Chapter 18
18
KINGSTON
“ I still can’t believe that Aria wants to be with that guy “
I reached out and squeezed Crew’s shoulder, just as angry as he was. “There’s nothing you can do. She knows who he is, and she still wants to try to fix him. But I really hate that guy.”
“You’re not the only one who hates him.” Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking. “I need to go talk to my dad. At least…I just need to see him.”
“I can’t deal with this right now, not with Raven…shit. Aria won’t listen to me.” And with that, Aria’s twin walked away, leaving Crew and me to deal with the mess.
“So Travis is just going to sleep in the car while we wait until Aria leaves? Seems like a dumbass move. ”
I shrugged. “Honestly, as long as he’s not driving, I don’t care.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Crew growled, and I raised a brow as he went over to Aria, the two of them whispering in rushed and hushed tones to one another.
I was done with that for now, and now I just wanted to get to Claire. Trying to tell the woman that you loved that you loved her when everyone was pulling you in a thousand different directions was harder than it should have been.
I made it inside, and looked around the area, watching my family and friends laugh and dance, with some of the children sleeping on shoulders, ready to go home. This was what I loved. This was the family that I had grown up in, and the family that I was always going to be part of. I had known what this feeling was my entire life. I hadn’t realized it would be the same and yet so radically different for Claire.
I had been blind because I had been waiting for things to make sense when they weren’t supposed to. There wasn’t going to be a huge sign over my head saying I love you. There should be, and maybe one day I would make one in bright lights so she would understand that I was a fucking idiot, but for now, it was all I could do not to just run around the damn building in search of the woman that I loved .
“Hey, Kingston,” Phoebe said, pulling my attention from my spiraling thoughts.
“Hey, Phoebe. Do you know where Claire is?”
“That’s why I wanted to find you. There’s a huge issue with one of her distributors. A roof caved in—everyone is fine—but Trix needs help.”
“What the hell? Claire’s going to go help with a caved-in roof?” I asked, wondering if I had heard correctly.
“No, she’s not going to the distributor. She’s going to the event hall to help Trix with figuring out a plan B or something. She said she would call you when she got there and call us if she needs help. And I growled at her to make sure that she would do it.”
“So she’s gone. She just left?” I asked, wondering what the hell was going on. She couldn’t just leave. Then again, she needed to. It was work. But hell, she hadn’t even said goodbye. Maybe I had screwed up. Well, beyond the obvious.
“When did she leave?” I asked.
“Just a few minutes ago. So we just got a weather alert that the storm’s coming in faster, I hope she got down the pass before it got icy. As it is, we’re going to have to go the back way to get home. But it’s okay, we’ll all be fine. We’re heading out soon.”
Alarms spread through me, even though it didn’t make any sense. I just had a bad feeling .
“I’m going to go down the pass and just make sure that she’s okay.”
“What’s wrong, Kingston?” Phoebe asked, not telling me that I was a lunatic for wanting to do that. That should have warned me more than anything.
“I don’t know. Just have a bad feeling.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Phoebe asked, as Kane came forward.
“What’s going on?”
“Claire left to deal with an emergency at work, and I don’t know, with the storm coming in, I just want to get to her. So I’m going to go.”
“Do you want us to go with you?” Kane asked, and right then and there, I knew that my family would do anything for me.
Because every single person in this room would have freely dropped everything to help, even if it made no sense that I was following Claire to her place of business, just to make sure that she was okay. And I didn’t even know the fucking place. I was just going to drive and hopefully catch up to her.
“Yeah, I’ll just go,” Crew said as he came from behind me. “Aria snapped at me again, and I’m not in the mood to get yelled at for trying to help. So I’ll just help you. I drove in with Kane, so I need a ride anyway.”
“We’ll just head out, catch up to her. ”
“Drive safe. I’m sure everything’s okay,” Phoebe said, but there was worry in her gaze, and now that bad feeling intensified.
We headed out to the car, jumping in quickly without words. Something seemed to be on Crew’s mind, so I let him be, as we made our way down the road. It was indeed getting a little icy, but the roads had been prepared with salt, so it wasn’t too bad.
At least I didn’t think so.
“Are you really worried? Where are we going?”
“Phoebe was going to text us the address, will you check?”
