Locke 2 (Blackwater Boys #4)

Twenty-Five

Kali

S elf-soothing ended abruptly when I exited the school and found Jem leaning back against the wall beside the entrance doors. He was eating an ice cream. Those delicious drumsticks with the chocolate sprinkles on top. He was rotating the cone, his tongue lapping the chocolate when his eyes darted to mine. I stilled, staring at him, at his leather jacket and loose jeans, his brown hair wild, his eyes especially bright under the morning sun. Jem was ridiculously good looking. Not as beautiful as Locke, but he was like the rough boy that didn’t give a shit about himself and yet still naturally looked boyishly handsome.

From what I heard about him, he always struck me as a cruel guy who didn’t flirt or get soft with anyone, but he managed to convince Patsy I was an endangered bird arsonist.

Jem paused mid-lick, watching me curiously. Did he expect me to lose it? I didn’t, but my glare intensified.

“Where is he then?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“Who?” he returned, innocently.

I rolled my eyes and began to walk, my eyes scanning the streets now. Cars were filling up. The school bell was going to ring any minute now and kids flocked to the playgrounds. Jem followed closely behind me.

“You know who, Jem.”

“I can’t tell you that,” Jem said easily. “Isn’t it my job to keep the suspense up?”

I looked at him in disbelief. “He sent you to have me fired, and why are you eating ice cream at almost nine in the morning?”

“The receptionist handed it to me.”

“ Kayla gave that to you?” I raised a brow. “What did you tell her?”

“I was simply waiting in the office.”

“Jem.”

“She offered me coffee first, and I politely declined.”

Kayla wasn’t a friendly receptionist, and I couldn’t imagine Jem being polite about anything. “So, her second offer was ice cream?”

“You’re really interested in how I got this drumstick.”

“Because Kayla has never even said good morning to me.”

“Yeah, she wasn’t very fond of you.”

I paused in my step. “You spoke to her about me?”

He leaned closer, correcting me. “I spoke on your behalf.”

“What did you tell her?”

He winced. “Let’s just say you can’t go back to that school.”

After what Patsy accused me of, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine the school believed I was also an infamous orangutan strangler.

“If Locke didn’t want me to go to work, I could have handed in my resignation,” I said. “None of this destruction of future prospects in a small town where word goes around.”

“But Locke likes a bit of drama…and destruction.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “He does, or you do?”

He had the nerve to give me another innocent look. “Kari, I was handed a script. I simply followed orders.”

It didn’t escape me that he was using my fake name. I stood up straighter, even though I still came up to his damn shoulders. “What is going on, Jem? If you’re here to snatch me away, I’ll run—”

“No,” he cut in, resolutely. “I’m not abducting you. That’s a hard limit for me.”

“But telling people I like to set fake birds on fire isn’t?”

His lips twitched again. He thought this was so funny. “I had to be sure you weren’t allowed back.”

“I thought you were following a script.”

When he didn’t answer straight away, I shook my head and continued to walk. The second I was off school grounds, I made my way to the centre of town. Jem kept up, never leaving my side. I entered the first coffee shop I saw. It was one of those la-di-da ones. Probably super expensive, but I didn’t care. I needed more caffeine. My head was pounding. Oh, yeah, I’d definitely sobered up from the giant coffee I had earlier. It was probably because the school thought I was an endangered species arsonist and so I was freaking the fuck out.

The rush had just ended so I went straight to the counter. Jem was chewing into his cone now when I made my order and baulked.

The coffee was eleven fucking dollars.

That was nine dollars more than my usual morning cup. I saw the amusement dance in Jem’s eyes as I opened my wallet and fished for a twenty. I paid and kept my back to him as I went to the pickup station. When he didn’t follow, I snuck a glimpse at him. He was ordering coffee, too, and the barista had stars in her eyes. Goddamn, he had that bad boy vibe with that damn messy hair and, what the fuck, but the shirt he wore under his leather jacket was wrinkled like he’d just rolled out of fucking bed. So annoying. I gritted my teeth as she flipped her hair over her shoulder. Unbelievable—

“Kari,” a voice said, catching my attention.

I spun around at the familiar voice calling my name and looked into the eyes of my doctor. I straightened, suddenly conscious of my bitch face. He had just come in from the looks of it, his hands were still buried in the pockets of his really nice grey jacket, and his cheeks were pink from the cold. He looked handsome as ever as he stopped in front of me, smiling.

“Doctor Abbott,” I said, my voice already brightening even though I was close to a hulk transformation a minute ago.

“Nick,” he corrected, his blue gaze glimpsing over me quickly. “How’s your morning?”

