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“It’s the evening.”
“It is?”
“Yes.”
“Sunday evening?”
“Yes,” she said impatiently. “Wake up. I need to talk to you.”
“How did you get my number? Never mind. Shelby.” Well, he was starting to be coherent.
“Why are you asleep? Are you sick?”
“I just got off a twenty-six-hour shift an hour ago.”He groaned, obviously unhappy to have been woken up after so little sleep.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I’ll call you back in the morning.” She was about to hang up when she heard her name.
“Cyn.” The deep resonance of it made her go still and focus on him on the other end of the line. “I’m awake. Obviously you called for a reason. Are you okay? Can I help you?”
She found some deeper meaning in those questions because the voice inside her spoke up, saying,No, I’m not okay.I’m lonely. And yes, I need your help. I want you to make everything all right again. I want you to make Angela safe again. The way you make me feel safe right now.
I’m really fucking going crazy.
“Cyn. You there? You’re starting to worry me.”
“Um. Sorry. This isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.”
“Just talk to me.”
What a wonderful idea to just lay her problems out for him. Deep down, she felt like just telling him everything would make it all feel better, or at least like she didn’t have to carry the load all by herself.
“I... It’s not easy for me to ask for help.” She wasn’t sure how to begin. “Angela is going to leave Rad tomorrow. He usually spends time at his parents’ place on Monday and Tuesday, so Angela thinks it’s the best time to get away without a confrontation. The plan is that she’ll call me as soon as he leaves and I’ll drive out to pick her up and bring her to my place. I was wondering if you’d meet me there just in case.”
“Fuck. I wasn’t thinking after I left Rad this afternoon. I’d been on duty for more than the double shift they put me on.”
“What are you saying? You saw Rad today? About what?”
“It’s not important why I was there, but that while we talked, his boss overheard me asking after Angela and telling Rad that he ruined our friendship because of how he treated your sister. Apparently his boss’s daughter had been in an abusive relationship and his boss got pissed that Rad had mistreated Angela, so he fired him on the spot.”
“What? When?”
“Today.”
“What time?”
“I don’t know. Around two, I guess.”
“I have to go. There’s no telling what he did to her when he got home.” She didn’t think. She just hung up, dialed her sister’s cell, grabbed her purse and ran out the door. She had her keys in her hand the second an incoming call interrupted her sister’s voice mail message. She ignored it, knowing Hunt was calling her back. She jumped into her car and left her sister a voice mail. “Angela, it’s me. Call me back right now!”
She hung up and called again.
She peeled out of her driveway and headed out of town like the NASCAR driver Shelby accused her of driving like, headed straight for her sister, ignoring the incoming calls and texts from Hunt.
The drive seemed to take forever. She got her sister’s voice mail six times before she gave up, pushed the gas pedal to the floor and tried to hold herself together andbrace herself for whatever she found when she got to Rad’s place.
Hunt swore, jumped out of bed naked, pulled on a pair of worn jeans, a T-shirt he picked up off the floor that probably needed to be washed, and stuffed his bare feet into his work boots. He ran through the house, grabbed his wallet and keys off the table and made it out the door in record time. He climbed into his truck, tore out of his driveway, still trying to call Cyn, but the damn woman wouldn’t pick up.
He hated to think the worst, that she’d barge in on Rad and Angela and discover her sister had been hurt because Hunt was a dumb shit. He’d been so exhausted he’d never even thought Rad would head home, pissed off, and be looking for someone to take it out on.
