Laney (11 page)

He shook his head.

“They aren’t married?”

“Nope.”

“Oh, I just assumed…”

“Assumptions get us into trouble.” He winked at me. I blushed.

I woke up with a start, feeling like a scream was on the verge of escaping. I realized I was still a little shaken from the other night and that Oliver had just served as a distraction. I decided to take Friday off and go to Aunt Lilly’s. Maybe a change would help clear my head.

I hadn’t seen much of Kiera, just a note here and there that she was with Carter. I guessed things were going well.
Must be nice.

Oliver met me outside my door before school, seeming a little less protective than he had been the last couple of days. On the way to school, I told him that I wouldn’t be there Friday and he seemed disappointed
. I guess that’s a good sign. It means he wants me around, even though lately it seems like we are stuck in a “friends” position, not moving forward. It’s not good enough, I want more.

Chapter 14 - Gothic Princess

On Friday morning, I slept in. I felt exhausted from the week. The day before, I had sent Aunt Lilly an e-mail to let her know that I would be there the next day. I couldn’t risk talking to her; I was afraid she’d know something was up. I was still upset over Tuesday’s events and I was just hoping I could make it through the weekend without her picking up on anything. There was no way I could tell her about what had happened, she’d probably lock me in my room and throw away the key.

After slowly getting ready, I headed down to the parking lot with my backpack and a big bag of laundry. I was finally going to wash my new underpants. The sun was shining brightly as I shoved my bags into the passenger seat of my car. I closed my eyes and soaked up the sunlight, letting it warm my face and bare arms before getting into the driver’s seat.

I stuck the key in the ignition and turned it, but nothing happened. I tried again and still nothing. “What the hell?”
I groaned. I hadn’t driven it all week because I’d been with Oliver since Tuesday night. I leaned my forehead on the steering wheel and groaned in frustration. I would have to call Lilly and ask her to come get me. I didn’t want to wait around for her to drive out to my place. Waiting gives the mind time to pull things forward you don’t want to face or aren’t necessarily ready to face. I didn’t want anything surfacing right now, or possibly ever.

I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and I jumped. It was Oliver’s car; he was just pulling in beside me on the driver’s side of my car. He rolled his passenger window down. I had to get out of my car since my stupid car was dead and I couldn’t roll my window down. I leaned in his passenger-side window.

“Hey,” he said in that dazzling voice of his. He was wearing his dark sunglasses and he flashed me his irresistible smile. “I thought you would have left by now.”

His smile just about made me forget myself
.
“I had a little sleep to catch up on,” I managed to say. As usual, my heart picked up at the sight of him and I literally felt sick to my stomach. “Why aren’t you in class?”

He smirked. “It’s boring without you.”

I shied away, then reminded myself that just because I couldn’t see him didn’t mean he couldn’t see me.

“I’ll let you go so you can get going.”

I looked back to him. “My car is dead. Do you think you could look at it?” I asked.

Turning his car off, a slight smile met his lips and he said, “Sure.” Getting out of his car and coming around to mine, he told me, “This is not my area of expertise, you know.”
Oh, how I wondered what was. Whoa! Hold up on the dirty thoughts!
He shot me a look. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could see the one raised eyebrow and I knew the look that was there. I popped the hood and he fumbled around a bit.

“Try to start it now.” Nothing happened. “My guess is the battery.”

“Can you jump me? I mean
it
—can you jump
it
?” I stuttered at my Freudian slip. My cheeks burned with embarrassment.

“I don’t have any cables,” he said, coming around to the driver’s side. “You?”
Maybe he hadn’t caught what I said.

“No.” I was beginning to get frustrated.

“How about I give you a ride out to your aunt’s?”

My first thought was:
Hell yeah! You can give me a ride anywhere!
What I actually said was, “I can’t ask you to do that.”

He was leaning on the door of my car, his arms resting over the top of the door frame. He looked down at me. “You didn’t. I offered.” The corner of his mouth picked up into that undeniably perfect half-smile.

“Okay…if you’re sure.”

“Of course I’m sure.” He took my bags from my car and tossed them into the back seat of his; then he held the passenger side door open for me. “M’lady.” With that half smile still in place, he gestured for me to get in his car.

