Bad Apple (The Uncertain Saints MC #4) (13 page)

“Why are you crying?” I asked her.

She hiccupped and rolled over as much as her belly would allow.

“There…there…there’s a bug,” she whispered.

I blinked.

“What?” I
was confused.

She nodded, hiccupping.

“Somewhere. It’s on the floor. It crawled across my pillow and woke me up from my nap. It touched my face,” she whispered brokenly.

I tried very hard not to laugh.

I really did.

But the way she was looking, absolutely terrified, had a smile breaking out over my face.

“It’s not funny,” she whispered. “And I have to pee!”

I tried to wipe the smile off my face as I walked in the direction she’d indicated.

“What kind of bug?” I asked
, looking around the room.

“A big one,” she sniffled, a little more clearly this time.

“Where’d you see it?” I continued.

“On the wall,” she hiccupped. “Above the TV.”

I walked to the wall and started to move things out of the way to look under them, all the while I felt Kitt’s gaze on my back, burning a whole with the intensity.

“Why are you here?” She whispered.

I stopped and turned, leaning my backside against the dresser that held her TV.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m just…tired.”

“Tired of working?” She guessed. “You do work a lot. That’s all I ever see you do.”

Because it keeps me from thinking about nothing but you.

Something crossed over her face. Hope and fear mixed in with reluctance.

“That’s not why you’re tired, is it?” She asked, sitting up and letting the blankets fall down, exposing her thighs to me.

I licked my lips, then moved my gaze back up to her face.

“No,” I answered honestly. “I’m tired of staying away from you, and I’ve decided that maybe you can forgive me and give me a second chance.”

Her head turned to the side in confusion.

“What are you even talking about right now?” She squinted. “There’s nothing to forgive you for. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I’ve killed a man,” I snapped.

Her eyes softened.

“So what?” She snorted. “According to what Ridley told me, what I understand is that this happened at a time when you weren’t of sound mind, Apple. You don’t even remember doing it.”

I relaxed slightly.

“I have memories of being there,” I told her. “I just don’t know why I did it. Even when I was at my worst, I still didn’t have the urge to kill anyone or anything other than myself.”

My thoughts were about a thousand miles away, so it never occurred to me to hold my tongue and keep my darkest thoughts from her until I spilled everything that I never wanted her to hear.

“I see it—
him
—in my dreams,” I whispered, eyes going far away to latch on to a memory that never let me loose. “You were the only thing that calmed those demons. Then you looked at me like I was a speck of dust on your brand new shoes, after you heard that I killed my best friend.”

Kitt’s hands on my arm had me turning to look at her, the threads of my constant haunting dissipating as she did.

“I never, ever looked at you like that!” She insisted. “I would never look at you like that. What makes you say that I did? I never even heard you did that, and when I did finally figure it out, you weren’t even there!”

“You didn’t hear me tell the
m?” I asked.

She was shaking her head even before I finished.

“Then why did you look at me with that disgusted look the moment I turned around?” I asked.

Her brows furrowed as she thought back to that night so many months ago, then understanding dawned.

“My brother,” she said. “My brother was eating a donut with jelly in it. He had taken a bite, but you had said something and he’d immediately spit it out straight onto the floor. It looked like a gory mess. I was looking at him like the disgusting freak that he is. And when my brother caught me at his back, he was scolding me for creeping up on him. He hates it when I scare him.”

My stomach knotted.

“You…motherfucker,” I breathed. “Goddammit.”

“You’re telling me that you spent nearly seven and a half months away from me all because of a look you thought I gave you and didn’t?” She screeched, getting up onto her hands and knees.

Then she went a step further and stood up, thrusting her belly out and placing her hands on her hips as she glared.

“You. Fucking. ASSHOLE!” She finished on a scream.

I stood up and looked at her warily.

“I thought…” I started.

She held up her hand to stop me, freezing my apology and subsequent explanation before it even started.

“You can save your bullshit,” she said. “Get out of my room.”

I started forward.

She held up her hand again.

“You need to leave,” she insisted. “Before I start freaking out on you and say things
I
don’t mean.”

I nodded.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered.

She shook her head and pointed to the window.

“Go,” she ordered softly.

Stomach churning, I decided not to press the issue just
yet
.

With emphasis on yet.

Because I’d wait for her to calm down, then I’d do what I had to do to fix what I’d broken.

“Okay,” I said, getting up and heading toward her.

Her eyes watched me, shuttered with pain and anguish over what I’d done to her.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured, pulling her into me.

I liked the way she felt in my arms, so soft and warm in all the right places.

She didn’t put her arms around me, but I could feel that she wanted to.

Her arms partially lifted, and her head tilted back to look at me.

Instead of them curving around me, though, her hands went to the side of my shirt and clutched it tightly.

“You need to give me space. When I’m ready to talk to you, I’ll tell you, okay?” She trembled.

I leaned forward and placed my lips on her forehead, lingering as long as she’d let me before she pulled away.

“Go.”

I went and was outside on the porch and walking down the steps when her scream had me turning around.

“The bug!” She squealed.

I stifled a chuckle and shuffled back through the window.

She was pointing at the wall above my head.

Once through the window, I turned and saw the ‘bug’ she was talking about.

It was a water bug.

A massive one at that.

“Give me that,” I pointed at the rolled up wrapping paper she had standing in a corner of her room.

She hustled to it as much as an eight-month pregnant woman could, and tossed it to me.

I caught it one handed and immediately brought it down on top of the bug.

A resounding ‘crunch’ had me wincing.

Kitt made a gagging sound as I pulled the paper tube away, and then ran into the bathroom, coming out moments later with a wet wad of toilet paper in her hands.

“Here,” she thrust the wet mass at me.

I rolled my eyes and handed her the tube, which she took with the utmost reluctance.

