Page 46 of Born to Scar

“Indy, let me take you away from here,” I whisper to her.

“No. She had a stroke,” her dad sneers.

“Yeah, I bet she did. Do not ever come looking for me again,” she spits.

“I have something you may want, of hers,” he adds casually. Indy tenses again. “Her journals. They will help you decipher the truth of your childhood through your delirium.”

Spinning, I look at him. “You can’t for a second expect us to believe that she has made everything up. We see the scars. There are scars in places she can’t touch.”

My voice is surprisingly level for how I am feeling, my rage at its boiling point. I notice now that Felipe, Mik, and Jay are standing between him and us. Micky is a big bitch. It would be a miracle if her dad got through him alone.

“Her and her sister were in a very bad headspace as children. They would cut each other, like some sick game.”

“Yeah, I bet the next thing you’ll say is that I killed Jenny. Right?” she snarls, looking around my shoulder and arm. “He’s a narcissist. He’ll say anything to get you to believe him,” she says flatly, like she’s been fighting this her entire life, like she’s done fighting for people to believe her.

“Let’s go, Indy. You don’t need to be put through this,” Jared whispers and pulls my arm toward the car.

“I can leave them at that bar, if you’d like,” he yells after us.

Her arm lifts off my back, and I can only assume she’s flipped him off.

“Put me down,” she demands with much more control.

Dropping her to her feet, I maintain a hold of her wrist. Felipe and Mik come to our side.

“What the fuck are you thinking?” I snap.

She smiles, meeting my gaze. It’s bright. It’s beautiful. It’s meant to distract me, and it works.

“He doesn’t get to own any part of me anymore.” She shrugs as her finger slides down my jaw. She knows how to get me to back off. One fucking finger controls me. It always has. Jared’s laugh echoes behind us. Dick.

She kisses me, jerks from my hold, and kisses Jay. She turns to Felipe and Mik and says, “Thanks, guys.” She pulls her helmet on and takes off.

“Now, where is she going?” I groan.

“Come on,” Jay whispers, getting back in his car. I realize he’s driving us to the train bridge. “She likes it there.”

When we arrive, there sits her bike, and we can see her sitting on the bridge, just like that night after the race. This is where everything started. This is where our lives changed forever. After all this time, there is one thing I know for sure.

Jay is a fucking saint for putting up with us.

CHAPTER 20

INDY

What the fuck was I thinking? Cam has every right to be pissed. That was the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done. Fuck if I’m not good at getting myself into situations like that. My sister must have her work cut out for her in keeping me safe and alive up there. Or wherever the hell she is.

No, I don’t believe in that shit. If there was goodness out there in the ether, the tragic horrors of this world, what I’ve lived through, wouldn’t exist. If there is anything good beyond this world, where is it now? Where has it been? There’s too much bad to believe in shit like that. There’s no magic man in the sky that’s going to save us.

They gave me a minute to myself, but Jay and Cam are walking over toward me now. “You came?” I question, because why the fuck would they still want someone so broken like me? Why would they want someone so fucking dirty? Sick. Hopeless. Hurting. So much fucking hurt lives in me. It rots me. It’s so fucking painful. I’m not good for them.

Jared sits behind me, pulling me off the edge into him. “Of course, we came. You need us,” he murmurs into my ear.

“Why?” I cock my eyebrow at him. “Why do you keep coming back? I’ll never be good. Never enough. Never clean. Not for you two.”

Jared pulls me closer, pressing his lips to my cheek. “Don’t, Indy. Don’t do that. Don’t push us away,” he whispers.

Cam jerks me by my chin to look at him. He’s still so angry. I can see the rage burning in his eyes. They always give him away, and they are narrowed directly on me. I reach up to hold his face, but he grabs my wrist.