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But can you blame me? She stuck gum in my hair right after Nana shelled out a hundred bucks for those super awesome highlights and layers I begged her for months for. She also really liked to trip me as I suffered through navigating the busy ass hallways of high school while blind as a penis snake.
Why she targeted me? Well, she just so happened to be the niece of the man who killed my dad. Apparently, some cutbacks were made until their business made up for the lost payout I received after the accident, and her spoiled ass was at the top of the list.
It’s not like I was living the high life in those years. I didn’t even use the damn money. Nana didn’t want me to grow spoiled or complacent, so she treated me as if I wasn’t disgustingly rich overnight. She never even took it easy on me with my psychic lessons after I lost my sight either. Nope, if anything they got increasingly more difficult and complex.
I love her for it too, even if I hated it at the time. She taught me to never succumb to my disability, to always push myself, care for myself, and never let the world get me down. Christina Winsley was thefirstvictim on a long list, as I learned to take no shit and embody the way of life I treasure to this day:Hit me and I’ll hit you back twice as hard.
The second? Well…I don’t like to think about that one.
“Wicked? What’s wrong?” At Kai’s question, I quickly wipe my face clean of the horror I had unknowingly let surface before tucking my phone back in my pocket.
“Looks like we’ve got plans tonight, boys! Who wants to meet the woman who raised my badass self?!” I grin widely, hoping beyond all hell that they let that little slip up go, and push myself out of Ezra’s lap before whistling for my babies.
Gizmo and Snitch race over to me and I settle myself on the floor so they can climb into my lap. Their warm, furry snuggles help center me. Maybe not as well as Ezra or Kai can, but with as raw as I’m feeling right now, I can’t let myself lean on them or I might never stop.
“This is totally like a meet the parents thing, isn’t it?” Kai lets me change the subject, forcing the joke through his obvious unease, and I’m thankful as fuck.
I really need to stop showing weakness. One of these days, they might not let me get away with my bullshit. One day, they might force me to face my shit. And I’m so not ready for that.
“¡Oye!I think I found something!”
5
KAI ZHAO
“What? Let me see!” I snatch the paper Nic was reading out of his hands before he can answer, ignoring his scowl with a roll of my shoulder. Flicking the paper straight, I quickly read through the article, not seeing anything obvious at first.
On my second read through, I finally notice what he was so excited about and scratch my head in thought. “Wait. Why wasn’t this in any of the other pieces on the crash?”
“You do know we all have the same exact knowledge as you, right?¡Culo estúpido!”
“And you do know that I am fluent in Spanish, right? Stupid ass!” I shoot Nic a cocky grin, the one that I know pisses him off to no end, as I lean back in my seat and cross my legs on the table. Plus, I’m pretty damn sure he reallydidn’tknow that I could understand him. That must really grind his over-sensitive gears.
“Guys! Come on! Blind woman sitting in the dark here!” Wicked exclaims impatiently, her arms crossing over her chest as she takes her chair across the table once more, drawing my attention to her delicious assets.
“I apologize for the asshole’s incredibly rude interruption, babe.” My smile only grows when Nic chuffs in annoyance as Wicked giggles behind her hand. I live to make that woman smile and laugh. “As I was saying, this article right here is the only one that mentions an anonymous caller who reported the accident to the emergency line. Apparently, they saw the whole thing, but there’s no name or info, and I don’t know if it’s a verified fact or not.”
“Wait. An eye witness to my car crash? But…I never heard about someone seeing it happen.” She mutters under her breath, her brows crinkling in that adorable way they do when she’s deep in thought.
“Well, what happened in the trial after the accident? I mean, how were you able to get the payout from the guy who did it?” I let my legs fall to the floor before leaning closer to her.
“We didn’t go to trial. They settled outside of court. My nana and I just figured that they wanted to avoid the bad publicity because of their business. We didn’t want to have anything to do with it in the first place, so we just accepted the deal and signed some papers saying we wouldn’t talk about the settlement for a certain number of years, and we wouldn’t go public with anything about the crash.” She shrugs, her mouth turning down in a frown, and my heart clenches in reaction to her pain. My scars start to itch as she gets lost in thought for a moment, and my eyes flick up to meet Ezra’s.
I may be damn good at making her laugh, but he comforts her. He nods before wrapping his gorilla arm around her back and rubbing her comfortingly. When she relaxes against his side and her features finally smooth out, I let out a deep breath.
I hate to see her suffering or worried in any way. It wrecks me in ways I didn’t know were possible. To care this deeply for another person is disturbing, and it came out of nowhere. What drew me to her? Was it her hilarious wit and sass? Was it her take no shit attitude? Perhaps it was the rare glimpses of her soft side coming out when she thinks people aren’t watching.
Like when she dumped her clip full of twenties into the homeless vet’s collection cup outside of a crime scene without a damn word. Or when she spent three hours sitting and answering a billion questions about being blind to a little girl who just saw her mother murdered by her father.
It could be a thousand things. But there’s only one that rings truer than the rest. The scars adorning her skin–the pain inflicted by the past they represent–that she tries to hide away beneath a cocktail of sunglasses and snark…it mirrors mine. It’s familiar and devastating to recognize it. That I’ve gone through it, survived it, and so has she.
And, fuck, if that doesn’t draw me in like she’s the gravitational pull that keeps my world spinning.
“Well, if we want to know anything more about your accident, we might want to start by finding this alleged eyewitness.” I flick at the paper, my eyes never leaving Wicked’s features as she nods in agreement.
“Sounds like we have a clue, Watson!” She grins wickedly as she rubs her hands together, the pull of the investigation smothering whatever darkness has been clouding her thoughts.
“Let’s make copies of this report and return the rest. Then we can go from there.” Nic, ever the bossiest of assholes, announces before cleaning up the stacks of papers and shit off the table. I stay seated, crossing my arms behind my head and lounging backwards in my chair with my feet kicked up on the table. The furious annoyance that crosses his features makes me smirk.
