67. Oliver
sixty-seven
oliver
“Take it easy.”
My words earn a glare from Sydney and her father. Calling him, telling him that his baby girl was in the hospital, was the worst phone call I could make. I almost pawned the job off on the nurse who’s been in and out of Sydney’s ICU room quite a bit.
Actually, calling it a room is laughable. They don’t have rooms with doors in the intensive care unit—there are just partitions and an army of nurses and doctors ready to save lives. Which they do, on this unit. Constantly.
After two days, her doctors move her to a regular room for more observation. They ran countless tests, making sure the electrocution didn’t fuck with her heart or any other number of organs. Since I couldn’t say how many times or how long she was in contact with the car battery, they wanted to be on the safe side. Coupled with the potential for hypothermia?—
It’s been a long week, but she was finally given a clean bill of health.
The police came in and questioned her about her injuries, while I held my breath and Coach held her hand. But surprisingly, she said she didn’t remember anything. Couldn’t remember where, who, why…
A mugging, she mused.
My brilliant girl.
Not really mine .
Now, her dad and I are hovering as she climbs into the car.
When I do the same, sliding in behind her, I feel why they were glaring—it hurts me almost as much as it does her. So I guess I can eat my words about taking it easy.
We go to her apartment first.
The place has been transformed. My parents are still there, and they kiss me on the cheek when we walk in. Fixing it up from how Bear and his brother left it was truly a miracle enacted by my family. One call to my dad, and suddenly uncles and cousins showed up in arms. When it wasn’t my turn to keep Sydney company at the hospital, I was here.
Or at the warehouse.
I watch her take it in. Her hand covers her mouth, although it doesn’t really hide the way her chin wobbles. She goes over and hugs my mom. Then my dad. And finally, gingerly, she sinks into my embrace.
“Thank you,” she whispers to me.
I can’t keep the smile from my face. For this little slice of happiness before I pull her back, inevitably, into the darkness.
My parents leave. Her father hovers for a while, then he, too, retreats.
Penn arrives shortly after that. Sydney visibly stiffens from her position on the couch, where she’s curled her legs up under her and pulled a blanket up to her chin. I move away, mumbling something about getting her water, and leave them alone.
Alone- ish . It’s all open concept, not really any way to give them privacy unless I go lock myself in the bathroom or her room. Both things I’m not going to do.
“Can I…” Penn gestures to the couch.
I snort, and he glares at me.
“Sure,” Sydney’s faint reply comes.
He sits and faces her.
I lean on the counter. It’s like a movie. A really bad movie. Actually, it could be the opening to a porno… “I’m sorry I pretended to be someone else, let’s bang.” Cut to a shot of Sydney choking on cock… I’d drop dead if those words left Penn’s mouth, though.
You know what? It’s best not to jinx it, otherwise the cullero might actually try to fuck her in this condition.
“Everything we talked about was true,” he says. “I swear to you.”
Her expression is closed off, but when her gaze drops to her lap, she says, “Tell me a lie.”
“I’m in love with you.”
I choke.
“If you want to run away from this fucked-up town, leave the trauma behind, I’ll go with you. I’d follow you anywhere. If…” He pauses. “If you don’t want to pick between us, I think I understand that, too. I would even accept it. For you . Because I fell in love with you between texts and actions, and I don’t know what I’d do if you couldn’t forgive me.”
Wow.
He pulls something from his pocket. “I put this around your neck without asking. Carter took it off after I hurt you, betrayed you… but now, I hope that you’d do me the honor of choosing it.”
That freaking necklace. The gold one with the pendant of the goalie mask and the snake. I admit, I didn’t realize Carter was the one who’d removed it.
Sydney wipes at her cheeks, even though I don’t think she’s actually crying. She nods and leans forward, sweeping her hair aside for him to put it on. She continues to pick at the blanket on her lap, tugging a loose string.
“I love you, too,” she whispers, when his head is bent next to hers.
The words do an odd thing to me.
Pain?
I’m moving before I can register doing so, slipping out the door without a word.
How did he get there with her? Seemingly so fast?
