American Made (Against the Tides #2) (13 page)

I bang the side of my fist off the door of Envy’s apartment and wait. When she doesn’t answer I bang again. She yells my name, telling me to come in and then screams something I can’t understand. I push open the door and have to force my way in around whatever is stacked against the other side. As soon as I’m inside two blurs of what I think are children haul ass past me into the other room.

“Envy?”

“Back here!” she yells.

I wander through her apartment, side-stepping knocked over chairs and random toys. It’s nothing like the spotless house I usually walk into. When I find her she’s sitting in the middle of the room drowning in a pile of white fabric. She looks up at me when she finally notices I’m in the room and looks like she’s about to cry.

“When did you get robbed?”

Envy pouts, slamming her hands against the mess surrounding her. I’ve never seen her pout. Usually when she’s upset she sticks to the pissed off side of the emotion. 

“Everything is ruined. Why didn’t I think to lock this door before she dropped them off?”

“When who dropped who off, Envy?” I asked, still completely confused about what’s going on.

“Lane and the seven-year-old terrors out there that trashed my house. I don’t know why I even agreed to watch them! I’m not the kid person in my family. I don’t have them for a reason.”

Ahh, sister’s kids. Got it.

“OK… so why are you sitting in here in the middle of the remnants of whatever the hell that was.” I wave my hand around at her, waiting for her to fill me in on what it is.

“It
was
Tessi’s wedding dress,” she says, her voice barely a whisper. A tear slips out of the corner of her eye but as quickly as I notice it, she wipes it away. I don’t know why she’s keeping her younger sister’s dress here, but the fact that it’s destroyed obviously isn’t a good thing.

I drop the bags of stuff she asked me to pick up on my way over and help her up. The fabric falls to the floor as she stands. I shake my head, trying to figure out how the hell they possibly made this much of a disaster. We had planned on trying to go see if Ari today. I wonder if she forgot…

“I guess this explains why you sent me on a death mission to a fabric store,” I mumble. “But why don’t you just take it back to the store she bought it from and have it fixed?”

“It didn’t come from a store,” Envy starts to explain. “I’ve spent every spare second that I wasn’t at the bar for the past two months making it. How can two tiny little creatures cause this much damage? How the hell can they wreck two months of work and destroy my house in the span of a few hours?”

“They’re kids, honey. It’s what they do.”

“Yeah, well, I’m callin’ my damn doctor on Monday. Take it all outta me, cause I’m never reproducing!”

I laugh but am quickly cut off when she glares at me. Something in the other room crashes to the floor and we hear the evil little children laugh.

“Fuck waitin’ for a doctor, I’ll cut that shit out myself…”

I look between Envy and the doorway a few times. “May I?” I ask, pointing to the other room.

“If you aren’t back in ten I’ll start planning your funeral. I’ll just be in here—” she looks around at the mess that fills the room “—trying to figure out how many hours of my life just went down the drain.”

Stomping back into the middle of what used to be Envy’s living room and kitchen, I plant my feet. I stick my fingers into my mouth and whistle as loud as I can.

“There are two children in this apartment. I don’t know their names but they have five seconds to be standin’ in front of me before I hunt them down.” My voice booms out of me, echoing off the walls. 

The giggling ceases and it reminds me of all the times I was yelled at growing up and through all my training. It doesn’t take long after I start counting for the kids to scramble out from behind the couch. They scurry across the floor until they’re in front of me, staring at me with wide worried eyes.

I lean down to get in their faces, doing nothing but glaring at them for a minute. By the time I actually open my mouth to speak they’re shaking like terrified puppies. I’ve seen grown men do the same thing when they start basic training.

“Names?” I bark, making them jump.

“Riley,” the one on the left says and is quickly followed up by the other one.

“Rebecca.”

“How. Old. Are. You?” I look between them as I bite out each word.

“Seven,” they mumble. 

I point around us. “Is this what this house looked like when you got here?” They both shake their heads rapidly after looking around at the disaster they created. “Then why the hell does it look like Hurricane Katrina just passed through?”

Riley shrugs, stuffing her little hands into her pockets. “We were playin’.”

“Playing? Your
playing
included destroying your Aunt Envy’s house and Aunt Tessi’s wedding dress? Do you know what the words respect and manners mean?” When they shake their heads it angers me for some reason. They’re seven. By seven I not only knew what they meant but always used them. If I ever acted the way these two have my ass would’ve been outside running drills while my father yelled commands at me. “Do you know how I played when I was your age? I sat quietly in my room and read the dictionary! Children are there to be seen, not heard. You’re gonna clean every inch of the mess you created and then you’re gonna apologize to your Aunt Envy. Understood?”

“But our mom doesn’t make us—”

I glare at Rebecca after she opens her mouth. Suddenly everything makes sense. If they don’t have to behave at home they’re never going to behave at someone else’s house. Her eyes widen and I have no doubt that if I keep eye contact with her for much longer she’ll cry.

“Do you see your mommy anywhere around here, little girl? Because I don’t. This is not your mother’s house. It doesn’t matter what she doesn’t make you do there. When you are here, in this house, you will respect the space that is not yours. Now,” I growl, standing back up to my full height. “I’m going to go into the other room and see if I can help Envy salvage what’s left of the
very
important dress you destroyed. While we’re in there, you will clean up every mess you made without making a peep. When you finish, and this house is spotless again, you will sit silently on the couch until your mother comes to pick you up. Go.”

When they do nothing but stand there and continue to stare at me, I clap my hands as hard as I can. They jump and instantly rush to start cleaning.

“I could kiss you,” Envy says when I step into the room.

“Please contain yourself.” I laugh, dropping down into the chair next to her. She shifts through the fabric in her lap and sighs. “How bad is it?”

