We chat for another minute or so but I’m numb, going through the motions, and when she hangs up, I immediately dial Jenna, though I have no idea what to say.
“Hey, you.”
“Jenna.” My voice wavers as I fight back tears on my way down the mountain, desperate to get home. “He died.” My stomach churns as nausea takes over me, and I can’t stop myself from shaking. Sucking in a breath, I try to get air in my lungs, but nothing I do seems to work.
“Who died?”
“Blair?” Cade’s voice filters through the phone. “Blair. What’s going on? You’re freaking me out.”
“The guy in the coma. The guy Zane hurt. His teammate. Hedied.”
“Motherfucker,” Cade curses under his breath.
“What?” Jenna’s panicked voice hits me. “Tell me.”
I want to explain, but Zane’s grief-stricken face shadows my mind and all I can do is mutter his name, listening while Cade fills her in.
This is going to kill him.No wonder he hasn’t called.
Images of Sierra’s lifeless body flash through my mind before morphing into Zane and the vision of his devastated expression when he discovered her death.
My breath shakes as I shatter.
This’ll push him over the edge.
I have to find him.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Zane
I’m numb as I walk through the airport, the smiling faces all a blur, a ringing in my ears that I haven’t been able to shake since I left Nathan’s condo.
The adrenaline from our fight has well and truly worn off, and now I’m empty, unsure what I’m supposed to do or where I’m supposed to be.
Someone knocks into me and my heart stops as I struggle to take in air.
I’m not sure how much time passes but I somehow make it to a cab, and it’s not until we’re speeding down the highway, my window down, the fresh air filling my lungs, that my head finally clears enough to replay the conversation I had with the officer.
“Circumstances have changed.”
Circumstances. Have. Changed.
I don’t want to believe it but that can only mean one thing. Right?
He died.
After all this time, Landonfuckingdied. That piece of shit is about to ruin more lives and he’ll never even know it.
I stopped him to save my friends and destroyed myself in the process.
A loud cough drags me from my thoughts, and I glance up to see my driver staring at me through the rearview mirror.
“We’re almost there. Anywhere specific you want me to drop you?”
I’m heading to my hometown. My parents live there, my old friends, yet I have nowhere to go.
“The extended-stay hotel downtown,” I tell him, turning back to the window.
