“That’s not gonna happen,” I told him.
“Oh.” He glanced between us. “Got it. That’s cool.”
“Take a cue from Rich,” Laikyn said, leaning into me. “Get some help, Rory. You’re better than”—she motioned her hand around the room—“this.”
When she went to the door, I followed.
“Bye, Laikyn,” Rory said.
She waved over her head but kept going.
“So you and Rory, huh?” I asked once we were in the car.
She shrugged and smiled. “He was my first.”
“You loved him?”
“He thinks I did.”
“Why would he think that?”
“Because I told him what he needed to hear to get what I wanted.”
“Which was?”
“Sex.”
I started the car. “How long did that last?”
“We were together when I was kidnapped. It wasn’t the same after.”
“And your mom … that really happened?”
“Oh, yeah. Monica’s a piece of work. I knew better, considering all the shit she’d stirred over the years.”
“Like what?”
Laikyn relaxed in her seat. “There was my third-grade teacher. She had sex with him in his classroom. Another teacher caught them. He was fired. She dumped him. There were actually two tutors, both college-aged guys. The first one she screwed when he was supposed to be helping me with trig. Three days a week for two weeks. I never had a single session with him. The other was smart enough to spend the hour he was being paid for with me,thenproceeded to screw my mother. That lasted two weeks.
“Of course, we can’t forget my high school principal. She convinced him to leave his wife. The moment he did, she dumped him. He got fired for stalking her. Everyone hated me for that because the new principal was a royal bitch.” Laikyn sighed. “And then there was Rory. Shefelt him up”—she used air quotes—“which was the term we all agreed on. What she did was give him a hand job at the dining room table while they were waiting for me to come down. What they didn’t realize was that Ihadcome down. The instant I saw that, I went back upstairs.”
I didn’t tell Laikyn that she had covered a good number of people on the list, but she’d left out several. I figured what she knew of was more than enough trauma for one kid to go through.
“Rory was a good guy,” Laikyn continued. “But he was freaked out when I came back. He didn’t believe me when I told him I wasn’t raped. He couldn’t fuck me after that, so I moved on. Too many fish in the sea.”
Yeah, I noticed that was her outlook on sex. Her senior year of high school had been inundated with numerous guys. Jinx and I had a list of the ones shedated, but I suspected some were for show. Even I noticed that Laikyn wasn’t the same girl she’d once been, although she clearly wanted to believe the kidnapping hadn’t changed her. Or, at the very least, she didn’t want to admit it.
“Don’t feel sorry for me,” Laikyn stated firmly.
I cut my gaze to her as we approached a red light. “I don’t.”
It wasn’t true. I had sympathy. Who wouldn’t, considering all she’d been through? But I was smart enough not to tell her that. Laikyn was strong, possibly the strongest woman I’d ever met.
Her eyes skimmed my face in the dim light from the dash. I couldn’t resist leaning toward her. When she didn’t lean in, I curled my hand behind her neck and urged her closer. I pressed my lips to hers and sparks ignited.
“The light’s green,” she mumbled against my mouth.
So it was.
