Page 83 of Tell No Lies

No! Not my friend!

It felt like a burning knife had been stabbed deep into my heart. This was so much worse than when I’d seen Morgan. I had never trusted him.

But the person staring back at me with a disgusting grin was Tucker.

How?

Why?

The questions were flooding through my mind faster than I could begin to process them. He was my friend. I’d never done anything to him to cause such hate.

Arms slid around my shoulders and pulled me into a body. I could hear my brother’s voice, but it sounded too far away. I needed to understand what happened, because right now, my world felt upside down.

I was being moved. Looking up, I saw Brandon’s attention focused inside the ambulance. He didn’t look in any other direction as they guided me farther in before shutting the doors.

“It’s okay, Aubrey. You’re safe.”

I didn’t nod. I didn’t even blink. I simply did what I was told. Apparently, people could function on autopilot.

As we pulled away from the studio, I looked through the small window and was shocked by the crowd. Several cop cars were parked haphazardly in the lot, with the ambulance I was riding in next to the entrance.

My happy place, my safe haven, had been violated.

The one place I’d felt free in was taken from me. If Tucker wanted to ruin my whole world, he succeeded. He spent months following me without getting too involved, but over the past few days, he’d isolated me from my friends, taken Mike from me, and attacked me in the only place I ever felt safe.

I watched the studio shrink away in silence. Brandon and the paramedic were behind me, talking, but I didn’t hear their words.

Tucker wanted to ruin my life. He’d been in my room. Violated my privacy. Destroyed my relationship with Mike, tried to with the rest of my friends. All for what?

Minutes, or maybe hours, passed before we pulled into the hospital parking lot. We jerked forward as we came to a stop, and instantly the doors before me opened. Worried faces took me in quickly and slid the gurney out. The sensation of movement was somewhere in the back of my mind, but I could only stare forward.

I wondered why I was still sitting up. In shows, the person in the ambulance is always lying flat. My mind continued to focus on this mystery, completely ignoring the chaos around me.

When I decided it was because none of this was real, things became easier to understand.

I was now in a small room with various cords and tubes being hooked up to my body by an efficient nurse. Brandon had disappeared. Maybe he wasn’t real either.

The nurse turned to face me with a smile on her kind face. “Aubrey?”

My only response was to continue staring at her.

“Aubrey, can you hear me?”

What a strange dream.

My hand was being lifted. I looked down and saw her fingers around my wrist. “Aubrey. You’re in the hospital. Do you understand?”

I wanted to wake up. This dream made me feel funny. Dizzy and confused.

“I need to change you into a gown. Can you do this yourself, or do you need my assistance?”

My focus returned to her face. She was staring intently at me.

“The sooner we have you changed, the sooner your brother can come back in.”

Brandon.

He was here.