Page 26 of Breakdown
She hesitated, making a move first to the door and then reversing to head up the stairs.
“Not them. Why would you think you deserve my children?” Erik seized her wrist, crushing it in his meaty fist so hard she couldn’t help the worthless, frightened sob that escaped her throat. “Just you. Before I change my mind.”
It took her a long time to start the Firebird in the driveway; she kept letting out the clutch too quickly and stalling the engine. It wouldn’t be like with her sister, she promised herself. She’d come back for them.
It was funny when you thought about it, wasn’t it? After Erik hit her, he always made a point to give her what she wanted. This time it was a way out.
The V8 finally roared to life, and Cynthia peeled out of the driveway for the last time, tears stinging her eyes. She didn’t glance in the rearview mirror once.
Chapter Five
“MOM?” THE WORD SLIPPEDout of Peter like air from a punctured tire. It felt as though all the barriers he had built to keep himself together had been suddenly, dangerously breached. He couldn’t get out anything beyond that surprised exhalation of a word, every emotion was too small to express the way his heart was throwing itself wildly against his ribcage at the sound of her voice.
Peter wasn’t even sure hecouldsay anything, his throat hot and tight. As if he spoke, she might just evaporate into thin air again. His eyes burned, tears blurring his vision. Peter realized he had almost forgotten what she sounded like.
Small, graying, and wringing her hands nervously in front of her chest—impossible to reconcile with the titan in his memories—Cynthia Bauer didn’t seem to want to break the spell either. Even Olivia was at an uncharacteristic loss for words, her features coiled and impenetrable. For a moment the only sound in the room was a late-night DJ prattling on a radio somewhere in the back of the garage.
They might have stood there all night if Nik hadn’t finally breached the silence, politely extending his hand to Peter’s mother. “Nikos Petrakis. It is nice to finally meet you.”
“Sof—uh...Cynthia,” she returned, her wry expression a carbon copy of one of Peter’s own. “Jesus, you wouldn’t think you’d get out of practice using your real name.”
Nik laughed warmly, and the sound of it was enough to bring some of the feeling back into Peter’s fingers.
“Somehow, you are exactly what I pictured. I am Peter’s—” Nik paused, deciding something internally. “Business partner. We own this place together.”
Whether it was the gesture of civility or the suggestion that she didn’t have a controlling stake in the garage, Liv finally snapped back into reality. “What the actual fuck?” she exploded.
Cynthia raised her palms; in apology or defense, it was hard to say. “Look, buttercup—”
“Shut the fuck up. Don’t youdarecall me that,” Liv interrupted, her voice trembling, injured and furious.
“Please calm down,” Cynthia said. “I know that there is a lot we have to talk about. Just give me some time.”
“You just show up here in the middle of the night, unannounced, after twenty fucking years, and you want me tocalm down?” Olivia had blown past the turn-off for calm miles ago. “I thought you were fucking dead. Where the fuck have youbeen, Mom?”
Cynthia seemed to weigh a few options before answering. Peter suspected she landed somewhere near the truth in the end. “Europe. Italy, mostly.”
