His to Steal

Ch. 14: Reckless (Part Two)

Thankfully, Henry only drops it a couple inches. "Yes, Miss Sutton?"

"I just got a phone call and I really need to finish it up before I get out of the car. Can I meet you in the lobby?"

"Um, I'm not sure I'm supposed to do that, Miss Sutton."

"W-well, it's really important, and I—"

When I let out a snort, she shoots me a glare that could kill, and I smirk at her. Figure it out, I mouth, and she leans down to flip me off close to the floorboard. I just shake my head and lean back against the seat, amused at her flustered attempt to trick this old man.

I have failed Sutton in a lot of ways, but this is one that I never saw coming—she never learned how to pull the wool over somebody's eyes after all the shit we got into as kids? Damn.

She's watching the front seat intently as the old man takes a deep breath, and I assume he's relenting. "Well, all right, but don't take long. Dominique and that Jason fellow will have my head if anything happens to you."

"I promise, it won't be long. I actually really dislike the person I'm talking to, so it's really a matter of me getting rid of them for good," she says sweetly, and my eyebrows pinch together as I hold in my laughter.

That's the best she's got?

Henry shuts off the car and says, "Okay, I will be right here next to the elevator. I'm not going all the way inside. Call me if you need me, okay?"

"Of course."

As soon as he's gone, she turns off the sweetness and growls, "What the fuck do you want? Go ahead, tell me whatever it is, then disappear for another three years. Better yet, just disappear forever. I don't need you, Nicolai. I don't know what you don't fucking get about that."

Damn, I really fucked up with her. She's never going to forgive me for leaving her. Not that I deserve it.

All of a sudden, telling her about all the danger she is in that I'm not even sure the root cause of doesn't even seem that important anymore.

Goddamnit, I want her to know how much I regret leaving her, how sorry I am for the way things turned out.

"Sutton," I say, my voice losing all the bravado it had before, all the bullshit tough guy nonsense gone. "I'm so fucking sorry for that. You don't understand how badly I regret leaving you here."

Her face may as well be made of stone. It's like anything she felt for me is gone, and it's my fault. But I've never had her here in front of me for this long before, alone, willing to listen, so I continue.

"I left because I felt that I had no other choice. I was backed into a corner, and it was either leave or risk everything outside of you. And you know that you were one of the only people that ever mattered to me in this world, but you could be taken care of by all these other people you had in your life. My mom had no one. Nobody but me. I couldn't let—" I shake my head. "It doesn't matter now. I just...I'm fucking sorry, Sutton."

At the mention of my mom, her face softens, and she moves back to my side of the limo and sits next to me. "Wait, Nicolai, what are you saying? Your mom—is she—?"

"Yeah," I clip, nodding once, avoiding her eyes. "She's gone."

"Oh, Nicolai," she whispers, and when I look at her out of the corner of my eye, she's the Sutton I remember. My best friend, the one I hadn't yet abandoned, the one who doesn't loathe the ground I walk on. "I had no idea. When? What happened?"

I shake my head and wipe my hand over my face. "It was about two years ago, and as far as what happened...her habits didn't do her any favors. That's all you need to know."