Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
BLYTHE
Islammed my Algebra book closed. The numbers on the page were beginning to blur, and if I had to look at it for one more second, I was going to go blind.
Hitting the screen on my phone, I paused the music and pulled the earbuds from my ears as I hopped off my bed and headed for the kitchen in search of ice cream.
I rounded the corner and heard the sound of my mom’s laughter coming from the living room. She’d been doing a lot of that lately, and after spending so long sad and miserable because of my dad, I loved that she was finally happy again.
She didn’t know it, but Tristan and I had heard her crying from her bedroom more times than we could count. She always tried to hide it from us, waiting until she thought we were asleep, but we knew. And we hated it.
We thought it might get better once she finally kicked Dad out, but it didn’t—at least not right away—and I knew it was mainly because she was worried about us.
Then Trick started coming around, and just like that, we had our mom back. She laughed and she teased and was just all-around awesome. And Trick looked at her like he thought she was the most beautiful, most hilarious woman he’d ever laid his eyes on.
Which she was.
She deserved someone as awesome as she was, and Detective Trick Wanderly was the coolest of the cool.
I knew they’d make a great couple, because all the boys at my school thought I had the hottest mom, and all the girls thought Trick was the hottest dad.
It just made sense for the two of them to get together.
Mom wouldn’t admit it, but I knew there was something going on with her and Trick long before they actually became a couple. Then she went from being sweet to avoiding him at every turn, and for a while I worried they were never going to get together.
But they did, and now everything was going great.
It was nice having a man in the house. He did things for Mom all the time, like pour her drinks and rub her feet when they were watching TV.
My dad never did stuff like that, but with Trick, it was almost like he didn’t even realize he was doing it.
It was just second nature to take care of her, and I really liked watching that.
I liked how sweet he could be with Hannah and Shawn. I liked even more that he treated Tris and me the exact same way. But most of all, I liked how protective he was.
He promised me he’d never let anything happen to us, and I believed him 100 percent.
“Ew!” Tristan shouted from the living room. “If you guys don’t quit bein’ all kissy and gross, I’m gonna hurl!”
I laughed and rolled my eyes as I scooped some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream into a bowl. He thought it was gross when Mom and Trick kissed, but I thought it was sweet.
Hannah did too.
She’d told me once that one of the reasons she liked Heath so much was because he treated her the same way her dad treated my mom. And I decided right then and there that when I got a boyfriend, he had to be the exact same way.
There was no way I’d ever date a guy who acted like my dad.
I dropped the ice cream back into the freezer and pushed the door closed with my foot. Just as I was about to turn and head back to my room, I saw something on the kitchen counter from the corner of my eye and stopped dead in my tracks.
Setting the bowl down with a clank, I moved over to the police file, flipped it open, and sucked in so much air that my lungs felt like they were burning.
“You okay, darlin’?”
My eyes shot from the drawing to Trick, and I finally let out a breath. “You found him.”
Trick’s eyes were the coolest shade of gray, and they changed from dark to light with whatever he was feeling. Right then they grew darker as his eyebrows pinched together. “Found who, Blythe?”
“The guy!” I snatched the picture up and waved it in front of my face. “This guy. The guy from my dad’s place. You found him.”
I didn’t understand the look on his face just then. I was ecstatic. He’d made a promise to me, and now I knew he’d kept it. If he found this guy, we were all safe. But for some reason, he didn’t look happy about it.
He moved around the island quickly, taking the sheet of paper from my hand and holding it up. “Sweetheart, are you sure?”
“Yeah!” I chirped. “That’s totally him. Have you arrested him?”
At my question, Trick’s mouth twisted into a smile, and his face changed.
It didn’t look as tense as before, but the smile wasn’t like the ones I’d seen him give my mom.
It wasn’t nearly as big and bright. I figured that was because this was a bad guy, and even though catching him was a good thing, it still wasn’t worthy of the kind of smile he’d give the people he loved.
“It’s all good, Blythe. You’ve got nothin’ to worry about anymore. ”
My shoulders slumped, and my lips stretched so wide my cheeks hurt as I launched myself into his arms. Even his hugs were fantastic, all strong and warm. He was a whole lot taller and way more muscular than my dad, so when he hugged me it felt like I was being wrapped up by a teddy bear.
“Thank you, Trick,” I whispered, overtaken by a lightness I hadn’t felt in weeks. “I knew I could trust you.”
“Always keep you safe, baby girl.”
At that, my chest warmed and my eyes began to sting. I’d only ever heard him call Hannah that, and having him call me baby girl made me feel like I was special. My dad used to call me sweet pea, but that had been a long time ago.
“I know, Trick.” I whispered before giving him one last squeeze and pulling away. “I’ve got more studying to do. Just needed an ice cream break.”
That got me the same kind of smile he gave Mom and Hannah, and I felt like I’d just won a medal or something. “All right, darlin’. You get back to it.”
