Chapter 16
Sixteen
You did not wake up to be a weak ass bitch.
—Text from Finnian to Dru
DRU
We’d made it through the viewing, and now we just had to get through the service tomorrow.
Knight’s military friends had arrived, and they were all taking up the bedrooms of Finnian’s house, snug as a bug.
I was on the way out the door to head to my place when an unyielding grip caught my arm and halted my forward progress.
“Where are you going?” Finnian asked, his voice gentle.
I didn’t stop myself from leaning into him.
“I have to go home to get some clothes,” I said, explaining quickly when I saw the panic in his eyes. “I can’t go to a funeral in scrubs.”
Scrubs that I’d been wearing all day.
They were clean, at least, but they weren’t something I liked to wear when I wasn’t at work.
“I’ll go with you,” he said as he followed me down the steps of his home.
“You can’t just leave your house full of guests and come with me,” I argued.
“Watch me.” He chuckled, though it sounded weak.
Halfhearted at best.
I didn’t bother arguing.
I’d realized rather quickly that Finnian always got his way.
Not that I had a huge problem with it.
It wasn’t like he was unreasonable about having his way. Usually, he was right.
Like this time.
I knew why he wanted to go with me.
He’d seen my place and knew damn well getting there after dark would be shady at best—something he’d shared with me multiple times when I’d said that I needed to go home.
I’d thought he’d finally given in to my need to leave, but apparently, he hadn’t given in as much as he’d allowed me to go. With a supervisor.
“My car or yours?” I asked.
“Mine.” He bleeped the locks. “Yours has about eight other vehicles behind it.”
I glanced out into the driveway and sure enough, he was right.
There were several vehicles parked behind mine.
I wouldn’t have been able to leave even if I wanted to.
The only reason Finnian was able to leave was that he had two cars. One of those cars being parked in a side garage to the left of the driveway.
“This is my old car,” he said. “Might do better in your neighborhood after dark anyway.”
The man had a sense of humor, that was for sure.
Honestly, the one he led me to and opened the door of for me was more likely to turn heads than his sparkly truck.
I watched him unlock the car with the key and shook my head. “This is a nineties model Camaro that looks pristine. I wouldn’t call this old.”
I also wouldn’t call it inconspicuous.
“Ninety-one.” He held open my door for me and gestured for me to get in. “It was the first car I bought for myself. I had all the girls drooling over this car when I was in high school.”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t contain the smile from breaking out over my face. “I’ll bet you had all the girls in this car, too.”
“There might’ve been one or two,” he admitted as he waited for me to drop into the seat before closing the door.
He rounded the hood and opened his own door before dropping down inside.
“It has a lot of sentimental value. My grandfather and I fixed it up before he got a little too squirrelly in the head and started refusing to leave his house.”
“You’re lucky to have that,” I said softly. “My parents were great, but let’s just say they’re not mechanically inclined.” I paused. “My brother was, though.”
He looked over at me. “You don’t talk about him much.”
That’s because it hurt so fucking bad.
The idea of him being in prison, with me unable to see the bright, blue-eyed boy that was my protector when I needed one, really fucking hurt.
“My brother is the icing to my cake. The cheese to my macaroni.” I smiled.
“Other than my best friend that passed away, he was it. We were two peas in a pod because it was us against the world. My parents were always dealing with Daniella. They tried not to focus solely on her, but shit, she needed it. And Romeo and I just bonded over our lack of parental concern.”
“He sounds like a great brother to have,” he said.
Speaking of…
“I have to go see him tomorrow.” I looked over at Finnian. “Visiting day is once a month, and my parents can’t go.”
He tilted his head but didn’t take his eyes off the road. “Why?”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “He doesn’t want to see them. He knows it hurts them to see him like that, so he added them to his refusal list. The only person he’ll see is me.”
“Not your sister?”
I scoffed. “My sister is a joke. Honestly, my whole family is fucked up, but my sister truly takes the cake. She obsesses over her boyfriends to the point of paranoia. Literally, everyone and everything can die all around her, and she wouldn’t even notice. That’s why I live here…”
I trailed off after we pulled into the parking lot of my apartment and I saw a familiar black sedan parked in my spot.
I groaned, letting my head fall back against the headrest.
“What?” he asked, scanning the parking lot.
“My sister,” I grumbled. “She’s here.”
His eyes took in my complex and he said, “Do you need to go up there?”
“No,” I admitted. “I’d rather go buy a dress at Target than go in there.”
He held out his hand and said, “Give me your keys. I’ll pack you a bag.”
I handed them over.
The last thing I wanted to do today was deal with my sister.
It’d been a rough day, made rougher by it bringing up memories I preferred to keep buried.
Funerals were the worst because I always remembered what I’d lost.
But today was about Finnian, so I’d sucked it up and been there for him.
However, I was mentally drained and exhausted. I didn’t want to have to deal with my sister on top of everything else that I’d already dealt with today. Things wouldn’t end well, and she’d make me feel bad for choosing me.