“Yeah, I will. So we’re just driving around aimlessly for now?” he asked.
“I just want to catch up to her.”
“And tell her that you love her?”
“That, and that she doesn’t have to do this alone. Hell, am I insane?”
“Yes, but that’s fine.”
We drove around the bend, and my heart stopped, everything icing over.
“Oh my God.” I didn’t slam on the brakes since there was indeed ice, but I pumped them, pulling over to the side of the road.
Claire’s car, because it had to be hers, was partway in the lake, tilting forward, and the doors weren’t open.
“I’ll call 911,” Crew called out as we both got out of the car, running toward Claire. There were skid marks all over the road, and I had a feeling that someone else had been on that road. And from the way that there was a huge dent in the side of Claire’s car, someone had hit her, run her off the road, and fucking left. Unless they were in the lake first? I didn’t have time to think, I just moved toward Claire.
I ran to the door and tried to pull it open, realizing that most of the front was under water, and now Claire was in the back seat, shoving at the door handle.
“Claire!”
She stared right at me, eyes wide, face pale. “Kingston!”
I could barely hear her over the blood pounding in my ears, as the car began to move faster into the water. It seemed that with both of our jostling, the final wheel slid over the mud, and now the car was plummeting into the lake.
“Crew! Get the glass breaker out of my truck.”
“On it!” Crew called out, as I pulled on the door handle, the car nearly fully submerged.
“I’ll get you. I love you, Claire, I’ll get you!” I was screaming the words now, hoping she could hear me. These were not going to be our last words to each other. I went around the other side, but none of the doors were opening, and then, as she slammed on the rear window with her heel, the entire car submerged .
I hadn’t even realized how cold the water was, ignoring everything about the temperature and the fact that I was hip deep in it, until I couldn’t see her anymore. I took a deep breath, and submerged myself, trying to get the doors open from this way, but they weren’t budging.
I didn’t know how much air she would have left. How much water was inside the car. This lake wasn’t deep, but it was deep enough to cover a fucking car. I threw myself at the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Claire’s pale hands were slamming against the glass, and I met her gaze, the fear there, but I wasn’t going to let her die. I pressed my feet into the muddy ground, and pushed my way up to the surface, gasping for air. Crew was already there, knee-deep in the water, and tossed me the glass-shattering tool. “Ambulance is on its way. What do you need?”
“Help me get her out.” And then I dived again and held onto the door handle. I waved the tool in the water, and Claire moved back, hopefully realizing what I needed to do. I slammed it against the window, and it shattered, water rushing into the car.
I didn’t know if I had air, I didn’t know where up was or down was, but Crew was by my side, and then Claire’s hand was in mine, and I moved. I wasn’t quite sure what happened next, as everything moved in slow motion and yet so quickly all at once. As our heads breached the surface, I gasped for air, Claire doing the same, and although our feet could reach the ground, I didn’t let her go.
Crew was right by my side, both of us moving toward the embankment, as Claire shivered in my arms.
“You came. How are you here?”
“I didn’t want you to go without saying goodbye. And I just had a bad feeling.”
Crew coughed near us—his voice as shaky as ours. “I’m going to go get blankets from your trunk. You have them, right?”
I nodded, hoping Crew could see me, because I could only focus on her. “I love you, Claire. I’m so sorry I didn’t say it before. But I couldn’t find the words. But I love you so fucking much. I was trying to tell you today, not when everything was in jeopardy. I swear to you. I never want to live my life without you, Claire. I love you so fucking much. Please be okay.”
Tears filled her eyes, as she shivered, her lips blue. “I love you too, I can’t believe you’re here. I couldn’t get the doors open. They automatically locked, and then they wouldn’t unlock. And then whoever ran me off the road seemed to have screwed with my door, as they slammed into me, but I don’t know.”
I checked her for cuts and bruises and saw a few and cursed.
Crew was there in a moment, wrapping a blanket around her, then tossing another one to me. “Get warm too. I don’t need everyone with hypothermia.”
“I thought I was the guy who knew how to handle things in an emergency, turns out it’s you,” I told Crew, who snorted at me, though I saw the fear there.
“Not just me. Holy hell, Claire, never do that again, okay?”
