“I’m sorry about that,” Niko says without turning.
“No—don’t.” My cheeks burn hot with embarrassment, though I don’t know why. They’re the ones who came here under pretense. They’re the ones planning to steal. And I’m the one desperate enough to need their help.
“I have to go right now,” he says, finally glancing over his shoulder, his black eyes unreadable.
To steal the diamonds? I’m not sure he knows where they are, exactly, but he was close. We could play the hot-cold game together, and I’d show him. All he has to do is drive me away after.
“I’ll come back, okay? Tonight.”
He doesn’t wait for me to answer. He doesn’t go inside the house, either. Instead he follows the older man through the gate, leaving me alone by the pool. He said he would come back. I should take comfort in that. But I can’t help feeling the heat all over my heat, the steady hum that says I’m already burned beneath the suntan lotion he applied.
It doesn’t take much to move me—protecting me from the sun, from wandering eyes. It’s more than I’ve had in a long time. Probably ever. Enough to make me trust him when I shouldn’t.
God, if he only believed me I think I’d fall apart.
CHAPTER FIVE
I’m lying in bed with the moon high in my window, wondering if I made up the whole encounter. Wondering if I can even believe myself. It seems impossible that Niko would protect me. That he would come for me, like some kind of white knight to rescue the princess from the tower.
A soft rap at my window makes me jump.
I find Niko standing below my window, using the same ladder he uses to prune the ivy, the same one I first saw him on. It doesn’t reach high enough for him to get into the window easily. Still it seems effortless, the way he climbs through once I’ve unlocked the latch.
Then he’s standing in my room, this place of pink ruffles and childhood despair, with his dark shirt and worn jeans and severe expression. He doesn’t speak immediately. Instead he paces a large circle across the plush carpet, like a tiger exploring his new cage, examining its limits.
“You want to leave,” he says. It isn’t a question.
Hope expands inside me, though I don’t know what I’m hoping for exactly. That he’ll kiss me? That he’ll save me? This isn’t a fairy tale, but I still want everything. That’s always been my downfall, believing in happy endings. “Will you do it?”
He paces another circle, glaring at my white dresser and four poster bed as if they’ve personally offended him. As if they ask too much. “You think it’s better fifty miles from here? You think having a drunk mom and an asshole dad are the worst things in the world?”
Shame heats my cheeks. Not because he’s wrong, but because I don’t know. I don’t know what it’s like fifty miles from here. The university is fifteen miles away, and that’s as far as I’ve been.
He comes to a stop in front of me, breathing hard, his eyes almost wild. “Look at you. So fucking pretty. So fucking naïve. Do you even have any money that’s not on your Daddy’s credit card? Do you think you’ll survive for one day out there?”
He makes it sound like he’s going to drop me off in the middle of a jungle, and maybe he is. Maybe a lifetime in captivity is better than even a day out from under my parent’s thumb. “You don’t get to judge me, Niko. You look at the nice house and the nice clothes and think it’s a nice life? Who’s the naïve one?”
His brown eyes widen, as if he’s surprised. And maybe a little impressed. “Tell me, then. What’s so horrible that you have to get away from here?”
My mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Because that’s how it feels every day here. That I can say words, but they don’t matter. I can scream the truth at the top of my lungs and no one will believe me.
A shadow passes over his eyes, and I brace myself. This is where he’ll ridicule me. And maybe I’ll deserve it. I’ve stopped believing myself enough to know.
That’s what’s so horrible I have to get away from here. How I don’t even trust myself anymore. Maybe I never did see my father kill that man in cold blood. Maybe I was lying when I told my teacher that. Maybe my parents were right when they insisted I had made up that story with my terrible mind.
“You can tell me,” he says, so softly something inside me cracks.
“So that you can call me a poor little rich girl?”
“No. So that I can help you.”
I’ve spent a lifetime with my father calling me stupid, with my mother calling me a liar. With teachers giving me pitying looks, because my parents have had a conference to tell them all about me before the first day of class. Most of the kids knew better than to come near me. Their parents had warned them about my family.
And the few that wanted to be friends… it was too strange being the only one who wasn’t allowed to come over for a sleepover, to attend a birthday party, to meet at the mall.
A lifetime of suppression and lies, so my voice feels rusty as I finally speak the truth. “I’m not allowed to leave. Ever. I go to school with a limo and a driver, but what you don’t know is that he’s armed. Not to protect me. To make sure I do what he says.”
Niko looks confused, which is probably a normal response. It’s been a long time since I’ve met someone normal. Someone with dirt under his nails and jeans with real holes in them instead of fake ones.
“The phone here can only call my mom and my dad’s mobile phones.” A small laugh comes out, but it feels more like a sob. “They actually disabled the ability to call 911, which wasn’t easy let me tell you. They had to bribe someone at the phone company.”
His expression hardens. “You’re home alone so much. What if something happened?”
“I don’t think they would care. Maybe they would even be relieved. I graduate from college in two years, and then what will they do with me?”
“But why? Why don’t they let you go?”
“Because I know too much. And because I’ll tell anyone who will listen. Which is no one. They’ve made sure no one will believe me. But they won’t risk it by letting me out, either.”
“Do they hurt you?”
He means with fists. “No, but I don’t feel safe either. I’m not really a daughter to them. I’m part of this whole façade. The house and the cars. The pretty little family. But I also have a mouth and a mind of my own. I don’t think my dad will ever risk letting me go.”
“Because you could put him behind bars.” His voice is so matter of fact it takes my breath away.
“You believe me?”
“It’s not really a stretch,” he says, his voice dry. “I watched enough to know you don’t leave this house except in that limo when you go to school. And I know your dad is dangerous enough to have half a million dollars in black market diamonds in his living room.”
“Right,” I say, feeling strangely deflated. It’s powerful to have someone believe me, but that’s only because he’s been watching to steal the diamonds. He’s seen it for himself.