Page 12 of Start A War (Saint View Psychos)

He shook his head, keeping his gaze on the road. “Just tell me where you’re going. You still live with your old man in that fancy-pants house up on the hill?”

I nodded. “Sort of. Technically that’s my address, but I don’t stay there much these days. As big as that house is, it’s a little cramped there with Nichelle, Verity, and Everett.” I glanced over at him. “That’s my stepmom and my younger brother and sister.”

“Shit, you’ve got other siblings? How old are they?”

“Six and eight.”

“Shit, yeah. Handful.”

“I like kids. And they’re good ones.”

Nash slowed the car at an intersection and waited for me to direct.

I pointed to his left, and he made the turn.

His eyes flickered in my direction. “So, you’re staying with the fiancé then? Husband?”

“Boyfriend.”

“How come he’s not your fiancé?”

“He hasn’t asked.”

“How come you haven’t asked him?”

I twisted to watch him drive, grateful for the conversation, because right now, anything was a good distraction from everything I’d seen tonight. “I don’t know. I mean, I do. We’ve only been together a year. It’s too soon.”

“Or you don’t love him.”

I frowned at the certainty in his voice. “What?”

He shrugged. “When you know, you know. Time doesn’t make a difference.”

I sat back in my seat, my cheeks heating. “That’s not true. People need time to get to know each other before they leap into a commitment.”

“If you say so.”

That felt decidedly like a brush-off, and any other time I might have argued some more. But we were already on Caleb’s street, and I didn’t have it in me. “You can just park in the driveway. It’s that one over there on the left.”

Nash let out a low whistle. “Does he rob banks for a living?”

“More like runs them.”

“Fuck me.”

I bit my lip. “Thanks for driving me home.”

“Wasn’t gonna let you drive yourself. You were trembling like a leaf.”

I held a hand up. The tremor was still visible, so I tucked it beneath my thighs. “Do you have any idea who did this?”

Nash let out a long sigh. “Nothing concrete. But, Bliss, there’s probably a lot of things you don’t know about your brother. Hell, there’s a lot of things I don’t know about him. Clearly. If he knew he was in this sort of trouble, he didn’t tell me.” He looked at the clock. “It’s really late. Or early, I guess. Your man in there is probably frantic with worry over you.”

I doubted that. I stared up at the big house and the window to Caleb’s bedroom. It was dark, like the rest of them.

Caleb wasn’t waiting up for me. My phone hadn’t rung once in the hours I’d been gone. He’d either gone to bed or was still out partying with his work colleagues.

I didn’t want to tell Nash that. He’d already hit the mark a little too closely with his accusation that Caleb and I weren’t in love. “I should go,” I agreed. “I don’t want him worrying.”

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