AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I step back so he can see Kiara’s face crumpled in pain. So he can see what his selfishness is doing.
“You’re supposed to be comforting her, not being the reason she’s crying. I admit I was wrong. I should’ve come and talked to you about my feelings for her. But what you’re doing is worse. Your dad would be fucking disappointed. So much for being his legacy.”
I can’t duck out of the way when Nathan charges at me, his shoulder slamming into my solar plexus.
“Uhhh,” I grunt, winded, as he straddles me, landing punch on my face, one after the other.
"Go on, hit me. Take it out on me, I can take it."
I don’t know if he hears me through the haze but he keeps punching.
“Put your hands up!” he yells. “Fight like a fucking man!”
“No,” I say through my cut lip. "Go on, hit me again. Did Kiara tell you that we almost got together five years ago when she came to London just to see me? How does that make you feel?"
Nathan gets to his feet, drags me up, and shoves me against the medical supplies cart, spilling everything on the floor. “Shut up. Stop talking.”
He grabs for my neck and squeezes.
"Nathan! Stop!" Kiara shouts but this doesn’t involve her anymore.
He squeezes as I stare into his eyes. His hand’s not big enough to cause any real damage, but I struggle anyway, and as I stare at him, I watch as the tears that must be prickling the back of his eyes, flood over his cheeks.
"Stop it! Both of you, just stop it!!” Kiara shouts again. “Dad just died! And this what you're doing?"
Nathan growls and then reluctantly lets go.
“I know you’re hurting man. And if you need to, come find me.”
He grits his teeth, grabs my shoulders and roars as he shoves me back against the wall. “Don’t ever talk to me again.” Then he lets me go.
My head rings as I try to clear my vision just in time to see Kiara running down the hallway and around the corner.
"Kiara!" I shout after her.
"Leave her alone." Nathan spits and steps back.
Behind him, I can see staff and visitors start to mill around.
I get to my feet. "I have to go after her."
"No, she needs her big brother."
I summon what strength I have left and shove him into a chair. “No, she needs to be with the one man who loves her more than you love her."
When I follow her steps, they lead me outside into the blazing heat, but she's not there.
She's not down another hallway, or in the cafeteria.
She’s not at the coffee machine where we'd trekked a worn path in the last few days.
She’s not at my apartment, or hers. Or at any of the three apartments where her employees live. She isn't at their family home.
She’s nowhere.
No one knows where she is. Not just the people who should know, every single person I know that might know anything about her.
Ten hours after she runs out of the hospital, I get a two-word text from my former best friend. "Found her?" Nathan's text says. And in those two words I can sense the total fear and panic in his body. It is a clone of the fear and panic running through mine.
