Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
I jolt out of a dead sleep. Fuck. My knees slam the dash, my elbow hits the window.
Goddamn phone.
It’s lying on the floor blinking.
“You hung up on me.”
Griffon Kane is still angry.
“So you’re not dead.”
There’s a loud huff on the other end of the line. “Of course I’m not dead. Did you hear what I said about my sister?”
“Did you hear what I said?”
“No,” he snaps.
“I said I don’t even know where your fucking sister is.”
“What do you mean?”
I close my eyes and pray for the cell tower to be blown over.
“I mean, your sister is back stateside. She’s the last person in the world I’m going to see. You’re not fucking dying. You’ve got an inner ear infection. They’re a bitch. It happens when you dive. You know this.”
Griff starts yelling. Then someone yells at him to keep his voice down.
Growling, he returns to the call. “Scout, my sister is with you.”
I might be out of my head from exhaustion, but I am one hundred percent certain no one is with me. “Not me.”
“Scout, Aria’s my goddamned sister.”
I almost drop the phone when my hand spasms. “Wait a goddamn minute. She’s the sister you used to talk about?”
This woman is Griffon Kane’s baby sister—the one he was as protective as a badger over.
“Yeah, asshole.”
I stare at the windshield. “Oh my god, now I get it. You’re afraid I’m going to try to fuck your sister.”
“About time your brain came back online.”
“She’s barely of age.”
“She’s twenty one, Scout. But the point is, I don’t want you so much as breathing in her direction.”
Too damned late.
“Look. I’m not sure why this couldn’t wait until tomorrow. I’m dog fucking tired. You and your sister are on the way to the hospital, and I’m going back to sleep.”
“She’s not with me. They made her get out of the ambulance. Tell me she’s with you. Tell me she’s not somewhere alone.” His voice gets really loud. “Scared and ALONE!”
The fog in my head vanishes in a second. “No. Not with me. I hope she’s with Justice and Brundage.”
Two minutes later my call to Justice has failed and I’m driving like a maniac in a destroyed truck on a road that’s covered in water.
Griff wouldn’t stop yelling, so I hung up.
I hadn’t gone far when I collapsed, so I’m less than six minutes out from the airport at this speed.
Come on!
Fuck.
I don’t even let myself think about the fact that Aria is Griff’s sister.
Not his girlfriend.
Okay, I do think about it. But I shouldn’t. Ever.
She’s…
Griff’s sister.
Ten years younger than me.
Innocent as hell.
So wrong on every level.
When I swing the left turn into the airport’s driveway, a startled sound wrenches out of me.
My mouth drops open, I blink to clear my gritty-eyed vision.
No. This is not happening.
Flames are dancing behind a small window on the side of the structure. The red and orange glow as real as anything a man can ever see. But that’s not what has my heart leaping into my throat.
It’s the sight of Aria running into the building.