Chapter Thirty
Hollie
The moment I watch AJ ride away on his motorcycle, I’m hit with a wall of emotion. My heart is singing at his words, but there’s anger too, low in my gut. I hate that I now regret bringing him here. But I should have expected that level of welcome from Evelyn. Maybe I was hopeful, or just na?ve.
At least our relationship is out in the open. They know now.
When I get inside, Evelyn is pacing in the hallway in front of the ginormous vase of flowers. Doug has come back downstairs. My father’s there and they’re all waiting for me.
All eyes go to me when I enter. I bite my teeth together. This is not going to be pleasant. I’d rather not have to speak to Evelyn or Doug at all.
I cross my arms over my chest and push out my lower jaw. I literally don’t know where to start.
Like a tiger, Evelyn continues to pace.
‘Of all the men,’ she exclaims, ‘You had to go and choose him! You could have found somebody in Canyon, but oh no, you’ve decided to humiliate me, your father and yourself.’
Behind her, out of Evelyn’s and my father’s eyeline, Doug has turned to the side. Extending his arms, he jerks his pelvis forward and back, as though thrusting into an invisible woman. He winks at me as he does so, sticking out his tongue.
‘This has Echo Salinger’s name all over it,’ Evelyn continues in her rant.
‘He sent that boy to… defile you purely with the purpose of embarrassing me. He knew how it would look. How it would make me look. And you fell for it, hook, line and sinker. You think that boy is in love with you, Hollie? You’re very wrong. ’
I smirk at her, because, for once, her words bounce harmlessly off me. I raise my brow and point at Doug, who immediately stops thrusting when Evelyn and my father turn to see what he’s doing, his cheeks reddening.
‘I have news for you, Evelyn,’ I say calmly. ‘Not everything is about you.’
‘I told you never to go out to Rapture!’ Evelyn shouts in my direction.
‘You told me, and I chose to ignore you. Did you ask your son why he was there?’
‘He wasn’t there. Somebody sent him that video.’
‘Doug was there at the eviction party, in Rapture, along with everybody else. He was a meter away from me, filming me, without my consent, I might add.’
Evelyn turns to her son. ‘Is that true, Dougie?’
‘She’s a liar, Ma.’
‘No, Dougie, you’re the liar. Your mother just chooses to believe whatever shit you choose to feed her. And, Evelyn, you fall for it every time. Hook, line and sinker.’
‘Hollie, please don’t speak to your stepmother like that,’ Dad says.
‘Jesus, Daddy. When are you going to grow a backbone and stand up to her? I’m your daughter, yet you side with her, every time!’
‘That’s not true, my darling.’
‘You’re a doormat!’
The atmosphere in the hallway feels stifling.
Evelyn eyeballs me. ‘AJ and I love each other,’ I state.
‘Echo Salinger had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t something he concocted to make you look bad, Evelyn.
And, for the record, what you’re doing to the people of Rapture is disgusting.
Strangling them into submission, no doubt so you can receive some kind of cash bonus from the development company to build their golf course and condos. ’
‘How dare you?’
‘No, Evelyn. I don’t have to listen to you anymore. Tonight, I’m going to speak to my father, and him alone. Then I’m going to leave here and spend one last night in the apartment in Eastvale, before I move in with AJ tomorrow. In Rapture. Whether you like it… or not.’
She lifts her chin. ‘You don’t like me because I’m powerful.’
‘I don’t like you because you’re not a nice person.’
‘You’re making a huge mistake.’
‘In your eyes, maybe.’
‘Don’t you care about your family?’
‘You were never my family. You might be the woman my father married, you might be my stepmother in name, but you have never welcomed my presence here, nor my brother’s.’ My eyes go to Dad’s, but his gaze is firmly fixed on the floor. ‘My actual brother.’
I watch Evelyn’s chest rise and fall. The base of her neck has turned red. She’s never heard me speak to her like this.
‘You only ever cared about your mayoral candidacy,’ I continue, now that I feel confidence all the way down to my toes. ‘You only ever cared about appearances. That’s why you hate Rapture so much, because you see it as a stain on your term of office.’
Behind his mother, Doug’s brow has risen all the way up his forehead.
‘Get out of this house,’ Evelyn seethes.
‘No,’ my father snaps, and all eyes in the room go to him.
