Hurry.
I deleted the thread because habit was stronger than exhaustion, then shoved the phone back into my pocket and waited in the ditch grass while morning crept over the mountain.
The mountain cool finally got through.
It found the sweat drying on my back, the bare skin at my wrists, the places Dex’s stubble had scraped my throat, and the deep ache between my thighs. I pulled the overshirt on and wrapped it around myself, but the fabric only made me notice the missing weight of his hand.
Headlights appeared low through the fog ten minutes later.
They cut off before the turn.
A small silver car rolled onto the shoulder and stopped with the engine running.
The driver’s door opened.
“Jade.”
My name sounded cracked in her voice.
I looked at the woman standing on the other side of the car and felt my knees loosen.
Crystal had my face.
Same pale hair. Same blue eyes. Same mouth. Same bones under softer fear and a different life. My twin stared back at me with tears shining under the first gray wash of morning.
I crossed the road.
Crystal grabbed me before I reached the passenger door. Her arms came around me hard, and I let her hold on because she was shaking.
Then I pulled back. “We have to go.”
Her eyes moved over my face, my throat, my wrists. “What happened?”
“I bought you time.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one we have time for.”
Crystal pressed her mouth tight. She looked past me toward the dark road, then unlocked the passenger door. “Get in.”
I slid into the seat.
Crystal got behind the wheel and pulled away without turning on the headlights until the road curved between the trees. Her hands were white on the steering wheel. I buckled in, still feeling his weight, his mouth, and his careful hands in places I had no right to miss.
For a mile, neither of us spoke.
Then Crystal glanced at me, and her voice came out small. “Did he hurt you?”
I looked through the rear window.
No headlights followed.
“No,” I said. “He didn’t.”
That was supposed to make this easier.
Instead, I sat beside my twin with Dex still on my skin, his taste still in my mouth, and one stupid, impossible wish lodged under my ribs.
