If it hadn’t been so quiet in the room, I wouldn’t have heard her next sentence. “And I’d do it again if I had to.”
“Okay. I get that.” I understood where she came from. Which meant that I would have to accept that she did the right thing and respect what she’d been through because of it. “What do we do next?”
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I don’t know. That’s a tough one. I mean, I guess I have to find out what’s happening downstairs.”
“Well, I’ll be with you the whole time. If you want me to be.” I wanted to be supportive, but I knew she had to be the one to make the decision.
“Yeah. I want you to be.” I could tell she was trying to smile, but failing. “But I’m not sure how this is all going to go down.”
She was hesitant, and now my fists had put her in a position she didn’t want to be in. My rage was still there, bubbling at the top of my throat, but doing the right thing and being a friend to Pixie used to be one in the same. Now, things were murky. How could I ask her to do anything? I wanted to just be here for her, even if that meant being away from her. It was conflicting. Toss in the added surreality of being in the same room with her after so much time apart and I was a mess.
“Hey. It’s great to see you.” We were in a heap of crazy, but I was overcome with seeing her. And then her smile was genuine.
“You have no idea how much I missed you.” I stood up again. She took off for me, and I wrapped her in a huge hug.
“Hey, Pixie,” I mumbled into the top of her hair.
“Hey, Gaze,” she responded, her face buried in my chest.
We stayed like that for minutes. Just being together. Peace flooded my system. She was just right. Still. After all this time.
“You grew. Like a lot.” She looked up at my face and I was moved by her tears.
“Yeah, I super grew the hell up. My foster mom said it was a full-time job keeping me in clothes that fit.” I used the opportunity to get a close look at her face. Her skin was so soft looking and her hair was still thick and a little wild. “But you look like you shrank.”
She stepped back and pretended to hit my arm. “I’ve grown like five inches since you’ve been gone. I didn’t know you were going to totally Hulk out. How was the foster home?”
“It was good. I wrote to you for a long time. Never heard back, so I wasn’t sure.”
“You what? You wrote? What the hell?” She backed up and started pacing. “Fucking Bic. He has the key to the mailbox, and I bet he…” She kicked the table leg in anger and then hopped around holding her foot.
“I’m sorry.”
“I would’ve written back. Hell, I would’ve come to visit had I known your address. They wouldn’t tell me to save my life.” She tested out walking on her foot and she could do it. “I wonder if he saved them.”
“It doesn’t matter now. I can tell you what was in them, all of them. I missed you. I was worried about you.” I was with Pixie Rae. I had thought of her every night, saying a little prayer in my head that she was okay.
“Well, you saw my letters. I’m sorry about that. I know they were rough. It was my therapy.” She twisted her fingers together. “What you must think…”
“I think you’re a survivor that’s brave as hell. And I’m in pain because I wished I had been here.” That’s all I had. Straight from my heart.
“Thanks for that.” She untwisted her fingers and stuck them into the pockets of my jacket. I winced when I thought of what could be in there. She pulled out a sticky note and then held it out to me. “Ashlin’s phone number?”
I took the paper from her and glanced at it. Ashlin must have stuck it in my pocket at some point in the last two days. It had a little heart on it as well.
I crumpled it up. “She’s an asshole.”
“Yes. Yes, she is.” Pixie took a deep breath. “Mrs. Jonas is going to come back soon. We should probably get out of here.”
“Yeah. Let’s get your stuff, and maybe you can come live with me.” I shrugged, the words tumbling out of my mouth without a thought.
“And your dad?” She seemed bewildered.
“He’s my bitch now. He won’t do anything to us.” I smiled, but I knew only rage was really in my eyes.
“Okay, well, let’s see how that goes. I’d love to be away from Bic. I only have a few months left anyway. He told me he was kicking me out when I turned eighteen.” She tucked in her chair and then mine before heading to the front door.
“I hate him.” I felt the low growl building in my throat.
“Get in line, ’cause I want him dead.”
Pixie locked the door from the key around her neck and then we took the stairs. We didn’t get far because there was an officer at the front door.
Chapter 45
Pixie
OFFICER SAM WAS at my door. Well, he was a detective now, so he had on a suit, but his badge was on full display. Dreama was regaling him with a tale that had a lot of hand motions and cursing. She teetered on her high heels. It occured to me that she might be drunk. As Gaze and I stepped into the hallway, Sam held up his finger to stop me from moving and then used it to beckon me closer.
“Let’s bolt,” Gaze whispered in my ear. I knew we had a lot to discuss, but having him as my partner in sneaking around made me nostalgic and happy.
“It’s cool. I know this one.” I held out my hand to Gaze and he took it and squeezed gently.
As we approached, we heard the tail end of Dreama’s story, her attention totally focused on Sam. “And then that girl, I swear she’s evil, she took off with the robber and I think he got like two grand out of Bic’s pockets, and it’s all horrible and scary, and I think he tried to kill Bic and he will be back for me.” Her wild, huge blue eyes rolled toward Gaze and me. “Oh, shit. He’s back for me. Get him!”
I let go of Gaze’s hand so I could hug Sam. He hugged me back.
“Hey, feisty. What’s going on here?” He held out a hand to Gaze who shook it, but his face was slightly bewildered.
“This is Gaze. He’s hard to see in there because he’s a giant now.”
“Wow. They feed you Miracle Grow at that foster home?”
Sam stuck out his hand for a shake and Gaze seemed leery but gave in to the gesture.
Dreama was furious at our lack of attention to her. I could see into the apartment and Bic was sitting on the couch with tampons up each nostril. He had a bag of peas on his cheek.
I hated him.
Detective Sam finally got down to business. “I have a complaint here that there was an altercation?”
“I have a lawyer.” Gaze’s face closed down completely.
“That’s good news. Glad you have representation. Pixie, did you want to tell me what went on here?” Sam pointed at Bic with his pinkie and Gaze with his thumb.
I looked from Gaze to Sam and then back again. “Gaze found out something that made him distrustful of this situation.”
Sam looked down at his notepad and nodded. “That sounds about right.” He turned to Dreama. “You still want to file a complaint, miss?”