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Roarke
I didn’t see Nevaeh for days.
Each time I came home, I wondered if she’d be there, sulking and pouting at my front door.
Or dodging me so she wouldn’t get caught trying to break into my home. She was the one who triggered my security app, not Heather. The sensors on the window had been triggered before I found Heather there.
It was getting colder out. Some days were too warm under the sun. Working hard with the horse and cattle could make a man sweat, but regardless of those fluke warm spells, there was no doubt that the nights were downright chilly.
She had to be staying somewhere, and not only that, somewhere relatively nearby if she was getting around or to Burton on a bike. Without a license—because she never got hers despite me offering to take her to classes for it—and without a car—because the last one she’d stolen broke down—she was limited with transportation.
No one in town would take her in. I knew that. Yet, no one mentioned her hanging around near their homes. If someone noticed her, that gossip would eventually get back to me.
Just before dinnertime, after work on Friday, I finally got word of her whereabouts, via a call from one of Burton’s police officers, I stopped at my front door and turned right back around to get in my truck for a drive into town.
“She did what now? What is it this time?” I asked, tired from a long day of work. Hell, I was exhausted from a long week of work. And I had to go in tomorrow too for a weekend shift.
“Shoplifting,” Marty replied. He was a decent cop, not a jerk who abused his power.
“Shoplifting,” I confirmed as anger streamed through me. “Right. Of course.”
“She was lifting jewelry outta the cases at the register.”
I scowled as I got in my truck. “Where?” Who actually sells hackable jewelry around here?
“The food mart off Main.”
I started the engine and drove. “You mean the convenience store? Lord Almighty.” I rolled my eyes. “They have something of quality there that’s worth shoplifting?”
I wasn’t mocking the situation, but I really was at a loss. They sold basics there. Some produce was on offer, but not much.
“Ashley says they brought these cases in just a few days ago.”
“What?” I scoffed. “Cheap mood ring shit kids get at the carnival?”
“No. Stuff with natural gems and whatnot. It’s from a supplier? I dunno. If you ask me, it’s all marked up, but I guess it could cost a fair chunk of change for someone who really wanted it. Anyway. Ashley claims Nevaeh was swiping them and shoving them down her boots and shirt.”
I groaned. “I’ll be right there.”
Nevaeh was an adult, like she loved to remind me. Therefore, shouldn’t she learn her lesson about shoplifting—as an adult?
“You reap what you sow, kid,” I muttered as I headed into town.
Parked on Main was the police cruiser, and standing next to it was a glum-faced and scowling Nevaeh.
“This’ll be fun,” I groused to myself as I parked and got out.
“Your niece was stealing!” Ashley accused as soon as she saw me.
I’d never cared for the supposed sweetheart of town. She seemed too much like my ex, a spoiled daddy’s girl. It was no hardship to turn her down when I first moved here, and ever since, she remained bitter about that rejection.
Nevaeh strained to get past Marty to get in Ashley’s face. “I did not, you old bit—”
“All right,” I said, holding my hand up. “Hold on here.”
Damn, I’m starting to sound like Gavin now.
Mediating this latest Nevaeh crap was the precise sort of drama I wanted nothing to do with.
“She’s lying, Uncle Roarke.” Nevaeh glared at the convenience mart’s clerk.
“Oh, now I’m Uncle Roarke?” I shot back. She only ever slapped that title before my name when she wanted to seem young and innocent, just a kid.
Make up your mind. You wanna call yourself an adult, act like one.
“I didn’t steal anything,” she insisted.
“Hey, Roarke,” Marty said, his tone tired and annoyed. “Thanks for coming by.”
I nodded at him, acknowledging his greeting as he stood between the two of them. Already, a small crowd was gathering down the sidewalk near the coffee shop. Busybodies. Who needed them?
“Are you arresting her?” I asked the officer. It was a legitimate question because I saw no cuffs.
“Well, I don’t exactly have anything to go on to arrest her,” Marty said.
“That’s not true.” Ashley stomped closer. “I saw her.”
“No, you didn’t,” Nevaeh shouted.
Marty didn’t flinch, turning a deaf ear to them to face me. “There’s no video running in the store. And after a quick pat down, I don’t see anything on her. No jewelry.” He furrowed his brow, glancing at my niece. “Well, no new jewelry. Not the piercings.”
As much as I hated to side with Ashley, I asked, “Did you have her take her shoes off and dump them out?”
“What the fuck, Roarke?” Nevaeh yelled.
Oh, how quickly your tune changes. No more uncle, huh?
“Yes, I had her take off her boots and dump them out,” Marty replied with a shrug. “Nothing.”
I guess she’s found a better way to hide shit.
“So, in other words, no evidence?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
“This is outrageous!” Ashley protested. “I saw her. I saw her with my own eyes. She swiped half of the jewelry.”
