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I don’t like the look on his face when he says that. A new chill ripples over my body. I know Leo Rivera is a scary son of a bitch. That’s how he took over the gang when Ace blew himself up, because nobody had the guts to stand up to him. But Jett, who must be the guy sitting next to me driving like a crazy person, probably isn’t much nicer, literally fighting people for sport. Jasmine might have been pretty hush-hush when she and Axel made it official that they were dating, but I pieced together stuff from the snippets she did tell me, and I know enough to know this whole scenario makes me very uncomfortable. “Who’s the other brother?” I can’t help but ask. I’ve never heard of him.
Jett looks at me, confused. “Kobe is Brandon’s best friend. He was in the car with him today. You really haven’t heard of him? They’re pretty inseparable.”
Best friend? He knows these guys? Realization dawns on me, and now I know why he couldn’t just take me to his place to hang with his friends. These are the friends he was telling me about earlier. An unsettling feeling washes over me and settles in my chest. How well do I even know Brandon Lewis if he is best friends with one of the Riveras?
Before I have time to really overthink it all, we pull up to a grand entrance with a guarded gate, and Jett winds down the window so the guard can see his face. He takes off his cap, tossing it in the back of his car.
“Mr. Rivera,” the guard says with a nod as he lets us in. The car moves up the gravel driveway to the ridiculous-sized mansion on a large estate, much like my parents’ one if the house was ten times the size. “Brandon’s in here?” I mutter out loud.
“Our doctor is the kind that makes special house calls.”
“Oh,” is all I can say.
He pulls into one of the eight garages and kills the engine. I try to calm myself. Not knowing what I’m walking into has me so on edge, but this isn’t about me, it’s about Brandon, and I need to see him and make sure he’s okay.
Jett comes around my side and opens the door for me, slipping a hand to my back to guide me toward the house. I’m not his hostage, but I get the impression I am under his guard while on this property, and I don’t have a lot of choice to do what I want right now.
“Don’t ask questions. Inquisitive minds like yours will get you into trouble here. You're here to see Brandon and that is it. Keep your head down and stay out of Leo’s way. He is very busy with the whole takeover situation and now this mess from today. So be a good girl while you're here and do as I ask.”
I hate the way he’s talking to me like I’m a silly child, but I have no control here, so I just nod and go along with him, swallowing the lump in my throat. If I felt uneasy before, my stomach has now turned completely to liquid. He directs me through the vast foyer of the house and down a long corridor and through an open door. And when I see him, my heart stops for the second time today.
The room is dimly lit with just a bedside light illuminating Brandon’s face. I run toward the bed, throwing my arms around him. A hand weakly hugs me back, and I pull away a little to look at him. He’s conscious but barely by the looks of it. His sleepy eyes focus in on me, and he realizes who it is.
“You scared me,” I cry in a small voice as tears waterfall down my face.
“I’m so sorry, Cassie,” he whispers, his words coming out hoarse. I take his hand in mine and squeeze it, never wanting to let go of him again. His head is wrapped with a bandage that must be covering the wound, and he is deathly pale, his normal healthy glow nowhere to be seen. He’s in a king-sized bed made up with luxurious-looking charcoal sheets, and he looks so out of place, with an IV hooked up to his arm and a heart monitor’s steady pulse sounding through the room. He’s bad.
I have been so fearful of many things since he first walked away from me, but the fear of losing him for good is scarier than anything else.
BRANDON
“I'M OKAY, SHORTCAKE," I try to tell her, but my voice is so hoarse it comes out as a whisper. From the fear in her eyes and the waterworks now soaking my shirt, I can tell she knows I’m not.
Kobe comes to stand by my other side. He’s almost as banged up as me, bruising on his forehead from hitting the dash and a black eye, but he’s still walking. “He scared us all,” he tells Cassie with a weak smile.
She eyes him suspiciously. This isn’t the way I wanted them to meet. I know what she must be thinking. This is a lot to take in, and I have been hiding a side of myself from her. It’s what I was trying to warn her about this morning and why I wanted her to meet them in person. But not like this. I just hope she can handle the world she is about to be introduced to, because there is no alternative. I won’t give her up, and this is my life.
“I’m Kobe. The car we were in was hit this afternoon,” he tells her like she had asked him a question.
She just stares at him, blinking through her tears. And I feel so helpless because I don’t have the energy to make all of this right. “What are Brandon’s injuries?” she asks him, glancing over at me again.
I curl my hand around hers as tightly as I can, needing the contact, the reassurance that she isn’t about to run and I will never see her again. “We both got out of the wreck really lucky,” I mutter, trying to reassure her. “It’s just a head knock and a couple of stitches, Cassie. A bit of rest and I will be fine.” I can see she’s skeptical.
“How did this even happen?” Her scared eyes go from me to Kobe. She wants answers, ones we don’t have.
“Brandon was driving us home, and the other car just came out of nowhere.”
“He just took us out,” I tell her.
“First we knew of it was the impact when he slammed into the side of the car,” Kobe adds.
She looks between us. “So, it was an accident? Is the other driver okay?” she asks, her voice full of concern.
Kobe drops his head to look toward me. He rubs at the stubble on his chin. “The other driver wasn’t there when we came to,” he answers her honestly.
“A hit-and-run?” she gasps in outrage. “How could anyone do that, run into the side of someone else’s car then just take off while the people inside are unconscious? We need to report this to the police.”
Kobe gives me a look, and I know I can’t say anything else. I glance back at Cassandra. She looks so beautiful today, in a silky dress, her hair all fancy, so I change the subject and hope she won’t keep asking questions. When it comes to the shit these guys are involved in, she’s on a need-to-know basis. “Why are you so dolled up? You look beautiful.”
