Reclaim - Aly Martinez Page 0,46

of her as she scanned the houses for the right address.

I immediately turned the weed-eater off and jogged out to wave her down. Her eyes flared wide when she saw me, pure confusion wrinkling her forehead.

“Hey, you,” I said when she stopped in front of me.

Anger pooled in my gut as I took in her black turtleneck. The weatherman had predicted triple digits for the high. She was going to melt in that thing. After last night, I knew she wasn’t hiding from me, so I felt pretty confident that I could convince her to swim with me at the creek.

“You… Um, your grandparents live here?” She swallowed hard as her eyes locked on the front porch over my shoulder.

Normally, I never would have invited anyone out there to see the place. The six-bedroom mansion with its two levels of wraparound porches surrounded by acres upon acres of plush pastures was over the top. Hell, just the twenty-stall barn filled with Grandpa’s precious racehorses at the edge of town was ridiculous on its own. Most people didn’t realize this, but nothing—not even being the clumsy, unathletic nerd who was obsessed with books—made a kid more of a target than being labeled as the rich kid. Especially when said kid lived in a town like Clovert or Alberton where struggling to survive was the norm.

But this was Nora. We were friends. If there was ever a person in my life who wouldn’t judge me, it was her. And damn if that didn’t do something in my chest.

Smiling, I scratched the back of my neck. “Yeah. But don’t hold it against me. This place has been in the family for—”

That was all I got out of my mouth before the front door flew open and my cousin came flying down the steps.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he hissed.

“I live here, asshole,” I snapped back. God, it was always some bullshit with him.

He ignored me completely and stopped in front of Nora, leaning into her face as he seethed, “Why are you here?”

All the blood drained from her face as she stumbled back, tripping over her own feet before falling.

I lurched forward but didn’t get there in time to stop her from hitting the sidewalk.

“What the hell, Josh?” I snarled, bending over to offer Nora a hand.

She didn’t take it. On all fours, she scrambled away, her eyes locked on Josh, pure terror showing on her beautiful face.

“You know what will happen if you make a big deal out of this,” he whispered. “You tell one single soul and I’ll—”

Realization hit me. It wasn’t like a light bulb going off over my head at all. It was more like being strapped into an electric chair and somebody throwing the switch.

My vision faded to black in the corners, all of my focus honing in on my cousin and one single scratch on the side of his neck.

Vile puzzle pieces began clicking together until the final image of Josh on top of Nora—my Nora—as splinters embedded in her back was all I could see.

I exploded, shoving him as hard as I could and swinging a fist into the side of his face. He was bigger than I was, no disputing that, but I was more evenly matched with him than I was his older brother, Jonathan. However, this would be the first time I beat the ever-living shit out of him—for no other reason than he was going to have to kill me before I would be willing to give up after what he’d done to her.

I threw punch after punch, nothing making me feel better. Not even the pain when he landed a few of his own. It wasn’t until I heard her feet pounding the sidewalk as she sprinted away that I took a moment to breathe. I could have punched him until my hands fell off and it still wouldn’t have helped her.

In that moment, Nora didn’t need vengeance; she needed a friend.

When I was sure Josh wasn’t getting back up, I took off after her. I could barely see her as she weaved through backyards and out to the main road. I’d never run so hard or so fast in my entire life, and as she cut through the woods just past the grocery store, I finally caught up.

“Nora, wait,” I panted.

She didn’t stop.

She didn’t slow down.

She didn’t even look back at me.

I followed her all the way up to her front porch, catching her arm just before she