I skipped to my room and did just that, knowing everything was going to be all right.
Because Detective Trick Wanderly made it that way.
Nona
The moment Trick came back into the living room, I knew something was wrong. It was as if the air had grown thick and stale with the change of his mood.
Sitting up on the couch, I grabbed the remote and paused the movie we’d been watching with Tris. Diva, who’d been resting on my chest, didn’t appreciate the sudden move and hopped down to curl up with Tristan as I asked, “Baby, what’s wrong?”
Instead of answering, he looked to Tris and said, “Bud, you mind givin’ me and your mom a few minutes? I need to talk to her about something private.”
I could tell he wanted to argue, that the change in Trick’s demeanor had him worried, but he was a good kid, and instead of pushing, he just nodded.
Trick gave him a grateful smile and reached down to take my hand. I let him pull me from the couch and guide me into my bedroom, where he closed the door.
I took a seat on the edge of my bed while he remained on his feet, pacing the small stretch of carpet in front of me. “You’re starting to scare me, handsome. What’s going on?”
“Got a case earlier today. Another girl overdosed. Was a fuckin’ miracle she made it through, but she was able to give us something none of the other people were. And what she said led us to the guy who’s been dealin’ meth all around town.”
“I don’t understand. That sounds like a good thing.”
He blew out a breath and reached around to scrub at the back of his neck.
“Pains me to say this, but you have to know. The sketch of the guy was in the file I brought home from work. I just ran into Blythe in the kitchen, and she saw the picture.” He stopped to inhale through his nose before laying it on me.
“Baby, it’s the same guy she saw at Chris’s that night. The one who freaked her out so bad.”
My skin broke out in goose bumps, and it suddenly felt like the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. “What—” I gave my head a violent shake, trying to piece together what he was telling me. “What are you saying?”
“I’m sayin’ Chris isn’t just in trouble. He’s in a whole fuckin’ lot of trouble. He’s got himself tangled up with a goddamn meth dealer, and from what Blythe overheard, that’s the asshole he’s in debt to.”
I sucked in a sharp gasp that stabbed my lungs.
“I… that can’t… oh my god!” I shot to my feet so fast it made my head spin.
“No. Th-that can’t be right. I mean, he’s stupid, but not that stupid.
It doesn’t….” I squeezed my eyes closed.
My blood felt like it was boiling as the realization that Trick wasn’t wrong finally began to dawn on me.
“That stupid fucking son of a bitch!” I hissed through gritted teeth.
It took everything I had to keep from shouting the house down, but I somehow managed to hold back.
There was no way in hell I was going to let my kids know their father had gotten involved with a freaking meth dealer. That would kill them.
“I’m going to kill him Trick,” I continued to rage. “I swear to god, I’m not joking. I’m gonna kill him!”
Trick closed the distance between us and wrapped me in his strong embrace. “Shh, beautiful. It’s all right. It’s all gonna be okay.”
“How?” I asked, pulling my face out of his chest and looking up at him with watery eyes. “How is this ever going to be okay? God, how was I ever married to this man?” I finished on a cry.
“You said it yourself, baby. This wasn’t who he was when you were together.” He tucked my hair behind my ears and cupped my cheeks in his strong hands. “People change, Nona. There’s no controlling it, and it’s no one’s fault but the person making the change.”
I face-planted into his chest and twisted my fingers in the sides of his T-shirt. My words came out muffled by his chest as I asked, “So what now?”
“Well, now you’re gonna go back in there and finish the movie with your kid. You’re gonna tell him it’s all okay, and I just needed to fill you in on a case. Then I’m gonna call this in.”
I tilted my head backward and looked up into those gorgeous gray eyes. “Are you gonna have to go back in?”
“Probably not. Leo and Micah are on tonight. They’ll have it covered ’til the morning.”
A question popped into my head just then. I didn’t want to ask, because I dreaded the answer, but I knew I had no choice. “Do you…?” I swallowed, forcing down the swell of emotion clogging my throat. “Do you think Chris is selling this stuff?”
His expression said it all. And I knew the answer would gut me. “Don’t know any other way for a person to get into that kind of debt with a dealer, beautiful. They’re not exactly known for handing out loans.”
My vision grew blurry and unfocused as I whispered, “He’s selling to kids, Trick. He has babies of his own, and he’s going out and selling this shit to other peoples’ babies. How can he do that?”
“Nona, stop,” he commanded. “Your babies are safe and sound under your roof, and what that asshole does isn’t on you, you hear me? It is not on you. It’s all on him. Don’t even think on that.”
“I-I’ll try not to.”
But I knew the effort would be for nothing. There was no way in hell I’d be able to let this go. However, I managed to go back out to Tris and put his mind at ease. We settled in and started the movie back up. Trick joined us a while later, and I did a good job of pretending everything was okay.
But later that night, for the first time since Trick started sleeping beside me, it took forever for me to drift off. And it wasn’t a good sleep.
Not at all.