“Always.”
My head had been partially sideways and upside down on the bag. I picked it up, the blood rushing out and making me a bit dizzy. “How long do you think Karen might have been stealing stuff from lockers? And was she always doing it for Hendricks?”
Victor finished fiddling with the sleeves and sat down next to me on the bag, causing me to roll into him. He put an arm around my shoulder, reclining and putting his head back. “Remember when you were in trouble because someone stole stuff out of girls’ lockers?”
I couldn’t forget. The girls had been herded into the showers, and I was cornered by Mr. McCoy, before he went rogue. “I was wondering the same thing.”
“If she did it,” Victor said.
“And if Hendricks...or McCoy put her up to it?”
“I don’t know if there’s a way to find out unless she tells us. I don’t know if she’d be willing.”
It had bugged me since earlier today. Karen wasn’t the only one taking odd orders from Hendricks. We knew this. The problem was, I knew she wasn’t on his side. She couldn’t have been volunteering. She’d helped me out before when it came to Hendricks.
I scratched absently at my leg, exposed a bit more with the way we were sitting. The space was a bit cold, but the seat with Victor was warming up.
“How much time do I have?” I asked.
Victor leaned into me to pull his cell phone out and check the time. “A couple of hours. Although I recommend eating something and taking a good nap. We don’t know how long this is going to take tonight and you might be up late.”
I considered it, but I wasn’t really sleepy.
With his arm around my shoulders, he leaned closer. He sniffed once. “That’s the bath bombs?”
“Can you still smell it?” I asked. When I lifted my arm to my nose, I smelled it to. Sugar and sweet fruit flavors. I realized then I’d been smelling it all day. I hadn’t noticed because I got used to it.
“I think I like that one. Which one did you use?”
“Three of them? Thank you, by the way. I forgot to say that earlier.”
He chuckled with his face close to my shoulder. He kissed it once. “Maybe next time we’ll get to enjoy it together instead of Luke and Gabriel.”
My cheeks heated and I sighed. “I tried to get them to hold off.”
“They weren’t going to. That’s why I bought so many. If they found a single basket or two, they would have opened them all unless they knew they were for someone else completely.”
“What’s yours is mine, right?” I giggled. It was sort of how their group worked. I was still getting used to the concept. But then, I constantly borrowed clothing, books, blankets, beds...nearly everything. Asking ahead didn’t always work, because they could be unreachable. Knowing I could just borrow or use and it was okay made it much easier.
He lifted his head, the fire in his eyes lighting up to a full blaze. “Absolutely,” he said, his voice huskier than before. “Everything I’ve got. Want anything?”
I smiled at this, a bit warmer. The tone of the conversation changed. “I don’t need anything.”
He started rubbing my shoulder, and then massaged a bit. “It’s a shame I wasn’t there last night.”
“It was a little weird to be there without you.”
He beamed at this, leaning over to kiss at my shoulder again gently. “Maybe...soon I won’t be so far away.”
I swallowed and then turned over, shifting so I was more on my side, looking at him. He shifted around as well, letting me prop my head up on his arm, but turning so we were stomach to stomach.
I put a hand on his side to stabilize while I was shifting around but then left it there. It was odd how with some of them, I got used to some things, touching and leaning into them. Sometimes, like now, it had been a while since I’d been around Victor like this, and I was feeling a bit shy. Not as bad as like when we were first getting to know each other, but still I was blushing and hesitating.
“I know you want out,” I said softly.
The fire eyes lit up. “I want to be with you,” he said.
“If there’s a house for us...”
“We’ll find one.”
“But...I mean you know the others will want to go. Luke and the rest...”
He pressed his lips together and nodded slowly. “I think it will be okay. If I want to see you, you’re down the hall. Or at least not an hour away.”
When I thought about it like that, I liked it. “I do worry about the others, if this might push at them...with how they feel.”
I didn’t want to say what I was thinking, but my nerves lit up like his eyes when I thought of them in the same space. Would they find it harder to be around each other? Even outside of the relationship issues, their personalities were so different. Being friends and then going to their own homes was one thing. Living with each other was totally different.
He put a palm on my side, and it slid around to the small of my back. “I think we’ll figure it out better doing it rather than trying to guess. Forget all of that for now. You need a place to stay. Where do you want to be?”
I shook my head slow. “I don’t mind where.”
He smiled and leaned in a bit, his face close to mine. “Downtown? A house like my parents?”
A house like his would have ample room, but there was also the attention factor. That house was meant to be looked at and admired by people on that street. It was a statement house. That wasn’t really me. “Oh. Not...really. No offense.”
“It’s not for me, either,” he said. His fingers caressed my spine. When his fingers got caught in the shirt I was wearing, he tugged up until his fingers could slide across bare skin.
My heart raced and my focus shifted from what we were talking about to what he was doing with his hands. My hand tightened at his side, lightly gripping through his shirt.
His fingers traced around the bones of my spine. He leaned in, kissing my nose once.
He whispered. “I’d live here with you, if that’s what we had to do.”
“You’d give up a big house?”
“I’d give it all up.”
I didn’t want him to have to, but I realized we used quite a bit of his parents’ money. “We’d have to find another way...to you know...”
“Money isn’t a problem,” he said. “But you’re right. I stopped using my parents’ cards a while ago. I didn’t need them knowing what I spent, like for you.”
My eyes widened at this information, and I backed my head up an inch. “What? What about the...” I thought of the closet with so many clothes, the bath bombs... “How?”
He laughed and shook his head. “I’d put together my own investment algorithm a couple of years ago. Mr. Blackbourne showed me how, and I put some of my savings aside. It’s not a ton of money yet, but it’s working. In the meantime, Mr. Blackbourne had me take one of his cards.”
“You have his card?”
“Gabriel has one, too. And maybe Kota. I’m not sure exactly.” His hand drifted to my side to pull me back into him. He leaned against me, his head lowering to my face. “Does it matter?”
I hadn’t realized Mr. Blackbourne would issue out cards like that. It shouldn’t have surprised me. It just wasn’t expected.
Not to mention Victor was already ahead of his exit plan, with his own investment portfolio. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I barely had time off to work at the diner when I could.
“Do I need an investment portfolio?” I asked.
He chuckled, kissing at my lips close to my cheek. “If you want to learn, I’ll show you.”
I’d no idea if I wanted to learn, but it felt important. I needed to contribute something.
While I was thinking of where to start, Victor’s hand traced up my body until his fingers were tracing my rib bones.
“I don’t care where we are,” he whispered. “I don’t need the portfolio. I’d work the diner with you all. If I could just be with you, like this, when we have time, that’s what I want. I don’t need the rest.”