Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT
Fighting to breathe through the pain, I turned and followed her. She didn’t want me. She didn’t want this. But I couldn’t just let her go. Where would she go? Where would she sleep? Who would make sure she ate? Who would hold her when she cried? She needed me. And God, I needed her.
Blaire reached the bottom step, took the phone out of her pocket, and shoved it at Abe. “Take it. I don’t want it,” she said.
“Why would I take your phone?” Abe asked.
“Because I don’t want anything from you,” she yelled at him.
“I didn’t give you that phone,” he said.
“Take the phone, Blaire,” I said. “If you want to leave, I can’t hold you here. But please, take the phone.” I was ready to get on my knees and beg. She had to take that phone. Dammit, she needed a phone.
Blaire laid it down on the bottom step. “I can’t,” she said, and I knew I couldn’t make her take it, either. I couldn’t do anything. I was f*cking useless. Her world had just been blown to pieces, and I was f*cking useless.
“You look just like her,” my mother said to Blaire’s back.
“I only hope I can be half the woman she was,” Blaire said, with complete conviction in her voice.
The door closed behind her.
I had to do something.
I moved down the stairs, not taking my eyes off the door. I couldn’t just stay here and let her drive away. “Where will she go?” I asked Abe. He would have an idea.
“She’ll go back to Alabama. The only other home she knows. She has friends there. They will take her in,” he said.
Nan’s scream came from outside, and my heart stopped. Had something happened to Blaire? I ran down the stairs, but not before my mother and Abe had bounded out the door.
“Blaire! Put the gun down. Nan, don’t move. She knows how to use that thing better than most men,” Abe ordered in a calm voice.
Holy shit, Blaire was holding a gun on Nan. What the f*ck had Nan said?
“What is she doing with that thing? Is that even legal for her to have?” my mother asked.
“She has a permit, and she knows what she’s doing. Stay calm,” Abe said, sounding annoyed.
Blaire lowered the gun. “I’m gonna get in that truck and drive out of your life. Forever. Just keep your mouth shut about my momma. I won’t listen to it again,” Blaire said, glaring at Nan. Then she climbed inside the truck, and without a backward glance, she drove away.
“She’s f*cking insane,” Nan said, turning to look back at us.
I couldn’t stand out here and listen to them. She was leaving me. I couldn’t just let her go alone. Anything could happen to her. I turned and went inside and up to my room.
The smell of Blaire hit me as I reached the top step, and I had to stop and grit my teeth through the pain. Just two hours ago, I had lain in that bed and held her in my arms.
I walked over to the bed, sat down, and picked up the pillow she’d been sleeping on and held it to my face. God, it smelled just like her. A sob broke free, and I fought to keep it back, but I couldn’t. I had lost her. My Blaire. I had lost my Blaire.
No. No. I wasn’t accepting that.
I stood up and laid the pillow back down reverently. I was going after her. I needed some clothes and my wallet. I was going to get her. She needed me. She didn’t want me right now, but she would after the shock wore off. I could hold her and ease her pain. I would hold her while she cried. Then I would spend my life making things right. Making her happy. So f*cking happy.
I walked back down the stairs with my bag in my hands, while my mother, my sister, and Abe stood in the foyer talking about Blaire and what had happened, I was sure. I wasn’t listening to them. I was leaving.
“Where are you going?” my mother asked me.
“She held a gun to my head, Rush! Do you not care about that? She could have killed me!” Nan knew where I was going.
I stopped and looked at my mother first. “I’m going to get Blaire.” Then I looked at my sister. “You will learn to shut your f*cking mouth. You said the wrong thing to the wrong person this time, and you learned a lesson. Next time, think before you spew shit.” I jerked the door open.
“What if she won’t come back with you? She hates us, Rush,” my mother said, sounding annoyed at the idea of her even coming here.
“If she won’t come back with me, then you all will have to move out. I will not live in my house with the people who destroyed her world. Decide where you plan to go, because I don’t want you here when I return.” I slammed the door behind me.
The eight-hour drive to Summit, Alabama, would have been easier if I hadn’t been tailing Blaire and also trying to keep her from seeing me. Hiding a black Range Rover on country roads wasn’t easy. I had to let her get out of sight more times than I wanted, but it was the only way to follow her. I had the small town plugged into my GPS, and luckily, Blaire seemed to be taking the same route the GPS suggested.
When I entered the small town, I saw that the Welcome to Summit, Alabama, sign was worn and in need of some new paint, but you could make out what it said well enough. I had let her get a good ten minutes ahead of me, because it was the only way to stay out of her sight. I pulled through the first traffic light. According to Google, this town had only three traffic lights. At the next one, I saw the cemetery sign and turned. The parking lot was empty except for Blaire’s truck and another truck. I didn’t park where she could see me; I made sure to park down the road a bit.
She had come to see her mother. And her sister. Had my heart ever truly broken for someone else like this? I had hated how Nan was neglected, but had I ever felt this kind of emotion for her pain? The idea of Blaire dealing with this alone was too much. She had to listen to me.
When I saw her blue truck move, I waited until I was sure it had pulled back onto the road before following at a safe distance. She turned right at the first traffic light and then parked at a motel. I was sure it was the only motel for miles and miles. As much as I hated the idea of her staying here, I was glad I wouldn’t have to do this at some stranger’s house. We had privacy here.
While she was inside getting a room, I parked my car and got out and waited. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say or if I was just going to beg. But I had to do something. Blaire stepped back out of the office, and her eyes locked with mine. Her step faltered, and then she sighed. She hadn’t expected me to follow her. Again, did she not understand how f*cking crazy I was about her?
A car door slammed just as she started walking toward me, and she turned her head and frowned at the guy who had just climbed out of the truck, the same one I’d just seen at the cemetery. I knew without an introduction that the guy was Cain. The possessive way he watched her told me that he’d once had a claim on her. He just needed to know that the claim was no longer valid.
“I’m hoping like hell you know this guy, ’cause he followed you here from the cemetery. I noticed him on the side of the road watching us a ways back, but I didn’t say anything,” Cain said as he sauntered over to stand in front of Blaire.
“I know him,” Blaire said without pause.
“He the reason you came running home?” Cain asked.
“No,” she said, then looked back at me. “Why are you here?” she asked me, without coming any closer.
“You’re here,” I replied simply.
“I can’t do this, Rush.”
Yes, she could. I had to get her to see that. I took a step toward her. “Talk to me. Please, Blaire. There is so much I need to explain.”
She shook her head and backed up. “No. I can’t.”
I wanted to bash in Cain’s head. “Could you give us a minute?” I asked him.
He crossed his arms over his chest and stepped completely in front of her. “I don’t think so. It doesn’t seem like she wants to talk to you. Can’t say I’m gonna make her. And neither are you.”
I had started to move toward him when Blaire moved out from behind him. “It’s OK, Cain. This is my stepbrother, Rush Finlay. He already knows who you are. He wants to talk. So we are going to talk. You can leave. I’ll be fine,” she said over her shoulder, before unlocking room 4A.
She had just called me her stepbrother. What the f*ck?
“Stepbrother? Wait . . . Rush Finlay? As in Dean Finlay’s only child? Shit, B, you’re related to a rock celebrity,” Cain said, his mouth going slack as he stared at me.
Just what I needed, a big enough Slacker Demon fan to know Dean’s son’s name.
“Go, Cain,” she said sternly, then stepped inside the room.