“Why?”
Her eyes flare. “Are you planning on moving back to New York?”
Dammit. That question. “Yes, but—”
“Then I need to end this now. I have to.” Her face breaks and she swallows hard, trying to get her emotions back under control. And in her next breath, they are. In her next breath, she’s locked herself away in an impenetrable fortress. Determined. Unbreakable.
With that in check, she takes a step back. Then another. My arms fall away from her, my heart at my feet.
“Rina—”
“I have to, Brecken. I need you to let me go. No more showing up. No more calls or texts. No more muffins sent to my work. No more dinners or sleepovers. No more.”
I can’t do that. I can’t let her go and I can’t give her up.
My fists ball up at my sides, my brain tripping over itself as I try to work out how to stop this. How to change her mind.
“Don’t do this.” I need you. Doesn’t she know how much I need her?
“I’m sorry. It’s done.”
She spins on her heels and leaves me here, standing alone in the dark. I want to run after her. I want to scream in Aria’s face. My sister, who claims to be so close to me, doesn’t even know the man I’ve become.
But would it change anything?
Aria will be pissed at Rina for lying to her. Rina will be pissed at me for outing her. It will ruin their friendship.
And then there’s me. My job. My life. New York. Boston.
Maybe Rina is right in doing this now. Running out on me because there isn’t much left of me to hold on to. What good am I to her?
I storm out of the hall, bypassing the table without a parting glance. “You don’t have to worry about hiding anything from Aria,” I sneer her name to Wes. “It’s over now. She ruined it without even knowing she did.”
“Breck—”
I shake my head at my best friend and then head out of the bar, out into the night, staring at the side of the building where I had waited for her that night before walking her home.
Seeing her again. Her being so intimately connected to my life.
It’s not a fucking coincidence. It’s not happenstance. No way.
It’s kismet.
It’s meant to fucking be.
I’m not going down like that. I’ve never met anyone who’s made me feel half of what I feel when I’m with Rina. Even I know enough to understand something like that doesn’t happen with just anyone.
I will do what she asked of me because I refuse to be anything like Harrison was to her. But if she thinks I’m giving up on her, on us, she’s got another thing coming.
30
Brecken
The words seem to blur through my eyes as I read them. Dread shoots through me, clinging to my skin like the needy bitch she is. Maybe I should be relieved. Or excited. And I guess part of me is. Finding out you’re right about something is the mental equivalent of giving yourself a high five. But then you read this...
Unknown: The account is linked to you.
And anything remotely resembling something warm and fuzzy in your brain dies a quick and painful death.
Yeah. That’s what I thought it was going to say. Actually, I thought it was going to say now stay where you are and cooperate when the SEC and federal agents come for you. My head falls back against the building, my eyes closing as I release a breath. My chest feels tight. My body devoid of energy and life.
My phone vibrates in my hand again, but I don’t have the will or desire to read what I know is waiting for me. If I thought my life was shit before, it’s infinitely worse now. Tucking my phone in my pocket, I stand here in a moment of not so silent reflection and wait.
I don’t even know if she’s here.
Shouldn’t matter if she is, I’m not waiting on her anyway. I’m waiting on two of her brothers and Wes. “You look like shit, Davenport.”
I grin because Carter Fritz is not wrong. I do look like shit. Opening my eyes, my chin drops to find the good doctor heading my way. He’s changed from the usual scrubs they all wear for work.
“Can’t all be as beautiful as you, Fritz. Does your hair always look that good when you’re delivering babies?”
“You have no idea how many new moms proposition him,” Oliver states, his eyes on his phone as he saunters in our direction.
“Yeah, and what about you, Oliver?”
“I like nurses.” He grins impishly at me and then returns to his phone, typing something in before he groans. “Fuck. One of my toddlers from the clinic is being sent to Children’s. Broken arm and subdural hematoma.”
“Child abuse?” Carter asks with a grimace and Oliver nods, a frown now etched on his face.
“Yeah. Dad’s a lawyer with a nasty fucking temper. I had already been in touch with child services over some suspicious bruising and a jumpy mother. Now this.”
“Shit,” I say. “I have no idea how you guys deal with that.”
“Sometimes I don’t either.” Oliver wipes a hand across his forehead. “I’ll go see him tomorrow first thing. He’s in good hands tonight.”
“And I thought I was having a bad day,” I muse.
“Are we waiting on Wes?” Carter asks, changing the subject.
“He said he’d be out in a—” My words get cut off when I spot Wes exiting the building, Rina beside him. My breath stalls in my chest as I take her in. It’s been a week since she ended things with me. A week without seeing her. Talking to her. Touching her.
The longest week of my life and that ain’t no lie.
“I feel like we should kick his ass, but it looks like Rina already did.”
“Har, har.” I flip Oliver off as I hesitantly approach her. She hasn’t seen me yet and I’m guessing Wes didn’t tip her off that I was here waiting. Not so great actually. She’s going to think I’m here for her.
“Hey,” Wes says. “Sorry I’m late. You ready to go?”
Rina’s head snaps up, her green eyes instantly locking on mine. I watch as her lips part and her cheeks warm with color.
“Hi.” I stop a few feet from her, throwing my hands up in surrender. “Before you accuse me of showing up for you, I’m actually taking your opportunistic, freeloading brothers to the Bruins game tonight.”
She blinks rapidly at me and then her gaze shifts over to her brothers before swinging back in my direction. “No. That’s not what… I didn’t know they were going too. It’s fine.” She looks me up and down before narrowing in on my eyes, more likely the dark purple stains beneath them, visible no doubt even in the paltry light we’re standing in outside the hospital if her frown is anything to go by.
“I brought this with me. I figured I’d give it to Wes or your brothers to give to you. You left it at my place.” I reach out, handing her her Kindle that I know she’s likely missing.
She takes it from my hand, making sure our fingers don’t touch and I think another piece of me just broke with that. She doesn’t even want to touch me. She can barely look at me. And that brutal mask of indifference she’s so adept at wearing, is firmly in place.