Page 120 of Panic-Button
“Tell me something Little Bird.” His brow arched. “How exactly am I making you see someone? Do you think I have secret holographic technology?”
He had a point. Preston wasn’t a moron. It took some serious intelligence to get away with the things he had, but inventing something that didn’t exist was unlikely. Still…Tico couldn’t be here.
Could he?
My eyes shifted back to the room, where Tico tipped his head and smiled. “It’s really me.”
That was when a familiar scent hit my nostrils—a mixture of mint and citrus that I hadn’t smelled in almost a year.
Oh my god, it was him!
So many emotions rolled through me. Happiness had me rushing over to wrap my arms around Tico. Relief pulled more tears from my eyes, and shock hit me when I realized I could actually feel him. Then finally, anger rolled through me. I was so confused that I didn’t know whether I wanted to beat him to death or hold onto him forever.
So, I did both.
One hand swung through the air, slapping Tico. “I thought you were dead.”
Then, I pulled him into a hug. I was afraid that if I let him go, he’d disappear.
“I’m sorry, Marnie.”
Sorry? That was all he had to say.
“Fuck you, Tico,” I said. Too angry to hold onto him anymore, I shoved him away. “Do you have any idea what you put me through? What you put everyone through….”
Trina, Shelby, Riley, and even Star spent days if not months crying over his loss. We were broken and cursed the world for taking him away. And the entire time, he was here, right under our noses.
“I didn’t want to hurt you.” A tear trickled down Tico’s face, and I could see the guilt burning in his eyes.
I wanted to forgive him. I really, really did. But the grave I spent too many nights with sucked away whatever innocence I had left. The Marnie he knew died that day.
We all died that day.
“Riley got a gun, Tico. Riley!”
Micha didn’t know about it, but she told me. Riley was so scared that something would happen to someone else she loved that she drove to New Haven—a place where the addicts and degenerates of the world went to die—and bought a pistol from some random guy.
“I-I…” he stuttered. “I didn’t know.”
“Did you know she got drunk the night of your funeral? Shelby had to take her keys because she was going to drive, Tico.”
A part of me wanted to comfort him and wipe the wet streaks off his face. Instead, I scrubbed my own tears away.
Tico reached out for me, but I jerked back. “You broke her, Tico.”
He broke all of us.
“Don’t get mad at him, Little Bird,” Preston piped in. “He didn’t have a choice.”
My fists balled against the rage boiling in my veins. This was all Preston’s fault. He took him away from me. He took everything away, my sister, my friends, and my life. I cursed the day I met him.
“What did you do to him?”
“Nothing,” Preston said. “I’m protecting him.”
“From what? The people who loved him?”
Tico was the one to answer. “My family will kill me if they know I’m alive.”
