Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(44)

“Just sayin’ . . . she doesn’t look much like a little girl anymore. Just like Nikki doesn’t.”

She didn’t?

She hugged her knees closer.

“Watch it, or the next time I push you into that river, you won’t be coming back up,” Ollie warned; though, there was laughter running underneath the threat.

“That’s right,” Ollie started to shout, his voice carrying on the wind as he spun around and shouted, “Let it be known, anyone even thinks of messing with my little sister, and I’ll be the one personally taking him down.”

Rex shrugged and flicked some of the water from his hair. “It’s Nikki with the boyfriend, anyway.”

“Stupid boys,” Nikki muttered under her breath, wanting to crawl into a hole and disappear.

“Aww, so cute,” Meredith sang. Nikki knew she was trying to be nice, but it felt like a dig.

He wasn’t looking in Nikki’s direction, but she saw it. The way Ollie stiffened and the roll of something angry that shivered along his strong back.

Nikki felt that itchy feeling again. It tingled across her skin—something that felt good and bad and right and wrong. As if she didn’t know herself anymore.

Kale ignored the whole exchange and tugged his shirt over his head. “Come on, let’s go check out Stillhouse. Haven’t been in there since last summer.”

“Lucky if it’ll still be standing,” Rex said.

Nikki chewed her bottom lip. “You know it’s not safe to go sneaking around in there.”

Rex grinned. “Always so scared, Nik Nik.”

“I’m not scared. I’m just not dumb. It’s not my fault I hang around with bunch of stupid boys.”

“I want to go,” Meredith agreed, looking at Ollie with eyes that were begging him to take her along.

Nikki looked at Sydney, praying that she’d get it. That Nikki needed to get away. She didn’t think she could handle watching Ollie with Meredith for a second more. “It’s a bad idea.”

And still, she was climbing to her feet, the same way Sydney was doing, because that was just what they always did, always following the guys around.

Sydney held out her hand to Nikki to help her stand. Excitement blazed in her eyes when she squeezed Nikki’s hand and whispered just so she could hear. “Fly, fly, dragonfly.”

Nikki sucked in a breath and gave her a nod, following her up the slope to where they’d left their bikes. Kale had already climbed onto his and was taking off down the trail, Rex right behind him, Sydney scrambling to catch up.

Nikki watched them. Rex looked over his shoulder at Sydney like he was challenging her to catch up. Beckoning her to his side. Something special moved through the air between them.

Nikki would bet that something special was something Ollie wouldn’t like.

Warily, she moved to pick up her bike, but all her movements felt slowed.

Sluggish.

As if she were trudging through a muddied bog. Held back by that same feeling Ollie radiated like his own special glow.

A brand the boy wore that only she could feel.

She peeked over her shoulder, and he was still there with Meredith, but looking all hard and pissed.

She shook it off. Her private life wasn’t any of his concern, and what he did with Meredith was definitely none of hers.

She focused on peddling up the trail, through the weeds that had grown high, the long, floral spines of the purple blazing stars poking up through the spikes of the tall grasses.

As soon as Ollie was out of sight, she peddled harder, faster, thinking she might finally break away. She topped the hill and wound back around the trail toward the abandoned buildings down on Row.

What used to be a dirt road was now an overgrown path that was barely discernable, just like the earth that had grown up around the crumbling, deserted buildings.

They weren’t supposed to go in, but they’d been doing it for years. It’d always felt like an adventure.

Thrilling.

A little scary.

A little wrong.

Nikki guessed that was what made it so much fun. What made her stomach still twist with the thought of sneaking inside.

She dropped her bike in front of the three stories of splintered wood and rusted steel.

Inside were old, vacant offices, metal filing cabinets tipped open with the drawers emptied and gaping. Canning facilities with battered, broken-down machines.

When they were younger, it had been a hide-and-seek heaven.

Right then, the only thing Nikki felt like doing was hiding. Because she knew she was stupid for even having these thoughts about Ollie. These feelings that welled so big inside her it made her start to think she was losing her mind.

And she just couldn’t stomach the way Ollie had looked at her when she’d taken off.

As if he was angry.

Disappointed.

Just a dumb little girl who couldn’t think for herself or decide what she really wanted.

Maybe she really, really was dumb, because what she wanted was him.

Her breaths came short, and her heart raced as she slowly inched toward the hole in the wall they’d always snuck through.

“What, are you scared?” She heard Rex shouting at Kale from inside. A reverberation that left a long echo through the vast stillness.

“Not even, dude. You’re the only pussy around here.”