AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Even after all this?”
“We still have a shot at fixing shit. It might be small, but it’s there. I know she’s mad and hurt, and she has a right to be. But tell me you didn’t see the love in her eyes when you were inside her.”
I think back to the night in the cabin. For a second, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. She responded so beautifully, just like she always did. And because she was still sleepy, she was too out of it to remember she was mad at us. I missed how good we were together.
“I can’t believe you slept with Jess. That’s going to make everything ten times harder,” I warn him. I’m not so pissed anymore, just disappointed.
“Like I said, I thought Avery was gone for good. The twisted thing is, I slept with Jess because she reminded me of Avery. I thought I could fuck her out of my system, but all it did was make me realize that nobody but Avery would do. Everyone else was just a poor imitation.”
I reach for the double doors to open them but stop. “Evander’s going to be a problem.”
“Yep. We’ll add it to the list of things we need to figure out. But right now, we need to spill everything we know and hope they don’t beat the shit out of us.”
“Funny, I think it might make me feel better,” I admit before pulling the door wide and walking inside.
It’s noisy, with everyone talking over one another as they sit around the dining table. It quiets down when Hawk and I take our seats. I look around when I don’t see the girls.
“James’s taken them down to the range for some target practice. I thought we’d be safer discussing this without them around,” Oz admits.
Greg laughs tightly. “Yeah, because they’d be pissed with you all.”
“Alright, let’s get this started. Creed, you’re up.”
I lean back and launch into my story about how I thought it would be a good idea to take Avery to the cabin with Hawk until she admitted why she left and how it seemed like a good idea at the time for me and Hawk to get closure.
“I don’t understand why she would go with you. From what Greg said, you were dicks to her at the hospital, especially Hawk.”
“Oh, it gets better,” Greg mutters. I glare at the asshole who is not helping.
“She used to take these pills to help when she flew. She hated planes. So, she’d pop a couple before take-off and wake up when she’d landed. We knew she was safe taking them, so…” I let my voice drift off as they put the pieces together.
Jagger jumps up from his seat. “You drugged her?”
“We didn’t hurt her,” Hawk reiterates.
“Oh, you fucking did,” he argues.
“Do you have any idea how fucking traumatizing that must have been?” Zig curses.
I run my hands through my hair. “We fucked up, I know. We thought she came for more money and to stir up trouble. We wanted answers without getting any of you involved, but we forgot what it was like.”
“What what was it like?” Slade frowns
“Being in Avery’s orbit,” Hawk finishes for me.
“Wait…” Crew looks between me and Hawk before erupting into fits of laughter. “Are you saying you talked smack to this woman, drugged her, kidnapped her—”
“Don’t forget, kept her clothes and belongings from her. Seems to be the thing to do with you idiots,” Greg adds. Hawk, Jagger, and Slade all flip him off.
“And now you want to flip the script and woo her?” Crew continues.
“Not woo. How do you woo your wife?” Hawk huffs.
“If you have to ask that, then no wonder she left.” Jagger shakes his head.
“She didn’t leave on purpose,” Hawk snaps, running his fingers through his hair.
“We thought she’d woken up and left us. Emptied one of our bank accounts and ran. We didn’t hear a peep from her until the day in the diner. Cooper told us she’d spoken to him. Told him she wasn’t coming back, and he urged us to stay away.”
