Strength (Mark of Nexus #1) (30 page)

“I just wasn’t feeling it, that’s all,” she grumbled.

“Yooooou still like Maverick,” I sang out, giving her a taste of her own medicine. “That’s cute. You guys should make babies.”

Gabby pursed her lips and met my gaze with a fiery vengeance. “Yeah? Well, why don’t you piss on Wallace before she comes back? We won’t have to watch you mark your territory every two seconds.”

Wallace, who had been taking a long swig of his water, choked and sputtered in a struggle to get it down. I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head.

My face blazed, and I pulled away from him, plastering myself to the wall. “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
You stupid, skank-faced whore bag.

“Uh huh,” she said.

“Girls,” Aiden warned, used to mediating our catty squabbles. He reached inside his pocket and produced a small bottle of hand sanitizer. “Chill.”

Gabby met my eye with a treaty shrug. “Sorry, I’m just…eh, forget it. You guys up for a quick trip to the mall after lunch?”

“Uh…” I stole a quick glance at Wallace, gauging his expression. He’d been so cramped in Gabby’s Mini Cooper during the three minute drive to the diner, I didn’t know how he’d fare twenty minutes to the mall. “Do you care? You could pick up a new phone while we’re out.”

He considered it for a moment. “That’s fine.”

“Good, then it’s settled,” Gabby proclaimed with a sly grin, closing the issue before anyone had a chance to dispute it.

Aiden puffed out his chest. “Nobody asked me.”

She shot him a look. “What else would you be doing this afternoon? Homework? Huh uh.”

Great.
This trip had all the makings of a bad ‘80s movie.

Chapter Thirty-Five

I could get used to hanging out in the mall again.

I’d spent a fair amount of time loitering in different shopping centers as a teenager, and the combined aroma of cinnamon rolls, hot pretzels, and shoe leather was oddly comforting to me. It was something I could count on, regardless of the city or time of day. Everything else in my life could spin chaotically out of control, and this one, stupid thing would still be the same.

“Hmm.” Gabby hobbled around the store in four-inch heels, eyeing herself in the mirror.

Despite my reservations, we’d sent Aiden off with Wallace to find the Sprint kiosk. What they could possibly find to talk about, given their history of awkward exchanges, I didn’t know. “Do you think Aiden is still afraid of Wallace?” I asked.

She rolled her jeans up, modeling the pair of red, strappy stilettos. “Not as much as he used to be. Do you like these?”

“It’s hard to say in winter. Ask me again in four months.”

“Helpful.” She clicked her tongue and sat down on the stool to take them off. “Maybe I’ll get a handbag, instead. I need
something
.”

Yeah, like an intervention.

“So, what are you spending to distract yourself from? The Maverick thing?”

Her expression hardened. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Are you serious?” I asked. “Do you feel okay?”

“Rena...”

I blinked. “Did something bad happen?”

She looked down at the shoebox, carefully unfolding the tissue paper. “I know we aren’t officially together or anything, but I—never mind. It’s stupid.”

“What is?” I crouched down, helping her clean up the mess of boxes.

“I think he might be cheating on me,” she said in one breath.

“What?” My voice jumped an octave, and a saleswoman peered around the rack to check on us. “What?” I repeated in a hushed tone, leaning in. “How do you know?”

“Well.” She unstrapped the stilettos slowly, letting out a deep breath. “I might just be a little suspicious. I mean, I used to get upset when he asked about you all the time, but then—”

“Huh?”

She waved me off. “He just used to ask stuff about you. I got a little pissed, until I realized it was probably because, ya know, you guys have classes together.”

“Oh, right. Definitely.”
Aside from the fact that we rarely talk
.

“But then, last night, he moaned someone else’s name…Gail.”

“Gail?” I cocked my head to the side. “Who’s Gail?”

“I don’t know.” She took off one shoe and then the other, pressing them into the box at different angles. “She must be one important bitch if he felt the need to call out her name during sex.”

I cringed. No wonder Gabby was acting weird. She felt betrayed by the first “relationship” she’d had since the last time she got burned. “Well, maybe it was an accident. Maybe she’s just an ex or something.”

“I don’t know, but we had words about it.” She put the lid on. “He got mad and took off. He hasn’t been answering his phone since.”

I took the box and set it on the floor, doing my best to comfort her without the aid of my associates Ben and Jerry. “I’m sure he just needed a little time to cool off. Don’t worry. You guys will get this sorted out.” I scratched my head and tried to think of something else to say. Something that didn’t hang awkwardly in the air. “If not, screw it and move on.”

“You’re probably right,” she admitted. “He’s just got me all on edge today. I tried to put it in the back of my mind, but that’s not happenin’.”

“You know what that means.” I stood up and pulled her to her feet. “More retail therapy.”

She flashed me a grin and stuffed her feet back into boots. “Girl, lead the way.”

Sixty bucks later, we met the guys near the Sprint kiosk. They were sitting on a bench, and Aiden was pointing at something in Wallace’s hand.

“Hey,” I called as they both looked up. “Did you find something?”

“Yeah, Aiden was just telling me all about my new phone.” Wallace met my eye and mouthed, “
All
about it.”

I made no attempt to hide my grin. “Well, it’s nice to see you suitemates getting along.”

“I guess we were a little quick to write him off before.” Aiden rubbed at the back of his head, a tinge of pink staining his freckled cheeks. “He’s kinda cool to hang with. A bunch of girls came over and talked to us.”

Gabby snorted, and I did my best to appear unaffected.

“Oh yeah?” I raised my eyebrows. “Either of you Casanovas score any digits?”

“You know it.” Aiden fished around in his pocket. “Her name is Macy.”

Gabby pushed between them and plopped down with her bundle of purchases. It was a tight squeeze. “Like the store?”

