Page 74 of The Enemy

My dad didn’t say anything else. He just gave me a nod and walked out the door.

As I sat back on my couch, I couldn’t help but wonder why Neo beat Tatum up. I didn’t want to believe it was for me…I mean, it didn’t make sense.

At some point, I had fallen asleep on my couch when persistent knocking woke me up. I picked up my phone, and the time said it was close to three in the morning. There were a bunch of texts from my friends, but no missed calls from Dad.

Was he back?

I was so confident in the building’s security that I didn’t check the camera. The last thing I expected to see was Neo leaning against the wall, not after my father had bailed him out of jail.

I wish I could say having him near me didn’t affect me, but the swarm of violent butterflies in my stomach said otherwise.

“What are you doing here?”

“I missed you,” he replied, ignoring my question.

Those butterflies I wish I didn’t have went crazy at his admission.

“Why are you here?” I repeated.

Neo stood straight and took a step closer to the threshold. Even though he was calm, his gaze was still unhinged. Maybe it was because his shirt was a bit wrinkled, with blood splatters onit, or the red mark that marred his cheek, but it made me want to take a step back.

“Because if I went one more day without seeing you, I would go fucking crazy.”

And see me, he did.

His eyes traveled from the messy bun atop my head down to my toes. Even though I looked like shit, I could tell there was a hungry glint in his eyes. I wish I could say that didn’t affect me either, but it did.

“How did you get here?”

This made him smile.

“Richard dropped me off after he tore me a new one.”

I figured as much, but I wanted to hear it from him.

Nothing was making sense.

“You saw me. Now you may leave,” I told him as I tried to close the door on him, but he put his hand out to stop me.

“I’m not going anywhere, Lou, not until you let me explain…please… Just listen to what I have to say.”

I shouldn’t do it.

“I’ll stay here all night if I have to. I’m going to keep coming back until you hear me out.”

I let him inside because I knew his words rang true and because this was a side of him I had never seen before.

He walked in and looked around the place, taking in everything.

“I see the inheritance my father gave me went to good use,” he told me causally.

“What?”

He gave me a soft smile before he kept going.

“I never felt right wasting what he gave me. The card you grabbed was linked to that trust fund. I felt guilty for taking so much from you that I wanted to give you something in return…Truth be told, it made me feel good that I was the one taking care of you.”

A shiver went down my spine at that last part.

---