Shade Me (28 page)

R
UN, NIKKI.

Run.

Gunner's voice echoed through my mind, dark bursts of brown.
Be safe. Turn around and get the hell out of there.

He would have been right to suggest I run. He also would have been so disappointed, because I didn't do it. I wasn't
rooted to my spot
. I wasn't
paralyzed by fear
. I wasn't
taken back to my childhood, frightened that I would meet my mom's fate, blanked out by crimson at an impossibly young age
.

I was just fed up.

I wanted this to be done.

I was pissed.
Ragemonster-red
pissed.

“You don't want to kill me,” I said, working to keep my
voice steady. I was no longer messing with Luna, but that didn't mean she didn't terrify me. I could feel her calculated fury pulsating across the room.

She laughed, tossing her hair back without so much as twitching the gun out of place the tiniest centimeter. “Oh, you're so wrong about that. Not only do I want to, I actually need to.”

“Why? Because Peyton figured out that I'm her sister?”

Her smile fell the tiniest bit.

I used my momentum to my advantage. “Yeah, I know, Luna. I know all about why Peyton was suddenly acting so strange. She wanted out of this family, she was planning to run with the money she was extorting from you, and she was reaching out to the one blood relative she thought could help her. Me.”

“Lies,” Luna said, the gun as steady as a rock. “She was reaching out to you so she could blackmail you, too. Peyton likes money, and you were just another source. When she was done bleeding us dry, she was going to go after you.
Sister.
”

“Why would a Hollis come to me for money? And what could she possibly have on me, anyway?”

“Because she could,” Luna said, as if I were the dumbest person she'd ever encountered. “Peyton was a scammer. A user. She always knew what everyone's weak spot was the instant she met them. She knew all about your sweet little
family, that's what she had on you.” She turned her head to the side, her blond waves cascading beautifully down one shoulder. With the gun in her hand, she truly did look like a movie star, like she was simply playing the part of a psychotic killer. “She knew that somebody did the naughty with someone they shouldn't have and, oops, out popped a baby. How embarrassed your devoted little daddy would be for the world to find out. Are you sure he's even your real daddy, Nikki? Or was he the naughty one? How are you so sure your mom was the skank?”

I ground my teeth together, forcing myself not to let her push my buttons. Not to rush her. There was too much distance between us, and I had no idea how good of a shot she might be. As fast as I was, a bullet could close the distance much faster.

Luna's smile spread wider. “Aw, did I hurt your feelings? So sorry. It must hurt to hear that your new sister was only in it for herself.”

Only in it for herself.
I saw a brief flash of Peyton in the hospital, her hair fanned out against the pillow. I saw the way she opened her eyes, tentatively, in response to my voice. I saw the smile she gave me.

It's not unusual for there to be involuntary muscle action,
the nurse had said. But she was wrong. I knew it then and I knew it now. Peyton was responding to me, to my voice.
She'd smiled. She'd told me in that instant of “involuntary” movement that she'd meant to be sisters, not that she'd meant to squeeze me for cash. She was trying to protect me.

“You're wrong,” I said. “You don't have any idea what Peyton would have done.”

“Honey,” Luna said, removing one hand from the gun to swipe her hair back over her shoulder, “nobody knew Peyton Hollis better than I did. I have
been
Peyton Hollis, practically more often than she has. My mom always liked Peyton better. She thought Peyton had so much more potential than I did. So I proved her wrong. I was better at being Peyton Hollis than she ever could have been. What Peyton could never accept, I took advantage of. She didn't want to be an escort? Fine. I'll be one for her. I like money, and I love fucking over my mother by selling her drugs to her own clients right under her nose. Peyton thought she was the better actress? Please. I never shared her dreams of getting an Oscar, but I think we both know that I could.” Her eyes grew wide and sad, her full bottom lip quivering. “I don't know, Officer,” she said in a bereft voice. “I don't know why Nikki Kill would commit suicide in my pool house. She's been dating my brother. She must have needed attention.”

The red deepened, mixed with the gray and black, and shot up in gold-tinged fireworks. This was all about sibling rivalry? Peyton was dying because her sister was jealous?

