Page 14 of Pike
He didn’t yell. He didn’t hit.
The rest I could deal with.
Chapter Ten
Pike
She was on the goddamn sofa. Again. For the third night in a row I woke up to make sure everything was still quiet and safe, only to find Chloe wide awake, staring into space in the middle of the night. The woman never fucking slept. She cooked and cleaned all day, reading and playing with Gemma in between chores, and then she sat up all night waiting for the boogeyman to come for her.
It was sad. It was unhealthy.
It was also annoying as fuck.
I watched her from the top of the stairs for a long time. Her hair was pulled into the same tight bun she always wore, her delicate shoulders squared in a ready stance as she looked through a small opening in the curtains. She wore sneakers, tied tight, ready for anything.
Every. Fucking. Night.
She didn’t move, not when I crept down the stairs and not when I headed into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. I wasn’t even sure she heard me approach, but I learned my lesson after the first night. She wasn’t asleep but deep in thought, probably lost in the past. Instead I held the mug of coffee close until the scent pulled her from her memories. A few minutes later a soft gasp escaped. She took a giant step away before our gazes locked.
“Oh. Thank you.” She hesitantly reached for the mug before grabbing it and wrapping both hands around it. “Can’t sleep?”
She asked the question as if she really thought it was insomnia that kept me awake. “Seriously?”
Her brows knitted. “Yeah.”
Some odd emotion took root deep in my chest and my gut, tightening with every fucking second that ticked by. “You haven’t slept in at least three days but I’m guessing it’s been longer than that.” I watched her closely, looking for any sign she was playing me. But she didn’t smile, didn’t tuck her loose strands behind her ear and she didn’t bat those long lashes of hers.
Instead, Chloe shrugged. It was her favorite answer to every fucking question, and it was starting to piss me off in an entirely different way. “I’m fine, Will. Don’t worry about me.”
Didn’t she get that I was here to worry about her? “That’s not what I asked.” I sipped the coffee slowly, still hopeful she would go back to bed and let me get a few more hours of sleep.
She inhaled slowly and let it out on a quick, rushed breath. “Will,” she began and then paused. “Pike, please don’t worry about me.” The words were heavy as they left her lips, like they had to trudge through quicksand first. Her gaze met mine, sincere and sad and guilty. “I know you don’t want to be here keeping me safe. I get it. Hell, I even understand it, really, I do and the last thing I want is to make things worse for you.” She tilted her head back as if that would keep the tears in her eyes from falling. “Just keep being nice to Gemma and keep her safe and I won’t be a problem.” She held my gaze for nearly a minutebefore she chugged her hot coffee, stood and disappeared upstairs.
I couldn’t get her words or the look she wore as she spoke them out of my head. What was her deal? It was clear now that she hadn’t manipulated Ash in any way. She probably tried to get out of staying with her if I had to guess, but my sister had insisted, because that’s who she was.
I wondered what she thought about when she stood or sat there, totally fucking still and unresponsive to anything. What exactly put that haunted, terrified look in her eyes? I wanted to know. Hell, I needed to know but I was the last person she’d share her secrets with, at least on purpose. She had told me about her mother, but she hadn’t meant to.
The dark sky brightened into dawn and then morning, and soon enough Gemma and Chloe came down fully dressed and ready to start the day.
And dammit, I was already looking at her differently. Less like the enemy or the manipulative woman I’d pegged her as from the start. And what was worse? Now that I didn’t just see evil, I noticed how attractive she was. Sure she needed a few extra pounds on her body but where her sister was beautiful and capable, Chloe wore the girl next door look perfectly.
Thick blonde hair she always tied at the base of her neck, huge green eyes, high cheekbones and a full, kissable mouth. Yeah, she was beyond pretty, she was a knockout even with the lost pounds and hollow look in her eyes.
“Good morning, Mr. Pike.” Gemma hurried down the steps and stopped in front of me with a smile. “Did you have a hard time sleeping too?”
I flicked a look at Chloe who’d already disappeared into the kitchen. “I’m okay.”
The little girl leaned close. “It’s okay, Mommy sometimes can’t sleep or she has bad dreams. I’m a really good helper.”
“I bet you are.” My heart squeezed at the thought of Chloe’s nightmares and Gemma’s calm reassurances, but I ignored it. My heart was hard and cold.
After breakfast I decided to get the girls out of the house for fresh air and sunshine. “You don’t have to cook every morning. I can take care of some of the meals,” I whispered to Chloe as Gemma bounded ahead, stopping to stare at flowers and trees and bugs.
“It’s the least I can do,” she replied. “Literally.”
“Look Mommy, a frog!” Gemma turned with a tiny frog in her palm. “It’s so small.” Her face lit up, and she was so excited her little body vibrated. She stepped forward and Chloe stepped back.
“Gemma,” she warned.
