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I blew out a breath as Dad called out to Ford and threw him his keys. “Meet us at the hospital,” Dad told him.
Ford stepped away from me, and my gaze connected with Aria. I didn’t know what I was expecting as she looked at me, but it wasn’t the emptiness I saw. It knocked me back a step, but as soon as I got my bearings, Sal was screeching out of the lot, taking a piece of me with him.
* * *
ARIA
I shouldn’t have looked at him as we pulled out of the lot. I wasn’t even sure why he was in the office with the principal, and I had no idea why it was Sal who turned up.
“Think you got some explaining to do, Ri,” Sal grunted as he took the highway. We weren’t heading to the diner or the apartment, that much was clear.
“She said something I didn’t like,” I told him, my voice bland and lifeless. I didn’t want to explain to him that her bringing my dad up had made a switch in me flip.
“Yeah?” Sal said, his voice getting deeper. “What would that be?”
“I…” I closed my eyes and winced at the pain radiating in my ribs. I didn’t even realize she’d gotten me in my stomach, but it had all happened so fast. “She talked about my dad.”
The cab in Sal’s truck went silent, and when I opened my eyes, I could barely breathe.
“Hey, hey.” Uncle Brody’s hand flattened on my back and rubbed up and down. “In and out. Take a breath, baby girl.” I shook my head and opened my mouth, about to tell him I couldn’t. I hadn’t been able to take a full breath in what felt like years. “Slowly, do it with me.”
I turned my head and kept my gaze connected to his dark-brown eyes and his features so similar to Cade’s. I didn’t want to admit that calmed me somewhat. I wanted to deny the way Cade made me feel, how his presence in the principal’s office had calmed my racing heart.
But it was the truth.
He’d destroyed everything we had, but it didn’t mean I didn’t need him as much as the air keeping me alive.
Sal took a turn and entered the hospital parking lot, pulling up outside the main doors. “Why didn’t you tell us what was going on?” he asked, moving his head to face me, his voice sounding broken. His brown eyes met mine, and for the first time since I’d known him, I saw the pain echoed inside of them. I’d heard stories of how Sal had grown up. The rumors circulated, especially in towns like ours, but I hadn’t paid them much attention.
However, I was seeing him in another light, and it made me open my mouth and tell him, “There wasn’t any point.”
His frown marred his brow. “Why? You know I would have stepped in and protected you.”
I shrugged. “Snitches get stitches?”
His lips quirked on one side, and he shook his head. “True. Damn, Ri, I hate that she’s been doing that shit with you for years.”
“It is what it is, Sal.” I blinked, trying to keep the building tears at bay. “It would have only gotten worse if I'd told someone. You know that.”
“Don’t mean I gotta like it,” he grunted out. “Far as I’m concerned, she got what she deserved.” A throat cleared behind me a second before the passenger door opened. “What?” Sal asked Brody.
“Nothin’,” Uncle Brody replied and extended his hand to me. “Let’s get you checked out, baby girl.”
I placed my hand inside his large one and let him help me out of the truck. “You coming?” I asked Sal.
“I’m gonna go get your mom and bring her back here.”
My stomach dropped as another car pulled up behind us, then Ford exited. I swallowed at his presence. He’d stuck up for me to Harry, but I couldn’t help blame him for what had happened that morning with Cade. Everything had been fine until he turned up.
We watched Sal pull away and then headed inside. Ford spoke to someone at the front desk, and then we were ushered into a room, not having to wait with all the other people. I had a feeling he was using his badge to get us to jump the line, but I wouldn’t comment on it, not when my ribs were pulsating, and my eye was thumping to match the rhythm of my heart.
Uncle Brody waved at the hospital bed and helped me up onto it before he sat in the chair next to it. Ford took position next to the door, his gaze fixated to a spot above my head. Ten minutes went by, silence surrounding us until the chime of Uncle Brody’s cell went off. He pulled it out of his pocket and murmured something down the line.
He clicked a button on his screen. “You’re on speaker,” he grunted.
“Aria!” Lola’s voice shouted down the line.
“Lola.” A smile lifted the corners of my mouth, and I groaned as the cut in my lip stung.
