“No,” I said, knowing they wouldn’t find anyone to claim her. “She was a foster kid.” She’d mentioned once, with a sharp, sarcastic twist of the tongue, that her mom was more concerned with eating pills than with feeding her food.
“My sister is not—”
“No,” I said, cutting Harrison off. “I’ll do it. It’s the least I can do for her. Let me grab my things.”
As I stood, Scott handed Harrison his card and told him the address to the place where Sierra was being held was on the back. Harrison told him we’d be there shortly.
Scott gave me a pointed look when he warned us that Armino might be lurking. We were the last people to see him before Sierra was murdered.
Before I went to grab my shoes, my eyes found Mari. She stood in the middle of the room, not sure what to do. She almost looked guilty. I knew it was because she didn’t like Sierra, but she felt bad that she had been murdered.
That made the two of us.
Even though their behavior was miles apart, I couldn’t separate their situations in my mind. If something ever happened to Mari?—hell no. I refused to even think about it. She was my sister. The only one I had left.
In that moment, she reminded me of a scared butterfly, not sure where to go to find safety. Shehadno place to go.
“Mari?” Harrison said before I could. “Come with us.”
I stood next to him, forming a unit.
“No,” she said. “I’d rather not.”
“You can’t disappear,” I said, and I made sure that she heard the pleading in it. “I need to know where you are. After what happened to you…and now tonight…” Without warning, I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her tight. It was what I wished I’d done to my sister before she left and I never saw her again.
“Can I stay here?” she asked, her voice breathy. She wanted to step out of my embrace—affection made her uneasy—but she didn’t move.
“Sierra’s old man.” Harrison shook his head. “It might not be—”
“He’s not coming back here.” Mari took a step back, and I released her. Our relationship was a lot of give and take. “He’s probably long gone.”
I nodded, eager to agree so she wouldn’t leave. “Yeah, he’s probably gone. Just make sure to lock the doors.”
I tried to keep the fear off my face, to hide the “please don’t leave me too” vibe from my body. If pushed too far, Mari would leave, and I’d suffer hell for it. Wondering where she had gone and if someone else had hurt her, maybe even taken her life.
“I will,” she said.
“Use the cellphone—” Harrison nodded toward the sofa “—to call me if you need anything. My number’s programmed in.”
We waited outside of the apartment after we’d walked out of it, listening while Mari locked the door. Then I took a deep breath, not ready to do what had to be done, but determined to claim a girl who never had anyone claim her before.
* * *
Even though thegirl I looked at was Sierra Andruzzi, my roommate, she looked different to me somehow.
Every person I’d ever seen in death had always looked peaceful. In death, Sierra looked extremely pissed off. Like she was mad that it took Armino so long to end her life, or that he had actually done it and she wasn’t strong enough to fight him off.
Detective Marinetti had told Harrison that her hands were frozen, like claws. Armino had stabbed her to death. Even though Armino was only a suspect, my gut told me he had killed her.
There were times I had worried that one day I’d find Sierra dead, but from something self-inflicted. Though she was hard to rattle, I saw the struggle in her eyes, how tired she was, and she’d sleep for days. Other days, she was so wired that she couldn’t sleep. I had tried talking to her about getting help, but she’d always laugh at me and tell me I was the funniest girl in all of New York, and even though she liked me, she’d like me even better if I’d mind my own fucking business.
That was when I knew I could help her, cook her meals when she was too tired to get out of bed, but not directly. After all, Mari was similar. She couldn’t accept kindness either.
Mari.
The thought of her made my palms sweaty. She had checked on me, texting with the new phone Harrison had given her as a “birthday” gift. He’d told me on the ride over that she paid him two bucks for the phone. She wouldn’t accept it without paying for it. Either way, I was just glad I had a way to keep in touch with her.
Maybe I shouldn’t have done it, but after seeing Sierra, I told Mari the conclusion I had come to about Harrison. He was in love with her. I told her not to answer if she didn’t want to, but the situation made me uneasy.
