I reprimanded myself, which I never did except when it came to her, dragging my gaze up to hers. Not yet, my sweet Angel, but when the time comes, I will make you mine.
Chapter 3
Lina
“I can’t believe we’re having our own apartment.” Nicky squeaked, carrying the last of our boxes into the condo.
“I know, right?” In a haze, I stacked my box with the others in the living room that was bigger than our entire bedroom at Bellomo.
Not that I wasn’t grateful for the amazing boarding school that took us in after the murder. Our home for the past four years was perfect. A private academy—community—for the rich elite we’d have never crossed paths with or even have known such establishments existed if the academy hadn’t started that charity program for orphans and abused children four years ago. I couldn’t believe how lucky we’d been to be one of the firsts who were accepted there. They only took one or two children in every grade every year.
We—program kids—had our own dorm and dining hall. We only met the other kids during classes and activities. Some of us didn’t like that we were separated from the rich students, but I thought it was the perfect arrangement for our protection.
Bellomo—an academy named after and belonged to the most powerful family in Chicago—might have given us the best shelter and education people like us could have ever received, but it was built exclusively for the wealthy and powerful. The rich kids would have bullied us—had bullied, name called and fought with some of us already—and we wouldn’t have stood a chance. It was their home, and we were the freeloaders.
However, Nicky and I never faced that challenge. No one had ever tried anything with us. Maybe because of Nicky. No one crossed that girl. She was tall and strong, and she’d spent every spare moment she got at the gym to get even stronger. She was my superhero.
Or maybe because everybody knew about the murder. How gruesome it was and that an unknown vigilante did it. I liked to believe they thought if they hurt us, the vigilante would come for them just like he had come for my father.
Or maybe it was just luck. The same luck that landed Nicky a full Bellomo scholarship to study Architecture at IIT Chicago. The same luck that got us into Bellomo in the first place.
I straightened up, my arms circling around my body reflexively, my eyes roaming the place. The condo had an open floor plan. The living room, dining room and kitchen all flowed together. There were two bedrooms down the only hallway, each with a private bathroom. We could have never afforded such a place if it weren’t for Nicky’s scholarship and the job she got at one of the coffee shops on campus. The money from our old house wasn’t much to begin with. It was small and dingy and…haunted with our father’s murder and his crimes when he was alive.
The condo was more than I could’ve ever dreamed of having, and yet I couldn’t shake the same old feeling that someone was watching me. Even here.
A hand patted my shoulder, and I jumped. Then I sighed and swallowed as I realized it was just Nicky.
She rubbed my back. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just…”
Her tender gaze traveled through the windows and among the stretch of skyscrapers that still didn’t block any sunlight from reaching inside the new place. “You really think he’s out there, don’t you?”
I shook my head, laughing under my breath. “I know it’s silly.”
“There’s nothing silly or funny about a vigilante killer stalking you, Lina.”
I grimaced, sudden, inexplicable anger flickering inside me. I didn’t like the way she described him, even though it might be true. “Stalking is a big word.”
She gaped at me. “Lina!” Then her eyebrows shot high in shock. “Please don’t tell me you… Did you… Have you actually seen him? Has he ever talked to you? Did he fucking touch you?”
“Oh my God. What are you…?” I shook my head fast. “I haven’t seen or talked to anyone. This is probably all my stupid imagination, but if, and only if, he exists and is out there, I don’t think he’s a…stalker.” More like a dark guardian angel.
“No?” She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a brow at me.
“Yeah. What if he just did it to protect us, you know?”
She snorted. “And now he’s out there keeping an eye on us in case another asshole comes our way?”
I busied myself with the boxes, escaping her taunting gaze. “Like I said it’s silly. I just...”
“You’re still thinking about how easily we got into Bellomo, aren’t you? You still think that murderer has a hand—”
“Don’t you ever?” I looked at her over my shoulder. “Things like that don’t just happen to people like us, Nicky.” That miracle—even though I was forever grateful for it—was too good to be true.
“Nobody does stuff like that for people like us without expecting something in return either. It’s been four years. Don’t you think he’d have showed up by now, asking for whatever the hell he wanted in return from us? From you?”
I stacked a couple of boxes to take them to my room and shrugged. “I guess so.”
“C’mon, Lina. You know what? I think getting into that school was Karma’s way of making it up for the shit we had to go through, but that’s all the luck we’ve received. Everything else was our hard work or are you telling me that we haven’t busted our butts to stay in that school, that I haven’t studied my ass off to get that scholarship?”
I left the boxes and spun. Then I held her arms, holding her gaze. “Of course not. You worked really hard for this. You graduated first in your class for God’s sake. You earned that scholarship fair and square.”
“Then why are you still thinking that weird shit? There’s no one out there, Nicky. There’s only us. Baldi girls versus the world. We don’t need saviors. Only each other.”
I smiled and nodded in agreement. Nicky was everything to me. I had no clue what I’d do without her. My life without my sister was unimaginable even though we were so different. She was the organized, in your face, confident realist, and I was the quiet, all over the place dreamer. She kept me in check, and we balanced each other out.
I almost dismissed the whole he idea, borrowing her logic, when my gaze dropped to the violin case nestled in the top box of my stack. My mind drifted to my last birthday when I found it wrapped in my dorm room right on my bed. The most precious gift I’d ever received in my whole life. “What about the birthday gifts that miraculously appeared on my bed?”
“One of the perks of being born on Halloween. The guys at school were messing with you for a good spook.” She went on with the story she’d told me every time my fears got the best of me. Every year our friends gathered money and got me a present, but instead of just giving it to me, they left it on my bed with no card or note or anything, made it look like it came from a stranger and then teased me about it.
I never believed that story. The gifts—a gold necklace with an angel pendant, a watch, a pair of silver earrings with pink tourmalines, and the violin—were really expensive, and said friends denied buying me any gifts when I confronted them. Nicky had always said it was part of the act, but no one was that good of an actor.