Page 38 of Wicked Refusal

“The roaches were here before.”

She winces. “Charming. I’m gonna go get the blowtorch.”

As Nikita disappears in the bowels of Roachland—a.k.a. the bathroom—I let myself look around a little. Nostalgia tugs at me. My living room, my kitchen… they’re almost exactly as I left them. Well, except for the increased number of creepy crawlies.

I pick up Eli’s toy truck, brush the dust off. So many memories live here. Five years of our lives, for better or worse.

Brad wanted me to give up the apartment, but I managed to sneak three months’ rent to the landlord. He never bothered to freeze my assets—didn’t think I’d have any. That was a blessing.

While I’m lost in my thoughts, someone else pushes the door open behind me.

Our eyes meet.

Then we throw ourselves into each other’s arms.

“OH EM GEE, YOU’RE ALIVE!” Kallie squeals, practically twirling me in the air.

“That should bemyline!” I wrap my arms around her shoulders and inhale the sweet, safe scent of coconut oil. God, how I’ve missed it. “Last time I saw you, you were in a hospital bed!”

“What, like it’s hard to bounce back from a bullet?” She flashes me a cheeky grin. “I wasn’t gonna leave my girl hanging.”

More guilt fills me. Because Ididleave her hanging—when she needed me most, no less.

As if reading my thoughts, Kallie slaps my shoulder. “Hey, don’t do that. I know you didn’t have a choice.”

“I could have fought harder,” I whisper. “I could have?—”

“You couldn’t have done shit,” she summarizes gracefully. “He had Eli. If anything, I’m the one who should have done more to save you.”

“No.” I shake my head firmly. “You did the right thing by staying away. If he’d done anything to you, I couldn’t have taken it.”

“How do you thinkIfeel? Knowing that monster had you again, that I couldn’t help you?” She grabs my hands. Her big, brown eyes are shiny with unshed tears. “If you hadn’t called and told me your plan, I would have stormed the fucking place. Reese was already looking into weaponry.”

I shake my head. Laughter bubbles up to my lips despite it all, picturing my two best friends in the world getting armed to the teeth to rescue me. “I know. And I appreciate it more than you know. But I’m okay now.”

“Are you?” Her gaze peers into me, trying to separate truth from bullshit. She was always good at calling me out on my lies. “Okay?”

I force a smile. “Yeah,” I whisper. “But it’s a long story.”

“I’ve got time.”

“I’ve got it!” Nikita announces, coming back into the living room with a blowtorch I didn’t know I owned and a dark pair of sunglasses in lieu of headgear. “Time to caramelize somemudaki—oh, shit, did I interrupt?”

“Uhh, babe…?” Kallie whispers. “Who’s the Russian chick with the blowtorch?”

“That’s, um… a long story, too.”

Kallie blinks. “Oh, well. I’ve still got time.”

Turns out, while Kallie had never seen Nikita, Nikita knew all about her. “Friend’s duty,” she called it. “Had to run a background check on Maks’s new girl. No hard feelings, I hope.”

“Oh, not at all.”

“Love your hair, by the way.”

Since the way to Kallie’s heart is compliments, any chance of hard feelings dies then and there. I bite back a smile and watch as they strike up girl talk, trading haircare recs and gossiping about Maksim. It’s a nice reprieve from my own drama.

Most of all, it lets me avoid the elephant in the room.