Chapter Thirteen
Ifelt like a zombie as I walked through the house. Mikey was doing his homeschooling, which I appreciated. I hadn’t slept last night. By the time I finally got home it was seven in the morning, and my mother was getting ready to head out for her shifts.
She hadn’t asked me why I was coming home so late, especially when I plopped down a stack of cash on the counter. The only person who had given me shit was Nikki.
“You look like hell,” she whispered. She’d come over first thing in the morning, determined to find out what happened last night. Her presence nearly brought tears to my eyes. It was nice to know that there was one person out there who actually cared about what happened to me.
“I had a few long nights,” I told her. She’d brought me a latte, which tasted like heaven on earth. I could rarely afford a treat like this, and it was delicious.
Nikki pursed her lips. “You need to tell me what the hell is going on.”
I sighed. I was dying to tell Nikki about Marco and everything that had happened. But I couldn’t. I’d promised, and my life hinged on that promise. I knew that Nikki wouldn’t tell anyone. She was a street smart person. Much more so than I was.
“I can’t,” I told her. I took another sip of my latte. I was so exhausted that the caffeine wasn’t doing much for me.
Nikki looked at me. Her blue eyes narrowed as she took in the bruises on my neck. I’d tried to cover them with makeup and a scarf, but they’d turned an ugly purple that was visible no matter what I did. I shifted as I tried not to draw her attention to the marks on my neck.
“Are you in some sort of danger?”
I bit my bottom lip. I honestly wasn’t sure. Marco and Alex had driven me home last night after they returned me to the club to get my things. The three of us sat in silence, and I’d been too freaked out to say anything. Considering Marco had tried to kill me, I wasn’t sure what led to his change of heart.
“I’m fine.”
Nikki opened her mouth to say something. Probably something I didn’t want to hear. A knock on the door interrupted her. The sound of it caused me to immediately tense. “Are you expecting someone?” Nikki asked.
I shook my head. Outside of Nikki, I didn’t have any friends. The few people I had hung around with in high school had moved on from the neighborhood.
“Probably a bill collector,” I muttered. More than a few of our bills were way past due.
Mikey looked up from his school work, and I forced a fake smile on my face. I didn’t want him to worry about anything. It was an unspoken agreement between myself and my mother. Despite all of the problems, we wanted to keep Mikey as insulated from them as possible.
I opened the door, the smile still straining. When the door opened, I was surprised to see two men standing on the other side. They were dressed in bad suits, which automatically gave me bill collector vibes.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“You Ivy Hope?” The man speaking had a thick, Russian accent, and alarm bells started sounding in the back of my mind. Adrian had been Russian. Adrian, the man who Marco killed. I moved quickly to slam the door, but a thick, meaty hand stopped it and shoved it back.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” the other one said. I tried to stop him from coming inside, but the motion of the door had made me stumble over my feet and lose my grip. Plus, even if I had been able to get ahold of it, I didn’t think I had more strength than these two.
The men walked into the house, looking around, with their nose turned upward. I looked over at Nikki who was reaching over for a lamp. “Don’t be stupid,” one of the men said. He pulled back his jacket, showing a gun at his waistband.
Nikki retreated, her eyes never leaving the gun. “No need for this to get messy,” the other man said.
Mikey was sitting at the table still. His pencil was poised above the paper, and his face was white with fear. I scrambled back to my feet and rushed towards my brother, placing my body between him and the men. I remembered what Marco said about the Russians, and how they would rip Mikey to shreds to get me to speak.
I shivered with fear. “Who are you? And what do you want?”
One of the men ran his finger down the side of our coffee table. He brought it to his face and rubbed the dust from his fingertips. It was clear that he found our housing lacking.
“We just want to talk,” the other man said. He had bright blond hair and blue eyes, but other than that, there was nothing remarkable about him. I wondered if that was the plan. After all, I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a lineup.
“Mikey, go upstairs,” I ordered. I didn’t look back, but I could practically feel him shaking his head.
“No,” he said. “I’m not leaving you.”
I sent a pleading look towards Nikki who looked like she was also going to argue with me. I couldn’t beg her aloud, but I needed her to take Mikey. If she didn’t, I wasn’t going to be able to keep my head on straight.
She walked over towards us, keeping her hands in the air to signal to the men that she wasn’t a threat. “Why don’t you come upstairs with me?” Nikki asked Mikey. Her voice was soft as she spoke to him.