I felt the blush return. I still had moments of sheer nervousness around him and this was one of those moments. Maybe it was the thought of him meeting my aunt, maybe it was the thirty-minute drive during which I hoped to not make an ass of myself, or possibly, just possibly, it was the bag full of dirty laundry that also contained my fancy panties he’d seen once before. I had no idea; maybe it was none of those things, or maybe all of them.
Either way, I really hope that laundry bag doesn’t somehow come open…

I called Aunt Lilly and explained that my car wouldn’t start and that I was getting a ride. She offered to come get me. “That’s okay. We’re leaving now.” I neglected to mention who was bringing me. I just didn’t want to hear it right now. Plus, I didn’t want him to overhear anything she might say—she’d probably embarrass me somehow.

We were about halfway there—the houses were getting further apart and the streets weren’t as nicely paved—when his phone rang. It wasn’t “
SexyBack”
anymore. It sounded more like Nickelback, but I couldn’t place the song. He answered it, one hand on the wheel and the other on the phone. His windows were so dark, I doubted anyone could see him breaking the “Hands Free” law, but I looked around anyway. I wondered if it was even legal to have windows that dark.

This is what I caught of the conversation—only his side, of course:

“Isaac, slow down.” He paused to listen for a moment. “Put Hayden on the phone,” he said, sounding slightly alarmed. “Hey. No, I haven’t been there since Tuesday.” Pause. “What?... Who saw me?... What did she say?… No, it wasn’t me… I know… I’ll talk to D, but I can’t right now. Have Felix call him and I’ll stop Julz. Get Lola; you know what to do.” He hung up.

“I’m sorry, Laney. I have to stop Julz from doing something really stupid. I hope you don’t mind a detour.” It wasn’t a question. He turned the car around at the opening of someone’s long, gravel driveway and stepped on the gas, gravel spraying up behind us, heading back the way we’d come and then in a direction I hadn’t been before.

“Oliver?” I said tentatively, after a few minutes.

“Yeah.” He was focused on the road, both hands on the wheel, shoulders tense.

“Who’s Julz?” I was rather curious who we were headed after.

“Oh,” he laughed a short, beautiful and startling laugh. “Julz is my sister.”
Ahh, that makes sense—the one having the mid-life crisis.

He took a small square device out of his console and then he flipped it on. It looked a little like a GPS. It beeped for about a minute and then he shut it off and put it back.

“What was that?” I asked.

“I have a tracer on my sister’s car.” He said it casually, like this was a normal thing. I gave him a crazy look. “What?”

“What do you mean, ‘What?’ Does she run away often?”

“Not really. She does have some issues…” he trailed off. “I can’t really explain.” His forehead was furrowed. I let go of the questions. For now.

We hit the highway heading south. He stepped on the gas and the engine roared. It sounded beautiful, strong, and powerful—like Oliver. He weaved in and out of traffic with ease. The oleander bushes that separated the northbound and southbound lanes blurred past. I sank back as far as I could in my seat. It was a little scary, but he seemed to have it completely under control. This went on for about ten minutes and then he muttered, “There she is.”

He slowed and relaxed a bit as we came up on a car that looked a lot like Oliver’s. It had the blackest black tinted windows, but it had four doors instead of two like his. When the sun hit the black paint at the right angle, it had a purple shimmer to it, almost iridescent. He weaved around it and cut it off, slamming on his brakes. As I started to brace myself, he held his arm out across my chest, just above my boobs, pinning me to the seat. The seatbelt was doing a fine job of that. Even in my somewhat controlled fear, his touch made me tingle.

He began to slow down and released his arm from my chest. I turned to see the other car through the back window. It was trying to get around him, but he wasn’t letting it. He stayed in front of her, making sure another car was beside her so she couldn’t get around. Finally, she slowed and pulled off onto the median of the highway. They’d been in the fast lane. I guessed she thought that would be easier than crossing three busy lanes of traffic to get onto the shoulder. Maybe there was no thought to it at all; maybe Miss Issue did everything on the difficult side.

“Wait here,” Oliver said.
Yeah, like I’m getting out of the car on the highway.
Suddenly the thought of dealing with my subconscious and waiting for Lilly to pick me up didn’t sound so bad.

He was out of the car and, in a couple of quick strides, he was at the driver’s side door of his sister’s car. I turned in my seat so I could see out the back window. I couldn’t hear him at all, but, by his body language, it was obvious he was angry. Of course I assumed this was the Julz he had to stop. He stepped aside as the car door swung open and a beautiful gothic princess stepped out, slamming the door behind her.

