“Oh, Nick—that’s wonderful!” I exclaimed, smiling at him.
“I would have agreed to play for anyone—do anything—to get to you in time.” His voice was low and hoarse. “All the way home I was begging him to go faster and wishing I just would have stolen a car instead. That son of a bitch is the slowest driver—I was so afraid I would be too late.”
I shivered and hugged him harder. I didn’t want to admit to myself how close it had been. If he had gotten to me just one minute later…
But he didn’t, I told myself. He didn’t—everything is all right because he made it here in time.
But was it?
Nick didn’t seem to think so.
“Kira,” he said to me. “We’ve got to get you out of here. We’ve got to say something—do something. Not just for us—for any kids that might come after us. We can’t let the Spauldings keep on like they are.”
“But we can’t!” I exclaimed. “Nick, we have to be careful! When Gary was about to…do what he was trying to do, I threatened to go to the police and you know what he said?”
Nick shook his head, frowning.
“He said that he and Nancy would make a police report saying that you and I have been, er, sleeping together,” I told him. “And that would explain any kind of…of signs that someone had, you know, had sex with me.” I felt my cheeks getting hot as I relayed this, but I had to make him see the danger he was in.
“You and me? Sleeping together?” Nick sounded incredulous. “But you’re my little sister! I would never—”
“I know you wouldn’t,” I said, my heart sinking a little at his vehement denial. After all, weren’t we all wrapped up together with his head on my breasts? What brother and sister lay like that? Why couldn’t he see what was between us?
“How can he even think that I’d do that to you? The sick fuck!” Nick growled, still thoroughly incensed.
“What matters is if the police would believe it—and I’m sure they would,” I pointed out. “After all, we’re not really blood related, Nick, and nobody outside our background would understand the significance of our brands. Gary said they might treat it like statutory rape since you’re so close to being eighteen. He said you’d go to jail.” I looked at him earnestly. “So we have to be really careful what we say and who we say it to.”
Nick’s eyes hardened.
“Don’t worry about that, baby—I’ve got a plan—one I’ve been working on for a while. If it goes off the way I hope, the Spauldings won’t be able to touch us. Or any other foster kids ever again.”
“What? What plan? Tell me!” I begged but he shook his head.
“I don’t want you to be disappointed if it doesn’t work out. But I’m really hoping it will—if it does, you’ll see some fireworks.”
And with that, I had to be satisfied. Reluctantly, I started to get up.
“Hey, where are you going?” Nick asked, frowning at me.
I sighed.
“To bed, I guess. Though I hate to go back to my stall after what Gary…” I swallowed hard. “After what he almost did to me there.”
“Don’t then,” Nick told me. “In fact, I think you’d better sleep with me from now on.”
I brightened up.
“Really?”
“Really.” He nodded. “We can’t be sure he won’t try it again. From now on we need to be together every minute. It’s Winter, so there’s no real yard work to do except for shoveling snow, if we ever get any—which we probably won’t. I don’t care what that fuck, Gary, tells me to do, I’m sticking to your side like glue from now on.”
“All right,” I agreed, nuzzling closer to him. It felt so good—so safe—in Nick’s arms. I had absolutely zero objections to spending one hundred percent of my time with him both night and day.
“Good—so that’s settled.” Nick sighed. “You think you can sleep?”
“As long as we’re together I can,” I told him. “Only maybe we should get dressed for bed? These band uniform bottoms are pretty scratchy,” I added.
He nodded.
“Okay, let’s get changed. Then we can snuggle up together in my bag.”
His words started my heart thumping and I felt the rest of my body reacting as well. God, I knew it was wrong to feel this way about my own big brother—even if we weren’t blood related—but I couldn’t seem to help it. The closer I got to him, the closer I wanted to get.
But for that night at least, all I wanted was to be held in his arms, I told myself. I just wanted to feel safe and protected and close to Nick.
Also, the idea of sleeping with him every night from now on was extremely appealing. Not only would Gary not dare to touch me when I was so close to Nick, but we could share body heat on these cold Winter nights. And for once, I could be as close to my big brother as I wanted without him suspecting why.