28. RHETT #3
Callie looks at me as though I’m a brainless idiot while Rowan retorts, “It’s like you don’t know her at all.”
“Life is one big competition, Doc.”
Avery laughs at Callie’s remark, but it’s cut short when she spins to look behind me. It takes her a second to get herself together.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Callie spits. “Go fucking figure.”
I spin to look in the direction they’re facing to find Haas walking toward us. He’s accompanied by a tall, slender African American woman. Like Avery and Callie, she looks unimpressed to see them here too.
“That’s all our questions answered,” Callie groans at the same time Avery starts to walk away.
“Avery! Wait!” The woman chases after her, and the closer she gets, the faster Avery walks away.
On instinct, my feet carry me to her. I’ve pretty much caught up when the woman grabs Avery’s arm to stop her from going past the tree line. It all happens so fast that I’m taken aback by the echo of Avery’s strike on the cool breeze.
“Stay the fuck away from me, Kayla!”
“I’m…I’m sorry, okay? I know I—but I…babe—”
“Don’t you ever call me that again!” Avery’s eyes clash with mine before she turns to walk away again, but this time, it’s Kayla’s words that halt her in her tracks.
“He’s gone!”
A manic laugh bursts from Avery’s lips. “You better find yourself another friend to screw over.”
Realization dawns on me as Callie barges past me. “Don’t just stand there and watch. You’re meant to have her back! Fucking men…”
“Shut up, Calliope,” I snap at her, pulling her back by the crook of her elbow. She’ll probably make me pay for that later, but fuck it. “Avery’s not a child—she’s got this. So, stand back and let her handle it.”
With a glare, Callie stomps her foot down on the grass, crossing her arms over her chest. I know she’s probably going to make me regret calling her by her given name, but it made her listen. Something she’s not always so good at. Especially when she wants to protect someone she cares about.
As much as I want to protect Avery right now, she needs to take matters into her own hands. Facing her demons is the only way she’s going to heal. Sometimes, the only way to fix what’s broken is by smashing it to smithereens and starting from the beginning.
We watch the to-and-fro between Avery and Kayla while Callie gives me the lowdown on their history, and I can only think that even now, Avery is still going easy on the person who betrayed her trust and love.
“This isn’t me forgiving you,” Avery tells her as they walk back to us. “I just want answers.”
“He just disappeared. Stopped answering his phone. Just gone…it doesn’t make sense. Carl was trying to find the list.”
“What are you talking about? What list?” Avery asks, coming to a stop in front of Callie and me while Kayla carries on walking to where Haas is standing by the hole with Rowan.
Kayla pauses, looking all around us before settling her sight on us. “We can’t talk here. They’re always watching. Always.”
“What are you doing here, then?” Callie asks, following after her.
“I need answers. I have to find him before they do.”
“Good luck,” Avery scoffs, turning to me with an exasperated sigh. “She used to be my best friend,” she tells me with a sad smile.
“I know. Callie told me.”
“And you said golf isn’t a sport…” Touching her temple to the side of my jaw, she whispers, “In this place it’s like a hunt. My father used to call it the hunting ground. Anytime he needed to get to someone, he would come here. I’d play golf, and he would hold court.”
There’s a heartbreaking lull to her voice that has me enveloping her in my arms, as tight as I can while we watch Rowan and Callie handle Haas and Kayla.
From the way he keeps his distance from her, it’s obvious that they’re not acquaintances.
In fact, I’d say he wants to get away from her, and it makes me wonder what he knows about her that has him so on edge around her.
Or maybe it’s Rowan—he can have that effect on people, too.
“I want to let her rot in the grave she’s dug herself, but I want answers too.”
“Do you trust her?”
“No,” she replies without pause. “But my gut is telling me that she’s the only person who’s going to lead us in the right direction.”
“Rowan says your gut is very rarely wrong.”
Looking up at me, she asks, “What do you say?”
“You’re the only thing that matters in all this.
You want answers? We’ll find them. You want to walk away?
We’ll leave right now.” Tracing down the bridge of her nose with the tip of my finger, I stroke all the way down to her chin, holding it between my thumb and forefinger as I take in the confusion in her eyes.
The war between the past, the present, and the future.
“I say you call the shots, sweetheart. So what do you want?”
Avery presses impossibly closer as her hands round from the flat of my back to my hips. Without deviating her stare from mine, she replies, “The truth.”
Right there and then, my gut tells me it’s going to hurt. I just wish I knew how.