My cousin’s eyes fluttered, betraying the effort it took to keep himself together.Come on, Vinny, help me.
Lincoln stood, one hand holding his elbow and the other scratching his chin. “You know what would do it?” He leaned in, voice dropping and smile widening. “Beg. On your knees.”
Vinny’s cheeks turned red as he glanced at Lincoln, who nodded encouragingly. My throat tightened. Vinny didn’t tell him to cut it out and wouldn’t look at me.
“Sorry, cuz.” Vinny sounded apologetic, but he wasn’t. If he truly was, he’d help me. “My credit can’t take you missing a payment?—”
“I won’t, Vinny, I swear.” My lip quivered. “Please.”
Lincoln took a swig of his beer and set it down with a thud. “She said please, Vin. Touching.”
Something snapped. I turned on Lincoln, pointing a trembling finger at his chest. “Stay out of this. You know nothing about me.”
He raised his brows, the dimples cutting deep into his cheeks as his smile widened. “Oh, but I do, don’t I?”
Clenching my fists at my sides, I lunged toward Lincoln until we were inches apart, squaring up, then jabbed his sternum with my index finger. “YouknowI worked my ass off at that job, Lincoln.”
His eyes widened almost imperceptibly. He was right about one thing—desperation does do things to you.
Vinny cleared his throat, and I looked back at him. “It’s not personal. I just… can’t take the risk.”
His words feel on my chest, each of them a brick with perfectly aimed to crush my hope. I swallowed against the bile rising up my throat. Defeated, I stepped away from Lincoln and toward the door.
Lincoln snorted softly, then laughed. The sound slashed through me. His pale-blue gaze held none of that shared sorrow I’d once seen in them. No, his glacial stare was overflowing rage and mockery.
“Nina, have some dignity, yeah?” His teeth peeked out in his smirk.
Mixed emotions swirled in my cousin’s eyes, but in the end, after one endless second, he shook his head and looked down to the wooden floors.
I opened the door and headed downstairs, unable to keep my head high, and just as I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I heard it, far away but unmistakable.
“Real treat your parents got, right?
“Having to take her in.”
“Yeah, she was a lost cause from the beginning,” Vinny responded.
I closed the door to Vinny’s building behind me. As I stepped outside, I realized he wasn’t wrong to be hesitant. Iwasa risk. Unstable. No job, a chronic illness, and a wrecked reputation. The air felt thicker than before, the setting sun glaring against the puddles on the cracked sidewalk. Pulling in a shaky breath, I kept walking, each step heavier than the last.
Turningaround the corner toward the train station, I picked up my pace as the rain picked up, cold wetness seeping into my scalp. A gray sedan honked and slowed beside me, but I didn’t recognize it, so I kept walking, speeding up to find cover.
It honked again. When I looked, a woman with long ashy hair and tanned skin leaned over from the driver’s seat, waving.
“Hey,” she called. “Nina, right?”
I nodded, searching her face. Two silver piercings glinted in her right ear, but I didn’t know her.
“It’s Carmen,” she said, smiling faintly. “We met at the bakery. I was with Natasha.”
“Oh.” My stomach twisted. “Right. The new marketing strategist.”
Another one of Lincoln’s minions. Great.
“It was nice seeing you,” I said, turning away. “Have a good night.”
“No—wait.” Her voice sharpened just slightly. “Let me give you a ride home.”
I blinked at her. The rain ran down my temples into my collar, cold enough to make me flinch. “Why?”
