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“Don’t,” Jax barked, raising a palm.
“Oh Summer.” Tabitha pressed a hand over her mouth, her eyes swimming. There was a mix of confusion, anger, and sympathy flowing from all of them, and yet how could they believe me in the face of the drugs clutched in Stephen’s hand?
This wasFelix’shandiwork. Ididn’t know how, but it had to be him. Luke stepped away suddenly as his phone blared into life and he pressed it to his ear as Stephen helped me into my coat to protect against the snow.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Theo stated. “Stephen, please. We’ve known each other a long time. Isn’t there something we can do to help get to the bottom of this?”
“I have my orders,” was Stephen’s only response. My tongue thickened in my mouth and I coughed out a sob, then I froze on the spot as if an icicle had speared right into my spine.
Luke’s face stood out amongst the rest as he slowly lowered the phone from his ear.
“Summer,” he said in a voice so strangled that everyone turned to look at him, and Theo darted forward to grasp his arm as he went as white as a sheet.
“Luke? What is it?”
Luke lifted his confused, hollow eyes to mine, and he frowned.
“Summer… the ex you told us wasn’t important, he was—”
“Please!” I gasped as realization struck me. He can’t know. Please, not now!
“He wasFelix Saunders?” Luke choked out. “The asshole that ran me over?”
Like the splinters of a mirror, my world imploded, and I couldn’t hold in the wail that ripped from my chest.
“No,” I whispered.
“Don’tlieto me!” Luke yelled suddenly, his voice so deep that nearly everyone jumped, myself included.
“Please,” I gasped through my tears. Not like this. I didn’t want him to find out like this.
“Summer?” Theo prompted, softer than Luke.
My heart pounded one last time, then fell silent in defeat.
“Yes,” I gasped out. “He’s my ex. And yes, I was in the car that night.”
33
LUKE
The silence after Summer’s departure was smothering, her confession swirling around my mind like a wasp with nowhere to land. The entire room was silent; Theo by the door trying to process what he had walked in on, my mother seated on the sofa with her hands wringing together, and Jax, a rigid statue next to me. It wasn’t until an obnoxious squeaking reached my ears that I remembered Marina was still on the phone.
I lifted it to my ear, my arm as heavy as my heart. “Marina.”
“How delightful!” she squawked. “I thought the news had killed you dead. Wouldn’t that be a thing? Then again learning that the woman living in your house was responsible for your accident is quite the terrible thing. I know I was positivelyastoundedwhen I found out. You don’t come across things that juicy every day and I—”
Her words vanished as Jax snatched the phone out of my hand.
“Marina, fuck right off your miserable cunt!” he yelled, and the phone landed in the middle of the couch after he hung up. “I fuckinghateher,” he seethed.
I swallowed hard and nodded, just once, then my mother stood suddenly.
“You boys need to talk and work this out,” she said sharply. “Because this? I don’t know enough but I do know Summer, and this doesn’tfit. So put your stupid heads together and work it out!” She turned and stomped toward the stairs.
“Ma?” I called. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to take care of those poor children so you three can take care of Summer,” she snapped back, then she raced up the stairs at a speed unexpected for her age. It almost made me smile if not for Marina’s revelation pulsing through my veins like a threat.