‘Rick! I want her gone!’
‘She STAYS!’
He bellows the words. If Doug looked surprised before, he’s now completely stunned. He backs away toward the stairs.
Evelyn stares at her husband. ‘I need a drink,’ she says lightly, and her words imply that she won’t be the one making it.
‘Pour your own fucking drink,’ my father responds under his breath, and for the first time in forever, I’m proud of him. He exhales shakily. ‘Hollie, let’s talk in the study.’
He turns and I follow him. Doug escapes up the stairs, taking them two at a time. I glance back over my shoulder at Evelyn as her eyes shoot daggers at me.
In the study, Dad closes the door. He keeps one hand on the handle and doesn’t face me. I watch his shoulders slump.
‘Oh, Hollie, what did you just do?’ he breathes, so quiet I can barely hear him. Is he thinking out loud?
I cross my arms over my chest. ‘I said nothing that didn’t need to be said.’
He whirls around. There’s pain etched in his expression. ‘I’ve never seen you like this. Never heard you… speak like that. To anyone.’
‘Maybe I was always just too frightened. But I’ve felt that way for a long time. Evelyn… she’s self-obsessed, you must see that. You must know that. Why do you think that Noah left?’
He winces. ‘Noah chose to leave, darling.’
‘No, he was pushed out because Evelyn thought him being gay would damage her candidacy. Don’t deny it.’
‘Evelyn has nothing against the LGBTQ plus community.’
I blink at him. ‘In public maybe. Listen to yourself, Daddy, you’re like her mouthpiece.’
‘That’s really what you think? That she pushed Noah out?’
‘It’s what I’ve always thought, but you never wanted to talk about it.’
He walks to his desk and slumps into the high-backed swivel chair. For what feels like an eternity, neither of us speaks.
‘Why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?’
I lower my face and study my fingernails. ‘I knew if you knew AJ was from Rapture, you’d have to tell Evelyn and the pair of you would try to persuade me to break up with him. And I was right.’
He inhales audibly, then blows out his cheeks. ‘I can see Evelyn’s point. You going out with a boy from Rapture… with all the controversy surrounding that place. If the local press gets hold of the information, or somebody tells them… darling, you must see it doesn’t help the situation—’
‘But, Daddy… I love him.’
I look at him, eyes pleading.
‘I know you probably think you do, but—’
‘Daddy. I love him. We’re going to find a place together.’
He looks at me and slowly shakes his head. In response, I nod mine.
He fingers the corner of the wooden desk. ‘I was always too nervous to ask you about boyfriends before. You never mentioned anybody, apart from that one fellow in London.’
‘Owen,’ I mumble. ‘But AJ is the first man I’ve been in love with.’
‘This is what I mean. Do you not think you’re going a little too fast?’
‘I’ve known him since high school, Daddy.’
‘And he rides a motorcycle? Is it safe?’
‘He bought me my own helmet. He’s very safe. He takes good care of me.’
‘And are you…’
I look up.
Dad flushes red. ‘Are you, um…’ He clears his throat. ‘Taking precautions?’
Oh god. Heat rushes to my mortified cheeks. The skin on my neck prickles. Was there ever anything more cringeworthy? ‘I’m twenty-three. Not sixteen. I know about the birds and the bees. Ugh. Look, AJ and I are being careful. Don’t worry, Daddy, I’m not going to get pregnant.’
‘Okay. Good. That’s… as long as you’re…Well, it sounds serious, so I’d like to meet him one day. Properly.’
‘I’d like that too. But not here. And just so you know, I know Evelyn would rather we broke up, but even if people find out about it, I’m not breaking up with him. She can go to hell.’
‘Hollie, please.’
‘I don’t like the way she treats you.’
‘I know she can be a little… demanding. She’s in a high-powered job.’
I shake my head. ‘That shouldn’t be a green pass to treat you like dirt. You should start standing up to her a little more, like you did just now.’
He says nothing in response. Just balls up a fist and bounces it off his knee, as though he knows he’ll pay for his own insolence.
There’s another long silence. I can’t be here any longer.
‘Will you drive me home?’ I ask, and he nods his head.
I close the door to the apartment, and for a moment, rest my head against it.
It’s done. It’s out in the open. And that’s what matters, no matter how it went down.
Dad was subdued on the car ride back to Eastvale.
