19. Wyatt
NINETEEN
WYATT
Ididn’t know where to go, but I knew I needed to get out of there. To get out of that house that had shattered my resolve. It had worn me down until I didn’t know what I was doing anymore.
It had been a great night. It had been a night unlike any other. But it had to end somehow, and I had to wake up at some point.
Wake up to realize my mistake.
Ari was involved with someone. Of course he was. He’d told me he left Greece for love. Why didn’t I think that person was still in the picture? Maybe they were open or maybe they were doing long distance. Whatever it was, it wasn’t my thing.
Besides, the more I associated with him, the more likely my secret would come out to my brother, to my friends, to the whole island, and the thought gave my heart palpitations.
So I got out. I ran. I left that apartment where I’d experienced the best sex of my life—or maybe I hadn’t gotten laid in that long—and escaped into my car and as far away from Ari as possible.
I drove to Duke’s Sanctuary where there were already more than a few cars parked in the driveway. The place had turned into nothing short of a hotel since the B&B burned down. I wondered how Duke and Azrael were handling everything and how long they could put up with it.
For now, though, I simply rang the bell and hoped they wouldn’t kick me out even if they had every right to.
Azrael answered the door with a frenzied black mop of a dog raising hell around his feet and barking up a storm at me. In his arms was Noah, his beautiful little son, who smiled and waved at me.
“Wyatt! Good morning,” Azrael said.
I nodded at my old teammate and reached for young Noah who grabbed my finger with his whole hand and shook it, laughing aloud.
“Typical,” Azrael scoffed. “You get a baby in your arms and everyone ignores you.”
I side-eyed him with my best frown, and Azrael chuckled.
“Come on in,” he said and took a step to the side to make space for me to pass through, and the little furball at his feet realized I was trying to intrude on his space and promptly snatched my pant leg and tugged at it.
“Clover, cut it out!” Azrael scolded the dog, and it was as if he remembered Azrael was around and started running in circles around him. “Sorry about that.”
“Forget it.” I chuckled and took another step in. “Are they awake?”
I glanced at the ceiling, and Azrael shut the door, nodding.
“Want a coffee?” he asked, and before I went upstairs, I followed him into the kitchen and grabbed a cup.
Five minutes later, I was standing behind a door on the second floor, my knuckles an inch away from the wooden surface. I hesitated.
I was probably the last person they wanted to see. Who could blame them? They’d been rendered homeless twice because of me. I just hoped that asshole wouldn’t go three for three and burn down the Sanctuary.
I gulped in a big breath and rapped on the door before a faint voice came through from the other side, and I let myself in.
Autumn was sitting up in bed, a cup of coffee in her hand and a magazine on her lap. Donovan was lying down next to her still asleep, if his lack of movement when I entered was any indication.
“Wyatt!” she called out as if surprised to see me and put her coffee down. “Is everything okay?”
I approached the bed, and sitting at her feet, I glanced at Donovan.
“How is he?”
Autumn sighed and put the magazine away too, some gossip rag I’d never laid a finger on. “He still coughs a lot. He has an oxygen therapy booked for next week. Until then it’s inhalers and oxygen masks when it gets really bad.”
Even though Rogers lost his life, he hadn’t been the only victim of Wilson’s.
Donovan had only come out of the hospital the night before the funeral, but despite appearing somewhat composed during the ceremony, he still had months of recovery ahead of him.
At least the doctors were confident that recovery was possible considering he woke up pretty quickly after bringing him out of the house.
If it hadn’t been for Ari, I didn’t know if he’d be with us.
How had I messed up so bad?
“I see. You’ll let me know if you need anything, yeah?” I patted her hand, and she took the opportunity to grab it with both of her hands.
“You know it. But how are you? How are you coping?”
I shrugged.
Definitely not well, considering what I’d done last night.
“Where did you go after the funeral? You ran out like a maniac,” she said.
I bit my lip and stared at the blanket under our joined hands.
“You went to him, didn’t you? Santiago was right,” she said, matter-of-factly.
I looked up. “What? Went to who?”
Autumn gave me a look that said—no, screamed—“don’t mess with me,” and I sighed.
“Yeah. I went to him.”
“For fuck’s sake, Wyatt. Why? What did you do that?”
I shook my head and glanced at Donovan. He was still asleep.
“I just asked him to stop torturing everyone else.”
“And what? Start torturing you?”
“No. I promised him we’d stop trying to bring him down if he stops hurting innocent lives.”
Autumn tilted her head to the side and raised both eyebrows. “And you believe him?”
I sucked in my cheeks and scoffed. “Of course not. But it might buy us some time. If he thinks we gave up.”
Autumn shook her head and squeezed my hand. “You shouldn’t have gone to him. He’s dangerous. He’s made that very clear. Isn’t what you keep saying to Elliot to stop him from doing something stupid?”
I nodded.
“And you did something stupid. Do I need to talk to you like you’re Elliot’s age?”
I rolled my eyes and sucked in a breath.
“Then don’t act rush. You know better. He’s a dangerous criminal. There’s no honor among thieves, despite what the idiom suggests.”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t say anything. What was there to say? The best I could do was lower my head and accept I’d done two stupid things yesterday.
What had I been thinking?
I should’ve been spending my nights and days trying to figure out how to stop that asshole, not sleeping with handsome cheating doctors.
“I…I think I’ll head. Just wanted to check how Donovan is. Are you okay? Do you need anything?”
Autumn sighed and let go of my hands, grabbing her magazine again. “No. I’m okay. I would like a new wardrobe. A house. A job, but hey, at least I’ve got him, so can’t complain.”
She cast a glance at Donovan, and I smiled.
Everyone had someone. Everyone around me had paired up. Why didn’t I deserve that? Why couldn’t I have that?
Oh, right. Because I was a coward who destroyed people’s lives. Even without Ari in the picture, I didn’t deserve happiness. I only deserved what I had. A shell of a life teetering on the edge of catastrophe.
“I don’t know about everything else, but a wardrobe we can get,” I told her, and her face changed to one of complete ecstasy.
“Oh. Em. Gee, Wyatt! Are we going shopping? When?” she said in her best Valley Girl accent.
I didn’t reply. I walked out of the room laughing, and as I did, my phone rang.
“Goodman,” I answered, almost on instinct.
“Wyatt? It’s King. I…uhm…can you talk?”
Just when my heart had stopped racing, it picked up again.
“What’s wrong?”