Page 39 of The One Who Won’t Get Away
I wrapped some cubes in the washcloth and held it out.“Press this to your eye.I don’t want you looking like you picked a fight with a linebacker.”
He took it, almost sheepishly.“Thanks.”
I sat back down, cross-legged on the opposite end of the bed, giving him plenty of space in case my inner banshee decided to launch another attack.The ice bucket rested on my lap, condensation already dripping down the side and onto my pajamas.
“You okay?”Nick asked as if I was the one who took an elbow to the eye.
“Yeah,” I lied, then caught myself and tried again.“No.But I’ll deal.”
He studied me with one good eye.“Do you want to talk about it?”
I barked a laugh.“What, my little confession of why I should never share a bed with anyone?”
He didn’t smile.“You don’t have to joke about it.”
I flinched.“Sorry.That’s...kind of all I have.My greatest hits: inappropriate jokes and bad coping mechanisms.”I pressed the cold bucket harder to my thighs, needing something to ground me.“Look, this is exactly why I do one-night stands.Why I don’t stay the night.Why I left as soon as you fell asleep two years ago.I’m a fucking mess.”
He set the washcloth down, blinking against the pain.“You didn’t hurt me, Nadya.Not really.”
I stared at the red swelling under his eye.“You say that now but wait until you get a good look in the mirror.”
He grinned.“I already know what that looks like.”
We lapsed into silence.Not the comfortable kind, but not the suffocating kind, either.Just two people marooned on a hotel bed at three in the morning, marinating in a shared history of bad decisions and worse aftermath.
Eventually, Nick spoke.“Since you’re awake, can I show you something?”He gestured toward his phone, which was plugged in on the far side of the bed.
“Is it your collection of blackmail selfies?”I tried to joke because if I didn’t, I might fall into a hole of depression so deep I’d never climb back out.“Because I bet you looked way less hot in college.”
He didn’t bite, just grabbed the phone and scrolled for a few seconds.“I kept digging after you crashed.On the house.”He showed me a screenshot: a property record, with the name Carl August Holton on the second line followed by a sale of the house a year ago.
“Carl sounds right.”I couldn’t remember all the names, but I thought there was a Carl.“That’s who owned the house?”
Nick nodded, then showed me a picture of a woman about my age, maybe a little older.She looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Melissa Ann Holton,” Nick explained.“Carl’s daughter.After her mother died, she moved in with her grandparents.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.That was how I knew her.“She was there.”
For a second, I was back in that blue-doored house.The rooms, the stains on the wallpaper, the way footsteps creaked on the second floor.I remembered a girl, thin and dark-haired, who never looked at anyone.
“They called it playdates,” I said, voice hollow.“She didn’t talk or fight, but she’d scream sometimes, and it sounded wrong, like her vocal cords were messed up.”
Nick watched my hands twist in the sheets.“I want to go see her tomorrow in case she knows anything.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said immediately.
I had thought about her a lot after we had gotten out because as far as I knew, she was still there, still going through all that.I had felt so helpless and guilty for not getting her out.
“You don’t have to,” Nick protested.“Yesterday was already rough on you.”
“And what if she doesn’t want to talk to you?You’re a man who looks like you can break me in half without breaking a sweat.Why would she even open a door to you?If she remembers me, she might feel safer talking to me.”
He smiled, but it was sad and tired and maybe a little proud.“Alright, sleepbrawler, we’ll ride together in the morning.It’s a couple of hours from here.”
I rolled my eyes, but there was no force behind it.“Sleepbrawler?”
“Some people sleepwalk and some people sleepbrawl.”He laughed at the look on my face, the sound low and warm, and for a second, I felt the urge to climb across the bed and curl up next to him, bruises and all.
