Page 43

“Yeah. Now.” Nicola stood up straight. “Sorry to cut this short. I’ll be back soon. I promise.”

“Are you ever going to tell me the whole story?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Nicola leaned in and hugged Simone tightly. “I’ll tell you when you leave the abusive bastard,” she whispered it into Simone’s ear. “A deal’s a deal.”

Simone hummed and nodded. “Fine. But you do realize I can just call and find out, right?”

“Yeah, but you won’t.” Nicola squeezed her again in a tight hug. “I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Nicola gave her one last hug and then raced to the car. She hadn’t prepared for this. She’d never thought she was going to see Abagail again when she’d walked out of that house, but the entire drive she couldn’t stop thinking about her. And now?

Well, now, Nicola needed to take care of something.

She needed to put Abagail in her place.

Nicola didn’t need her.

She didn’t need to be told again that she would never measure up. That she could barely keep her head above water. That she wasn’t good for anything other than her body and a good laugh. Fuck, she needed Abagail to understand there was no reason to do that. Nicola didn’t deserve it.

She wasn’t good enough for this.

And she never would be.

sixteen

“You had no right!” Nicola’s voice reverberated through the library, startling Abagail.

She hadn’t even realized that Nicola had come back to the house. She’d figured she’d left for good. Pulling off her reading glasses, Abagail set them carefully on the small table next to her and set her book down slowly.

Abagail would do her damnedest to keep as calm as possible. She’d had enough of the anger when Nicola left, and she didn’t want to deal with it again. She wasn’t here to play games. She was too old for that line of bullshit.

“I had no right to do what? Read a book in my own house?” Abagail spread her hands out around her to show off the room.

“To pay off my debt.”

Abagail detected a wobble in Nicola’s tone just under the anger. But she had no idea what was causing it. Standing up slowly, Abagail put her hands on her hips and walked toward Nicola. “Don’t think anything of it.”

“Don’t think… Don’t think!?” Nicola screeched.

Abagail looked over her shoulder and walked out of the library. “I told you that I’d pay you.”

“Pay me?” Nicola’s voice cracked. “Is that all I am to you? Some piece of ass that you can pay to fuck and pay to go away?”

Abagail faltered in her step, stopping in the middle of the hallway and turning to face her. “No.”

“No! No?” Nicola’s anger hit a wall, and it had nowhere to go.

“No.” Abagail took a step closer to her. They were toe to toe, but she had to lift her chin up to look into Nicola’s eyes. “I don’t think of you like that at all.”

“Then what am I to you?”

Abagail had no idea what to say. She hadn’t even thought about that. In fact, she’d taken great pains to avoid thinking about it. She clenched her jaw tightly, the muscles in her body rippling with tension, and stayed right where she was, stunned into silence. She couldn’t honestly remember the last time that had happened.

She was never at a loss for words.

But right now she couldn’t find a single one.