Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Kira
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Nix says.
Flinching, I quickly remove my fingers from the blinds, letting them rattle closed as I spin to face her. She’s pulling a choker over her head, looking more primped than usual.
“No, there’s not.” I shake my head and push past her, trying to put some distance between me and the window.
I know I shouldn’t keep checking, but I can’t help myself.
Nosy Nellie’s house has been dark for two days now, and the shoe has to drop at some point.
But when? She didn’t have any family that I know of, but surely she had a friend—someone who will be concerned when they don’t hear from her and send a wellness check. But then what happens?
Curling back into the nest I’ve built on the couch, I pull the blanket up to my chin as the sick feeling in my stomach worsens. I have no idea what Jax did with her body. For all I know, she’s rotting away right next door. But he wouldn’t do that, would he? That would mean leaving a bullet to find.
“You’re being weird.” Nix pulls her trapped hair from the choker and plops down next to me. “If this is about Marshal… I really think we’re in the clear.”
I snort. Not a chance. That’s another shoe I’m waiting to drop. There are shoes everywhere. It’s raining shoes. Shoes. Shoes. Shoes.
I swallow the bile in my mouth.
I never should have gotten in the car with Jax. As if I didn’t have enough trouble, he brought more right to my doorstep.
Arnold.
I shudder just thinking his name. Apparently, that’s what Jax wanted to talk to me about—about the psychotic fucking mercenary who would be snooping around. But I think he should have led with that instead of fucking kissing me.
Groaning, I sink further into the couch, and Nix huddles in next to me.
“I’m just going to stay home,” she says.
“No.” I immediately try to sit up.
She’s been cooped up with me for the last two days, trying to make me feel better for something she doesn’t even know about.
And while part of me worries that she’s not unraveling like I am—she did kill Marshal, even if inadvertently—another part of me is relieved. If she can move past it, I want her to.
“Go. I’m fine.” I push at her.
“You aren’t, though.” She tilts her head, pity in her eyes.
“I am,” I insist. “I’m just trying to rest. I did have a heart attack, you know.”
I rub my chest to convince her, taking a dramatic breath. But it’s not all a show. My chest does hurt. It’s tight and stabby. Probably not a good sign, but I have bigger problems.
“All the more reason for me to stay,” she says.
“You already did your makeup,” I tell her. “Go get some use out of it. Who are you going with, anyway?”
She bites her lip and looks away.
“Ugh.” I fall back with a scowl, knowing exactly who she’s seeing. “Just stay away from his brother.”
Caleb seems like a good kid… all things considered. I don’t know what the fuck happened to Jax. How did he fall in with the wrong people? I mean, his father is a lawyer, for crying out loud.
“I doubt Jax is going to want to see a movie with us,” Nix says, getting up.
“Yeah,” I grumble. “He’s probably too busy killing people.”
Nix sighs.
“What?” I snap. “That’s what he does.”
“Kira, I killed someone.” She slaps her hands at her side. “Are you going to hate me too?”
“No! What you did was an accident. You didn’t have a choice.”
I throw the blanket away. How could she think that? She did what she had to do to protect herself. If anything, Marshal got himself killed.
“Maybe Jax doesn’t have a choice.” She raises her chin.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I rear back. “Of course he has a choice.”
Nix squeezes her eyes shut, taking a deep breath like I’m just too dense for her, and shakes her head. But what could she possibly be thinking? This isn’t the same at all.
“Am I missing something? Jesus, Nix. You saw him light Marshal on fire.”
“No.” She draws out the word like I’m a child. “I saw him helping us when he didn’t have to. I saw him carry you down the mountain when you couldn’t make it yourself. I saw him spend his whole Saturday on his knees pulling up our floors so we wouldn’t get caught.”
My mouth falls open. Is she really defending him right now?
“Did you know I offered to help?” she continues. “Did you know that not only did he tell me no, but that he also practically forced me to spend the day vegging on the couch with Caleb because—in his words—killing someone is one of the worst things for your soul?”
I raise a brow.
“Yeah. He used the word soul.” She crinkles her nose. “But I’m just saying, maybe you don’t know him like you think. Caleb also says their father isn’t the nicest…”
Shaking my head, I can’t help but rub at my temples. “Yeah, well neither was ours, but we don’t kill people.”
“Oh, my God.” She throws her hands up. “Fine. Whatever. I don’t care.” She flounces down the hall.
She mutters something I can’t hear, but I don’t care either, and I roughly pull the blanket back over myself. God. She’s delusional. Jax did all those things because that’s what he does. It’s his literal fucking job.
But… I mean… We didn’t really pay him, did we?
I shake my head as Nix comes back out, and I quickly focus on the TV. I can’t bring myself to meet her eyes. Because she’s wrong, right? She’s a teenager. She doesn’t see how not normal what Jax does is, even if we may have done the wrong thing with Marshal.
She snatches her phone off the table and goes to the door before pausing, planting a hand on her hip. “You’re not going to croak while I’m gone, right?”
I roll my eyes. “No, I’m not going to croak.” But when I look at her, her staple sass has dimmed to worry. “No,” I say again, this time in earnest. “I’m going to be fine.”
She seems to mull this over before nodding, her features pinching again. “Good, ‘cause I don’t want to say I love you while I’m mad at you.”
I try not to laugh. “Well, good. I don’t want to say it either.”
She presses her lips together, trying not to smile. “Okay, fine.” She rolls her eyes. “I love you.”
“Ew,” I jokingly pull the blanket up higher.
“Don’t die, ‘kay?” She pulls the door open.
“I couldn’t get that lucky,” I holler as she slips out and shuts the door.