“I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
“You’d be out in the streets beating up every crack addict you come by hoping one of them has seen Kelly and getting absolutely nowhere.”
“Not nowhere,” I mutter. “Beating the living shit out of someone would probably do wonders for making me feel a little better. Maybe I’d be able to release some of this pent up anger.”
“Jesus Christ,” she groans under her breath. “Just wait for Noah to get home tonight. I’m sure he’ll let you beat the crap out of him. That moron would do just about anything to make sure his Spitfire is still surviving.”
I shake my head as the image of myself laying a hand on Noah cuts through my mind. “No, I could never,” I tell her, knowing that she is right. Noah would practically beg me to do it if it meant keeping me home safe where he could keep an eye on me. “We should find a punching bag. That should help.”
“There’s probably a few at Anton’s place,” Tully supplies, not helpful at all.
I roll my eyes at the wicked witch. “You know, if it comes down to it, and Anton drags me away, you’re coming with me.”
“Bullshit,” she laughs. “There’s no way in hell I could live under that man’s roof, especially after what he did to my brother. I’d probably kill him in his sleep. Besides, you’re lying through your teeth. You’d never drag me into that mess. In fact, I’m sure as hell that you’d go to extraordinary lengths to keep me and Noah away.”
I grin. I hate that she knows me so damn well.
Tully scoffs, loving that she’s right and looks up from the ground before stopping in the middle of the pathway. “Shit,” she gasps, wide-eyed. “I didn’t realize we were walking this way.”
“Huh?” I grumble looking up and quickly glancing around. It takes me all of two seconds to recognize the house before me with the ‘G. Rivers’ scrawled on the mailbox. “Well…shit.”
We both stand there staring at the house, each with a mess of emotions tearing through us as we think about the guy who’s had such a significant impact on both of our lives. “Are you ok?”
“I should be asking you the same thing,” Tully sighs. “He’s your brother.”
“Yeah, but he’s your…um, sort of boyfriend.”
“He’s not my sort of boyfriend. He’s the guy that I…uh, sometimes…”
“Yeah. Exactly. He’s your sort of boyfriend.”
“Whatever,” she grumbles, pulling on my rm. “Come on. Let’s get out of here, I don’t want to dwell on this bullshit. There’s already enough going on.”
“Yeah,” I agree, letting her pull me along. I glance back over my shoulder and take in the house that used to be my mother’s and the house where I discovered that my father is well…not actually my father.
I let out a sigh. It wouldn’t be awful if that place burned down. I mean after we got all of Rivers belongings out of it and forced him to move in with Noah and Tully.
I go to turn back when something moves in the living room window. “Wait,” I rush out, pulling on Tully’s arm and coming to a stop. “There’s someone in there.”
“What?” she grumbles, staring back at the house. “Where?”
“In the living room window,” I tell her. “Something moved in there just now.”
Tully focuses a little harder and after a moment of seeing nothing, I can see that she’s close to telling me that I’ve lost my mind when a figure crosses in front of the window. We both suck in a breath. “Who the fuck was that?”
I shrug my shoulders, focusing a little harder on all the other windows, hoping that the person crosses once again and I can get a good look at who the hell it is. “I’ve got no clue,” I grumble as a deep sense of protectiveness comes over me. I mean, while this may be a dump, it’s still Rivers’ home. My brother’s home. “Come on, I think we should check it out.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Tully grumbles as we each look up and down the street before quickly crossing, looking like the dodgiest people in Haven Falls.
We sneak up to the house and double check that nobody is wandering around who are about to bust our asses for being peeping toms, but then, that’s exactly what we are. We hurry around to the side of the house, being as discreet as possible before peering in through the kitchen window where we’d be able to see the whole living area.
Our mouths drop open in unison.
“Is that?”
“Uh huh.”
I have to blink a few times, trying to work out why the hell Lacey would be snooping around Rivers’ home when I remember the picture Tully had found here four days ago. “What is she doing here?” Tully murmurs, her brows dropping down as she watches the girl who she thought only good things of up until four days ago.