"She left us," I continue, my voice getting harder. "She fucking left, Tank. One day she was ours, the next she was gone. And now she waltzes back because she needs something from us? Because her perfect life isn't so perfect anymore?"
The burn scar throbs in time with my pulse, a constant reminder of that day. The day I realized she wasn't coming back. The day I set fire to everything I could reach just to feel something other than the gaping hole she left behind.
Tank finally moves, his hands coming up in signs punctuated by a low growl.You're a fucking hypocrite.
"Excuse me?"
You act like you don't give a shit. Like you haven't been stalking her too.
"So fucking what? What do you want me to do?" I demand, taking a corner too fast. "Fall at her fucking feet and kiss them?"
You don't know why she left.
"Don't I?" I laugh. "Rich guy swoops in, offers her mom a better life. Of course she took it and never looked back. Who wouldn't? She laid it all out perfectly clear in that fucking letter."
Tank flinches slightly at the memory. The reminder of how Ellie finally responded to all our unanswered, desperate attempts to reach her.
It didn't sound like her,he signs.
I squeeze the piss out of the steering well until my blunt chewed nails bite into the leather. I force my hands to relax because this car is my baby. "If you have to believe she wouldn't say all that shit to us, that's your call. But I'm not making decisions based on the fairy tales you've spun up in your head about her. Are you already forgetting she only crawled back to us because she wants her new daddy's money?"
He sighs hard and growls again, the leather of his gloves creaking as his hands move in another flurry of sharp, angry signs.The lipstick print on the letter. The goodbye kiss. It wasn't hers.
I suddenly get this weird little feeling there's something my brother isn't telling me. Something he should have told me that I definitelydon'tknow about.
I shoot him a look. "What do you mean, it wasn't her lips?"
Silence.
"How would you know that much about herlips, Tank?"
More silence.
No. Fucking. Way. I know for a fact he was terrified of her seeing him without his bandana. There is no way in fucking hell he let herkisshim. But I have to know. I have to know if somehow, someway,thathappened and he told me nothing.
"Did you fuckingkissEllie?"
He shakes his head, glowering at me. Before I can push it, he's signing again.Even if she did write the fucking letter, it wasn't a lie. She IS too good for us. I know that. YOU know that.
Oh. So he's just fucking delusional. "Shut up," I bite out, taking another hard turn.
You're scared.Tank's signs are slower now, more deliberate.Scared she'll leave again. So you're pushing her away first.
I clench my jaw so hard it hurts. He's not wrong. Too bad it doesn't fucking matter. My phone buzzes in the cupholder, saving me from having to respond. I snatch it up, grateful for the interruption, and look at the screen even though the giant fucking goody two-shoes next to me growls his disapproval.
Fucking Boy Scout.
JINX
The princess is in the tower~!
My pulse kicks up a notch.
She's at the house.Ourhouse. The place we built with blood money and blackmail, the sanctuary we never thought she'd actually step foot in.
When we bought the place, I certainly never imagined it would be the place we kept her. The fact that it's so close to her college was an unspoken perk that made us all agree to sign on the dotted line without discussing it.
After all, the first rule of stalking club is you don't talk about stalking club.
