Page 59 of Kiss Kiss Bang
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BREAKING NEWS: Sources tell us that a suspect has been apprehended and jailed in the assault on Olivia Russo. More to follow . . .
That name, Connor Mathers, meant something—something big. Definitely more than she was letting on. Joey eyed her warily, but she swallowed and stayed silent. He wanted to shake her and get her to tell him all her secrets, but he decided that he’d wait until they were alone. There had to be a reason why she didn’t blurt it out—whatever it was.
He knew Annie and Ben were monitoring to make sure they didn’t have a tail, and Ben had made a few strategic turns before pulling up to her house. Once there, Jax and Annie checked everything before Joey, Olivia, and a stirring Sophie walked in. Olivia, however, stared into the distance as if in a daze.
After some more conversation, with Olivia clearly not paying attention, her mind elsewhere, Ben and Annie left. Finally, Joey was alone with Olivia. Well, not alone—Sophie was watching television in Olivia’s room—but as alone as they were going to be that night.
He pulled Olivia onto his lap and kissed her silly, but even the way she kissed was off. He was hoping she’d spill whatever it was she hiding without him having to pry, but it wasn’t working. She was completely zoned out, her mind reeling about something.
“Today was intense,” he said, trying to find a way of nudging her to talk. Her skin was warm and soft under his touch, and knowing how she felt about him made the contact even more intimate.
“Talk to me, darlin’.”
If he wasn’t such a good judge of character, if he hadn’t had the best military training, which included interrogation techniques, which entailed reading the enemy’s voice, mannerisms, and facial expressions, he would have missed the way she swallowed when he said it. “What are you keeping from me? I can’t keep you safe without knowing all the facts. And Sophie . . . I need to know.”
“I didn’t keep this from you on purpose. It was so long ago, I thought it would never touch me again. How was I supposed to know there was a connection?” She was beginning to sound slightly hysterical. “I didn’t even think about Connor during this ordeal.” She pushed off him and paced around.
“Olivia, just tell me. Who is Connor Mathers, exactly?”
A small twitch in her jaw—the smallest—but he saw it.
* * *
EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO
“Liv! Yo, Liv!” Connor yelled from outside her window. “Come on, Liv girl, I know you’re home.”
She was looking at the rows of A’s on her report card, proudly, but the hollering from outside overshadowed the selfish moment she’d taken for herself. The fact she went to school at all was enough to make her an outcast in the small rundown house in Brownsville—a little area in Brooklyn where she lived with her junkie parents.
It was late, way too late for a seventeen-year-old on a school night, but her parents wouldn’t care. They were likely not even home, and if they were, they were probably stoned out of their minds. She didn’t check, nor did she care. She was way past the point of giving a shit, as heartless as that may have sounded. Mostly because they didn’t give a shit about her.
But Connor—her eighteen-year-old neighbor, protector, best friend—he did give a shit. In fact, he was the only one who cared about her.
Olivia and Connor had both grown up in the shitty neighborhood with even shittier parents, and they’d both vowed at a young age to get the hell out as soon as they could. His brother, Colin, was currently serving six months for possession with intent to sell. He was a high school dropout and had been to juvie more times than Olivia could remember. Connor hated him. He resented the fact that instead of trying to get out of this hellhole, his brother had fallen victim to the crappy life.
But both friends had fallen off the track about a year ago, when Connor introduced Olivia to the exact crowd they’d vowed to avoid. After dabbling in underaged drinking and drug use, she stopped cold one day—she’d missed a week of school and her favorite teacher, Ms. Escro, called her out on it. Just like that she’d stopped missing school, stopped drinking and using drugs, and tried to distance herself from Connor. And now she’d gotten straight A’s. It was the only thing she’d ever done that had made her proud of herself.
Folding the report card, Olivia tucked it under her pillow, then went to the window and pushed it up, letting the March air in. “It’s late, Con.”
“I’m miss you, Liv. It’s been a hard week and I need my Liv.”
I need my Liv.
“Just come down to the park with me. Just a little while. I got you some Kit Kats,” he sing-songed. That was her favorite, and he knew it. Damn him.
“Just a little while?”
“Just a little while.” He smiled and those blue eyes that crinkled at the edges and always made her heart flutter could convince her to do most anything.
“Give me five minutes.” She closed the window and quickly changed out of her PJs.
* * *
She couldn’t think straight when he was around. At seventeen years old, he’d been the tallest kid in their class and now he not only surpassed all the others, but he had a full sleeve of tattoos, he smoked, and he’d bulked up around the biceps and chest. He basically screamed trouble. If she hadn’t known him—the real Connor—she’d think twice about getting in a car with him.
But she did know him. Knew his heart. How many times had they stayed up talking about all the things they wanted to do with their lives? How much hurt and anger had they felt on days when their parents were passed out on the couch or in a bar.