‘I’ll start moving my things out of the apartment,’ I said quietly on our arrival.
He nodded. ‘There’s no hurry,’ he muttered. ‘Get some rest.’
I yawned in response, then squeezed his hand, before getting out of the car.
In my bedroom, I collapse on the bed, face down, and I’m asleep before I know it.
My phone wakes me.
At first, I think it’s a dream. Then I crack open one eye. It’s still dark outside. My phone falls silent, but within seconds, it’s ringing again.
I don’t know what time it is. I stumble out of bed, rubbing the back of my neck and smoothing down my hair. My phone is inside my bag. I rummage around for it, pulling it out and the air fills with my blaring ring tone.
I frown. Nicole is calling me. ‘Hello?’ I say.
There’s background noise. A kind of popping sound. She’s hysterical.
‘Hollie… oh god. It’s Scotch & Smoke… it’s… it’s… you have to come. F… fire. The whole thing… gone up in flames.’
The handset slides from my fingers and lands on the floor with a thud. I drop down, swipe it up, my fingers trembling, my skin prickling all over.
‘Where’s AJ?’ I demand. I start moving but I don’t know what to do. ‘Where’s AJ?’
‘W… we don’t know yet. He’s not answering his phone. Hollie, you gotta get over here.’
I hang up and burst into tears, though my brain is simultaneously telling me I don’t have time to be crying. I check the time. It’s two-thirty. I try AJ but the line goes straight to voicemail.
I half-dress in a rush, grab my keys, race out into the night to my car, open the door, start the engine and floor the accelerator before the driver’s side door is even shut. I lurch out of the parking lot and hit the main road.
I grip the wheel. My thoughts are in a scramble, going over what Nicole screamed at me.
I know it in my heart. Something isn’t right.
As I come down toward the highway, I see it on the horizon, in Rapture. A ball of orange light flickers, the night sky filled with smoke.
My heart pummels my ribs. I will my shitty car to go faster, the engine protesting under the strain as I ignore the speed limit and keep the pedal to the floor.
On the access road into Rapture, I’m going so fast that the car skids over potholes and bounces into the air.
Blue lights fill my immediate vision, and I veer to my left, my car leaving the road.
An ambulance passes me at speed. I get out of my car, twisting my head, grabbing the doorframe and following the lights as they disappear back toward Canyon. A sick feeling lines my stomach.
I try AJ’s phone again.
Voicemail.
Cloaked in the same worry, I debate whether I should turn around and follow the ambulance.
In the end, I get back into my car.
He’ll be there. He has to be.
At the edge of Rapture, floating, molten embers flood the air. I park up, get out and run. I stumble when Scotch & Smoke comes into view.
Only it’s not Scotch & Smoke anymore. It’s a column of roaring fire, crackling and spitting, the shell of the building barely even visible.
I hear little explosions coming from inside.
Two fire engines, one on each side, are dousing the building with water, but it doesn’t seem to be making any kind of difference.
‘Further back!’ a fireman is shouting, waving his arms widely at the small crowd. ‘Exit the area!’
My gaze travels from face to face. I recognize some Venom bikers but I don’t know names.
I power forward, trying to get close. Nicole finds me before I can find her, Balthazar right behind her.
‘Where’s AJ?’ I say again but her expression tells me everything I need to know, her eyes filled with tears.
I don’t hear Nicole’s reply because Echo and some of the other biker crew from Hell’s Venom appear round the corner. Echo’s hair is flowing loose about his shoulders, his brows drawn close together.
‘Everybody! Clear out! Back up for your own safety! Move! Now! Get out of here!’
There’s panic in the air, that maybe a building on fire isn’t all this is – or could become. I think of the semi-arid patches of grass growing freely around abandoned houses and buildings. The area around Rapture is a tinderbox.
Before I know it, Echo’s grabbed my arm. ‘Hollie, stay with me,’ he orders, and I’m powerless to respond. ‘We’re heading for the med center.’
‘They took him,’ Balthazar manages to say to me. ‘AJ. Not so long ago. In an ambulance.’
I yank myself away from Echo and come to a halt. I search Balthazar’s face, and he seems broken. My mouth opens to repeat something, only the words don’t come.
‘I’m sorry, Hollie,’ Echo says behind me. ‘He had to jump.’