“Not as bad as it could’ve been I guess. They ruined the entire bottom half of the dress, but thankfully the thousands of hours I’ve spent hand beading the bodice didn’t go to waste.” Standing up, Envy steps around the corner and emerges pushing a dress form. 

I gape at her, unable to believe she can do this stuff and I had no idea. The white corset style bodice would look like it just came off a runway if it weren’t for the ripped up silk dangling around the bottom.

“You made that?”

“Yup.” She smiles sadly, most likely thinking about all the work she will have to redo now.

“How did I not know about this hidden talent? Why the hell are you tendin’ bar?”

“Gotta pay the bills somehow.” Pulling her phone from her back pocket, she sighs in relief. “Lane’s here to get the girls. We’re still goin’ to see Ari, right?”

“If she’ll see us. I know she still wouldn’t let Knox visit last time he tried.”

When we hear the front door open, there are no rushed footsteps or yells from the girls. Standing up, I follow Envy out and smile when I see that they are both sitting on the couch and the apartment is clean again. Lane and Envy talk for a minute before Lane calls for the girls. They stare straight forward and don’t move.

“Girls,” Lane says again, stepping toward them.

Slowly, Rebecca turns toward me. “Can we move, please?”

“If you tell Envy you’re sorry when you do.”

As fast as they can, they leap off the couch and run to her, wrapping their arms around her waist as they apologize. I can feel Lane’s eyes burning a hole into me.

“Why are you disciplining my children?”

“Someone needed to,” I respond calmly, meeting her angry gaze. I know she’s trying to intimidate me by the way she’s looking at me, but it does nothing. “Do you realize the disaster they created here today?”

“They’re kids. Kids make messes.”

“This was not a mess, Lane. This was more like the disaster a riot would have left. I understand that they’re kids and that kids make messes, but if you had rules for them they probably wouldn’t be so out of hand.”

“Envy, you let your friend discipline my children?”

Envy, who up until now has been quietly watching what was happening, finally nods and steps into the conversation.

“Someone had to, Lane. They wouldn’t listen to me. They destroyed my apartment. Like, actually destroyed things. Stuff is broken, I just have to find it. And on top of that, they ruined Tessi’s dress.”

Lane huffs, crossing her arms over the emblem on her Aerosmith shirt. “Despite what they did, I don’t like other people telling my kids what to do.”

“Well,” Envy quips. “As much as I love them, they aren’t allowed here until they learn to respect other people and their stuff.” Grabbing the door handle, she opens the door and waves them out. For a second Lane doesn’t move, but it isn’t long befor she grabs the girls’ hands and marches out the door. 

It doesn’t take long for Envy to grab her purse and drag me out the door, saying something about not being able to look at the dress right now. I can’t blame her. I’d be upset if that much of my time and effort was wasted. When we get to the facility that Ari is at, we’re both surprised when the nurses tell us that she’s agreed to see us.

My stomach flips nervously with each step we take down the hall and when I see her, I want to cry. The clothes she was wearing the last time I saw her, the day I yelled at her and walked away, did a lot to hide what was under them. Her t-shirt and loose pants show exactly how bad she’s gotten. I bet I would have no problem wrapping my hand around her bicep and having my fingers overlap. She looks frail. Nothing like the woman she was last year.

We sit in uncomfortable silence for a while before she finally looks at me. “I’m sorry,” she whispers while wiping tears off her cheeks. “I didn’t want to believe I was sick, but I am. I am sick and if I had just listened to you instead of slamming the door on you again maybe I wouldn’t still be here.”

I try to ignore the fact that Envy is beside me trying to hide her sobbing. “It’s OK, babe.”

“No it’s not. Just because I didn’t want to hear what you said, doesn’t mean I didn’t need to hear it. I hate that last year you could’ve died and the last thing I did was scream at you and slam the door in your face. Now I did it again and now you have another job that I could lose you because of.”

How the hell does she know I have a new job?

Pushing out of my seat, I drop down next to her and pull her into my arms. “I’m a thousand times more worried about you than I am about me. I know you lost a lot when you lost Brett, but none of us wanna lose you.”

Crooking my finger, I motion for Envy and she curls into the other side of Ari. Propping her head against Ari’s shoulder, she looks at me through tear-filled eyes. “You’ve gotta get better, Ari. You’ve gotta let the doctors help you.”

The sound of a whistle pierces through the air, making me pop my head above the water.

“Everybody out of the pool!”

Swimming to the edge of the water, I pull my goggles off and climb out. My toes grip the textured floor as I listen to the commands we’re given before being dismissed. Making my way into the locker room, I hit the knobs for the hot water and stand under the stream, washing the chlorine from my skin and clothes down the drain. 

“Fuck,” Knox groans from behind me. When I turn around to see what his issue is I bark out a laugh. He’s leaned against the wall, holding onto the shower head to keep himself up.

“What’s wrong, old man?” I joke. “Can’t handle it?”

Knox cracks an eye open and flips me off. “I can handle it, don’t you worry.”

“I don’t know. You’re lookin’ awfully ragged right now.”

“Shut the fuck up, Rice,” he chuckles. “I could outdo you on land any day.”

Shutting the water off, I head back out to my locker with him right behind me. “That’s the thing, Knox. This isn’t primarily land. It’s primarily water and that’s where I excel.”

“Fuckin’ fish,” he mutters, throwing his wet shirt at me.

I shrug. Toweling off, I pull my wet clothes off and my dry ones on. “I’m a mermaid, get it right, fucker.”

I wasn’t lying when I said that he looked like he was being run ragged right now. His sloth-like movements and baggy eyes are a dead giveaway that something isn’t right. He pushes through whatever has been on his mind lately, and I know it’s because of all his military training, but this isn’t good.