She took a step toward me, and then another. Her hands gripped the gun more tightly. I could see the whites of her knuckles.

“Nobody would believe you. Chris Martinez would not believe you.”

“Oh, wouldn't he, though?” Her face grew hard again. “I had it all taken care of. All of it. But here you come along, a new sister, who thinks she suddenly knows everything there is to know about darling Peyton. Fucking Dru. Trying to be a Hollis. I don't care whose mommy and daddy are whose. You are not one of us, no matter how much you pretend.”

“You're not a Hollis, either,” I pointed out. I found that my free hand was rising, palm out, surrender-style, as she continued to walk toward me. I didn't intend to surrender. I needed a plan. My mind raced for one, but all I could come up with was
keep her talking
.

“I went through hell to be reunited with my mom. And Peyton tried to screw it up. And now, when it looks like things are going to be resolved, here you come to screw it up. I am not going to lose my place here because of you. Do you understand?” Her controlled voice had gone shrieky. “You will be just another stain on the carpet. Carpet that we will have replaced before your sad daddy puts you in the ground. That's right.
We.
My parents are fully aware that you need to disappear, just like Peyton, and they have just the resources to make that happen.”

“Dru will turn you in,” I said. She was so close now I could see her arms trembling. The gun was heavy and she was slight. She couldn't hold it out in front of her like that forever. If I could just get it away from her . . .

“Lover Boy Dru has too much to lose,” Luna said. “You think I set him up?
He
set
us
up. We all met. All of us, right here in this very pool house. We agreed.”

I shook my head, confused. “Agreed on what?”

She swung the gun down in short jabs as if pounding on an invisible table. I jumped every time, convinced she would accidentally pull the trigger. She was just feet away from me now. “You know exactly what. To get rid of Peyton. She wouldn't let anyone come with the money but one of us. Guess who?”

“Dru,” I said. I knew it because I'd heard it on the recording. She'd asked Dru because she trusted him.

Luna was nodding, looking thrilled that I finally got it. “And we all agreed, Dru would take his good friend Rigo.”

“Arrigo Basile?” I asked through numb lips.

She nodded again. “Ding, ding, ding! Rigo was going to kill her. The five mil was for him all along. Hit money. Dru knew it, we all knew it. We all agreed.”

“But she didn't die.”

Luna's triumphant look turned sour. “No, she didn't. Dru said Rigo got soft, took the money, and ran away. But if you ask me what happened, Dru turned on Rigo, beat the
crap out of him, and gave Rigo the money to run. My parents think so, too, but what can we really do about it? If we made Dru disappear, it would start to look really fishy to the cops, now, wouldn't it?”

I thought back to the bruises I'd seen on Dru at the hospital, and the ones I found later at the apartment. He'd said he'd gotten them playing basketball. He'd said something about Hollises leaving it all on the court. “Uh-oh,” Luna said, bending slightly to look in my face. “Looks like I touched a nerve. Are you starting to lose faith in your innocent little boyfriend? You should. He wanted her murdered just as much as the rest of us.”

“I don't believe you,” I said, but the words were weak. What had I missed?
I didn't hurt her,
Dru had exclaimed when Chris Martinez showed up to arrest him.
I didn't touch her.
But that was really a technicality, wasn't it? Dru didn't touch her—he simply hired Arrigo to do it—so he was innocent? “I don't . . .” But I couldn't finish the sentence. My hands shook. My knees wanted to buckle.

Luna actually had the guts to look gleeful. “Aw, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Not only is your boyfriend one of us, he actually screwed up the one job he had.” She giggled. “He's not even a successful murderer.”

“He lied to me about everything,” I said, my voice flat, numb. For the first time, it was really sinking in how stupid I had been when it came to Dru. I'd gone from curious about
why Peyton had called me to jumping in the sack with her brother, thinking blissful violet thoughts, without knowing much of anything about him. And the one thing that I did know about him for sure was that he was closed off. Angry. Mysterious. Yet even after I'd found the camera card in his apartment, even after I'd found the bruises on his ribs, I'd continued to trust him.

Why?

I didn't trust anyone. That was what I'd told myself back when I was eight years old and tucking myself into bed at night because my mother was gone. Don't trust anyone. Don't fall in love. Love and trust get you hurt. They get you killed.

