Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Sutton
I’d been warned. Well, I’d kinda been warned.
Langston was a man of few words, and that was one of the many things I liked about my friend.
He always covered the important stuff and left the rest of the talking to Wellston.
We all had a weird balance, and it worked for us.
What I hadn’t expected was to walk into the apartment and find that the adorable redheaded waitress from Livy’s still in the same shirt and pants she’d worn earlier to work, curled up on the couch with her questionably dressed friend, looking paler than normal, and chewing her lip so hard, it looked raw.
“Oh. It’s you.” She said when her Caribbean eyes met mine.
“And me,” Wellston said perkily from beside me, and I knew he was internally laughing at both Marti and me.
There was something about my presence that made her nervous, and though Wellston was sure she had a giant crush on me, I wondered if it wasn’t the air of authority I tended to generate.
I hadn’t missed the way she always seemed to keep her eyes moving, or the way she tensed any time the bell over the door at Livy’s chimed.
It was clear, at least to someone who knew what to look for, that she lived in a constant state of fight or flight.
Eyes widening at Wellston, she nodded. “And you. That’s what I meant. It’s both of you. Hi.”
At least the adorably awkward display had put some color in her cheeks. She’d been looking a little pale when I first walked in.
Martina Wilkins was a stunner, though I didn’t think she had any idea. She had auburn hair with bleached out strands, bright turquoise, cat shaped eyes and about a million freckles. I’d always been a sucker for freckles.
I nudged Wellston because I knew he’d done it on purpose.
He didn’t intend to be even slightly malicious toward her, but I didn’t want her to catch on and take it the wrong way.
She didn’t know that he always teased me about the amount of attention I paid her, or how often her name came up in conversation for absolutely no reason at all.
Langston still wasn’t saying much, but it was clear by the way Rendi was dressed that she’d been moving in a hurry. Something must have seriously spooked her. “What’s going on Rendi? Langston said you thought your brother might be after you?”
She blinked, though only one eye was visible. Her blond ponytail covered the other. “What? I don’t have a brother. Why would you think I was the one in trouble.”
I glanced down at her boots, completely confused. “Uh.”
Langston snorted behind me. I turned to glance at him, a little surprised, since he normally wasn’t one to make noises like that unless he was trying to communicate with someone, and that was all he had in the tank, but he was clearly trying to hide a smile, so I turned back to the girls, hoping for some clarity.
“For the love of mud,” Rendi grumbled, glancing down at herself. “How exactly do you guys sleep? I’m sorry I don’t wear my fancy clothes to bed, but I like to be comfortable.”
“It’s seven in the evening,” Langston grumbled. “Aren’t you supposed to be out partying or something?”
Rendi’s voice was high with indignation as she moved to her knees on the couch, turning to glare at him. “It’s a Wednesday! My Mom taught me better than that. Partying is for Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Sometimes Sundays, but only after God time.”
Marti nodded, agreeing with her friend. “Yeah. She’s classy.”
Rendi nodded, moving back onto her rear and smoothing her shirt down. “I just panicked. We left in a hurry.”
“She left her retainer at home,” Marti said with a shrug.
“I don’t wear a retainer!” Rendi Protested.
“Oh, right. That’s why that one tooth is starting to overlap the one next to it.”
Rendi gasped, slapping a hand over her mouth and speaking through it. “Shut up! You know I’ve been sensitive about that.”
I tried not to laugh, glancing at Wellston, who was smiling like an idiot, and at Langston who wasn’t glaring quite as hard as he usually did, one side of his mouth quirking slightly.
It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one who liked watching these two squabble.
Though, for me, it was because Marti seemed genuinely comfortable and happy when she was with her best friend.
“So, you’re not the one whose house may or may not have been broken into?” I asked Rendi, and she sighed.
“No, that would be me,” Marti said quietly, her face once again looking pale.
“I ah… I always put tape on the door when I leave, so I know if someone has gone inside when I get back. When I got off today, the tape had been pulled from the door and was wrapped inward. The only way that would have happened was if someone had opened the door. Livy and I are the only ones who have keys.”
“Have you talked to Livy?” Wellston asked, his voice level and serious, probably wondering the same thing I was.
What the hell had she been through that she needed to do something like that?
“I don’t want to worry her and there’s really no need. She got to the diner before me this morning and left after me.”
