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The doctor was going to release Harris the next day now that they were sure all the narcotics he’d been drugged with were out of his system and he didn’t seem to have any side effects from them. I’d only seen him once since Lucy had left, but I couldn’t agree with the doctor on his assessment that Harris was going to be okay.
He wasn’t even close to being okay. His eyes were dead, his face hard and pale. There was a new anger in the usual carefree Harris Cutter that concerned me just as much as Lucy’s breakdown had. I didn’t know everything, Lucy hadn’t told me much about what had happened on her end the night everything had gone to hell and back. I knew that she’d gotten some text messages from Harris’s phone from Tessa, but that was all she would say.
Whatever it was, it had been enough to destroy two people’s lives. No, not just two. More. Harris and Lucy weren’t the only ones wrecked after what Tessa had done. Jenna, who was caught in a tug-of-war between her three siblings. Devlin and Natalie Cutter, who couldn’t wrap their minds around the fact that their son had nearly died. Jesse and Layla, who couldn’t make their daughter’s pain go away. Jace, who was still haunted by imagines of nearly losing his best friend as he watched him OD. I hurt for all of them.
With Harris being released, Jace was finally ready to go back to his place. I was ready to go with him, wanting to sleep in his bed snuggled up against him for a few hours before I had to face anyone at my father’s house.
That plan was quickly changed, however, when I started to leave with Jace. Out of nowhere Lana Stevenson appeared in front of me. Her pregnant belly was huge, near to busting it looked like. She was carrying her fourth daughter and only weeks away from giving birth, but the look on her face right then made me wonder if the newest little Demon family addition was going to be joining us sooner than expected.
“Kin, thank God you’re still here. I need your help. Will you come with me to Malibu? It’s Lucy. She needs us.”
I didn’t even blink. That was all she needed to say. If Lucy needed me, then I was going to be there for her. She was my best friend and had helped me through some of the worst times of my life. I owed her.
“Good, thank you.” She grasped my free hand—the one not entwined with Jace’s—and pulled me along with her to the idling SUV just outside the hospital’s entrance. I didn’t even have time to glance back at Jace as she rushed me away.
Drake Stevenson was behind the wheel and put it in gear as soon as the door shut behind me and his wife. He gave me a grim nod in the rearview mirror and hauled ass. I reached for my seatbelt. “Is Lucy okay?”
Lana glanced back at me from the front passenger seat. “No,” she said with tears in her eyes. “This is all a clusterfuck, Kin. I can’t explain right now because I don’t know what all is going on. All I know is that Layla called me, nearly hysterical. She and Jesse were having an argument and I could hear him raging in the background. I didn’t ask questions. Since we hadn’t made it home yet, I told Drake to come back and get you. Whatever is going on, I know Lucy will need us both.”
Layla and Jesse Thornton arguing? They were such an amazing couple. What the hell were they arguing about?
Drake remained mute the entire drive to the Thorntons’ house. I knew he adored Lucy and she loved him just as much. There was a strong bond between them, that much anyone could have seen when they were around each other. I figured that he was being pulled in two directions right then. Wanting to take care of Jenna. Wanting to comfort Lucy. It must have been killing him.
“It will all work out,” Lana kept murmuring and at first I thought she was just talking to herself, but then I saw the way she would reach for Drake’s hand every time she said it. She was trying to reassure him even though her own worry and stress was so evident on her beautiful face. “It’s going to be okay, babe. I promise.”
He would only nod and then push down harder on the gas.
As soon as the SUV pulled into the driveway, I was rushing to get out and follow behind Lana. She didn’t bother to knock, but walked right in to her sister and brother-in-law’s home. I could feel the tension in the house as soon as I stepped inside, but things seemed quiet. If Jesse and Layla had been arguing they had stopped. For the moment at least.
“She doesn’t want to go!”
My head snapped around at Jesse’s bellow and Lana and I looked at each other before hurrying toward where his voice had come from. Upstairs. Lana moved faster than I would have thought a heavily pregnant woman could have and reached the second floor landing just as Drake was coming through the front door.
“Be careful, Angel.”
“She needs to go. It will be good for her. Staying here will only make things harder for her,” Layla’s voice raged back. “Some time away from all this shit will give her some breathing space.”
“I-I won’t go,” I heard Lucy sob. “You can’t make me!’
What the hell was going on?
Lana paused long enough to open the door where all three voices were coming from and I stopped when I saw the scene inside Lucy’s room. She was lying on her bed, her face buried in her pillows as she sobbed over and over again, her body shaking from the force of each one. Jesse stood on one side of his daughter’s bed while Layla was on the other, both of them glaring at each other as they yelled back and forth at each other.
“I won’t let you send her away. She needs us more than anything right now. If she’s across the country how will we help her? Huh, Layla? How?” His voice shook with the force of his emotions as he pointed his finger out the window. “I won’t let you and Emmie send her away, godsdamn it. My little girl needs me.”
“Lana!” Lucy had lifted her head and spotted her sister. “Lana, don’t let Mom send me away. Don’t let her.”
Lana moved toward the bed, going straight to Layla. “What’s going on?” she demanded, her gaze going from one person to the other, lingering on her upset baby sister before landing on her oldest sister who was openly crying just as hard as Lucy was right then, but the determination in her brown eyes told me she wasn’t going to give up the fight.
“I told Emmie to get Lucy’s paperwork ready. She’s going to Georgetown on Monday.” Layla wrapped her arms around herself, her body shivering as if she were physically sick.
“What?” Lana exclaimed, her honey-brown eyes widening. “Layla… Do you think that’s a good idea right now? Look at Lucy. She’s a mess.”
“Weren’t you a mess after what happened with Drake?” her older sister demanded and Lana’s mouth tightened just as the man in question walked through the bedroom door. “How wrecked were you, Lana? And how much did it help to put distance between you and here?”
With a hand that noticeably trembled, Lana pushed her hair back from her face and turned away from them all. Her eyes on the carpet, she seemed to take in what Layla had said and consider it.
Drake moved to stand beside Jesse. He must have heard what Layla had told his wife and was choosing his brother-in-law’s side. “Leaving doesn’t solve anything, Layla,” he growled. “You’re just showing her she can run from her problems and it will make everything okay.”
