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I tapped a button on my phone, illuminating the photo with the flashlight app. The child was definitely a younger version of Ray, braided pigtails and plaid overalls, a massive smile on her face as she was sandwiched between two people I could only assume were her parents. I’d not had the chance to meet her mother yet, but I could see where Ray got the majority of her looks from. At the age she was in the photo, she could easily have been Ray’s twin.
The deafening silence in the house made my skin crawl as I stepped through the kitchen, angling myself in odd positions so that I didn’t knock over anything. Things were so tightly packed in the small space that it was nearly impossible, or maybe I’d just been living in overly large mansions too long and had lost my sense of basic spatial distance.
The couch was empty save for a throw blanket crumpled on one end and a crumb-covered paper plate on the other. I wasn’t sure where else to check for her; I could look in her mother's room, but something about that felt like an invasion of privacy. Other than that, I wasn’t sure what other rooms the house held. The garage, maybe? Though I hadn’t noticed one.
I flicked on a light and sat down on the couch, my stomach twisted in worry. I needed to call her.
The line rang four times before directing me to voicemail. I hung up and tried again.
And again.
And again.
The lack of ringing in the house told me that she wasn’t there, and if that wasn’t enough, the lack of her car in the driveway was damning.
My phone buzzed in my hand. I swiped across the screen without taking a second to check who it was, hoping it was Ray. It had to be.
“Hello, brother.”
What the fuck?
“Why are you calling me, Zane? It’s four in the goddamn morning,” I snapped. My fingers twisted around the curtains of the front window, needing something to hold on to.
“Your darling Raylene has been in an accident,” he said, the words spoken far too nonchalantly. A chill ran down my spine as my heart picked up its speed. I reached for my keys. “Would you have preferred I wait until the sun rose to tell you?”
I steadied my breathing as best I could. Every nerve-ending was on high alert, every sharp intake of air felt like a knife. “Where is she? Is she okay?”
“Last I heard, she was being taken to Boulder Community Hospital,” he drawled. I swear I could hear the sound of him sipping on something. “Seems your little transaction was heading out to see Hunter Harris.”
My fingers stilled on the handle of the front door. “What are you talking about?”
“She collided with an oncoming car just outside the entrance of his ranch. I don’t know much, Wade, but that seems a little telling to me.”
Collided with an oncoming car. Outside of his ranch.
“He gave me a call since he didn’t have your number. I shouldn’t complain, really. Gave me the chance to speak to my favorite brother again,” he chuckled. Something clinked on the other end, and my suspicions were solidified. He was drinking.
I was going to kill him one day. “Is she okay?” I asked again.
I could practically hear his shrug. “I think so. Hunter said she was knocked out when he found her. All she kept saying was baby, baby, baby when she came to. Kind of cute, if you ask me. He went to the hospital with her.”
Pressing the power button on the side of my phone, I silenced him within a second before it fell to the floor.
Baby, baby, baby.
She was seeing Hunter. She had to be, there wasn’t any other reasonable explanation. I didn’t trust Zane within an inch of my life, but what other reason would there be for her to be out there? How else would Zane have known what had happened?
Every part of me screamed to leave the house, to go to Boulder Community, to be with her. But what was the point if she was with Hunter? What was the point in any of this?
I’d known in my bones that she and Hunter looked too chummy at the wedding. I’d seen the little smiles she gave him as they spoke. She’d sworn to me there was nothing between them. Was it just to keep her place as my acting girlfriend until the deal was done?
I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t stay at her house, I couldn’t go to the hospital, and home sounded like an empty coffin. My chest ached in anger and sympathy, every part of me wanting to make sure she was okay despite the heartbreak, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
Chapter 35
Ray
Bitter cold stung the left side of my face as flashing lights lit the backs of my eyelids. My chest ached, my palms burned, and my head wouldn’t stop throbbing.