I heard tearing of the paper as I wiped the wall clean of bug guts.

“Here.”

She took it and the wadded up paper and went to the bathroom.

While she was in there, I took my leave, knowing she’d want me to.

At least I thought.

I’d gotten nearly to my bike when she appeared at the window.

“Apple!” She cried, not seeing me in the dark where I’d parked.

I turned and studied her for a long moment, taking in the stricken look on her face that showed she wasn’t happy with me leaving without her knowing.

“What?” I asked, coming forward out of the shadows.

Relief washed over her face once she saw me standing there.

“Come back tomorrow for dinner,” she ordered.

I nodded.

“I can do that,” I told her.

“And don’t be late,” she said.

I smiled.

“I won’t,” I promised.

“And wipe that look off your face. You didn’t win,” she ordered with a smile in her voice.

I rearranged my face so my smile didn’t give away my excitement.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Life is too short for boring socks.

-Kitt to Ridley

Kitt

I smiled as I finished making tacos.

Looking at my watch, I decided to chance a shower so I could smell good for Apple.

That and I had things that needed shaving.

I hadn’t shaved the upper half of my thighs for about a month now, since I could no longer see them.

Not seeing the hair, and not having a man, definitely kept me from caring.

Not to mention I’d been a bit depressed over the last seven months.

It’d gotten so bad that some days I didn’t want to get out of bed.

That was the good thing about having my brother, though. Not to mention those stolen moments with Apple when he went to my doctor’s appointments with me.

Those two hours would be the best two hours of my entire week, and I’d spend the rest of my days counting down the minutes until the next doctor’s appointment.

I’d also gotten on disability.

The impending doom of having a seizure at any time, and in any place, had made it almost impossible to hold down a job.

My doctor had signed the papers I needed to file for disability, which then had fed my hermit status.

I wasn’t sure I’d gone out of the house for anything but doctor’s appointments and my weekly grocery runs for well over six months.

I also didn’t want to make it harder on the people I counted on. If it made it easier to stay at home, then I’d do it.

I’d just slipped my shirt off over my clothes and hung the t-shirt over the camera I now knew was in my bathroom when I got the expected phone call.

Sighing, I answered with a barely disguised, angry, “Hello?”

“Hi, Kitt. It’s Jake,” the jovial man on the other end of the line said.

“Hi,” I said. “I’m taking a shower.”

“Yes, ma’am.
I’m just instructed to call just in case. How are you doing today?” Jake
spoke.

I gritted my teeth and barely contained the urge to hiss at him.

“I’m doing fine, thank you,” I said stiffly. “Is there anything else?”

“Sure, now that you mention it. Some man came through your window last night. I reported it to the account holder, and he said it was fine. Is that fine?” He chirped jovially.

I shivered.

Jake gave me the freakin’ creeps.

And I hated that he watched me twenty-four hours a day.

I hated even more that Ridley gave him permission to.

When I’d asked Ridley to see about getting a new reviewer, he’d looked at me like I’d grown a second head.

“They have multiple people watching the feed every week. Which man is it that you don’t like?” he asked.

“The one that calls here every time I cover my bathroom monitor,” I replied.

He looked at me.

“You realize, right, that they’re professionals?” He’d asked. “That they are supposed to call to make sure you’re okay?”

After that I’d just ignored Jake and the uncomfortableness I felt each and every time I knew he was on the clock.

“Thank you, Jake. Have a nice night,” I hung up.

Ignoring the way my skin crawled at the thought of that man watching my every move, I got into the shower and sighed when the scalding water touched my skin.

I loved hot showers. The hotter the better in my opinion.

The water sluiced down over my body, and I giggled happily when the baby started to move.

She loved the water, too.

That, and she liked that I wasn’t hunched in a sitting position, which allowed her to move freely without any constraints.

I pushed in on my belly and smiled when she pushed out moments later.

“You’re going to be so much fun,” I whispered to her.

“Who are you talking to?” Apple asked from the other side of the door.

I squealed in surprise.

“Jesus, Apple!” I exclaimed. “You scared the dickens out of me!”

His dark eyes peered at me through the clear glass.

“Did you just say ‘dickens’?” He teased.

I splashed water at him.

“What are you doing in here?” I narrowed my eyes. “You’re still in the dog house.”

He smiled then.

“Yeah, I guessed that. But Ridley got a call from the surveillance people saying that you had a camera out in the bathroom and I just wanted to come check on you…just in case,” he said, his eyes watching the water as it slid down my body.

I rolled my eyes.

“Fucking Jake,” I growled.

“What?” He rumbled, his eyes snapping back up to mine.

“I said I’m fine. Now, why don’t you go eat while I finish my shower?” I asked.

“But I want to wait for you,” he grumbled.

“Okay,” I conceded. “But you can still get out.”

His eyes took one last long look at my body, and then he disappeared just as silently as he’d arrived.

My body shivered at that long look.

I was happy that he still found me attractive. Especially if that hard-on in his pants indicated anything.

Rubbing my hands lovingly over my belly, I finished with my shower, shaved my insanely long leg hair, and walked out into my room without thinking about the camera.

Mainly because, once my feet hit the soft rug outside of the shower, I saw that Apple had left the door to my bedroom open.

I also saw that his long legs were stretched out on my bed; he was asleep.

I’d been fifteen minutes longer, at most, and I’d obviously given him too much time alone without proper stimulation to keep him awake.

I wrapped the towel around myself and made my way to the bed, letting my gaze linger on his tired face.

He was probably beyond exhausted due to how much he did.

On top of him working, I saw him nearly every night until I went to bed. Once my light flipped out, I’d hear his bike start up and head home.

Most nights.

Other nights, I would watch him watch me through the open window.

I still wasn’t sure why he’d gotten into the habit of watching me.