Indigo Sky

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

I didn’t go home.

I left Kate’s gated community and drove until I found a dark parking lot. Then, I got dressed in my car and ran through my options of what to do next. Where to go. Who to talk to. I couldn’t go home yet. I couldn’t face my parents. The evidence of my heartbreak and fury was written too much on my face, and they would see beyond any of the bullshit I’d have to feed them. I could handle that later.

Kate’s father worked with Roy.

Howard’s ex-wife slept with Roy.

Kate knew Roy.

Kate always takes her car to Roy’s.

How often has Nate seen her? How long has he been watching her, stalking her? Destroying my car—

God, is he even fucking capable of this shit?

The thought gave me pause. I had known Nate. I knew he had a short fuse. I knew he went to extreme measures to seek his revenge, but years of stalking and tormenting a woman who had rejected him nearly a decade ago? It seemed extreme, even for him, and I found myself warring between reason and doubt. But it was the closest I had to finding an answer to all of this, and even if he wasn’t the source of Kate’s current predicament, he had certainly added to it years ago—and he had knowingly taken me along for the ride and chosen not to say anything about it now.

Fuck, he had known it was her at the strip club all those years ago. He had dragged me down there to seek her out; he had been pissed at me for catching her attention. That was enough to inspire another bout of rage in me.

I checked the time. It was after five in the morning. Too early to go to Roy’s, but not too early to bang on Nate’s door.

So, that was exactly where I headed. It was nearly six by the time I arrived, and it felt simultaneously strange and familiar to be back, parked in my old space, like walking through the halls of your old school. I no longer fit here; it wasn’t mine anymore, but it once had been.

I made it up to the door and wasted no time rapping my fist against it, the lock rattling against the frame. He didn’t answer, so I knocked louder. Then louder still, but he still didn’t answer.

“Nathan!” I shouted, staring at the steel door and waiting for the footsteps to come from the other side … but none came.

“Motherfucker,” I gritted out and headed back down the stairs to the parking lot, where I noticed his truck wasn’t in its usual space.

The asshole wasn’t even home.

He must’ve stayed at Crystal’s, I guessed, which only incited another fireball of anger to bowl me over. He was there, sleeping in her bed, making friends with her son, while simultaneously tormenting her friend. He was using Crystal. He didn’t care for her. He …

Stop. This isn’t helping.

I got into my car and went to the only other place I could think of.

Roy’s.

***

The door was locked, and the shop was dark. But Kate’s car sat there in the front, just as I remembered it. Clean. Unbroken. Waiting for her to come and take it home.

I leaned on the trunk and waited with crossed arms for someone to show up. Nate. Donny. Whoever the fuck else worked there nowadays. This place … it was much like the apartment now, wasn’t it? Something that had once been mine, but no longer was. It no longer felt comfortable; it didn’t feel like home. And in some ways, I was glad, but in others, it pissed me off. Because it had been stolen from me. My departure hadn’t been a choice.

Just like it hadn’t been my choice to leave Kate.

Nate had made sure of that when he dragged me into that house years ago.

Kate . I hung my head over my aching heart.

When this was all over, would there still be a chance? Could I go back to her? Would she take me? I hoped so, but the reality of it was that I had hurt her. I had. That wasn’t on Nate, and how could I expect her to forgive me when I couldn’t forgive myself?

An hour passed, and in true Nate fashion, he still hadn’t shown up. But five minutes after the shop had opened, a dark gray pickup truck pulled into the lot, and out stepped Donny.

He squinted and used his hand to shield his eyes in the early morning sun as he looked at me.

“Well, holy shit,” he said with a smile. “Whats going on, Rev? What can I do for you?” He gestured at the car I was leaning against. “You here to pick it up?”

“I’m here to talk to Nate,” I said, stone-faced, not bothering to correct him and say it wasn’t mine.

Donny nodded, walking past me to unlock the door. “He’s probably at his girlfriend’s place. He’s always late when he’s over there. But if you wanna come in and wait—"

“No,” I said, not bothering to look at him. “I’ll wait here.”

He stalled at the door. I could feel his stare on me. Could sense every one of the questions he wanted to ask, but likely wouldn’t. Where would he even begin?

“Hey, for whatever it’s worth, I wish Dad had fired him instead,” he finally replied. “I never really liked him, but now … I work for him, so …” He grumbled something unintelligible as he jiggled the key in the doorknob. Then, he asked, “What’s this about? ‘Cause you look like you’re here to kill him.”

