My thumb swipes across her skin, as if that one movement could warm her. Protect her. “It’s all right.”
“No, it’s not. None of this is all right.” She removes her arm and I suddenly feel empty.
There’s a tear on her face. Just one. And she quickly wipes it away. The action causes an ache beyond the pulsating of my skin and head. Something’s wrong. My eyes dart around and I quickly catch up on events. I’m not in bed. I almost hit her with my car, we fought, I discovered she had trouble, I followed her here and then I got my ass kicked. I lift my head and immediately regret the movement with a groan. “Are you okay?”
“You should have listened!”
Not an answer, and I left my patience back at the shopping plaza. “Are. You. Okay?”
“I’m fine,” she snaps. “Just fine. Freaking fantastic fine. Meeting you is the pinnacle of my existence.”
“Some people say thank you when a complete stranger jumps two guys for them.”
Haley slumps against the bumper of my car and a rush of air leaves her body. “Sorry and thank you. It’s—” she waves her hand in the air “—messed up, but that’s not your fault. It’s mine.”
A car slowly drives around us. I expect it to stop, but it keeps going. Great neighborhood. “They left my car.”
“Yeah.” She glances away. “They’re gone.”
My eyes narrow on her face, but she flips her hair so it’s hiding her cheek and jaw. I blink as my sight blurs. Something’s off. They would have stolen the car... “I need to get up.” But not a single cell in my body responds. “They could come back.”
“They won’t.” Haley nurses her right hand. “Trust me—they won’t. At least not tonight. Tomorrow maybe, but not tonight.”
Tomorrow? What? I rise onto my elbows and the nauseating spinning convinces me to ease my head back to the ground. Driving is going to be a bitch.
“Stop it. You need to stay still. In fact, you need an ambulance.”
“No hospitals.” Showing at an E.R. like this will cause Dad to go Chernobyl.
“Your friend told me the same thing. It’s why I haven’t called 911. Possibly a stupid decision on my part.”
The pounding stills. “What friend?”
“Haley called Isaiah,” says a female voice to the left. Haley and I jerk our heads toward the darkness. Haley bolts up and jumps over me, acting as if she’s my protector.
I’m dreaming. This is all a bad dream. I’m going to wake tomorrow and think how crazy real this whole thing felt because there is no way my little sister’s best friend would be here.
“I’m Abby,” the voice says to Haley, closer now. “You and I go to Eastwick together.”
Like a stunning yet sadistic version of the grim reaper with long dark hair, Abby walks into the light wearing a black hoodie and skintight blue jeans.
“No, you don’t,” I mumble. “Eastwick is a public school. Abby goes to private school. Not mine—one of those religious ones.” Saint Mary’s. Saint Martha’s. Saint who-the-fuck-knows. It’s what Rachel told my mother. This is a dream. Just a dream.
Haley’s eyes flicker from me to Abby, then back again. She never relaxes her position and my mind stops and starts like it’s stuttering. Fuck me—Haley’s in the same stance as fighter guy.
“I’ve seen you around,” Haley says to Abby. “Do you know him?”
“Yeah. Do you?”
“We sort of ran into each other.”
I laugh and they both stare at me like I’m insane.
“That’s West.” Abby slurs my name. “He’s been causing problems for a friend of mine.”
Haley edges herself between me and Abby like she’s willing to box this girl for me.
Abby chuckles. “Relax. You called Isaiah and Isaiah called me. For the moment, I’m playing guardian angel.”
Isaiah? “Hell no.” I shove off the ground like I’m doing a sit-up and only get far enough to prop my arms on my knees. I’ve never liked rides that went in circles and I haven’t recently changed my mind. My eyes shut tight. “I don’t want that bastard’s help.”
“Well, you’re getting it,” says Abby. When I reopen my eyes, Abby smirks. “And it looks like you need it.”
“Screw that,” I mutter and spit out new blood that’s trickled from the cut on my lip.
Isaiah is Rachel’s boyfriend and he’s the reason why she’s in the hospital. Dad found Rachel with him at a dragway and that’s where Dad and Rachel had their accident. I’ll roast in hell and haul Isaiah there with me before I accept his help. “How does he know about this?”
Take Me On
Katie McGarry's books
- Bella Summer Takes a Chance
- Cowboy Take Me Away
- High Stakes Gamble
- Taken (Erin Bowman)
- A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked
- A Summer to Remember
- A Time to Heal
- Aerogrammes and Other Stories
- All in Good Time (The Gilded Legacy)
- American Elsewhere
- American Tropic
- Bad Games
- Binding Agreement
- Bite Me, Your Grace
- Bring Me Home for Christmas
- Come and Find Me A Novel of Suspense
- Dare Me
- Date Me (The Keatyn Chronicles)
- Death Warmed Over (Dan Shamble, Zombie PI #1)
- Fifteenth Summer
- Four Summers
- Game Over
- Life Times Stories
- Learn Me Gooder
- Leave Me Breathless
- Little Women and Me
- Midsummer's Eve
- Miss Me When I'm Gone
- Naked Came the Stranger
- Omega Days (Volume 1)
- Parlor Games A Novel
- Someday, Someday, Maybe A Novel
- Sometime Soon
- The Adjustment
- The Emerald Key
- The Game (Tom Wood)
- The Gentlemen's Hour (Boone Daniels #2)
- The Informer (Sabotage Group BB)
- The Remembered
- The Redeemed
- The Summer He Came Home
- The Summer I Became a Nerd
- The Summer I Learned to Dive
- The Summer Man
- The Summer We Came to Life
- The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat
- The Time in Between A Novel
- Three Times a Lady
- Touching Melody
- Wind Chime Point
- Blameless
- Blood Memories
- Brains:A Zombie Memoir
- Brief-Interviews-with-Hideous-Men
- Full Measures
- Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
- Shame on Him
- Shame on Me
- Shame on You
- The Geography of You and Me
- A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
- A Vision of Loveliness
- Abdication A Novel
- Already Gone
- Armageddon
- Blood Gorgons
- Bonnie of Evidence
- Buried (A Bone Secrets Novel)
- Confessions of a Call Center Gal
- Conservation of Shadows
- Constance A Novel
- Deadly Deception
- Death on a Pale Horse
- Death on the Pont Noir
- Diamond Girl
- Domination (A C.H.A.O.S. Novel)
- Dragon's Moon
- Elimination Night
- Every Contact Leaves a Trace
- Extinction Machine
- Fight Song A Novel
- Fire Stones
- Gideon's Corpse
- Gone to the Forest A Novel
- Harvest Moon
- Hitman Damnation
- Honey Pie (Cupcake Club)
- Honor Student
- Honor Thy Teacher (Honor Series)
- Honor Thy Thug
- Invasion Colorado
- Kind One
- Light on Lucrezia
- Lionheart A Novel
- Montaro Caine A Novel
- Moon Burning
- Moon Underfoot (A Jake Crosby Thriller)
- On Dublin Street
- Once Upon a River