Nix
“What are you doing here?”She sounded the same, yet something was different.
“I… I had to know,” I said, stepping forward, my heart beating wildly in my chest.
She instantly retreated, her eyes darting around me, flicking beyond me. Looking for a way out. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Ouch. That hurt.
It fucking stung.
“After all this time, that’s what you say to me?”
She let out a bitter laugh. “What did you expect?”
My brows drew together as I tried to find my balance. Because seeing her, hearing her voice, it did things to me. Dark, dangerous things. She’d always been my kryptonite, but this was different.
We were different.
“So it’s true. You’re one of them now?”
“Nix.” She sighed. A soft, exasperated sound that cut me down. As if I was an annoyance. Nothing more than dirt under her shoe.
Fuck.
Zane was right. It was a mistake coming here. I should have been content with watching her at the park from a safe distance.
“What are you doing here?” she asked again, fiddling with her sleeve. No, not fiddling with it I realized, but more like stroking it.
“It’s a free country, Birdie.” I shrugged, my lip curling. “Just because I don’t drive a brand-new car or have a fat wallet doesn’t mean I can’t be here.”
“I didn’t…” She stopped herself, inhaling a deep breath and whispering something to herself. When she refocused her attention back on me, there was something cold in her gaze. “You should go. I have to get back to my friends.” Harleigh moved around me, keeping a wide berth, and headed back toward the building.
“So that’s it, huh?” I called after her, frustration bleeding from every word. “That’s all you’ve got to say to me?”
Drawing to a sharp stop, she spun around and narrowed her eyes at me. “Nothing,” she said. “I have nothing to say to you. Go back to The Row, Nix. And never come back here.”
“Fuck that,” I snapped. “We aren’t done—”
“Harleigh?” The half-sister appeared. “What’s going on?”
“N-nothing.” Harleigh didn’t meet my heavy stare. Instead she grabbed the girl’s arm and led her to the door.
“Who was that?” she asked, but Harleigh ignored her and yanked her back inside.
Fuck.
That could have gone better. But I’d fucked up the second I followed them here. I should have stayed in the car, should have listened to the little voice telling me it a was huge fucking mistake. But it wasn’t enough. I needed more.
I needed to see her.
No one had batted an eyelid at the hooded guy hanging out, watching the three kids in the back. Harleigh hadn’t joined in with her friends. She’d sat alone, engrossed with something on her cell phone.
I’d planned to skip out unnoticed when she disappeared into the restroom. But I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t walk away.
I hadn’t expected her to spot my car, to storm outside and… what? Confront me?
It had hardly been a confrontation. She’d barely said ten words to me. But every single one of them had cut me open.