Follow Me(90)

Dimly, I heard a scraping noise behind me. Still holding the pillow over Audrey, I opened my eyes and turned toward the sound just in time to see the bottom of the wine bottle swinging at my face.





CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE





AUDREY


Nick set a cardboard box bursting with my clothing down in the center of the empty floor and looked around. “This is a nice place. Much better than that hole in the ground you used to call home.”

I set down my own box and surveyed the space, happiness flooding my body. My new apartment in a recently constructed building on the waterfront had floor-to-ceiling windows, which were a welcome change from the small, ground-level, bar-covered windows at my old place. More important, these windows were on the fourth floor—meaning no aspirational stalkers could be peering through, watching me sleep.

“I know,” I said. “I should have held out for something like this the first time around. The doorman alone is going to be worth the cost of rent.”

“Just getting out of that basement is worth it. I always hated staying over there, and that was before I knew that nutjob was hiding in the shadows.”

I glanced at him. “I didn’t know you hated staying over.”

“It was the location, not the company,” he said, tousling my hair.

“Careful,” I said, bringing a hand up to protect the still-tender spot on my scalp.

“Sorry, babe,” he said, wincing. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “But . . . hey, Nick, are we okay? I feel like we’ve been waltzing around the elephant in the room.”

“Yeah,” Nick said, suddenly very interested in the toe of his sneaker. “I mean, if you can forgive me for calling you a bitch and all that other stuff I said, then, yeah, we’re okay.”

“I’ll forgive you for that if you forgive me for thinking you broke into my apartment.”

He looked up and laughed. “I don’t know, Aud. That was pretty fucked-up.”

“Leave me alone,” I protested, pinching him. “I was really scared.”

“I know,” he said, catching my hands and looking at me seriously. “And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I got caught up in my own bullshit jealousy. But you can count on me from now on, I promise.”

“Thanks, Nicky,” I said, stretching up on my tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. “I missed you.”

“And now that all your new DC friends are in jail, you need me, huh?”

“Max isn’t in jail,” I corrected him. “Cat, on the other hand . . . well, let’s hope she’s not getting out anytime soon.”

“Good riddance,” Nick said with an elaborate shudder. “That chick always gave me the creeps. I hated the way she used to follow you around all the time in college.”

“I thought Cat was sweet,” I said, my voice catching as I remembered our decade-long friendship, all the fun we’d had together, the secrets we’d shared. When I thought of all the nights we’d slept together under the same roof, I got chills. Had she ever stood beside my bed, pillow in hand, before? When she said she’d heard me talking in my sleep—had that made her want to smother me? How many other times and other ways had Cat wished me harm over the years? And how had I never known how she really felt about me?

“Christ, Audrey, the bitch tried to murder you. She wasn’t sweet.”

“I said I thought she was sweet. Listening comprehension, babe. Try it.”

“Whatever. You sure can pick ’em. Her and that psychopath you were sleeping with.”

I flinched, getting the same strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that I always did when I thought about Max: a mixture of fear, disgust, and pity. The extent and dedication of his fixation with me was alarming, and I still felt like throwing up when I thought about him standing in my apartment that night, watching me while I was completely vulnerable. But there was something sad about it. Max had truly believed he loved me. His feelings had been real—and, for a time at least, so had mine. It felt insane to admit, but a part of me actually missed Max.

“Be fair,” I said softly. “Max isn’t a psychopath. He’s . . . well, he’s not wired right, that’s for sure, but he’s not a psychopath. It’s not like he was going to hurt me.”

“You don’t know that. Just because he didn’t hurt you doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have.”

“He never would have hurt me,” I said with certainty. “He’s not violent. And he loved me too much.”

“I worry about you, Audrey. You’re too trusting.”

“Not so trusting I didn’t get a restraining order.”

“The first smart thing you did since moving to this town,” Nick said, shaking his head. “But, seriously, I’m glad you’re sticking around. I was worried you were going to pack it up and head back to the Big Apple. I wouldn’t have blamed you, but I would have missed you.”

“Real talk, if I hadn’t gotten that promotion, I might have considered it.” I punched him lightly in the arm. “But, let’s be honest, we both know I couldn’t let a couple of head cases run me out of town.”

“That’s my girl,” he said with a smirk, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me close.