31. AVERY #3
I have no idea what he’s talking about as we make it outside, but when I look back, people are starting to walk away. The ones in their tuxedos and cocktail dresses head back toward the party, and the others go about their evenings.
“What a cocksucker.” Callie blows out a breath beside me, Rhett’s and my coats thrown over one of her forearms as she links her other arm with mine.
It’s so strange the way it all happened so quickly and out of nowhere, and just as fast, it escalated and is done. Over.
“How did he get in? I took him off the membership yesterday. Why was he here?”
“I don’t know, but he’s clearly not fucking missing,” Callie grits out as the cars we came in pull up and the valet opens the doors for us.
“You doing okay, doll?” Mike asks as Rhett takes me from him, the hardened expression on his face still in place. “I don’t know what shit he was saying, but that man is a lousy drunk that’s lost touch with reality. He doesn’t know his ass from his crown. Don’t believe any of his crap, Avery.”
“I’m fine,” I tell him as Rhett helps me into the car.
Something is off. He’s pulling away like he did that first time Carl showed up at the ranch.
“What was he telling you?” Mike asks, peering into the back of the town car. “You know this is what you needed. People to see how crazy he is…”
I nod because my head is still going around in circles.
It’s all a chaotic whirlwind that is becoming impossible to make heads or tails of.
Carl was missing, and now he’s back. And nothing he’s saying makes any sense.
Haas was right—he’s lost his mind, and in the process of trying to figure out the mess he embroiled us all in, I feel as though I might be losing mine too.
“I told you before, stay away from him, and for the love of God, stop sniffing around Haas. The man can’t be trusted. He clearly shouldn’t be practicing given—”
“Why don’t you back the fuck off?” Rhett snaps, slipping in beside me and taking our coats from Callie.
“We’ll see you back at the house. We’ll be right behind you,” she tells us, shutting the door, leaving Rhett and I in the dark.
The silence that falls around us is a thick smog that settles between us while we cruise through the city, past history-clad buildings and monuments. I focus on the hum of the car and the flickering shadow of the streetlights to stop myself from falling apart.
But then his hand closes over mine in the seat between us, and when I look at him, Rhett pats his lap with the other hand.
“Come here,” he rasps.
The tender sound of his voice draws me to him.
I’m like a fish diving back into the ocean.
Nothing else matters except my next breath, and it’s only when his arms wrap around me and the sound of his heart thrums in my ear that I can take it.
I gulp lungful after lungful of air until my head is spinning and whirring as precariously as the world around me.
I’m teetering on the edge of a precipice so tall, and yet, I’m not scared of falling with him holding me.
“I’m never letting you go, Avery,” he breathes into my hair, and I melt into him.
“I’m not sharing you with him in any way.
You’re mine, sweetheart, and I’m done waiting for the stars to align and for the pieces to fall into place.
I want him out of our life for good because if I see his face again… ”
“I know,” I exhale. “I know.”
“No, baby, you don’t. You have no idea all the things that crossed my mind tonight, and you don’t want to know because they’re dark and it’s not me.
I’m not that person that thinks of taking another person’s life.
That’s not who I am, but I swear to Christ that if I see his face again…
” Pausing, Rhett closes his eyes, and the pain etched on his face stabs through me.
“I don’t know what more I can do. It’s out of my hands, Rhett. You know how this works. If he’s not willing to sign the papers, we have to wait for a hearing. My hands are tied!”
“He’s going to taunt you till the end.”
“That’s his game. He’ll beat you down, bait and barb you until you question everything you’ve ever known about yourself. Everything you are. He’ll make you doubt the people around you that care until you’re all alone.”
There’s no one on this earth that knows that better than I do.
I spent eight years married to him. Stuck in his vicious game.
Believing that I was the problem. That I wasn’t good enough.
I pushed people away thinking that it would make me worthy of his affection.
That maybe he would realize I wasn’t a shitty wife.
Not anymore.
Holding on to Rhett tighter, I burrow into his chest, and even when the car comes to a stop, I don’t move. I don’t let go.
“You’re not alone anymore,” he whispers, cupping my head to his chest. “And you’ll never be alone ever again. Like I said, I’m not letting you go.”
“He doesn’t get to win this time. He doesn’t get to walk away unpunished.”
Rhett doesn’t reply. He says nothing as he kisses the top of my head and takes a deep inhale. I wish I knew what is going through his head, what he thinks he’s protecting me from, and I wish I could protect him from the past that refuses to let me go.