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So when my phone rings, I smile. I don’t even look at the ID as I swipe the screen to accept the call, expecting to hear Chase’s voice. “Yes, sir?”
“Miss Alexis Wilde?”
My steps falter. My heart misses a beat and then kick starts with a hollow flutter. “This is she. Who am I speaking with?”
“Miss Wilde, this is Doctor Jerome Taylor. I’m sorry to be the one to inform you, but your brother is currently in the ER at the D.C. Memorial Hospital. You’re listed as his next of kin…”
The silence of the city falls away, replaced by screeching brakes and honking horns. Shouts and soaring planes. All the sounds of the world crash down in one united boom so that his words are some strange, foreign droning in my ear.
Then two words bleed through the chaos: drug and overdose. They come across the line so clearly, the cold sweat slicking my skin loosens my grip and I nearly drop the phone.
“Miss Wilde?” the doctor beckons my attention.
“Yes,” I say, clutching the phone as if that will steady the swaying. “I’m on my way.”
r /> As I end the call, I’m already on autopilot. The gears in my mind switch. Click. My feet move. I’ve prepared for this. I’ve anticipated this call for years; I’ve heard those exact words in almost that exact order recited in my head.
“Where am I going?” I glance around, and Jefferson is in my peripheral, waving his hand.
“Alexis?”
But it’s Chase’s voice calling my name that thrusts me forward. His gravitational pull reels me in. I move toward him, wondering why he’s running. “I have to go,” I say. “My brother—”
“I know.” His hands clamp around my arms, strong bands that keep me from falling. “I’ll take you.”
I shake my head a little, gaining equilibrium. “What do you mean you know? How do you know?”
Agitation at standing still grips my senses, then I’m moving. “I have to go.”
“Alexis, stop. I will take you. My car’s this way.” His hand latches on to mine, and that one action splinters the universe.
The routine I practiced no longer exists. I haven’t rehearsed this part. “How do you know?” I ask again, breaking free of his grasp and whirling around to face him.
His face is bracketed in hard lines, giving nothing away. He’s more practiced than me. “I’ve had someone looking in on your brother. I just got the call…probably right when you did.”
A moment of sheer confusion clouds my thoughts before I’m tunneling. “You knew where my brother was?” Hurt. Betrayal. Embarrassment. Guilt—so many emotions surface, but it’s impossible to know if they’re validated.
I shake my head again, taking a step backward. “I can’t do this right now. I don’t want to. I just need to go.”
“All right,” Chase says. “Let’s go, then.”
“No.”
The word darts forth without effort. Have I ever told him no before? Am I even permitted to within the confines of our relationship? The fact that I’m processing this here, now, snaps me out of my haze. “No, Chase. I’m going alone.”
Anger seizes his features. “You’re not going alone in your state,” he says, his voice deep and commanding. “It’s not safe.”
I almost laugh. “My state? I’ve been in this state for a lot longer than I’ve known you. I can handle it.” I take another backward step. “Besides, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about you failing to mention that you knew where my brother was. I need…some time to myself. And I just need to be with him like, right now.”
Chase stalks toward me, the breeze sweeping his hair lopsided along his forehead. He looks too disheveled, too unnerved. I have to ball my hand to keep from reaching out to him. “When you agreed to the terms of our relationship, you agreed that I’m to take action in accordance with your best interests.”
Stunned, I stare at him. How can he be so formal right now? “And you agreed that I could go to my brother at any time.”
“Yes, but not alone, Alexis. Not when you’re this upset.”
“Unbelievable,” I mutter. Licking my lips, I approach him, this man that I know I love—that I have opened myself up to. “Do you remember when we were lying in your bed? When I asked to reserve what I wanted for myself in this relationship? Or…I’m sorry…this exchange between us?”
For the first time, I see his face pale with fear. “Anything. I’ll give you anything you ask of me.”
