When you achieved anything big, hit any level of fame and fortune, people from your past came crawling out of the woodwork. I needed to know now, before I had anything for someone to want to take a piece of, that Mom cared. Now, before there was any kind of agenda based on what she could get from me… If she found me because she saw me on TV, it wouldn’t be the same.
Otherwise, I’d always wonder.
And that was my night going from spectacular to bad to even worse.
With a shaky breath, I switched to a different message, trying to cool my rising anger.
ME: Running a little late. I’ll be there as soon as I can.
JULES: Okay, just let me know if you need to reschedule.
ME: No, I’ve got an errand to do and then I’ll be there.
I’d make it up to Jules and then it would all be okay. I just needed to clean a few things up, namely my sister, who couldn’t keep herself out of trouble.
I climbed the three sets of stairs and burst into the apartment. A guy’s head whipped up and I charged at him, tackling him around the waist and taking him to the ground. The anger clouded out the panic at what Alexis might have gotten herself into this time.
Grabbing onto the front of his shirt, I slammed him back to the floor. He wrapped his hands around my wrists, trying to throw me off.
“Where the fuck is she?” I growled.
His eyes widened and he shook beneath me. “Who?”
“Don’t screw with me. Alexis. She said you wouldn’t let her leave. Where is she?”
“The redhead?”
Was this asshole that dumb? “Yes, the redhead. Where is she?”
He let go of my wrist and pointed a shaky finger down a darkened hallway to the right. “I got home from work after a twelve-hour shift and there’s some random chick in my apartment. I asked her who the hell she was and she ran into the bathroom.”
I shoved him back down again and got up.
“She’s been in there for hours. My roommate brought her home. He left, won’t be home until the morning, and I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I’ve got to piss,” he called out from the floor.
Not paying attention to his bullshit, I knocked on the one closed door in the hallway.
“Go away. I called my brother; he’ll be here any minute.”
“Alexis, it’s me.”
The bathroom door cracked open and she stared at me through the crack. “You’re here!” She threw the door open and hugged me with her hands away from my body. “You came.”
“You told me you needed my help. Of course I came.”
The distinct, acrid smell of nail polish wafted from the bathroom.
“Let me get my stuff.” She bounced back inside like I was picking her up from a day at school, not from nearly beating the shit out of a guy who she’d said wouldn’t let her leave the bathroom.
She screwed the cap on her nail polish bottle, careful of her fingers.
“You were painting your nails?”
“What else was I supposed to do while I was stuck in here?” She stood in front of me with her bag looped over her shoulder.
“I don’t know. Maybe leave?” I wrapped my finger around her arm and pulled her toward the front door.
The guy who I’d nearly knocked out stood across the living room. “Sorry about that, man.”
“Always the redheads,” he muttered under his breath before bolting back down the hallway we’d cleared. The bathroom door slammed before we got out the front door.
The walk to my car was in dead silence. It was already late and Jules had to be wondering where the hell I was.
“Alexis, I could’ve killed that guy in there.”
“Unlikely. Maybe a black eye or something.”
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. “And you think that would be okay? Some dude comes home from work after a long day and we fuck that long day up even more.”
“You’re overreacting. Thank you for coming to get me.” She blew on her nails.
“Are you serious right now?”
She jumped at the boom of my words. “I’m sorry, okay. I didn’t know who the guy was. I figured maybe he broke in or something, so I freaked and ran into the bathroom.”
“For hours.”
“Then he was pissed so I thought the best thing to do was wait for reinforcements to arrive.”
I dragged my fingers through my hair and grabbed my phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“I’m late for a date right now and am late because I was rushing to you. I can’t keep doing this, Alexis. I can’t.”
She gently took my phone from me and tucked it under her leg. “No texting and driving; it’s not safe. I won’t do it again. I promise.” She turned in her seat and pressed her palms together, the hostility draining from her words. “I overreacted. I get that and I’m sorry.”
“Me coming to your rescue isn’t helping. And I won’t always be there to do it. You’ve got to start making better choices for yourself.”
“You just don’t want to help me anymore.” Her voice was mouse squeak small.
“I want you to not need help anymore. One day you’re going to get yourself into a situation even I can’t help you out of. Stop trying to force yourself down a bad path.”
“And what path should I be on?” She folded her arms across her chest, nails out, wouldn’t want to smudge.
“Any path. Go to school. Get a job. Something.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Will you help me?”
“Help you?”
“We can look up some college programs. Applications should be available for next year right now. We can sit down and hash it all out.”
“You’re being serious?” If she figured out her life, or at least got off this self-destructive path, it would keep me from worrying so much when I did get drafted. What if I ended up on the other side of the country? Even if I didn’t, I’d be crisscrossing the coasts. If she was serious, I couldn’t let this chance go.
“Super serious. School could be good for me.” She crossed her heart and held up her hand palm out. “If you help me, I’ll do it.”
“Okay, but if we do this, you have to follow through.”
“One hundred percent.” She pulled out my phone and started googling. “My phone’s dead.” She looked at me with sincerity in her eyes. “I can get there with your help, big bro.”
And she knew once she pulled that card out I’d do anything for her. Getting her set up on a path would take one more worry off my plate. It would keep me from needing to make hours-long trips to random neighborhoods to rescue Alexis.
And maybe she’d finally be safe and let herself have a future.
25
Jules
“Aww, that apron’s adorable.” Avery pushed a baker’s rack filled with ten trays of donuts to proof toward the oven.
The apron was made from a vintage fabric with a cherry pattern on it and had a red frill around the edges. “I bought it at a farmers market over the summer.”
“It’s perfect. What are you making today?”