“I just want to talk,” I muttered while thinking, It’s none of your damn business, Donny .

Donny barked a laugh that bordered on manic. “Ah, damn. I was kinda hoping … well, anyway, if you wanna come in, be my guest.”

He disappeared into the shop, letting the jingling door close behind him. And the gears in my brain started to turn.

Donny was Roy’s son. He’d been around the shop for as long as I could remember. Granted, my dad was never very close with Roy—they’d been childhood acquaintances, after-school buddies at best—and although the old mechanic had always been a known person to me in my youth, the extent of my interactions with him started and ended at the shop. And Donny had always been there, even as a little kid. And since I hadn’t been around the shop over the past few years, I suspected he knew more than I did about Nate’s interactions with customers—Kate included.

So, I pushed off the car and hurried inside. “Hey, Donny, I actually have a question for you.”

Startled, Donny turned from his task of refilling the packets of instant coffee and tea bags near the electric kettle. He cleared his throat, his eyes on my face, then said, “Y-yeah, sure. What’s up? Sorry, I, um … I was somewhere else … in here.” He tapped his temple.

“Oh, no problem, um …” I pulled out my phone and scrolled through some pictures until I found one I had taken with Kate. I tried not to react, tried not to acknowledge the pinching in my chest, when I turned the screen toward him. “Do you know her?”

He glanced at the picture, then nodded casually. “Yeah, sure. That’s Kathleen—or, I guess, Kate. She prefers Kate now. But yeah. Why?”

“Have you ever seen Nate with her?”

His eyes lingered on the picture. He sniffled a little, like he had a stuffy nose, then seemed to reluctantly look away with a look of distaste on his face.

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Her dad was just … a real asshole to my dad after … well, after his wife slept with my dad—”

“Can you blame him?” I asked, seeing red on Howard’s behalf.

“Listen, I’m not here to take sides on that. It was a long time ago, and after that, she and I …” He shook his head. “Anyway, I don’t know who Nate deals with. It’s not my job to babysit him. What is all this about?”

“Just wondering,” I muttered, pocketing my phone and glancing over my shoulder toward the parking lot.

Nate still wasn’t here.

“Is Kathleen in trouble or something?”

“Why would you think she’s in trouble?” I asked, turning back to Donny.

“She was always getting into trouble. Just like her mom,” he replied without much reaction. “But it’s been forever since I’ve even heard about her, so what the hell do I know?”

***

I left Roy’s and debated between going home for a quick shower and something to eat or going back to Nate’s with the hope that he was home from Crystal’s. I didn’t know where she lived, didn’t even know her real name to look up her address, but even if I did, I wasn’t sure I’d show up at her house. The last thing I wanted to do was make a scene at her front door, especially if her son was around.

I glanced at the time.

It was almost nine. I hadn’t eaten since dinner last night, and I hadn’t slept in well over twenty-four hours. I needed food, and more than that, I needed rest.

I can stop by Nate’s on the way home , I thought with resignation.

I didn’t want to sleep until all of this shit was taken care of, but I wasn’t any good if I was exhausted.

So, I drove to Nate’s once again, and as luck would have it, his truck was in the lot.

“Showtime,” I muttered, flexing my hands before getting out of the car.

Nate had just unlocked the door and was about to step inside when I reached the top of the stairs. He turned to face me, but before he got the chance to react or say anything, I shoved my weight against the door and pushed inside. My hands were at the collar of his shirt, my glare boring a hole through him as I shoved him against the wall of an apartment I hardly recognized.

“Rev, whoa, whoa! Dude!” The wind was knocked out of him as his back hit the wall. “What the hell, man?! Wha—"

“You didn’t tell me!” I roared as I pulled my fist back.

My hand made contact with his mouth, his tooth cutting my knuckle. Blood dripped from his split lip, and he cursed and took a swing, connecting with my cheekbone. Stinging pain ripped through my face, but I didn’t let go.

“You knew who she fucking was! We’d broken into her house, and you didn’t tell me !”

I swung again, landing a blow to his nose. His hands gave up the fight to press to his face, blood leaking between his fingers.

“Shit! I think you fuckin’ broke my nose, asshole!”

“When I’m done with you, that’ll be the least of your problems,” I growled, readying my arm to throw another punch.

Nate held up his bloodied hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, wait, wait, wait … yes, all right? We broke into her house.”

My fist was suspended in the air as I shouted into his face, “ She was the reason we went to that club, wasn’t she?!”

