Nicole

Chapter: 16

After apologizing to Nathan, Nicole made her way downstairs to the kitchen. Anger was raging up inside her, most of it directed at Derek. She fisted her hands, inhaling sharply, and dug her fingernails into her palm. They were longer and sharper than before so it was supposed to hurt but she didn't know why she couldn't feel any pain. Maybe it was overpowered by guilt or anger.

Derek was standing behind the counter with his back toward Nicole. He seemed to be peeling something, unaware of Nicole despite the footsteps her boots caused.

"Hey," she said in the most spiteful tone she could manage. Derek turned around with his usual jolly smile like nothing had occurred between them. It only made her glare at him harder.

"Somethin' you want?" he spoke with his usual accent. She knew he was trying to annoy her, the same way he annoyed Nathan by saying incorrect stuff about his book.

"I want to know your games," Nicole said, uncurling her fisted hands and placing them on the counter.

"What games?" he asked and Nicole clicked her tongue.

"How'd you know about my panic attacks?" she asked. His infamous cold smile returned and he placed down the onion he was slicing. Why the hell is he chopping an onion?

"Nathan could've told me," he spoke once again in American English. "You thought of asking him?"

"Nathan didn't know about my other panic attack. Stop beating around the bush and tell me what you want," she told him in a finalizing tone.

"What I want is none of your concern," he told her slowly. Without his usual jolly smile, he did seem scary although Nicole wasn't fazed by it. "You just need to know that you're getting in the way."

Nicole didn't dare show him her confusion. She didn't think she had ever gotten in his way when he was doing something. All she had ever seen him do was talk to Nathan and-

Nathan, she realized. That was the only time she was near him. She interrupted their conversation and tried to pull him away from Derek. She looked up at him, her anger rising by the minute. It was all she could feel now.

Judging from the smirk on his face, he could probably see the fire behind her eyes.

"You want something from Nathan," Nicole stated in a low voice.

"I don't want anything from him. I want him," he corrected and Nicole inhaled sharply. She remembered after the panic attack at school when she had promised herself that she wasn't going to let Nathan get hurt. She was going to stay true to that promise.

"What makes you think I'll let you?" she asked challengingly.

Derek's smirk deepened. His moves were swift and Nicole didn't realize what he was doing until he was done with it. He flipped her right hand from the counter and with the knife in his hand, slit a gash across her palm. She yelped out in pain, snatching away her hand which was bleeding now.

"You're not the only one capable of breaking arms around here," he told her and she looked at him in disbelief, breathing heavily. He reached out and grabbed the wrist of her injured hand, pinning it down on the counter. She tried to snatch it away but his grip was too strong.

He flipped his knife and brought down its hilt on the gash. A wave of pain shot up from her hand and traveled to her arm. Nicole cried out but then bit her lip hard, her breathing heavy. She managed to glare at Derek who was enjoying her pain.

"If you tell anyone about this, I swear it would be more than your hand next time," he threatened. Anyone else in her place would've been scared as hell but this was Nicole Jones and she was a New Yorker. She didn't tremble. She smirked.

"You really think I'm selfish enough to put myself before my family?" she asked, unable to get her breathing back to normal.

"Your selflessness is a fact that I know all too well, sweetheart," he said in mocking sweetness. "Tell anyone and Nathan dies."

At that, Nicole paled unable to keep the shock off her face. The word dies hit Nicole hard. It had barely been two weeks since her mother's death and her face flashed in her mind again.

In front of Derek though, she didn't lose her composure. She glared at him, "I'm not gonna let you hurt him."

He smirked again, "Oh, I'm not going to hurt him. I'm going to kill him. You surely don't want that, do you? Don't be selfish, Nicole." With that, he lifted the hilt of the knife and released her hand, relieving her of pain. She pulled it away quickly. Still smirking, Derek pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the blade clean of blood before putting it in the sleeve of his jacket. Then, he walked out of the kitchen.

Nicole grunted in pain and rushed toward the sink. She opened the tap and put the wound under the cold running water. She bit her lower lip hard to keep from crying out and craned her neck, closing her eyes so she couldn't see the gash. It was hurting harder than it should've, probably because he used the knife to chop an onion before. She turned off the tap and looked around. With her uninjured hand, she checked all the cabinets of the kitchen to find a first aid kit. She found one in the third cabinet she checked and quickly took it out, opening it to get a bandage.

With her left hand and teeth, she managed to cover up the gash with the bandage although it didn't stop the pain. She sighed at first.

But then, she screamed, tugging at her hair and pulling it free from the ponytail with her uninjured hand. No one heard her because Nathan was upstairs, and presumably so was Derek and the rest weren't home. She fisted her injured hand and smacked the counter hard, making the pain intensify. She didn't care though. With all the pain she could get, she didn't care.

She breathed heavily, her head spinning and her heart pounding. It wasn't just her heart screaming. For once, her mind was screaming with it, screaming and trashing, only Nicole couldn't join them because she couldn't give herself away to her brother. She didn't know what to do. For the first time in her life, someone actually succeeded in threatening her and making her do as they said.

She couldn't tell anyone about Derek. Nathan was too precious and even if Derek was lying, she couldn't risk it. She couldn't risk losing her brother, she couldn't risk him getting hurt. She'd promised herself she wouldn't let anyone hurt him. She couldn't turn her back on that promise now. She couldn't. It hadn't been long since her mother's death, she couldn't handle another one.

Nicole managed to get her breathing back to normal and looked at the counter where Derek cut her. There was blood, staining the marble. Nicole sighed and got a damp cloth to clean the spill. It was then that she realized that she hadn't gotten the answer to the question she came down to ask: how did Derek know about her other panic attack?

It didn't matter anymore though. After cleaning the spill, she looked down at her injured hand which was already getting soaked with blood. Derek never came here to welcome Nicole. He came here for Nathan and she realized how obvious it had been.

Ever since he got here, he hadn't talked much to anyone but Nathan. Axel and Isabelle made it sound like he was annoying to them all but this time, his target was Nathan. He was even crashing in his room.

Nicole closed her eyes as all the pieces put themselves together. She cursed herself. But then, she opened her eyes again, thinking. She wasn't fragile enough to sit back and do nothing while her brother's life was on the line. She couldn't tell anyone about Derek. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to get in the way, did it?