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My heart never chose the right ones, I guess. My heart had a thing for heartbreak and suffering.
My fists clenched at my sides, which the nurse noticed. She lifted a single eyebrow, looking tired. “Am I going to have to call security over here?” she asked, a pointed threat. If security was called, I didn’t doubt I’d be thrown out, and unless I called my dad and had him grease some palms, I knew I wouldn’t be allowed back in the hospital to visit Will or Ash, assuming they…
No. I wasn’t going to finish that thought. I couldn’t.
I let out a shaky breath, turning my back to her as I returned to the seating area and sat down. She watched me all the while, as if half expecting me to try to make a run for the hallway. After all, both my brother and Ash were down there somewhere in the maze that was this hospital, fighting for their lives. Will was in surgery, and Ash…I had no idea what was happening to her. And that—that made everything worse.
As I sat there, lost in my own mind, I wondered who could’ve hit her. Accidental? Someone hungover from a long night of partying, someone driving who shouldn’t have been? Or, I came upon another possibility, the idea dawning on me and causing my stomach to feel like a hundred-pound rock in my gut: what if someone hit her on purpose? What if someone hit her because they knew I cared about her?
Both Will and Ash were in the hospital, both of them injured on the same night. The coincidence was almost too much.
If this was all for me…what the hell was I going to do? Because I knew, if this was indeed all done to make me ache inside, whoever did it wouldn’t stop until they made me hurt exactly how badly they thought I deserved.
I didn’t think Sawyer was capable of going after Will like that, or hurting Ash that badly, but another name popped in my head. Would Travis?
I sure as hell wasn’t going to call Sawyer…but Travis? He’d seemed relatively calm, as calm and collected as he always was, when he drove Ash and I to the hospital. What if he’d stuck around? What if Travis was the one who hit Ash? He used to be my friend, but now…now I knew better than to put anything past him. Plus, now that I was older, I was able to pick up on the weird vibe he gave off.
Dawn’s light emerged outside, flooding the windows to the ER’s waiting room. The eternal world of night, the night that seemingly went on forever, was no more, and yet I was still here, still worried about two of the most important people in my life. The only important people, if I was honest. Mom…she’d died a long time ago, and it was hard to look at Dad and know he was the only one Will and I had left.
Before I knew what I was doing, I reached into my pocket and dialed a number I hadn’t called in ages. He’d texted me not too long ago, showing me a picture of Ash and Sawyer together, and I’d played right into his hands, storming to that stupid party and showing Ash how I was when I got mad.
I didn’t often get mad, but when I did, it was no holds barred. If Ash hadn’t been there, I might’ve done something I would’ve regretted, like throwing it down with Sawyer—and I would have regretted it instantly because he spent most of his time weightlifting still. He had worlds more muscle than I did. In a fight between him and I, he would win unless I played dirty.
The phone rang a few times, and it was the moment when I wondered if he’d let it go to voicemail that Travis picked up.
I had to see Travis for myself. I had to talk to him one-on-one, to gauge whether or not he could’ve done this. If he did, if he was the one who hurt Ash…
Honestly, I didn’t think myself a monster like Sawyer or even Travis. I was the level-headed one, the easy-going one, the one who let the pieces fall wherever they may without trying to cheat and fix the board. But if Travis had a hand in this, I wouldn’t be the nice one any longer.
I’d show them I could be a monster, too.
Chapter Three – Travis
I made it back to Sawyer’s house, an uneasy feeling in my gut as I parked his car and got out. With the keys in my pocket, I made my way to the front door. Everyone else was gone now, his house a mess. I heaved a sigh, heading up the stairs to check on him.
Sawyer was out like a light, snoring a bit, even with his wrists chained to his bedframe. And his normally blonde hair was covered in a bright pink dye, a very similar hue to the one he made Brooklyn dye hers. His clothes were rumpled and stained a bit, and even though he was asleep, he looked an ungodly type of uncomfortable.
Still, this was just a pittance of what he deserved.
He’d hate it, of course. When he woke up and wandered to the bathroom, saw in the newly-replaced mirror that his hair was covered in pink dye, Sawyer would absolutely lose his shit. He’d freak the fuck out and try to wash the dye out, but Ash knew her dye. She probably chose one that stained the hair a bit.
I’d be here when Sawyer woke up, be here to help him with the chains locking him to his bed. If left to his own devices, I knew he wouldn’t be able to escape the same way Ash did. My mistake with Ash was leaving the key in arm’s reach—at the time I never thought she’d go so far as to dislocate her own thumb just to escape. I’d told her I wasn’t going to hurt her, that I’d never hurt her, and yet she didn’t believe me.
Ash didn’t believe me, and she’d hurt herself just to get away from me.
It was something I could respect, and it took a lot out of someone to make me respect them. Sawyer? He might’ve been my friend at one point in time, but I never respected him. And Declan? A fucking pushover. There was nothing special about Declan, nothing unique about him. He let people walk all over him, skulking in the background and hating how his life turned out.
I noticed Ash’s backpack sitting on the floor across from the bed, and I went to it, quietly picking it up and moving back into the hall. I unzipped it, stopping only when I found the key she kept hidden in the inner compartment. I wasn’t going to unlock Sawyer right this instant; I’d wait until he woke up, realized what kind of fucked-up situation he’d found himself in, and then I’d let him go.
Maybe. Or maybe I’d make him grovel, first. After all, we weren’t friends anymore; we were…hmm. Actually, I wasn’t quite sure what we were. Enemies? Perhaps. It was clear he’d hurt anyone in his path, even Ash, and that was something I couldn’t allow.
No one would hurt Ash. Not on my watch. I’d do anything to protect that girl—and I meant anything.Nothing was off the table where she was concerned. My obsession with her was all-consuming, and I reveled in it.
I grew bored quickly, and I meandered downstairs, grabbing the trash bags I knew were in the kitchen under the sink. Picking up from his party wasn’t my responsibility, it never was, but I might as well make myself useful while I waited for him to wake his ass up.
I was two full trash bags into the clean when my phone went off. Odd, because it was a strange time for anyone to be calling, but then again, I knew at least a few people who were up right now. My ever-hopeful heart thought it was Ash, and I answered my phone without glancing at the caller, “Hello?”
It wasn’t Ash. It was someone else. Someone who I hadn’t spoken to in a long while, at least not directly.
