Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 503(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Micky was understandably pissed, so I’d brought him to the house my dad was currently demolishing so he could work off that anger. My brother held everything inside until it was impossible to keep a lid on it and then he did some demo work. I would be willing to bet that he’d saved my dad thousands of dollars in flipping costs over the past few years, so it worked for everyone. It should’ve been no big deal. We’d done it fifty times at least and the physical exertion always calmed Micky down. Always.
Then, we’d gotten a call that the loser who’d followed Emilia had broken into Micky’s house and was waiting there for Emilia when she got home from the barbecue. He’d held her and Rhett at gunpoint until our little brother Otto had come inside and knocked him out.
By the time we got back to Micky’s, Emilia and my nephew were safe and the house was full of club members. After seeing that Emilia was in one piece with my own two eyes, I’d followed orders, finding the fucker’s car and helping to ensure that no one would ever trace him back to us.
And then I went home to my silent house, guilt making my skin feel itchy and tight. I paced. If I hadn’t taken Micky to the flip house, he still would’ve been with Emilia. I’d been so pumped to go with him, so ready to break some shit after all the things that had gone down with Nova that I hadn’t even considered that Emilia might still need Micky at her side. I’d been anxious as fuck to get out of the clubhouse and I’d been stoked for the excuse.
And if things had gone just a tiny bit differently, my little brother Otto, Emilia, and my nephew could have died.
Selfish. So fucking selfish.
And If I looked at myself closely, I’d see that I was still being a selfish fuck, calling Nova in the middle of the night after she’d asked me to leave her be.
Then she called back.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hey Rumi, what’s up?” she asked. There was something in her voice, something I’d never heard before, something I couldn’t place.
“I need you, No,” I said with a sigh, stopping my pacing in the middle of my bedroom. “Can you come over?”
“I can’t tonight, Rum.”
“Right,” I said, nodding even though she couldn’t see me. “Your car door. I can come get you, okay?”
I headed for my keys.
“No,” she replied. I didn’t comprehend it right away. “I can’t come over tonight, Rumi.”
“What?” I stopped, my hand on my keys. “Why?”
“It’s the middle of the night. Are you drunk?”
“No, I’m not fuckin’ drunk.”
“Well, what am I supposed to think?” she asked tiredly. “You called me over and over in the middle of the night.”
“I called you three times,” I clarified.
“I stand corrected.”
I couldn’t believe this. Nova had never let me down when I needed her. She had always been my right hand, my sounding board, the only person I could talk to about everything.
“I really need you, No,” I said again, trying to get across to her that this wasn’t some bullshit. I couldn’t explain to her why. I couldn’t tell her what had gone down. It was a club matter and as such, I’d never be able to talk to Nova about it. Ever.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tonight.”
There was that something in her voice again. The tone I didn’t recognize.
Then I realized that maybe it was her indifferent voice. Her leave-me-alone voice.
“Yeah, okay,” I said in disbelief, staring at my front door. “Sorry for bothering you.”
“You didn’t bother me, Rum—”
“I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”
I hung up before she could answer. I was coming apart at the seams, thinking about everything that could’ve happened because me and Micky had left to blow off some steam and put our seventeen-year-old brother in charge of keeping Emilia safe. How fucking idiotic were we? How had we thought that was okay? Why hadn’t we even considered that the motherfucker who was chasing Emilia wouldn’t be too happy that we’d laughed in his face and sent him on his way?
“Fuck,” I yelled, running my fingers through my hair.
I fucking needed Nova. I needed her to tell me that everything was fine. How the fuck had we gotten to this place where I flat out told her I needed her, and she told me too bad?
I must’ve paced my house for an hour, wondering how the hell I could fix things with Nova. We’d gotten to a place in our relationship where she wouldn’t even come to me when I needed her and that was unacceptable. I had to fix it. I had to apologize again for anything I’d done wrong and find a way to repair it. I didn’t want to do life without Nova. I didn’t know how to do life without Nova.