Indigo: The Saving Bailey Trilogy #2 by Nikki Roman Read Free Book Online

murderers?
    •••
    I follow Bailey around to the living room window. She’s in the kitchen, pouring milk into a bowl of cereal. She takes a few bites, pauses, and then jumps up with her hand over her mouth running to the bathroom.
    I stand on tiptoes so I am able to see through the high bathroom window. Bailey vomits, her hair falling around the outside of the toilet bowl; I almost try to climb through the window to hold it for her.
    She flushes the toilet and moves over to the bathtub. Sitting in the tub fully dressed she turns the shower head on and saturates herself, blinking away water as it streams over her face. The steam from the hot shower rises and fogs up the window. I can no longer see her. I brush dirt from my hands and sneak away to my car.
    I sit with my back against the passenger side door, unseen by passersby, smoking a blunt; treating myself before I have to go back to Papa and take my beating.
    I could live in my car and mug people for money just to get by. But Papa needs me. Who would clean his clothes and cook his dinners, who would he have to beat up? His fists would become sore from punching walls; I wouldn’t want that to happen .
    I could get back Bailey’s locket for her easy . Take it back from Trenton and remove the pictures of her mom and dad, swap them for two pictures of myself. Wouldn’t that make her stomach churn? Two pictures of my smiling face .
    •••
    Mary Jane takes me higher than tree tops, higher than the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m soaring in thin atmosphere, so far up that the clouds break apart and there’s only a clear white-blue for miles and miles.
    I’m laughing, laughing, laughing.
    Laughing at the sound of a dog barking as it passes by my car. Laughing at the smoke that billows around my head and wafts with the wind, curling around a stop sign. Laughing at the sound of my own laughter. Everything is funny when you’re high. High-life is the utopian life .
    But what comes up must come down and I plummet . Like a fallen Angel, the ground hits me hard, my wings snap. Depression wraps its cold arms around me and digs a hollow in my stomach.
    I chew on a piece of gum to fight the hunger. I have no money and am too relaxed to jump a person. If Bailey left her apartment I could steal her money, except she probably doesn’t have any, either.
    Slumped against my car, I chew all the flavor from my gum. The sun sets and darkness awakens me. In the dark I am safe, concealed.
    •••
    I take a stroll around Fort Myers beach, a few miles away from Bailey’s apartment. I’m waiting for her to fall asleep—which might be never.
    The crashing waves and salty air sting my heart like an open wound, a depressing reminder of how Trenton and I used to come down here to smoke a blunt or two below the pier. We’d smoke until we thought we might lose consciousness and then hike up the sand to Dairy Queen. Munching on hamburgers, we people-watched into the early morning hours.
    I ruined those times, though. I shouldn’t have got him caught up in my ongoing torment of Bailey. And to be honest, the relationship she and I had was sacred—only I was meant to destroy her.
    She had been my property, until I signed over half the rights to Trenton. I thought sharing my love of tormenting her would make our relationship all the stronger, but what it really did was pull us apart.
    Tonight, if Bailey leaves her window open and if she happens to fall asleep, I will climb into her room… and then, I don’t know what. Perhaps, I’ll give her a great big hug and tell her how sorry I am for all the anguish I have caused her. Perhaps, I’ll take my knife and finish the job, once and for all. Or maybe I’ll just stand there, silently watching as she breathes slowly.
    The beach empties of families, teenagers take over for the night; carrying logs and coolers, setting up bonfires. Some have kegs, others nothing but a blanket to lie on.
    I walk back to Bailey’s house. Leaving my weapons behind ,