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“We’re not trying to take you down,” he blurted, his words coming out almost too fast for me to make sense of them.
I stared at him. What the fuck does that mean?
Wesley took a deep breath, his potbelly bulging. “We don’t have anything to do with this. My son has been acting on his own. I know what we do is unconventional and unsavory, but we would never target the Harris Agricultural Empire. It’s far too large.”
Jared’s been acting on his own.
Shit.
Chapter 32
Lottie
“Ijust need to see her. Please. Just for a minute.”
“She doesn’t want to speak to you.”
The cold, late winter air whipped around my bare feet at the top of the stairs. Thunder cracked in the distance, lighting my father’s frame as he stood in the doorway, the door obscuring my view of who I knew lurked on the other side.
“I know. I know that Brody,” he said, his voice cracking. “I just need to apologize. Please.”
“Dad,” I breathed. I took one step down, clutching my nightdress between my fingers.
Something didn’t feel right. I looked down, taking in the white, wispy material. I couldn’t place it, couldn’t remember putting it on, couldn’t remember owning it. I watched in confusion as it slowly morphed, turning into checkered pajama pants and an oversized band shirt. My feet were less cold as socks appeared, and without thinking too hard about it, I nodded to myself.
“Go back to bed, Lottie,” Dad said.
“Lottie!” Jared called. “Lottie, I need to speak to you!”
My chest ached as I took another step down. “Let him in, Dad.”
“Fuck no.” Dad took a step forward, pushing back against what I could only assume was Jared’s rigid form. “Get out of here, Keelings. She’s broken enough because of you.”
A part of me knew that speaking to him wasn’t a good idea, even if the why was blurry and covered in fog. But I still wanted to anyway, wanted to know what he had to say for himself, wanted to know if he could mend the little pieces of my heart that had cracked and shattered in my chest.
“I know I fucked up, Brody. Let me make it right.”
“Dad, please,” I said, taking another step down. The wind whipped again as lightning struck, casting a freezing breeze against my damp cheeks.
“If you don’t get off this property right now?—”
My feet kicked into gear, carrying me down to the bottom of the staircase. My shoulder slammed against my dad’s, pushing him out of the way as I stepped past him and out onto the porch. He’s sick, I thought, but it faded before it was even fully remembered.
Jared stood there, soaked to the bone, his eyes red and puffy in the porch light. “Lottie,” he breathed. “You’re so… thin.”
He wasn’t wrong. I’d barely been eating since our fallout. My stomach churned at the idea of food.
“It’s okay. I can fix that,” he said, a soft smile spreading across his lips. “You’re still beautiful.”
“For fuck’s sake, Hunter,” Dad scoffed.
“Hunter?” I asked, glancing back at Dad in confusion. “Hunter who?”
I turned my attention back to Jared as lightning struck again. His face morphed in the flashing light, his hair shortening, his frame growing in size, his jawline hardening. For a brief second, he wasn’t Jared. He was a familiar face that I couldn’t quite place, a face that made my chest ache more than Jared ever had, a face that made my eyes water.
“I love you,” Hunter said. “I’m sorry.”
“I…” Words wouldn’t come as I took a step back. This wasn’t right, wasn’t how it had happened. It wasn’t Hunter. It was Jared, with his shoulder-length soaked hair and his hoodie and too-large jeans. “I love you too.”
