He doesn’t answer, so I keep painting for a bit longer, silent and patient.
When he huffs again, I cross my eyes and blow out my cheeks.
“What are you, a middle-aged wife whose husband forgot their anniversary?” I throw my paintbrush into the tray and look at him with a frown. “What’s wrong? What did my sister do?” He glances at me out of the corner of his eyes. “You can talk to me. I’ll take it to the grave… which is coming sooner rather than later.”
His lips twitch with a faint smile and he finally stops his aggressive rolling and drops it on top of my brush. “Do you always joke about your death?”
“Should I always cry about it?”
He scratches his jaw with paint-splattered fingers. “I guess not.”
“So… you want to tell me what my bitch twin did?”
He wets his lips. “She just… it’s hypocritical of me to say.”
“So? Say it anyway.”
“She shuts down whenever we talk about…” He throws his hands up in the air and sits on an upturned bucket. “Anything. Be it in regard to you, her past, her future… and now she’s being off with me. She ignored me all day in school today to talk to this girl that she has never spoken to before.”
I nod to show him I’m listening. “Mackenzie?”
“That’s the one.”
“Is it so bad that she wants to make friends?” I question, smirking at him and his jealousy. “Is it because it takes her away from you?”
“That’s not what it is,” he grumbles but even I know that’s exactly what it is. Maybe we are more alike than I thought.
“What is it you want from my sister, Nok?” I ask, sitting cross-legged on the concrete floor, dancing the tip of my finger in a splatter of paint beside me. My bum is going numb.
He clears his throat. “Excuse me?”
“Do you love her?”
“I hardly know her.”
I grit my teeth and repeat with force, “Do you love her.”
“If I do or don’t… that’s a conversation I’ll have with her when the time is right.”
“But you think she’s special?”
He groans and wipes his face on his T, lifting the hem so I get to see what lies beneath. I love it when he does that. I’m not so much of a monster that I can’t appreciate a handsome male when I see one. “Let’s just drop it.”
“Not a chance.” I bum shuffle closer to him, stopping when I’m within touching distance. “Is she special to you? Or is she just your step on the way to finding the right woman?”
His hazel-ish brown eyes shine in the dim light, flickering as he thinks on it and I’m curious as to what’s going through his mind right now. “I’m only eighteen—”
“So? Age is—”
He raises a hand to cut me off. “I always thought love was a pussy excuse for losing your game in the dating world.” His eyes don’t come to mine, they close for a moment as though daring himself to speak and when they reopen the fiery determination there sends a thrill through my body. “And yet here I am, finding myself terrified that your sister might just suddenly decide she’s bored of me.”
“If only you knew,” I mumble under my breath, feeling almost sorry for him because his feelings replicate my own so well. “She’s ignored you for one day. Not a year. It’s not a big deal.”
“Has she said anything to you?”
I shake my head, wishing that she had, wishing that she would tire of him so we can go again. “Nothing.”
“But even if she had, would you tell me?” His charming yet annoying smile returns.
Laughing, I pick up his roller and stand with it poised and ready for action. “Definitely not.”
“I’ll look after her, you know that, right? After you’re gone. I’ll protect her.”
My heart thuds painfully in my chest. I want to scream at him. I want to tell him that it’s not his job to. I want to tell him she’s mine and always will be. But I find myself thinking of my sister and how happy she has been lately. Am I so selfish that I can’t allow her one young love?
“Thank you,” I whisper and start rolling the white onto the dirty gray wall. “We probably should have cleaned the wall better before adding gloss.”
“I did say that.”
I put my finger to my lips and shush him, making him laugh under his breath.
Nokosi Locklear isn’t a bad guy… but he has the chance to derail our lives. I can’t let him do that. No matter what, my plan still stands.
He’s going down, it is as it is.
But I can allow her a little more time. It would be a kindness she deserves.
“Don’t hurt her, Nok,” I say firmly, and his brows hit his hairline, “you’ll regret it if you do.”
Lilith
“How did you get all of this information?” I ask Mackenzie, awed by what’s laid on the grass between us. Two binders full of laminated pouches that hold sheets upon sheets of information on the School Sigil Searer and their victims. “It’s insane.”
“Too right,” Joseph mutters, also as awed as me.
I brought Mackenzie here on my dirt bike, much to her despair. I let her use my sister’s old helmet, somebody may as well. She was shocked to say the least but there’s no way I was getting my dad’s Prius to the fucking track.
She clung tight to my body and screamed most of the way here, her heavy backpack weighing my turns down.
This all got planned yesterday at school when I hung around with her for the day after learning of her obsession with this killer. I’m so glad I did. This bitch has FBI files on it that have never been released to the public. She won’t tell me how she got them, just that, if she gets caught with them, she’ll go to jail.
My lips are sealed, and she trusts that much of me.
“It took a lot of time, but I had this thought that I might be able to figure it out myself. I mean there’s a fifty-thousand-dollar reward for any information leading to this dude’s arrest.” She is so animated and chatty in a way I’ve never been. She’s like Emma Stone whereas I’m more Billy Eilish.
She’s nice enough but I reckon I’ll tire of her soon.
Bobby whistles a long low note. He’s impressed. “You’ve even got some of their fucking dead photos. That’s just creepy.”
“Totes,” Mackenzie replied. “I had nightmares for days the first time I saw them. I felt like I was doing them a disservice and violating them in some way, so I don’t look at the pictures anymore.”
“Respectful,” I state, nodding softly.
“Where’s Nokosi?” Nash suddenly asks, appearing from the tree line with his friends.
“At work,” I reply without looking up from the paper.
“What are you doing?” he asks as he gets closer.
Mackenzie looks at me for confirmation of trust.
“That’s on you,” I tell her. “These seem like good people, but I don’t know them well enough to vouch for their loyalty.”
“Ouch, Lil, what a burn,” Joseph jokes, giving me a playful shove.