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“Hey.” He reached across the seat to grip my hand.
I stared at his fingers, my head dropped low. Tears fell to splatter on his arm, but he didn't move, just steered the car with one hand, driving away from there as fast as he could.
I closed my eyes, my fingers clenched around his. By the time he slowed the car, making me lift my head, we were nowhere near the prison. We’d turned off somewhere and now were heading toward a diner in the middle of nowhere.
Nick pulled the car into the parking lot and stopped in a space shaded by a large oak tree, away from everyone else. The spot reminded me of our park where he'd tackled me to the ground.
He killed the engine, but made no move to get out. Instead, he turned to me and held my watery gaze. “That bad, huh?”
I nodded, the words stuck in the back of my throat.
The leaves on the tree moved above us, captured by the wind.
“I couldn’t speak either, the first time I saw mom strapped to those machines. I just froze, like a fucking kid, then walked out. I went to the nearest bar, drank myself stupid, then got into a fight.” His anguish hurt me, just as much as it still hurt him. “Still haven’t been able to say a fucking word to anyone. I’d rather a broken bone than to talk about it. You’re the only person I’ve ever told, the only one who knows what I did. But it fucking hurt, worse than anything I’d ever felt. I’m telling you this because I know what that kind of thing does to you. I know what loneliness feels like, even living in a house filled with family.”
This time, I was the one who reached for his hand.
His big, beautiful hand. I stared at the rings on his fingers as the damn wall inside me cracked, then crumbled. “He didn’t want to see me.”
“Fuck, he said that?”
I shook my head. “Didn’t need to. I waited for ages, then at the last minute, he came in. I didn’t even recognize him at first. They'd beaten him before, but this time it was different. This time, the beating wasn’t just to hurt him, it was to kill.”
“Jesus, Ryth.”
“His eyeball was black, the entire side of his face was scraped and bloody. He was missing a tooth and he walked with a limp, holding his arm against his body.”
Nick was silent.
“He’s giving up on me.”
“You don’t know that.”
I smiled, but it was full of sorrow. “Yeah, I do. He told me to make mom happy, that Creed will do a better job as a husband than he ever had.” I sniffled, releasing his hand to swipe the mess away.
“Everything’s going to be okay. Dad won’t give up fighting and neither will your mom. There has to be someone who knows something.”
“They set him up.” I didn’t care how ugly I looked right then. I needed him to understand. "Because there’s no way he wasn’t loyal. He’s more loyal than anyone I know.”
“For a drug dealer.”
My breath caught. Deep down, I knew...maybe I always had.“Yes, for a drug dealer.”
Nick nodded. If nothing else, he was forcing me to be honest, to tell it like it was. No pretense, no lies. The ugly, violent truth. Just like that tainted desire between us.
“They’re going to get married,” Nick said quietly. “There’s no escaping it, Ryth.” He brushed his thumb across the back of my hand. “You need to be ready for that.”
I was ready for that…I thought I was, anyway.
But was I really ready for them?
I didn’t know…
But I had a feeling I was about to find out.
And soon.
NINETEEN
