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My lungs burned, my skin hurt. I no longer wanted to kill myself but fuck, I wanted to die! My hands shot out to my sides, my right hitting the wet counter and slipping, forcing me to dive deeper. Causing my left hand to miss the counter on the other side.
Instead, it slammed into the sink.
Slammed into my juice glass, which shattered into a few big chunks.
It wasn’t until I pulled my sopping wet head out of the water that I realized how much trouble I was in.
Because one chunk of that juice glass was now embedded in my wrist.
28
LEE
Cael Waldeberg had a small scar in the middle of his forehead. He got it courtesy of a delusional psychopath that had abducted Vinny’s sister. Cael was on my team when we went to find her. He’d snuck in the back of the house while me and most of the team tried to create a distraction out front.
He almost didn’t make it out alive.
Some days, I barely noticed it. Others, like today, it stood out like a blaring siren. Screaming at me that it could have been worse. That I needed to pay closer attention to the little things, or I was going to lose people the way I had in the past.
The way I almost lost Cael.
He sat in front of me, his skin flushed and that scar a pink streak across his forehead. “Sorry I’m late. Carli didn’t want to get out of the pool after her lesson.”
A smile curled my lips. His little girl was one of the cutest kids I’d ever seen. I’d never really wanted kids. Never figured I’d get married, especially not as old as I was now.
But shit. One thought of Cael’s daughter had me thinking of Vinny and Jen’s kid on the way.
Had me thinking of Kelly, and all the things I now wanted with her.
“She like the water?” I sat back in my chair, even though I wanted to reach for my phone and see if Kelly had responded to my last text.
I had hoped to entice her out of my apartment. Hoped she’d come here and talk to Jen. Only, Vinny had texted from the car on the way to hospital minutes before Cael showed up, telling me my accountant was in labor and the baby was on the way.
“She loves it. She likes to pretend she’s a mermaid and then screams like a banshee when we try to take her out of the bath or the pool, like doing so is the worst thing in the world.”
A chuckle I couldn’t contain raced through me. Made me not want to talk about work and just live in Cael’s and his family’s happiness.
The man patted at the top of his head, trying to tame the untamable hair he was always worrying at. Something in him shifted. I could feel it slithering through me.
“I thought you should be the first to know.” He cleared his throat, and I held my breath, waiting for the shoe to drop. “Chrissi’s pregnant. It’s still early, but I wanted you to be aware. You know, in case I need to go to doctor appointments and such.”
Nodding, I rubbed at the tightness in my chest, forcing a smile to combat the prickly sensation racing over my skin. “Congratulations. You let me or Joss know if you need anything. We’ll make adjustments to the schedule if we need to.”
His smile lit up the whole fuckin’ room. “Thanks. I appreciate that. We’re thinking of having her mom come live with us to help out.” He shrugged, then continued to rattle on about something, but my attention was drawn to my cell phone screen.
Wasn’t anything I could do to stop from reaching out and snagging it off my desktop. Just like I couldn't do anything about the icy cold fingers that strangled my throat. I almost didn’t want to read what was waiting there for me. My eyes fell out of focus, like my brain knew what was in that text wasn’t just a shoe dropping, but a goddamn guillotine.
I blinked, trying to clear the gripping fear so I could focus on the screen.
Little Hellion: I need help.
“Is everything okay?” Cael was standing in front of me.
And I was fuckin’ standing, though I didn’t remember getting up.
Without a glance at my employee, I pulled up the app on my phone to find Kelly’s cell. I zoomed in on her icon but didn’t feel an ounce of relief that it showed her in my apartment.
Fuck.
