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“Is Ivy Love okay?” another asks.
Riot grabs the microphone closest to my face and offers it to Summer.
“I’m sure you can all understand that it’s been a very long night, and as a family we need some time. We’ll put out a statement in a few hours. Until then we have no comment.”
For a moment it falls quiet, like they’re considering Summer’s point and might just leave us be, but then a loud voice at the back shouts, “Was it a drug overdose?”
“Again,” Summer attempts to draw their attention back to her. “We will have a statement for you later this morning. If you could wait until that time—"
“Can you tell us anything about her current state?”
“Did you know she was Alec’s sister when you started dating? Is that why you were so hush-hush about who your mystery girlfriend was?”
“When did you find out she was Hawthorne’s sister?”
“Was there any conversation on burying the hatchet between you two? Was this an attempt at calling a truce in the Hawthorne-Maddox feud?”
“Did you break up with her because she’s his sister? Did things get rough between you? Is that why Ivy is in the hospital?”
Guilt rushes me like a wave, drags me under. If I had reacted differently when she told me about her brother she wouldn’t be in that hospital room. She’d be in my bed, her naked body pressed against mine. Her head on my chest. Relaxed and happy.
“Just keep moving,” Riot mutters in my ear as he grips my shoulder and pushes me onward.
We’d be waking up right now to make love in the early hours because we can’t get enough of each other. Or I’d be watching her sleep, her dark locks silk against my fingertips as I considered myself so fucking lucky.
Instead I reacted like an asshole. I jumped the gun even though if I’d thought about it for one second I would have realized she wasn’t trying to betray me for her brother. No, it was my own flesh and blood leading the charge. I hurt her. I sent her away. I almost lost everything.
Those early mornings together. That feeling of sunlight kissing my chest whenever I looked at Ivy and thoughtthat girl is mine. It all could have been gone. And now? Everything is up in the air. The only thing I can be sure of is Nicole will do anything she can to keep us apart.
“Did Ivy Love hurt herself?” someone asks.
“Fuck off,” my twin snarls over his shoulder.
“She has a history of mental health issues,” the guy says from under the brim of a black baseball cap tucked into the hood of his sweater. “It wouldn’t be the first time she caused herself harm.”
“What the fuck do you know about it?” I launch myself at him.
“More than you do obviously.” His lips turn up in the corners, which is all I can see under that cap. Coward.
“Rogue,” Summer calls.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I jostle him. My hand curls into his shirt. I want to pound that smirk off his face. I’m on a knife’s edge. All these emotions swirling inside me.
His smile grows bigger. Uglier and twisted. “You don’t know her very well at all do you?”
Something inside me snaps. Before I’ve even realized I’ve made a fist with the hand hanging at my side it’s connected with his jaw. Once. Twice.
His bottom lip splits under the contact and starts to bleed. If anything he breaks into an even bigger grin as the crowd around us grows hushed.
“Christ,” Riot says.
Summer gasps. “Oh no.”
Rebel’s hand wraps around mine halfway through my next swing. The reporter spits a wad of blood onto the gravel as Rebel steps into the space between us, forcing me to relinquish my hold on the guy.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Rebel orders him while staring me down.
That simple connection grounds me when everything else has me spinning out.