I moved toward her, easing down on the coffee table directly in front of her. “Could Livy have given the keys to someone? Have you had any issues with the apartment, maybe she sent maintenance over?”
Rendi shook her head hard. “Never. Mom knows what’s at stake. If she were ever to need maintenance on something, one or both of us would be right here, watching.”
Marti glanced over at her friend, and it pinched in my chest to see the gratitude on her face.
It was easy to tell just by watching her as often as I tended to, that Marti wasn’t one to ask for help, and it was hard for her to accept it, even when it was offered freely, but she was clearly grateful to Livy and Rendi.
“And you’ve looked around and nothing seems disturbed?”
She shook her head, frowning. “There isn’t really much to be disturbed. I keep my important papers in my backpack that I take with me all the time, and there really isn’t much else.”
I glanced at my two friends again, pretending to scan the room.
They both looked exactly how I felt, and I was sure they hadn’t missed the bells on the windows or the way the table by the door sat a little off, the legs not quite sitting in the divots where it probably usually sat.
It had been moved, and since there were several glass vases sitting on top with nothing in them, I was willing to bet she regularly put that table in front of the door, so if it swung open, those vases would hit the floor and break.
“Why do you think it was your brother?”
She went back to gnawing on her lip, and I had to fight with myself not to reach up and pry it out from between her teeth. “He hates me, and he’s violent and vindictive. If he finds out where I am, I’m pretty sure he’ll come after me.”
I knew there was more. It was written right there on her face, but I knew she wasn’t ready to talk to me about it, and even though I wanted her to trust me with everything, I also knew it would take time. People who had been through whatever she had clearly been through, didn’t share easily.
“Do you think he wants to kill you?”
She shrugged, giving the smallest nod. “Maybe.”
Rendi straightened a little more beside her. Marti definitely hadn’t told them much, but at least she wasn’t naive.
“Okay, do you have somewhere to stay tonight? We’ll have someone come out and get you squared away with security, but I don't want you staying here until that happens.”
“She’s staying with me.” Rendi’s voice was the sternest I’d ever heard it, even as Marti was shaking her head.
“I don’t want to take trouble over there.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut up. I know it’s hard to believe, but this conversation doesn’t actually concern you.”
Rendi reached out and flicked her best friend directly in the middle of the forehead, making Marti gasp before reaching out and doing the same to Rendi who gasped right back at her.
With the way they both raised their hands immediately after, I could see that this was quickly advancing toward a slap fight, and as entertaining as that might be, I was oddly anxious to get Marti out of this place and tucked away somewhere safe.
Reaching out, I grabbed Marti’s shoulders, angling myself a bit so the impulsive, and slightly wild Rendi would smack me instead of her friend, just in case she swung anyway.
Marti’s eyes were wide as they met mine, her face less than a foot away, making me realize a little late that I was definitely invading her personal space, which seemed to be an issue for me.
I didn’t know why, but anytime I got near her, I felt compelled to get closer.
That could be a real problem now that she was going to be a client.
I’d just have to make sure that I was never alone with her. Not that I thought Rendi was going to let her out of her sight for a while. So, I wouldn’t get the opportunity, even if I wanted it. I didn’t. At all. I was smarter than that. Usually.
“I smell like breakfast,” Marti said, getting that somewhat dazed look she sometimes got. It usually followed or preceded her doing something that made Wellston laugh until he cried.
Sure enough, Wellston snorted, and I eased back from Marti, frowning slightly.
“I’m sorry?”
“I haven’t showered yet, so I smell like the diner.”
I blinked in confusion, glancing over at her friend who shrugged. “She does.”
“I smell better, normally.”
“That’s debatable.”
Marti’s eyes narrowed and she turned to her friend. “Your outfit makes you look like you smell like cat pee.”
“But I don’t, because I’m not a dirty, smelly hussy.”
Marti gasped, and I used the grip I still had on her shoulder to drag her up and away from her friend, trying not to laugh... or notice that I was practically hugging her to me.
“You don't smell like breakfast to me,” I told her, easing her away from me as Wellston chuckled in the background.
And she didn’t. She smelled like the day before— fresh, something slightly floral and soft. Distracting.
“You’re staying with me,” Rendi said after a moment, also standing and crossing her arms. “Either that, or I’m calling my mom and you can go stay with her.”
“You’re a dang tattletale.”