Marty pivoted to sigh at her. “Ms. Venna, I suggest you have the cameras in the store repaired so that the next time you accuse a customer of stealing anything, you can have proof to back up your claim.”
I ran my hand over my face. “Then why, exactly, did you call me down here?”
Marty pointed at the woman arguing again. “I wasn’t sure how quickly this situation could escalate into something more physical. Since I don’t really know where Navaeh has been staying, I figured you could come and get her away from the mart and Ashley.”
And take her where? I didn’t trust her in my cabin, and she ran off or left at the most random times.
“Fine.” I held my hand out, indicating for my niece to open the passenger door to my truck. “Then let’s go.”
She sulked and scowled, but she got in.
Once I was buckled back in and driving in the direction of the ranch, I gave up this awkward, tense silence act.
“What the hell’s going on?” I asked.
“Nothing, Uncle,” she sing-songed. “That fat bitch is just delulu, making up that stupid stuff.”
I cut her a wry look as I turned at the corner. “Did you steal anything back there?”
“Gee,” she said instead, using a mockingly casual tone, “the forecast says it’s gonna get cold again tonight.”
“Seeing as winter follows fall, that’s not too surprising.”
“You gonna let me sleep on your couch again?” she asked.
“Are you going to tell me the truth?”
“About what?”
I gritted my teeth. “Did you steal anything? I don’t want stolen shit in my home.”
“That question is becoming redundant,” she quipped as she looked out the window.
Here we were. Back to the cagey and incommunicado nonsense. I tried to crack her, asking her to explain what she was up to and why she was hanging around here.
I wouldn’t give her money. That was a hard no where she was concerned. I’d learned that lesson too many times now.
If she wasn’t holding out for funds from me, she had to have something else in mind. Or want something else.
But it didn’t seem likely that she’d tell me. She didn’t tell me a damn thing the rest of the drive to my place.
“And how long am I going to be blessed with your presence this time?” I asked sarcastically when we arrived and I walked inside.
“Boy, I sure feel loved and welcome.”
“I’m letting you stay here.”
She dropped onto the couch, rolling her eyes. “Yeah. Until you leave and you kick me out.”
“Because I don’t trust you.”
“That’s a low blow.”
“That’s what happens when you dick around and fuck with me, Nevaeh. I won’t give you money, but I will never tell you no for food or a roof to sleep under.”
“How generous,” she sassed.
I growled, fisting my hands and wishing I could punch the wall.
“Watch that attitude. You’re a guest here, you got that? I don’t owe you a single damn thing.”
She scowled, making her piercings push out on her brow. “What, am I crimping your style? Am I in the way of you having all your women over?”
“What?” I squinted at her, furious and perplexed. “All my women? I don’t have any woman in my life.” And I intended to keep it that way.
“I’ve heard about how you sleep around like some player.”
I did when I moved here, but I was far from a Lothario or ladies’ man. It had been many months since I got laid.
“Like a himbo—”
I slashed my hand through the air. “That’s enough!”
She jerked back and stood, sharpening her glare on me. “Do not think you have any right to be combative with me. To come here and expect help with free rein to criticize how I live my life.”
Her lips thinned as she stared, fuming and mad again. I got it. I understood how easy it was to assume the whole world could be against you when hormones were raging and the shift from adolescence to adulthood wasn’t complete. I was there. Everyone went through this angsty, angry phase of life.
But that was no damn excuse for her to treat me like this.
“Those were rumors, Nevaeh. They still are rumors that people say just to stir shit about me because there’s nothing else to talk about. That’s how small towns like this one work.”
Her upper lip curved up on one side in a slow, twitching smirk. I wasn’t amusing her. I wasn’t trying to amuse her. She was on the verge of lashing out and bitching again but I was done with her crap.
“I am family, Nevaeh.” The last you have. The only part of your family who’s ever given you the time of the day. “And I deserve respect.” I wouldn’t ask her to show gratitude for how I tried to look out for her without enabling her.
“Got it?” I asked.
She lifted and dropped one shoulder. “Whatever.” She walked past me, dismissing me, to go to the kitchen and get a protein shake out of the fridge.
I can’t stand this.
I left to shower, both to clean up and to give myself a breather from facing her. I wasn’t equipped for this. I never wanted to be a parent or this much of a guardian to someone who was quick to remind me that they were an adult, not a child. I hadn’t counted on being thrust into this position of trying to steer her well without letting her think she could skate through life without any repercussions for her actions.
Fifteen minutes later, I felt like I had gotten my head screwed back on right. I was calmer, soothed and mellowed from the heat of my shower.
After I dressed and felt certain I’d rehearsed what I could say to her next, I returned to the living room.
The couch was empty, sans for the dumped-out protein shake she’d spilled all over the cushions.
She was gone. Again.
I couldn’t tell if it was a blessing or a curse.
If I was winning or losing.
Losing. Definitely losing.
I always did with the women in my life.
