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I looked up in time to see Jamie dip his head to kiss her, and her hands tangled in his shirt.
Pain ripped through my chest that had little to do with the man on my back. I helped Brendan upright, settling him back on the veranda.
“Stay here, okay?’ I murmured to him, or thought I did. The blood pounding between my ears meant I could have shouted the words, and never have known any different.
“Is she alright?” He tried to push past me.
I pressed my hands to his chest. “She’s fine, old man. Take it easy. She can’t look after you if you have a fall here. You know that?” I made my voice hard along with my heart.
I should have left last time like I planned.
The bruises, the way they survived...it made sense if Jamie was paying their bills and food. The way her hands gripped his shirt broke me. I knew what that felt like when she kissed me, and seeing her in another man’s arms shredded me back to the nothingness I always had been.
“I’ll come back sometime. Take care of yourself.” I tapped Brendan’s shoulder firmly.
“Don’t you make a liar of yourself, son,” he murmured for my ears alone. “You’re better than that cousin of hers.”
I swallowed back bile at the situation. A quick glance over my shoulder proved I was in the wrong place. His hand tangled in her hair, and her arms were around his neck. She kissed him back the same way she kissed me, for fuck’s sake.
I thumped the veranda strut with my fist, keeping the movement slow before I broke something.Like her heart.“I’m nothing. Nobody. Even a blind man should be able to see that.”
My footsteps were the only sound in the yard as I crossed to my truck, climbed in, and took off without a second’s glance at the girl I gave my heart to and where it lay on the dusty ground beneath her bare feet.
The road blurred before me and I was on the blacktop beyond Red Hart, headed south before a roar that built in my chest the moment she kissed Jamie back and the sound finally broke free. My throat tore as I shouted my fury to the sun-fucking-shining morning, letting out every inch of the hurt and betrayal.
The worst thing was that Iknew.
The bruises didn’t come from nowhere. She was wild as fuck. Even her daddy told me that. And Jamie Quintel...
Out here, he was the son of God for all that could touch him.
I swiped angrily at the tears that drenched my cheeks, unashamed but seriously pissed off I let her get under my skin. The scent of her was still in my clothes from our night behind the waterfall. No wonder she was so keen to hide my time with her away. If word got back to Jamie about her sleeping with another man...
Again, bruises.
“Fuck, fuck,FUCK!” I bellowed to the windscreen, fully expecting the glass to shatter.
My phone rang, and I slapped the accept button in its cradle. “What?” I snapped, my voice a mere rasp. I let out a hard breath and released as much of my love for that girl as I could.
No point keeping hold of a dream of anything with her any longer.
“Kyle?” Travis sounded concerned.
I breathed a little easier.Fake it, fucker.“Yeah, man. Did I leave anything back there this morning?”
“No, but...” he paused. “Have you seen Jack Stone recently?”
This can’t be good.
“Shit. Yesterday. He was happy as a fucking clam.”
“Well, he’s drunk as a skunk now. Down at White Cap. Suzy and Andi have him down at Forty-Seven North.”
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. The hotel was one of Jack's favorites, mostly because Andi refused to kick him out when he over indulged, and occasionally gave him a bed upstairs.
“I’m headed that way. I’ll pick him up. Someone get his truck and bring it back?”
“I’ll send down one of the boys.” Travis hesitated.