“Yes!” He winced, expecting me to hit him, but instead, I let go. He released a breath and wilted against the wall. “I knew who she was. I was … dude, you know I was fucking messed up, man. I wasn’t … I wasn’t thinking, all right? I’m sorry.”

“How long?” I asked, blood rushing past my eardrums as I backed away to grip the kitchen counter. “How long have you been following her?”

Blood from Nate’s nose dripped onto the floor but he made no move to take care of himself as a confused look overtook his face and he shook his head. “I … I haven’t been following her , man. It was the one time. I-I saw something about the club in her room. That was all. I knew she worked there, so I thought we’d go, see if I could get a second chance or something. I was fucked up, man! I dunno what else to tell you. But I let it go after that, I swear to God.”

I held the lip of the counter in a white-knuckled grip, just staring at him. Waiting for him to falter in his bullshit. But he didn’t. He held my gaze with a heavy, deep, unspoken apology fueling every one of his inhales and exhales, and I cursed under my breath, shaking my head and looking away.

“What happened?” he asked quietly.

I reached behind me and grabbed the dishrag from the hook beside the sink, then threw it at him. He caught it, held it to his nose, and waited for me to respond.

“I put the pieces together,” I muttered, rolling my gaze to the ceiling. “I saw her room. And I thought … with all this shit happening …”

“You thought I’d been carrying this insane grudge all this time,” he guessed—accurately.

I lifted a limp hand and gestured toward him, as if to say, Bingo , before letting it fall back to my side.

“Did you break it off with her?”

I hesitated, then nodded.

“Fuck, dude. But why ? You’re nuts about her. Why the fuck would you do that?”

“Because I told her the truth,” I said.

He rolled his eyes from behind the towel. “And you thought she was better off without you as long as I was around. You’re a fucking idiot—you know that? You could’ve talked to me first before you blew up your entire goddamn life.”

The truth was, I had hoped it’d be that simple. I’d hoped I’d approach Nate, solve this entire mystery, have the cops haul him away, and be done. I’d go back to her, grovel, do whatever I had to do to beg for her forgiveness, and then … I didn’t know … live happily ever after with her or some shit.

Nate walked past me to slump down on the couch, holding the towel to his nose. He stared ahead at the blank TV, just as I stared at the wall I’d held him against. Both of us thinking, both of us too consumed by those thoughts to include the other.

Then, he asked, “Want a smoke?”

And with a shrug, I released a forlorn sigh and turned toward the couch. “Why the fuck not?”

We smoked together for the first time in years, and I’d like to say it was a horrible experience as I inhaled the smoke and coated my lungs in tar, but it wasn’t. Instead, the shared silence was cathartic in a way nothing else had been in years, and although my heart was broken and the mess I’d created was more than I knew what to do with, I felt relaxed for the first time in weeks.

“What are you gonna do?” Nate asked, glancing at me.

“You’re a fuckin’ mess,” I muttered, referring to the dried-up blood covering the lower half of his face, crusted into his beard. “Why the hell did you let me do that?”

He shrugged. “You needed it.”

“You’re out of your mind.” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees and brushing a hand over my hair. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I guess I’ll quit the club. I mean, I can’t show my face around there now, right?”

“Not until you patch things up with Kathleen or Indie—whatever her name is.”

Kate , I thought sadly. She prefers Kate .

But I didn’t tell him that.

“Yeah, I don’t see that happening.”

“Why?”

“Because!” I guffawed incredulously. I snatched the half-empty cigarette pack from off the cushion between us and took another out. “She knows I was there. She knows shit was stolen. And she thinks it was me .”

I slipped the cigarette between my lips and held a hand out for the lighter.

Nate clapped it against my palm as he said, “Should’ve thrown me under the bus … for once.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” I mumbled around the end of the smoke as I lit up. “Probably thinks I’m whoever’s been following her. She said she’d call the cops if she saw me again.”

“So, now, you’re back here, bullshitting with me.”

I huffed a humorless chuckle. “Guess so.”

He reached out and slapped a hand against my shoulder. “Well, yo-ho-ho, motherfucker. A pirate’s life for us, huh?”

I sneered at him for a moment before sucking at the end of the cigarette. Then, with my lungs wrapped tight around a breath of smoke, I choked out, “Kindly shut the fuck up.”

But as he walked away to find some ice in the kitchen, I looked around the living room. It was clean, everything where it was meant to be, and there wasn’t an offensive, lingering smell to be found. He really had cleaned up his act, I realized, and if anything good could come from this, it was that.

All things considered, I was glad to be back.