The Thief Who Saved My Life

Chapter 24

"Can I get you guys anything?" Julia asked from the doorway where she stood, not wanting to intrude while watching over us. It had been that way for the two weeks since everything came out. Julia and my father hovered, though my father did so more discreetly, over just about everything I did.

"No, thank you," Talon said smiling.

Julia nodded, her smile as bright as ever but I could see the worry in her eyes. It had been two weeks and nothing had happened. Outside of sending a horrible video to Tyler, nothing about my dad came out. I hadn't heard from Garret, not a text message or phone call. It would be a lie to say that I hadn't considered that my father did hire someone to take care of Garret, but I quickly shook that thought from my head. Had Garret been killed, things would have been back to normal. But they weren't.

My father took some time off work. "A much needed vacation," he explained as though the time off was due to exhaustion from hard work. I didn't know if his impromptu time off was because Julia had all but demanded he do so, or if it was so he could prepare for court. I was, however, certain that he was on edge. Despite a few comments about me being melodramatic or over-inflating Garret's power or lack of morals, I knew he believed me when I said Garret wouldn't just let this go.

Why he'd let two weeks pass with no word, I had no idea. But I didn't for one second believe he decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

"You girls let me know if you need anything else," Julia said before disappearing back down the hall to my dad's office where she would let him know that I was still alive and doing the same thing I was ten minutes ago when she last checked on us.

"I like her," Talon said to me.

"She's painfully nice."

Next to me, Talon giggled. "You know, you can like her. I don't think it means you have to give up on all your daddy issues."

My mouth dropped. "Talon," I said, shocked. She had called me out on my bullshit before, but that took me off guard.

"What?" She laughed still. "I'm just saying. You've got plenty of issues. You're dating a guy who met you when he was literally robbing your house. He's my brother and I love him, but you have to admit it ain't normal."

I laughed with her, unable to feign offense. It was a whole can and a half of weird and I knew that. Objectively speaking it was worth laughing about.

"He never took anything," I said when the laughter died down. I don't know why I did, but I needed her know that and believe it. I had checked. When I got home from the hospital and had the house to myself, I looked through it all. I knew there were only a couple reasons someone else would have been in my house and I wanted to make sure everything important was still there. And it was. A few things were out of place in the dining room, but I never noticed anything missing. The jewelry of my mothers, the only thing worth real value that wasn't locked up in a safe somewhere, had been hanging, displayed in my room where it would have been so easy for him to just snatch on the way in or out. The jewelry was worth enough that if he'd taken it, he could have afforded a nicer apartment for him and Talon. Could have put the money toward her college. Or is. Or a down payment on a house.

"I know," she agreed. "I made sure of it. You know, after I knew what happened and he knew I knew what happened, I interrogated him."

"You interrogated him?"

Her head bobbed up and down. "Of course I did. Tyler is the only family I have and if you had been in a state of mind to care, you could have had him put away. I can't afford to have him in jail. I can't lose him because he's being stupid. Besides," she shrugged, "you're my best friend and I needed to make it very clear to him that if he had done anything that might hurt you I was going to put his balls in a blender."

My eye brows shot up as a laugh bubbled out of me. "Bit graphic there."

"Needed him to know how serious I was," she explained. Talon paused then, looking at me with her head tilted a little to one side. She took a breath and exhaled smiling. "He really likes you though."

Heat filled my cheeks. My house had been an open door to the Hart's for the last couple of weeks. Talon stayed after school because we were all a little on edge about her being home alone. I didn't know what or when Garret was going to make a move, but he knew where they lived and the idea of him showing up when she was home alone was enough to make me sick to my stomach. My father had initially put up a little resistance but quickly realized he had no argument. We had guest bedrooms if she needed a place to sleep and the house was big enough that my dad would probably never even see her if he didn't want to. So we'd been hanging every day for at least a few hours but I was hesitant to ever bring up Tyler. We talked movies and future plans. We studied. We gossiped about people at school. We talked about everything, except her brother.

I thought it might be weird for her. I didn't know what they shared and I didn't want to cross any strange lines or make things awkward for either of them. But it wasn't just for her sake, what Tyler and I had was quiet and small and peaceful and I wanted to keep it.

"I know," I agreed unable to stop myself from smiling. I wasn't bragging or being arrogant about it, but I did know how Tyler felt. He showed it in everything he did. "He said he has something planned for tonight."

I couldn't hide my excitement at the fact that we were finally getting to go out. Out of this house. Out together, alone. I glanced down at my phone for the time. Tyler should already be back at his apartment. He was probably in the shower right now, getting ready for what was our first real date. It had been put off because of my injuries and my father's sudden change of parenting style. For whatever reason, it had been delayed but now I was mostly healed and we'd been able to convince Julia who in turn convinced my father that nothing bad was going to happen if we went out and had a little fun. What was supposed to happen weeks ago was finally happening tonight. Tyler had spent plenty of time at the house of course, it wasn't like we hadn't seen each other at all and he even managed to carry on pleasant conversation with my dad. We'd been alone. But it was different. Actually going out out. Making a real thing of it.

"Oh," Talon drawled out. "He never told you?"

"No." I bit down on my lip to hide my grin. Her smile grew wider then, like she wanted to say something but stopped herself. "You know, the last person to surprise me with something like this was my mom," I told her. "At least a good surprise."

"You never talk about her."

I shrugged a little, picking at the trim on a throw pillow I had in my lap. "She died when I was really young. I honestly don't remember much of her, just bits here and there and my dad doesn't like to talk about it much. But I know she used to like surprises, for herself, me, my dad anyone. She just loved happiness." I stopped, refusing to think about how disappointed she would be if she saw how we turned out with out her. She would be heartbroken if she saw the way we spoke to each other. I shook my head, ridding that line of thinking. "I think she would have really liked Tyler."

"Yeah," Talon laughed. "I'm sure you're mom dreamed of you bringing home a poor boy who makes his money illegally."

Rolling my eyes, I threw the pillow at her. "That's not what I meant."

"I know," she agreed. "You're sure it's okay that I stay here though?"

"Of course. Julia is sort of forcing my dad to make up for the last decade of lost time, so they aren't really into refusing me anything that's reasonable right now."

It was wrong to take advantage of their guilt, but part of me felt I was owed the favors and leniency. And it wasn't like my request was a trip out of here to Rome or some place amazing, it was just to make sure my friend stayed safe and to allow me a night out with my boyfriend.