She was very petite. She was wearing a pair of distressed jeans and a tight, black T-shirt with a purple frog on the front. She had beautiful, curly, shoulder-length, light brown hair, almost a copper color. It was streaked with purple throughout; it looked like beautiful amethyst chaos—and she looked pissed! Her hands were on her hips and her expression seemed hard, her lips tight. She had on really dark sunglasses like Oliver’s, but hers were girly and trendy. I couldn’t see her eyes, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had been purple, too.

Oliver appeared to be going off on her. He had his back to me, his broad shoulders and well-defined back muscles moving under his snug black T-shirt as he gestured and spoke to her. I couldn’t hear anything. The car was still running, so I rolled the window down a little bit. I doubted I’d be able to hear anything over the cars zooming past. It looked like they were both arguing now, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I was right about the passing cars; the purr of the still-running engine didn’t help, either.

Then, without even looking toward me, I heard Oliver’s voice say loudly and clearly, “Laney, roll the window up.”
How the hell did he know that?
Julz shot a look past him toward the car. I wasted no time and rolled my window back up. Julz crossed her arms like she was pouting and he hugged her. She didn’t hug him back. He opened her car door and she got in. She handed him a cell phone through the open window. He appeared to be talking to someone; then he handed it back to her and headed back to his car. I straightened in my seat, facing forward. He slid in, not saying a word.
Crap. Was he mad that I had tried to listen?

Julz pulled out ahead of us. “We have to follow her home. I don’t trust her right now.” He gave a little laugh, like a “huh,” then added, “Who am I kidding? I never trust her.”
Okay, I’m thinking it’s not me he’s mad at.

He very quickly texted something to someone. I couldn’t see what it said. He was damn fast with that thing. Then he sped out of the median and stayed close behind Julz’s car.

It was silent for a few minutes. “What’s wrong?” I finally asked.

He sighed, dropped his right hand from the steering wheel and rested it on the console between us. “Her mid-life crisis I mentioned before seems to be a bit out of hand today.” I could hear the frustration in his voice.

“She doesn’t look old enough for that.”

“She’s older than she looks,” he said flatly.

We followed her to one of the small communities on the opposite side of town from where I had lived with Aunt Lilly. Julz lived in a gated community. The gate slowly opened and we continued in behind her. The houses were a mix of single and two stories. They were spaced about two car widths apart and the yards were all immaculate, with neatly trimmed trees and hedges and colorful flowers planted nicely here and there.

We followed her as she turned left and then drove up to a cute little house in a cul-de-sac. It was a single-story house, painted tan with sage green trim, with a matching green front door and two brick pillars in the front porch entry. The grass was a healthy shade of green, as was everyone’s in this community. There was a tree in the center of the yard. It wasn’t very large and it was already bare of leaves—maybe it was dead. The front window, left of the front door, had rose bushes planted in front of it and they all seemed to be in bloom in a variety of colors. There was another window to the right of the door, but, as we parked behind Julz in the driveway, which was on the right side of the house, I lost view of the front door altogether.

Julz was parked to the left of a pretty beat-up, but let’s just say well-loved, dark blue Toyota truck. We were parked in the middle just behind both cars, half in the driveway and half in the street.

“I’m so sorry, Laney,” Oliver said, brushing some stray hairs that had fallen loose from my ponytail away from my face. Then his fingers brushed down my arm. A small surge of prickly electricity ran through me and my body gave a small, hopefully unnoticed, shudder.

“It’s okay.” I smiled at him.

“I’ll just be a moment.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek.
Like I was gonna argue with that.

Julz got out of her car and started to stomp up to the house. Oliver hurried out of the car, leaving the door open.

“Julz!” he yelled her name harshly and she stopped dead in her tracks. “Julz, do not walk away from me!” It sounded like an order. She turned around and, I’m pretty sure, stomped her foot.
Wow!
Her shoulders drooped as she trudged back toward him. He walked up the driveway toward her. She stopped in front of her car and crossed her arms.

I could hear them clearly. Oliver had turned the car off this time and the open car door helped.
He opened it, not me.

“What were you thinking?” he demanded, trying to get her to look at him. She was still pouting, her arms crossed in silent protest. “Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice had grown much softer now.

She parted her lips a couple times to speak, then finally said, “He says I run to you every time.” It came out in a beautiful whine. I never knew a whine could be pretty, but somehow this purple-haired mid-life-crisis-haver pulled it off.