Suddenly, I was washed over by a deep indigo wave, standing under the foaming crest, in front of me an endless nighttime on the sea. I'd never contemplated betrayal before—not on any real level—but I knew instantly that this was what I was seeing. Deep indigo, deep betrayal.

God, I was the biggest idiot in the world. I felt like a failure. I'd failed Peyton. She'd given me all these hints and clues, and I'd been literally sleeping with the person who'd tried to kill her.

Chris Martinez had been right.

Luna had been right.

I was the only one who was wrong.

“He lied,” I repeated.

“Oh, please,” Luna's voice cut in. “Spare me the drama. You knew what you were getting into the first time you stepped foot into Peyton's room at the hospital.” Had I? I specifically recalled seeing the crimson and getting the hell out of there with my heart in my damn throat. I remembered feeling faint, sitting in a rolling chair, Chris Martinez getting me some water. And . . . yes, I also remembered thinking this was a mess I didn't want to get into. Peyton Hollis was not my problem, I had thought. I didn't need this shit.

Luna was right. A part of me knew this from the very beginning. A part of me ignored the trouble that was surely coming my way.

I fell into bed with Dru Hollis despite my own misgivings.

“Anyway, I think we're done here. Say good-bye, Nikki,” Luna said, leveling the gun right at my chest. I aimed the light at her again. Even though she was only a few feet away, seeing where the gun was pointing made me relax a little. A confident shooter would have aimed at my head. She was a bad shot and she knew it.

I squeezed my free fist together, pushing away the indigo, fixed my eyes on her hand, and settled back on one foot, ready to roll at the slightest movement of her finger.

There was a noise outside the door at my back. A shuffling noise. Footsteps. Both Luna and I glanced at the door. And then everything seemed to go in slow motion.

The doorknob turned. Luna and I locked eyes. Her lips curled into a smile that looked more like a snarl, and I swear to God I could see her palm flex as her finger began to put pressure on the trigger.

“What—” was all Dru got out before I turned and bolted right through him, knocking him backward onto the pool deck and tumbling on top of him just as the boom of Luna's gun deafened me. I felt wind, and then splinters, caress my right cheek, and a blanket of warmth sluice down the side of my face. I didn't even pause to check the damage.

“What the hell are you doing?” I heard Dru yell, his voice bubbly and foggy and faraway, as if he were talking from the bottom of the pool.

“Don't let her . . . ,” Luna screamed back.

I scrambled to my feet, droplets of blood making the deck slippery under my shoes, and hurried around the lawn chairs. There was nothing but open space between me and the fence. I would be target practice, and Luna had proven that she wasn't afraid to shoot. And that maybe she wasn't as bad a shot as I'd originally taken her for.

Panicked, I whipped my head left and right for an escape. To go back the way I'd come in, I would have to traverse my way around the pool again, which meant I would have to run past Luna. I gulped in air, trying to slow my breathing, trying to calm myself. I couldn't fight if I was too frightened to move.

I thought about Gunner, who'd said the best offense was a good defense.
Be safe, Nikki,
I could hear him say. Gunner wouldn't stay out here like a sitting duck any more than he would go back inside that pool house. He would find a safe place to be, where he could see and hear his threat, and then he would deal with it.

I raced for the kitchen door that I'd scrambled out of, half drugged, just yesterday. The house was dark, empty—I'd noticed it when I arrived—and at least I knew what was on the other side of that door. I'd beaten Luna once inside that house; I could do it again.

The door was locked. Damn it. I whipped my head around, searching for an open window or a secluded path out of here or . . . anything. But there was nothing, and I could hear, through the dull ringing in my ears, Luna's and Dru's voices coming from the pool house.

Without thinking, I grabbed a paving stone from the landscaping. With two hands, I hoisted it above my head, and then brought it down with all my might on the doorknob. It made what sounded like a monstrous noise, and when I glanced back over my shoulder, Dru and Luna were coming. I hefted it over my head and brought it down again. This time the monstrous noise was accompanied by the sound of metal clanging on the porch. The doorknob. The door sprang open and I ran inside.