Total pages in book: 230
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
“I know.” She laughed and hiccupped as a tear fell down her face. “It was so scary.”
I nodded. It was scary, and I hadn’t even been involved. The lump in my throat hadn’t left, not even now that I was here with her and knew she was all right. It was a reminder of how short and fragile life was, that I could lose her the way I’d lost my brother. I couldn’t handle it. Not her. I squeezed her hand tighter.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered, wiping a tear.
“I came to see you. I left as soon as I saw the news. I couldn’t just…” I exhaled. “I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you, not like this.”
She smiled weakly and squeezed my hand back, then lost her smile altogether. “Kayla was there.”
“Where?”
“At the shelter. Aramis and I went to feed the homeless today, and she was outside.” Pilar frowned. “She said something about me not leaving my car there. Do you think…?” She looked up at me.
“No.” I felt myself frown. What could Kayla have possibly done to the car? In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter what she could have done or not, I needed to put an end to the stalking. “She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. How was the car before the accident?”
“It was perfect. It only had three hundred miles on it. It was brand new.”
“I’ll put an end to this Kayla stuff,” I said.
“I told Amir about it just in case. I just…it seems crazy and far-fetched, I know, but I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“She won’t come near you again.” I kissed her hand, feeling like I never wanted to let go.
The weight of that pushed at me, sat heavily on my chest. I needed to tell her things if I was going to keep her in my life. I needed to be vocal and open up. This wasn’t the time for it, though. I needed her to focus on getting better first.
CHAPTER 19
Pilar
“I heard you’re dating Drake.” Aramis’s voice was dry and low.
His words made me laugh, and then cry, and then laugh again. My brother looked awful, and I wasn’t just saying that because he was lying on a hospital bed with a cast on his left leg, and his left shoulder covered in bindings. His face was filled with tiny scratches from the broken windshield, and bandages covered the burns he’d acquired from the car that’d caught fire. Yet he was alive, and he was here, and he’d heal and be fine again, at least according to the doctors and surgeons. We were lucky. Two people had died, yet Aramis had somehow made it out of it.
“I’m so sorry.” I squeezed his hand. “If I’d been driving…”
“Don’t.” He shot me a look. “Don’t even think it. I would never trade places with you. I wouldn’t allow it. You’re my baby sister, and I need you to be safe. Always. I’m fine.”
“You’re not.” I began to sob, my chest heaving. “You’re completely messed up.”
“I’m always messed up, darling.” He winked, then flinched.
“Stop it.” I laughed as tears ran down my cheeks. I sniffled and wiped at them. “I told Amir to look into what happened. Ben has a crazy ex, and she confronted me before I went into the shelter. She knew which vehicle was mine. Knew that I was there alone.”
“You think she did something?”
“I don’t know what to think.” I exhaled. “I don’t know. What could she have done? Tampered with the engine? The brakes?”
“No.” He shook his head and then winced a bit. “It was none of those. It was almost as if…it was like the car couldn’t stay straight.”
“The tires?” I asked. I’d driven Audis for most of my adult life and I’d gotten flat tires on them. They weren’t quick to give out, even with a nail embedded in them. I said that aloud, and Aramis shook his head.
“This wasn’t a nail, Pilar. It had to be a slash.”
My heart stopped beating. “Could she want me out of Ben’s life that badly?”
“She must.” He stared at me for a beat. “The question is, do you want to be in this relationship badly enough to put up with people like her?”
My knee-jerk response was “of course,” but seeing my brother like this…I wasn’t so sure.
“How’d that happen anyway?” he asked.
“What?”
“You and Ben.”
“That’s really the first thing you’re going to ask me about?” I laughed. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“I think it’s worth discussing now, seeing as I have nowhere to go.” His lip twitched, but his eyes were dull and remained sad.
“Well.” I cleared my throat. “It just happened. I guess it started as us just having fun, but it may have become something more.”
“You guess?” Aramis raised his eyebrows and cringed with pain. “Are you having fun or not? It’s that simple.”