The rain has let up, and I’m glaring at the window when Campbell blasts out of the door. Her eyes are wide, frantic, and she goes in the wrong direction first before stopping short, her head turning side to side like she can’t figure out where she is.
I’m out of the truck and by her side in an instant. “What’s wrong? What’d he do?”
She’s shaking her head. I grip her shoulders and try to catch her eye, but her gaze is darting around and she’s gasping for breath.
“Is she okay?” Bryce asks behind me.
“What the hell happened in there?” I holler at him.
He holds his hands out at his sides, his expression poleaxed. “She walked in and then ran right out.”
“It’s not—” She wheezes in a breath. “It’s not him. I’m sorry.” Her breathing shudders but grows steadier. She’s still not looking at me. “God, I’m so sorry.”
I want to rip Bryce’s head off, but he’s right. She wasn’t gone from my sight long enough for anything tohappen. Yet there’s something about him, or about this place, that caused this. “I got her,” I say to him.
He reads into my tone and backs away. “No problem. I’ll be right inside if you need anything. Didn’t realize you two were together.”
I glare at him. Not the time or the issue. He shrugs and heads back to the office.
Campbell’s breathing evens out, but a tear streaks down her face. I gently wipe it away with the pad of my thumb. The rain starts again. A soft patter hits the ground and slaps the river’s surface.
“I feel so stupid.” She sniffs and her gray eyes lift to mine. “I dragged you out here for nothing. And he saw it.”
I want to haul her inside the pickup, but just as quickly as the rain started, it stops. She might quit talking if we do too much. “What happened?”
“Nothing. Literally nothing.” But she glances away.
“Something did though.”
She rolls her lips in and her brows furrow. “Yes and no. It’s nothing.”
After that night in the bar, I might’ve believed her bluff. I might’ve written it off as an impulsive Campbell not thinking about others and doing what she wants. But now I know the alarm-setting Campbell. The woman who’s diligently working for her ex and putting up with his pretentious family to prove herself. That girl doesn’t do things for only herself.
“Tell me what happened,” I say softly.
Her pink tongue flicks out to lick her bottom lip. “My old boss’s husband used to do a lot for the company.”
A growl rips from my chest.
She nods, her eyes shimmering. “Such a stereotype. I liked him at first. Trusted him. Then his jokes got more uncomfortable and soon he started coming into the office when she wasn’t there.”
“Were you alone?”
“That came later.” A tear streaks from each eye. I cup her face and smooth the drops away.
“Did that fucker hurt you?” I’ll go to Seattle right now and find a place to dispose of the body on my way back.
“No. He was insulting. And he was right. My boss would fire me before she listened to how the love of her life kept brushing against my ass, kept pushing how close to stand by me, until he finally cornered me and squeezed a tit.”
“Tell me you kneed him in the balls.”
“I punched him. Gave him a shiner to explain to his wife, and then I quit. Because I refused to get fired. He was a lawyer and knew how to work the system. They’d run me out of there, and I’d need therapy after.” She hooks her hands on my wrists. “Then I went home, prepared to unload to the person who’s supposed to be there for me, only to see his bags packed and he tells me he’s leaving me for my cousin. The cousin I thought was my best friend, and who I thought moved to Seattle to be closer to me.”
She dealt with it all alone? “We need to throw them all in the river.”
She chuckles before dissolving into sobs. I pull her into my arms. She clutches my shirt at the sides and cries.
“Fuck them.” I want to shout, but I speak softly. “Fuck them all. Walk away from this wedding and have no regrets.”