“Yes, like the store,” Aiden mimicked, scrunching his nose. “But she’s pretty, and we’re going to hang out Wednesday night.”

She looked skeptical and turned to Wallace. “Can you verify that, Ace?”

“He
did
get her number.”

“See?” Aiden held up a torn receipt with writing scrawled across it.

“What about you?” I shifted my weight, eyeing Wallace. “Get any numbers?”

“A few.”

“Dozen,” Aiden finished, a proud wingman in the making. “They came up with all kinds of excuses to talk to him.”

I could’ve sworn I saw the slightest hint of a blush as Wallace looked away, shoving his new phone into his pocket. “Want my seat?”

“No, thanks.” I looked around at the other stores, making sure there wasn’t anything I needed before we left. When I tilted my head, I felt Aiden’s eyes on me. “What?”

He gave a start and looked away with a guilty expression. “Nothing.”

“What?” I repeated, tracing my fingers over the bandage on my neck. “This?”

“I-I wasn’t staring or anything. I mean, I know what happened. Gabby told me about it while you were taking your nap.”

Wallace bristled, straightening to rigid posture. I shot him a questioning look, and then it hit me. I’d forgotten to fill him in on our side of the story. He probably thought…

I felt the color drain from my face as I turned back to Aiden, projecting my voice in a hasty, mechanical recap. “You mean how I hurt myself getting into the car, and Wallace’s brother had to come get me? Then Wallace showed up and they reconciled, so we ended up staying at their grandma’s house? That’s what you mean, right?”

Aiden blinked, staring at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Yeah.”

“Cool.” I forced a smile and turned to Wallace. “Right?”

“Yeah,” he muttered with a tight expression, rising to his feet. “Ready to go?”

Chapter Thirty-Six

The trip back to campus seemed like it took twice as long. Even stuck beside me, with his knees pressed against Aiden’s seat, Wallace hadn’t said a thing about last night. I thought he’d at least give
some
indication of how he felt regarding the edited tale—but he didn’t. We rode back in silence and parted on friendly, generic terms.

I hated it when he tried to internalize things. It didn’t seem fair. He was allowed to know what I was feeling, but he couldn’t return the favor?

Naturally, I spent the rest of the night distracting myself. Gabby and I ordered a pizza, and I buried myself with books. I finished all of my homework, took a practice quiz online, and started studying for next week’s chapter test. On a Saturday night.

By the time I finished studying, the words were blurring on the page. I had to reread the same passage three or four times to grasp the meaning, and it just wasn’t worth it, so I went to bed—overwhelmed, exhausted, and nursing too many unresolved feelings.

Feelings that bled into my dreams.

“No!” I jolted awake with a sharp intake of air and sat straight up in bed, tears streaming down my face. Wallace was dead.

He’d been tortured and killed because of me, and in the end, I hadn’t been able to tell him the one thing I needed to…the one thing I hadn’t told myself—I cared about him. He was everything I never dared to hope for in a man, and now it was too late. I’d already lost him.

I slammed my fist into the wall, gritting my teeth. “Daaamn it!” A sob broke through my cry as tiny lines of blood split my knuckles and stained the concrete.

“Whoa, whoa, girl.” Gabby stumbled across the room in her pajamas, unkempt and horrified. “What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

Trembling, I looked up, trying to hear her through the chaos in my mind.
A nightmare?

A sudden pounding rattled the door hinges, like the whole thing was about to splinter and give way.

“Who the hell beats on someone’s door at four thirty in the morning?” Gabby huffed.

I couldn’t answer, possessed by an overwhelming desperation that’d taken hold of my body. Before I even realized what I was doing, I’d already thrown back the covers and bolted for the door.

“Rena?”

Please, please, please…
I didn’t bother to check the peep hole, flinging the door wide open.

“A-Are you okay?” Wallace filled the doorway, leaning against the wall as he caught his breath.

I stood in his shadow for a moment in complete shock. “You’re…” My tears ran anew as I threw my arms around his waist, hugging him harder than I’d ever claimed anyone in my life. His heartbeat pounded against my ear in a strong, powerful percussion, and my knees nearly gave out.

“I’m here,” he murmured, the words reverberating through his bare chest as he ran his hand up my back. “Everything’s fine.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, letting myself come down from the hysteria. He was there. Real and in the flesh. Nothing had happened.

My breaths became deeper, evening out as I pulled away. Or, at least, I tried to.

“Sorry,” he said, and dropped his hand to his side. Why he kept his other arm tucked behind his back, I didn’t know, but it really didn’t matter. There was enough to process, as it was.

I wiped at my eyes with the back of my arm, sniffling. “No, I just…” I shook my head in disbelief. My stomach was a churning mess of conflicting emotions. What was I supposed to say?

Something had changed between us. The tiniest crack had formed in the wall of my defenses, and I couldn’t patch it up. The awareness was already there. As much as I wanted to deny it, it was there.

I did care about him.

If I were honest, that was probably a horrible underestimation of my feelings for him. My arm felt tight again, and I ran a hand back through my hair. God, why did it have to be him?

Reluctantly, I raised my gaze upward, past the hard set of his mouth to the unnerving concern banked in his eyes. He was looking at me strangely. I didn’t know how to place it.

“Can I talk to you?” he asked.

“Yeah, uh...” The weight of a third-party stare bore into my back, and I turned around. “Would you mind?”

“Oh!” Gabby was quick to recover, patting her hair down. “Y’know, I was just thinking about going upstairs.” She scanned the room and grabbed a few things, tossing them into her overnight bag. “It’s been a while since I graced the boys upstairs with my presence. Might as well have a slumber party.” She gave an awkward laugh, hiking the bag up on her shoulder to edge around us.

The orange scrunchie she slid onto the doorknob did not go unnoticed.