I didn’t watch her walk into the building, not needing another reason to watch her bottom sway with each step. Instead, I counted to ten before pulling out into rush-hour traffic, leaving the city.
Fifteen minutes later I pulled up to a typical, two-story, suburban home. I’d wanted to buy my parents a better place when I began making more than enough money, but they refused to leave the memories the house held. It was all they had left.
“Hey, man. Long time, no see,” Ian greeted me when I walked in. Ian came to a lot of family dinners, even as adults. I’d known him since grade-school and his parents had traveled a lot, leaving him to fend for himself. Which my mom would never have allowed, so he became her second son.
“Who invited you?” I joked.
“I’m always invited. Your mom loves me more than you anyway.”
“Ha! Bullshit.”
“Language,” my mom reprimanded, coming around the corner to give me a hug.
“Sorry, Mom.” I bent down to wrap my arms around her short frame.
“Come sit down. Dinner is almost ready and your father and sister are already at the table.”
“Hey, Dad,” I greeted, taking the seat next to him.
Ian took his usual spot next to my sister, Hanna. He wrapped his arms affectionally around her shoulders and pulled her in for a rough hug and a kiss to the top of her head. “Missed your sassiness last week.”
His actions were brotherly, but Hanna blushed and smiled. “Missed you, too.”
I didn’t love the idea of my sister crushing on my best friend, but to see her smiling at anything—let alone a man—was more than enough reason to deal with her crush. The thick gold bands she always wore around her wrists rattled as she brushed her hair behind her ear.
“How was work?” Mom asked, placing the final dish on the table.
“Boring,” Hanna answered first.
I glared at her across the table, not liking her calling my company boring.
But the glare quickly shifted to Ian when he opened his fat mouth. “It wasn’t boring for Erik, that’s for sure.”
“What happened?” Hanna asked.
“He hired a new girl today.”
“I didn’t know we were hiring.”
“We weren’t,” I answered Hanna before Ian could say more. I needed to nip this conversation in the bud. “Something came up and she needed a job.”
“What came up?” Dad asked, not accepting the short answer.
I glared harder at Ian for bringing it all up, but he just smiled back, not a regret to be had.
“She was in trouble and had nowhere else to go. I’m just helping her get on her feet.”
Everyone at the table knew what I did. Everyone knew why.
I glanced over to Hanna to make sure she was okay to find her shoulders slouched. I hated imagining what horrors were rolling through her mind as she stared at the chicken on her plate. Ian, realizing the can of worms he opened, rubbed her shoulder. But Hanna was resilient. Not as much as Sofia, but she was strong.
She lifted her chin and swallowed before asking, “Is…Is she okay?”
“Yeah,” I rushed to reassure her. I took a moment before explaining, not wanting to share Alexandra’s story. It wasn’t mine to tell. “This was different. I got to her before anyone else could.”
Hanna exhaled hard. “Good. Good.”
“Wait,” Mom cut in. “Erik, you went to get her?”
“Mom—”
“No. I thought you hired people?” Her words were an accusation and a plea for me to tell her I hadn’t gone. “You promised you wouldn’t go again. You almost died the last time.”
“This wasn’t the same. I knew ahead of time that no one would be there but her. I was safe.”
“Just like you were safe before.” Tears glossed her eyes. “Do I have to lose another child?”
A silence descended over the table. Everyone remembering the one person not here who should have been. Everyone taking a moment to feel the empty place in our hearts and our home. I rushed to reassure her, needing to pull us back from the edge of the black hole we walked on.
“Mom, you know I wouldn’t be reckless. I promised. This case was different.”
I looked across the table to Ian, pleading for help to move the conversation away from dangerous topics.
“He has a crush on this one,” Ian supplied helpfully, immediately making me regret asking for his help.
“I don’t,” I defended. “She’s only nineteen and vulnerable with nowhere else to go. I wouldn’t take advantage of her situation. I’m just trying to help.”
“Age is just a number, and she seemed pretty strong to me,“ he pushed.
“Shut up, Ian.”
“You won’t mind if I step in then?”
“Stay away from her,” I growled.
Ian winked at Hanna and she laughed at his taunts, the bubble of sadness broken for now.
Shaking my head at the lack of support from my sister, I went back to eating my chicken. Anything to avoid any more talk of Alexandra. Because Ian was right. I was attracted to her, but I couldn’t act on it. She may have been as strong as Ian predicted, but I could tell she needed more than a quick fuck and I didn’t have that to give.