Chapter 2
Chapter Two
ANDIE
It’s seven in the morning when my phone rings and I see that it’s Kellan calling. Why in the world would he be calling me at midnight his time? His flight leaves in five hours. A smile spreads across my face. He’s probably calling to find out which vacation destination I chose for us. I wanted to keep it a surprise until he got here. I’ve already bought the plane tickets and booked the resort.
Swiping up to accept the call, I answer, “Hey, Kel.” But instead of hearing him say hi back, I’m met with a muffled, scraping sound, then loud bangs that sound like firecrackers exploding. Are they gunshots? What the hell is going on?
“Kellan, answer me. Kellan!” I yell into the phone.
Several voices are shouting over one another, the cacophony a mess to understand. My heart is thundering in my chest and tears fill my eyes and spill over as I hear Kellan brokenly say my name, the sound garbled like he’s choking.
“I’m so sorry, Tinker Bell,” he rasps quietly.
“Kellan, can you hear me? Please! Please tell me what’s going on. Where are you?”
I hear him wheeze a stuttered breath.
“Kellan!”
Pounding footsteps can be heard over the line, and then a voice I recognize.
“Fuck!” the voice shouts as more gunfire explodes in a staccato rhythm. The voice belongs to Rafe.
Wailing sirens punch through the line from far off in the distance. With a trembling hand, I press the phone closer to my ear, trying to hear everything I can.
“Goddamnit!” That’s Keane’s voice.
More pounding footsteps. Some grunts of pain. People yelling. And gunfire that never seems to end. Then nothing. A whimper escapes me as I’m frozen in place. Where’s my brother?
“I love you, Andie.” The sound, so soft now, I wouldn’t have heard it if I hadn’t had the phone plastered to my ear. Relief spreads through me. He’s alive. Whatever just happened, my brother is alive.
“Kellan? Thank God,” I breathe. The guys will get him out of there.
“I’m so sorry,” he garbles again.
Those are the last words my brother said to me. I listened to Kellan take his final breath. I listened to my brother die and was helpless to do anything. I listened as police officers showed up ten minutes later, one saying what I already knew. Kellan was gone. The brother, who was more of a father to me, my best friend, was taken from me. His friends left him there to die all alone. Why didn’t they help him? Keane, Jax, and Rafe were there. They were right there! And they left him!
At some point, Kellan’s phone disconnects.
“Fuck,” I say to no one, sitting up in one of the most uncomfortable beds I’ve ever slept in.
I don’t sleep well anymore, if at all. Too many nightmares. I eye the digital clock to find the time, but the damn thing is blinking, like it’s mocking me.
After I left the bar, I arrived at one of the rattier hotels in the city. A place where they take cash and don’t ask questions. The guy at the reception desk didn’t even look up at me when I asked for a room. Just handed me a key card and accepted the cash I held out for him.
I reach over and grab my burner phone from the nightstand. Like all the other furniture in this room, the small table is cheaply made, old, and chipped in several places. Turning on my phone, I see that it’s five in the morning. I got about two hours of sleep at most. It’ll do. There’s also a private message waiting for me from Tessa.
GirlDownLow: You ok?
I type out a quick reply.
GirlUpHigh: Yeah. I’m good.
Tessa and I are friends of few words. But I know she would drop whatever in a flat second if I needed her, and vice versa. I didn’t tell her that I was coming home. She thinks I’m on vacation in Greece. I also told her my old phone quit working, and I picked a new one up when I arrived in Mykonos. Total lie. I threw my previous one away. Didn’t want to take a chance that my father could track me through it.
GirlDownLow: Enjoy the blue water, find a hot Greek man, and get laid.
A small chuckle bursts free.
GirlUpHigh: Yeah, right. Talk later.
I scrub my hands over my face. God, I’m tired. It’s a soul-deep feeling. A chasm of emptiness that grows wider every day.
Last night, I remained in my little dark corner of the bar until the guys left, not wanting to call attention to myself by getting up from my chair. I had to sit through two hours of them laughing it up while women flocked to their table, eager for their attention. At one point, Rafe disappeared down the back hall with some busty blonde in a tight red dress. They had sex written all over their disheveled appearances when the two of them reappeared a half hour later. It shouldn’t have hurt to watch Blondie lick her lips and wipe the smear of red lipstick off her face with the back of her hand, knowing she got it from going down on him. But it did. Because I was once her—the eager girl wanting to please him. The stupid teenage girl who believed him when he told me that he loved me. Fuck him .
I flick the switch to turn on the bedside lamp. I would kill for a cup of coffee right now. The room doesn’t even have a coffee maker, not that I would use it in a place like this. I grimace when a cockroach scurries up the stained and peeling paint on the wall. The A/C unit kicks in with a cough and a shudder, blowing out air that smells musty like mold. This place is disgusting.
Taking the hairband from my wrist, I tie my hair up in a wonky bun and lean over the edge of the bed to retrieve my bag off the floor. Pulling out my laptop, I power it on. No hotel Wi-Fi available. Figures in a dump like this. Doesn’t matter. I’m close enough to one of the city’s Lift Zones and can access their free Wi-Fi. After catching up on today’s news, I do some online research into local homes that are available to rent through one of those hosting sites. The accommodations would be much better than continuing to sleep in crappy hotels for the unforeseeable future. If I wanted to, I could buy a house outright or lease an apartment or condo, but why leave a paper trail? I need places that take cash and don’t ask questions.
I force myself into a quick shower in cold water that never warms up and get dressed, opting for capri yoga pants and a T-shirt since it’s going to be hot today. I zip up my suitcase, gather the rest of my things, and walk to the hotel room door. I want to check out of this decrepit establishment as soon as possible. My stomach is growling angrily at me, so I decide coffee and breakfast will come next.
Feeling sorry for anyone whose job it is to work at this hotel cleaning its rooms, I leave a cash tip for the cleaning staff on the nightstand and unlatch the chain on the dirty beige door. Without a last look around, I heft my laptop bag over my shoulder and grab the handle of my rolling suitcase. Just as I open the door, I’m met with a gun pointed directly at my face.
Confusion, rather than fear, overtakes me when a set of familiar steel-gray eyes meet mine.
“Liam?”
“Hello, Alexandria.”