normal.
“You know what else?” He pulls the phone back so I’m no longer staring up his nose. Now I see how concerned he looks. “You’ve got bigger issues.”
“Such as?”
“Such as your kid. The one whose entire life you’ve missed up until now. You’re putting all the effort you should be giving her into this girl locked in your guest room.”
I want to tell him he’s out of his mind, but that would be a lie. He doesn’t get what it means to know he treated his own child the way I treated mine. The kind of guilt that carries. How it can stand in the way of building a relationship. “It’s been complicated.”
“I know. But it won’t get any less complicated as time goes on unless you spend time on it.” Again, he fills the frame. “Get your head out of your ass. Send the girl to the dorms. Spend time with your kid. You know it has to be done.”
I do, which is why I’m starting in the morning.
“I know I don’t say this a lot… but you’re right.”
“I’m right all the time.”
“Sure, you are. Before you go, I wanted to ask you something else. I was trying to remember the last time I saw Charlotte. I think she came to my place, but I was high. Some other people were there. I think one of them was Tommy Perez or something like that.”
“I know exactly what night you are talking about.”
“You do?”
“Yes, because I was there.” Dumbfounded, I stare at the screen, trying to recall my brother being there that night. “You were already passed out when I got there. I heard a scream coming from the bedroom. One of the guys was trying to rape her, but she hit him in the nuts with your lamp.”