Shit. “Great. Yours?”

He winced. “Late start. I’ve got patients waiting as we speak, but I need my coffee. I didn’t know you came here.”

“First time.” And last. Eleven fucking dollars, my ass. My cup better have the tears of Jesus in them.

“You’ll be back. It’s great here.”

“Guess I’ll find out.” I tried finding something else to say but the usual awkwardness threatened to come. The doctor didn’t seem to mind. He was smiling at me, his eyes bright. I could tell he really liked me. If I was a normal girl, there would be “chemistry” between us. My hormones should be going insane, but they weren’t, and I felt sad about that. My pussy was such a moron.

“Are you also late?” he asked me.

“Yeah,” I lied swiftly. “Super late, but I needed my hit of caffeine, too.”

“Especially if you’re going to be wrangling all those kids.”

“They’re not that bad.”

“The boys must be.”

“The boys can be wild, but it’s mostly Patsy that gives me shit.”

He laughed. “I believe that. Is she a pain to work with?”

“She makes me dust windows.”

“Ah, the cleaning,” he nodded, amused. “But that’s what it takes to be a woman, right?”

I laughed. “You really do get it.”

“Patsy has a reputation.”

“Hey, Kari ,” Jem called out, disrupting us. “You think they sprinkle gold dust in our coffees? Is that why it costs so much?”

The doctor looked at Jem, and his smile waned. My smile was tight as I let out a fake chuckle. “Uh, maybe!”

“Is that your partner…or work colleague?” Nick wondered.

“Neither,” I returned quickly.

Two seconds later, Jem was standing at my side, shoving the last pointy bit of his ice cream cone into his mouth. He crunched audibly as he looked over the doctor from head to toe. “Who the fuck is this guy?” he asked me, making my heart drop to my stomach.

The doctor raked a hand through his thick hair, glancing at the order station. I glared up at Jem. “This is Doctor Nick Abbot.”

Jem’s brows flew up. He let out a whistle. “Doctor, hey? You know each other?”

Nick looked back at Jem. I thought he’d excuse himself, but he stared hard at Jem. “I treated Kari recently.”

Jem feigned a look of concern as he looked at me. “Oh, no. Are you alright, sweetie? Anything I need to worry about?”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “No need to worry, friend, but thanks for asking.”

Jem chuckled at the friend reference and left us, stepping closer to the serving station. My icy expression melted when I looked back at Nick. “Anyway…”

Nick smiled again, but he didn’t seem as enthused. “We should schedule that follow up.”

I nodded. “Definitely.”

“I hope things are going well with you, and that your anxiety has eased.”

This time I couldn’t help the emotion from slipping. “It’s been hard actually…a boy I cared about left class abruptly. You might have heard about him.”

His face fell. “Which boy?”

“His name’s Lenny, and he already worried me before he left. They say his mom took off, and that might be the case, but I’m worried.”

He looked like he wanted to reach his hand out to touch me, but he refrained, glancing at Jem again. “Kari, I’m sorry to hear that. Seeing kids in those situations is never easy. If there’s anything I can do to help, you have to let me know.”

“Thanks, Nick.”

Concern shone in his eyes. “What you do isn’t easy.”

“Same to you. You’re a doctor. You see people in bad shape all the time.”

“I don’t make strong connections with them like you do.”

Used to do, actually. “I appreciate your words.”

“Of course.” His eyes softened. ““Hopefully I’ll catch you in here again?”

“I hope so.”

He didn’t look like he wanted to go, but he didn’t want to deal with Jem. I didn’t blame him. He stepped closer and dropped his voice. “Have a good morning, Kari.”

“You, too.”

He moved across the cafe, but he did cast me another concerned glance, followed by a curious one at Jem.

Great, so I bumped into the handsome doctor, and it was going alright, we shared a couple laughs, and then Jem came along and blew it to smithereens.

Then again, Nick was really sweet at the end, so it wasn’t a total bust.

“You should be glad it wasn’t Locke in here,” Jem muttered under his breath, loud enough just for me to hear. “I won’t tell him about that encounter.”

“Thanks,” I said, sarcastically. “God forbid he knows I communicate with the opposite sex.”

Jem glanced at the doctor, though it was more of a side-eye. “That could have been so much worse if I wasn’t here. He would have asked for your fucking number.”

“I’m his patient. He knows my number.”

“You know what I mean.” Jem looked at me, and his amusement was all gone. “Locke wants you. You’re his.”

“I don’t belong to anyone.”

He chuckled, but it sounded mean. “Cute.”

“I’m glad you find my autonomy amusing,” I hissed.

