Page 61 of Risking it All

Chapter twenty-eight

Macie

My heart beat like a bass drum, and once again, I feltalive. A sensation closely associated with Relic. Yearbook in hand, I crept down the stairs and was thankful for all the nightlights Mom had put up in the house after I came home from the hospital. I then did something I had never done before—turned off the alarm, which included the motion sensors and the outside cameras. Dad had given me the code years ago to put me in charge when he and Mom had gone on dates because Dad could never imagine me being so rebellious.

I went into the finished basement, closing the door to the kitchen behind me, went down the stairs, and then stood by the French doors. Every second lasted ten minutes. I looked upon the basement like I had never seen it before. A flat screen on the wall, a couch where my brothers spent hours playing video games, and the bed my parents kept here for overnight, out-of-town guests.

My cell vibrated:Here

My fingers felt tingly as I touched the knob. Yes, I had lied to my parents since February—daily, but this…opening this door…sneaking Relic in…I wasn’t doing this to make them happy. I was doing this for me.

I opened the door and nearly sighed with relief when the motion sensor lights didn’t turn on, which meant I had disarmed the entire system.

“It’s me,” Relic whispered, and his shadowed form moved from the gate to me. He stepped in, I closed the door behind me, and we stood there staring at one another. Was this real? Was Relic Aslanov really standing in my house?

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” he replied. “How are you feeling?”

I pressed the yearbook to my chest as if I could hide behind it. “Better. I wish I could handle what happened to me with some grace.”

“Grace?” Relic’s eyes narrowed at me. “Macie, if it had happened to me, I can guarantee I’d be so full of anger I would have been thrown in jail for the shit I would have pulled. Your stomach turns because you’re trying to figure out what happened? That’s nothing compared to how put together you are the rest of the time.”

I focused on the floor. “I don’t feel put together.”

“That’s the secret of life, none of us do.”

Not wanting to discuss it anymore, I handed him the yearbook. “Per your request, one yearbook.”

He took it from me, and the binding made a squeaking noise as he opened it. “You haven’t looked through this?”

“I ordered it at the beginning of the year. Once I received it, there was nothing I felt like looking back on.”

“That’s fair.”

Yeah, I guess it was. “What are you going to use it for?”

Relic closed the book and mashed his lips together like he didn’t want to tell me. “It’s to create a lineup.”

Feeling like a hole opened up inside me and I was tumbling down it, I sat on the edge of the bed. “You think whoever did this goes to school with us?”

“It’s either that or someone from the amusement park, but I’m leaning toward school.”

It made sense as the thought had also crossed my mind. “We need to find who did this because I can’t walk the hallways of school in the fall with them there. What if they hurt me again?”

Relic crouched in front of me. “We’ll find them, Macie.”

I couldn’t think of finding them. I couldn’t think of not finding them. To be honest, I didn’t want to think at all, so I deflected. “And the best news is, when we do, you’ll be fifty thousand dollars richer.”

Relic gave me a sly grin. “Think being in the money will change me?”

I couldn’t imagine Relic ever being anyone but him. “Yup. I bet you won’t talk to anyone anymore. People at school will say you’ve become a snob.”

“I don’t talk to people now. At least, the money will give me an excuse.”

“Do you have big plans when you get the money?” I asked, playfully.

“I’ll do a full European tour. Paris, London, Milan. Want to come?”

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