“I’ll be right back,” he said as he illegally parked at the back of the lot and slipped out of the car.
Once he was outside, he said, “Lock it.”
I locked it and he winked, shoving his hands into the pocket of his jeans as he walked with a purpose to the side entrance to my building.
While he was in there, I called my mom to tell her she needed to do something about Daniella.
“Hello?”
“Mom,” I said. “It’s me.”
“Hey, honey.” She sounded wary.
She should.
Because the only time I called her was to complain about Daniella.
Daniella had been the center of my parents’ world for a long time.
It’d always been me and Romeo then my parents and Daniella.
There was never a time when I was chosen first over Daniella, and this time wouldn’t be any different.
I loved my parents, but their obvious favoritism toward my sister was annoying.
“You need to call Daniella and get her to go home,” I said. “I’m tired of her showing up at my apartment expecting to be let in. She’s not moving in with me because she’s having a fight with her boyfriend.”
I didn’t bother telling her about what I’d found out about Jennifer.
Though Mom wouldn’t be surprised, Mom didn’t talk to Jennifer all that often because she was exactly like Daniella.
Which was comical because my mom literally adored Daniella who might as well have been a copy and paste of her own sister she hated.
“She can’t come home,” Mom explained. “Just let her stay the night until she finds another place.”
“I can’t,” I disagreed. “After she had me kicked out of my apartment, I told her I was done with her bullshit. And I am. You either get her away from me, or I’ll call the cops and have them do it. But I’m not letting her stay on my couch. I can’t handle her bullshit.”
He was in and out in under twenty minutes, coming out carrying grocery bags full of my things instead of a packed duffel like I’d expected.
He came to my side of the car and waited for me to roll down the windows before handing me the bags.
“She was literally standing in the hallway. I felt like your Hello Kitty duffel was a little too noticeable, so I went with plan B. Also, she’s literally knocked on everyone’s door asking about you.
I told her that I’d lived here for years.
Also, if you’re curious, the lease is now in my name so she can’t go sweet talk the office personnel to get your information again. ”
“Again?” I asked.
“When I stayed at your place, you were still asleep when there was pounding on the door. I got up and answered the door, and she’s freaking out wanting to get a hold of you. I told her you didn’t live there, because I assumed you wouldn’t want to talk to her.”
“You’re right.” I sighed. “She just uses me until she finds her next target. The only reason I lived at the last apartment complex with her was because she slept with the owner’s son. She strung him along as long as she could until she met Eugene.”
“Eugene and her is a really weird combination,” I admitted. “He seems very uptight and, no offense at all, out of her league.”
“None taken,” I paused. “Wait, how do you know about my sister and Eugene?”
Because I knew for a fact I hadn’t given him that information…had I?
He flashed me a smile. “I followed you.”
“You followed me?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “When you left the restaurant that night when you saw me having dinner with Eugene, I followed you out of the parking lot. I was…curious.”
“Curious,” I drawled, not sure how I felt about him following me.
Or, more accurately, I wasn’t sure how I felt about my lack of feelings knowing he followed me.
“I followed you to the neighborhood. Opened the gate for you. Twice.” He started the car up. “You intrigued me, and I have a tendency to hyper fixate.”
I snorted just as another thought occurred to me. “You were ahead of me in line in security. You made that happen, didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “It’s child’s play getting into the airport systems. And American Airlines security is a joke.
I’ve been hacking into them for airline miles since I could log into my dad’s computer.
I kicked that man out of his seat and put you in his place.
” He shot me a look before pulling out of the lot.
“I think we lucked out fairly well, don’t you? ”
“I feel kind of bad, though,” I admitted. “That’s some Final Destination stuff. I mean, I cheated death there. Now I’m sure that I’ll be followed for the rest of my life. Then the rest of my bloodline.”
He took a left out of the parking lot and came to a sudden halt when a car cut him off and pulled into the lot out of nowhere.
“What the fuck?” I asked.
“That’s Eugene,” he murmured as he just shook his head and pulled out of the lot, heading in the opposite direction.
“I swear to God,” she groaned. “If they make me have to move out of a second apartment, I’m never going to forgive them.”
His chuckle warmed my heart. But it was his next words that had me glancing over at him and shaking my head.
“You should just move in with me, and your apartment issues would be solved.”
Shaking my head, I said, “You can’t be serious. We’ve known each other for like a week!”
His eyes were heavy when he said, “We fell out of the sky together. Then got attacked by said sky once we crashed into the ground. You held my dying brother’s hand when he passed away, and you’ve literally been the rock that I didn’t know I needed for days.
I think a week is plenty enough time to know that you’re special and I want you around.
” He turned his gaze back to the road as he said, “I’ll wait as long as it takes, but I’m certainly not going anywhere. ”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing at all.
Was it absolutely crazy to be contemplating his offer? Yes.
Was I contemplating it anyway? Yes, I was.