His light expression faded. “It doesn’t amuse me. I don’t like cleaning up Locke’s dead bodies.” Before I could even stomach those words, he added, “Don’t be stupid, or try to get a reaction out of him, either. That’s a fucked-up game we stop playing after high school. Don’t go on dates, or act interested in another man, especially while he’s here. He’ll fucking kill the man that touches you.”

My pulse picked up. I didn’t look at the doctor once as I collected my coffee. I didn’t wait for Jem’s order to come in. I left the coffee shop and walked down the street in the direction of my house. I was now unemployed. I’d nearly forgotten what this felt like. The world felt bigger already, and I felt puny.

“Jem’s right,” Aurora said, skipping alongside me. “You shouldn’t be encouraging the doctor to talk to you.”

I let out a huff. “I was not. I was being friendly!”

“Your cheeks were red, and you smiled at him…even though you don’t feel anything for him. That’s wrong, Kali.”

“I wasn’t trying to do anything—”

“You would have liked it more if Locke was there when you spoke to that doctor. You would have wanted his reaction. Even though Jem was there, you were hoping Locke was, too.” She said it matter-of-factly.

A denial was at the tip of my tongue, except when I looked back down, she was gone.

Footsteps sounded behind me. Jem slowed down at my side. He wasn’t breathless. He hadn’t broken a sweat at all despite having half a block to catch up to me. With a cup of coffee in his hand to boot.

“This is a nice town,” he stated, chirpily. “You really had it going on, didn’t you?”

I didn’t answer. I sipped my coffee, and nearly groaned at how good it tasted. Jem whistled under his breath. “Look at all these cute little shops. How long before you would have moved along, Kari ?”

“I was building a life here,” I retorted. “I wasn’t going to move along.”

“Oh, right. You’d have been a teacher’s aide, married to that handsome doctor, and you’d have come to that gold dust coffee shop every morning together. Aw. Fucking adorable.” He paused. “Would that really have made you happy?”

His question didn’t sound amused. I glanced at him. He looked back, appearing solemn now. “You don’t know me, Jem. Why do you care?”

“I care about Locke,” he returned. “Where would he have fit into your life?”

“That was the point,” I returned, icily. “He doesn’t fit into my life.”

Jem nodded at my answer and took a sip of his coffee. “It doesn’t bother you how you left him?”

Was he being serious? I slowed down completely and looked up at him. “What about how he left me , Jem? Unemployed and on the run.”

Jem’s face was hard now. “You knew he was supposed to find you. That was the whole point. You only called him back because you needed him for something.” He took a step closer, his nostrils flaring as he growled, “If it were up to me, I’d have ignored your little plea for help.”

I glared at him. “I’m asking him to help find a little boy. It wasn’t about me.”

He scoffed. “That was a good excuse. I can’t believe he bought it.”

My mouth fell open. “You think I’m full of shit?”

“I think that boy is with his mom—”

“He’s not—”

“You’re bored with this pretty little town, and that vanilla doctor, and you’re going to use Locke because that’s the kind of girl you are.”

“What kind of girl am I exactly?”

“The kind that’ll chew him up and spit him out.”

I studied him and the anger suddenly bleeding out of him. How fast he could turn. It reminded me of Locke. These Blackwater boys were temperamental little shits, weren’t they? I didn’t bother to correct anything he was saying. I wasn’t trying to convince him to find Lenny. I didn’t care about his views of me, either. I didn’t value his opinion enough to want him to put me in high regard.

However, I did respect his bite. He was protecting Locke. He cared about him. Was that why he was here?

A car pulled up alongside us. I looked away from his mean eyes and at the black Mercedes with windows too tinted to peer inside.

“Have your fun,” Jem snarled.

I didn’t look back at him, but I heard his footsteps pound away. My shoulders relaxed as he took his mean energy with him. Dude was savage, and sort of right, and I was just fighting him for the sake of it because he pissed me off.

Anticipation zipped through me as I took a moment to gather myself. I was nervous. I was also really intrigued to see Locke. To stare at him in the daylight, especially after our rocky night. I wondered what he was going to say. I hoped he wasn’t going to be cold and snarky. I didn’t know how to handle that version of Locke. We didn’t leave things on a spectacular note. He’d shown me the picture, and we’d spoken, but we weren’t in a good place. I could see that I had pushed him away. I seemed to be doing that lately to everyone, even my fake sister.

Shaking off my nerves, I opened the passenger door and slipped inside. The smell of Locke hit me, and I nearly shut my eyes to breathe him in. Fuck, he was delicious, and I was in trouble.

I’d barely looked over at him or fastened my seatbelt when he drove off.