Against my better judgment, I walk home and retrieve my motorcycle from the garage. It’s not supposed to snow until tomorrow, and the roads are dry. I tug on my leather jacket painfully slow. It hugs my ribcage when I zip it, and although it hurts initially, it actually kind of feels better. More support.
Helmet on, I ride out and head for the warehouse.
Carter is there, his car parked in front of one of the garage doors. I park beside him and enter through the side door. I stride through the empty, silent warehouse, and try not to marvel at the fact that so much good and horrifying things happened here. The good memories are layered under the bad, and nothing is left untainted.
There’s a pool of blood soaked into the concrete where Bear’s brother was shot, near where the fighting ring is still drawn in chalk. Parts of it have been worn away by feet and time, but no one has bothered to redraw it. I pass it and go to the offices, the only rooms in the warehouse that are heated to livable temperatures.
Which makes it all the more disgusting that they kept Sydney in the storage room. Without heat, without natural light.
I open the door and stroll inside.
Carter glances over his shoulder at me, frowning. He’s got a computer in front of him, a split security feed on the screen. One shows the outside of the door I walked through moments ago, with a view of his car and my bike. The other shows Bear.
He’s in the manager’s office, handcuffed to the radiator. A bit of a nasty trick, seeing as how it gets hot as fuck when the heat kicks on. As an added bonus, he’s got the mask he terrorized Sydney with duct taped to his face, wrapped around his head and over the eyeholes.
I think Penn came up with that one.
“Has he said anything?” I sit beside Carter, then stand again. The door to the manager’s office is right there . We’ve been speaking in low tones in case our voices carry, and nothing is different now. “Has he… done anything?”
Carter drums his fingers on the desk. “Nope. Well, he whimpered for his mommy, but that’s about it.”
I grit my teeth.
“You look like a distressed ball of anxiety,” he points out. “And I was counting on a few more hours before you got here, so…?”
Ugh.
“Penn told Syd he loves her.”
Carter’s eyes widen slightly. But then he nods and refocuses on the screen.
“She said it back,” I add.
He exhales. “I mean, we saw it coming. You love her, too, don’t you?”
I open and close my mouth.
Do I?
I mean…
“We’re in the same boat, then. Hopelessly in love and unable to do anything about it. She’s going to pick Penn. If she loves him, she’ll pick him.”
We didn’t tell him about her question. And now, suddenly faced with the idea of letting him believe it’s pointless or not, my stomach churns.
Who would’ve ever thought I’d be friends with the captain of the St. James hockey team? And not just friends, but… willing to share my girl with him? It’s laughable.
And yet.
“She doesn’t want to pick,” I say. “She’s been saying it.”
“And you believe her?” His tone is hard. He’s not focused on me, and it’s out of character for him to give up.
I eye him. “You don’t?”
He dusts off his thighs and stands. “As much as I’d love to believe in a happy ever foursome, I just… it seems unrealistic.”
“So?” I laugh. “Who the fuck cares about unrealistic?
His expression changes into something… hesitant? I’ll say it again: who the fuck thought I’d be having this conversation with Carter Masters?
“Get the girl,” I continue. “Keep the girl. I’m the last person who wants to share her, asshole, but you’re right—I fell in love with her. And I’d do anything to keep her and make her happy. And if she says she doesn’t want to pick between us, if she wants it to work as some… foursome? I’ll try it. I’d do anything for her.”
It takes saying it out loud to realize it’s true.
He considers it, then glances back at Bear.
“You got him?” he asks. “You… You said it, right? Get the girl, keep the girl. Shit. I’ve been here, barely spending any time with her in the hospital. I can’t let her think?—”
“Go,” I urge.
He hurries past me. It isn’t until the door closes with a soft snick behind me that I allow my expression to drop. Things are different for them. Penn and her overcame his deception. Carter… well, his only crime was stalking her from afar.
I broke her, which means there’s no hope for us. For me .
If I was in his position, I’d be running to her, too. If there was a chance for us—but I destroyed it. And I have to live with the consequences.