“I promise. Never again.” Her teeth were chattering then, and I held her close, all three of us sitting in the mud as it began to rain ice-cold water droplets over us, and we looked at the man-made lake, and the fact that we couldn’t see her fucking car.
“I need to get one of those little glass things for my car.” She shivered in my arms again. “Or maybe get a car first?”
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
Crew just sat next to me, hand on my shoulder, as we sat there, our entire lives feeling as if they had slammed into us all at once, the sound of sirens echoing in the distance.
By the time we were at the hospital, Claire was sent back, and they wouldn’t let me go with her. Even though they had said she had told them that I could go to her room, the staff needed more time with her. We had had to deal with the authorities, and Claire had already given a description of the car though she hadn’t really seen it.
“I still can’t believe that you just showed up,” Hudson said, pacing the hallway as we waited to see Claire.
My stomach tightened thinking about the other option. “I just had a bad feeling. And I wanted to see her.”
“It’s about damn time that you said that you love her by the way,” Hudson said.
“What?” I blinked, trying to keep up with the conversation since my mind was in the room with Claire.
“When they let me back for a second to talk to her, she mentioned that you both said the words; she was sort of rambling. I think she’s still in shock.”
I shook my head, my heart in my throat. “Of course I love her. I’m just an idiot and it took me a while to say it.”
“Of course you’re an idiot. You’re a guy in love.”
“I’m sure there’s a movie or something called that.”
Hudson’s lips quirked. “The kids are with Leif and Brooke, since they had come home early from the party, and my parents are still on a cruise. I can’t believe they’re on a fucking cruise right now.”
“Do they get home soon? ”
“It’s a month-long cruise. It’s one of their bucket list items. So it’s hard to get phone calls out to them. But I’ll tell them everything.”
“A Kingston Montgomery?” one of the orderlies said, and I turned on my heel.
“Yes?”
“Claire would like to see you.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there.” I turned to Hudson. “You okay out here?”
“I’m going to try to get hold of the parents. You go make sure my sister’s okay. Thank you though. For saving her life? I could never repay you.”
“She’s my everything. I don’t know what I’d do if I hadn’t been there.”
We met gazes, both of us swallowing hard, until I finally made my way into Claire’s room. She lay there, so small, wrapped in a blanket, and smiled at me.
“I’m fine,” she said for what had to be the fifteenth time that hour.
“You might be fine, but I’m not.”
Her eyes widened and she looked me over, panic etched on her face. “Did you get checked out?”
“I wasn’t in the water for as long as you.”
“Mr. Montgomery?” one of the nurses cut in, and I shook my head.
“Claire first. I’m okay. Promise.”
I had changed into scrubs, and looked ridiculous, but I didn’t care. I just needed to make sure Claire was okay. Soon we were left alone, and I cupped her face with my hands.
“Are you truly okay?”
She nodded, her gaze on mine. “Minor hypothermia and a few cuts and bruises. But I’m very, very lucky.”
My body shuddered thinking about it. “I still can’t believe I was on the road.”
“Whatever fate or gods pushed you toward that, I’m forever grateful.”
I kissed the top of her head and tried not to fall right there with her right in front of me. “Damn straight.”
“So, you love me?” she whispered.
“Fuck yes.” When she laughed, I knew I had said the right thing. “I haven’t felt this way before and I didn’t know what it meant. But I knew I needed to say something.”
“I’m not great at saying things either. As is evidenced by how long it took me to tell you anything about what I felt.”
“I was worried about you, and I wanted to come see you, so I was going to help at your work, completely unasked, completely over the top. I never expected the accident. Hell. I never expected you.” I paused, shaking my head. “I’m not great at this.”
“Like I am?” she said with a laugh.
“I know I can’t be the one that fixes everything. I know that. But I want to be. I want to be the one who can do it all. But in the end, I know I just need to try. To be with you.”
“You saved me, you know.”
“You were saving yourself,” I said truthfully. “You would’ve gotten out.”
“Maybe. But how about we just try to save each other, and not keep a tally. Because I love you. I should have said it before. Even without knowing that you would say it as well. I love you. And I’m so glad that we got stuck in a snowstorm.”
“Always. But how about no more natural disasters?” I asked with a laugh.
“Deal.” And when I kissed her again, everything felt right. Finally.