Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

7. Salem

SEVEN

SALEM

THIRTEEN YEARS OLD

“Oh my god, Salem, he is the hottest ever.” Talia whispered the scandal as she hugged the heart-shaped pink pillow to her chest. Salem and her best friend sat facing each other with their legs crisscrossed on Salem’s bed, their voices hushed, the hour late.

Scandalous, was right.

Furtively, Salem’s gaze darted toward her closed door as if he might be right there with his ear pressed to her door, listening to their conversation.

Salem’s heart thudded at the idea, and her stomach tangled in a knot. She couldn’t tell if it was in a good or bad way.

“Shh.” Salem leaned forward with the secret. “Someone’s gonna hear you. They’re right in the next room.”

About twenty minutes ago, Darius had stumbled in after a party with his friend Carlo.

Talia grinned and widened her eyes. “Um, hello. That’s the goal.”

Salem poked Talia’s knee, her words held low as they squeezed from between her lips. “He is way too old for you…and he’s my brother’s best friend.”

“Even better. Older men are more experienced.”

Salem’s nose curled. “Gross. And he’s…”

She didn’t know how to frame the words. The unsettled feeling that swept through her each time Carlo was around.

“A Greek God? An Italian Adonis? Do you need me to go on?”

Salem rolled her eyes. “That was sufficient, thank you.”

Giggling, Talia scooted off the edge of the bed and shimmied over to the dressing table mirror, checking herself out as she swept a tube of shimmery gloss over her lips. She smacked them before she looked at Salem from over her shoulder. “And who cares how old he is. I mean, I look way older, don’t I?”

Through the dim twinkle lights strung along the edges of Salem’s ceiling, she nodded. They both did.

But Salem knew better. For years, Darius had chased her off, warning her to stay away from him and his friends.

She knew better than letting her thoughts traipse that direction.

Not that she wanted them to go there, anyway.

Right?

Deep laughter echoed through the walls.

Her stomach did that tilting thing again.

Talia held a squeal and beelined back to her, jumping onto her bed and landing on her knees. “Did you hear that? Even his laugh is hot.” Her eyes nearly rolled back in her head before she flopped dramatically onto her back. “Too bad he’s already in love with you.”

Salem’s chest tightened, and she rushed to say, “Stop being stupid.”

Talia pushed on Salem’s arm with her toe. “Only when you stop being blind.”

Talia had passed out in the middle of a sentence ten minutes before, just like she did almost every time she spent the night.

Mimi always joked that her best friend had an on and off switch. Come six a.m., she’d pop right back up at full speed.

Salem had slinked out without waking her to use the bathroom, brushed her teeth, then twisted her hair into the braid she wore to sleep.

Flicking off the bathroom light, Salem slipped out the door and back into the darkened hall, her bare feet quieted as she tiptoed for her door.

She stilled with the presence that fell over her from behind.

Close. Close. Closer.

The hairs at her nape shivered and lifted, and she gulped, gathering herself to turn around.

Carlo stood right behind her.

Talia was right. He was hot. Tall and thin but strong. Mostly a man. He’d stopped going to school two months ago, which she’d heard Mimi lecturing Darius about just yesterday.

Carlo was a bad influence.

Trouble , she’d said.

And Mimi didn’t want Darius hanging around him as much as he used to. Obviously, Darius wasn’t quick to listen, but it was hard to blame him when Carlo had been his best friend since they’d moved in with Mimi all those years ago.

Carlo’s short black hair was wavy, and even in the middle of the night, it appeared styled. His clothes and car expensive and flashy. His eyes as sharp as his jaw.

With a wry smile, he leaned against the wall. “What are you doing out here, sneaking around in the middle of the night?”

Salem’s heart thundered like crazy, but she managed to send him a scowl. “I could ask the same about you.”

He laughed a low, rolling sound that vibrated on the dense air. “Ah, bambola, it’s my job to sneak around. And yours is to be sweet.”

He grinned when he said it, a joke she didn’t understand.

Salem suddenly felt trapped, though she let her voice fill with defiance as she lifted her chin. “This is my house. I’m no concern of yours.”

He reached out and ran his fingertips along her jaw. “That is where you are wrong.”

Trembles rocked through her. She was pretty sure they weren’t the good kind.

“Carlo.”

Salem jolted when she heard the voice, and she stumbled back far enough that she could see Mimi at the head of the hall.

“I think your momma is probably wondering where you are. You should go home.” Mimi’s voice was harder than she’d ever heard it.

Carlo roughed a chuckle, so casual, like he didn’t care at all about the cut of bitterness in her words. He just angled forward, whispered, “One day, pupa…one day,” before he turned and eased down the hall, dipping his head in a faked pleasantry at her mimi as he passed.

The door opened and rattled shut behind him.

Mimi’s face was red. “Stay away from him, Salem. As far away as you can.”

Frantic, Salem nodded. “Okay, Mimi. I will. I promise.”