“What happened?” she demands.
I blink, try my best to focus, but my stomach’s churning and my head is full of bullshit, and my temper…well, it’s so deeply encased in ice that it might be extinguished forever. But even with that small victory, I still can’t come up with a good answer except for, “I fucked up.”
She studies me closely.
Then sighs.
Fuck, I’m failing her too. I look past her. “I should go help Colt?—”
“Oh, no,” Colt says. “I’ve got this.” He shifts, starts in on another lug nut. “You just tell your sister how you fucked up things with Joey. She’ll help you sort it out.”
My eyebrows fly up.
What the fuck?
But he keeps talking before I can process that. “And I’ll just lie here…not listening.”
I open my mouth to snap at him, but Ky beats me to speaking.
“I was sitting in my car,” she says. “Killing time on my phone and then—” Her eyes come to mine and everything inside me stands up straight.
Fuck. “What happened?”
“Well, Colt just pulled up and my video was still playing and I guess it auto-swiped to the next and, well…” For the first time, she looks uncomfortable.
“What, Ky?” I ask. “Tell me.”
“It’s probably better if Ishowyou.”
She taps at her phone, then holds it up so I can see the screen.
I jerk when I see Joey’s face there, her eyes filled with equal parts devastation and anger. There’s a man behind her.
No, not just any man, that asshole kid reporter who kept trying to push her buttons.
“Crap,” Kylie says, the phone bobbling as she turns up the volume.
And I hear it:
“A few minutes ago this man, Zach Hiller, recorded me without my knowledge during a painful, heartbreaking conversation…”
Fuck, I never followed up with that little prick.
Never realized who he was.
Hiller’s kid? This is?—
Hell. I’m in fucking hell.
“As I was trying to go home, planning to cry into a glass of wine while I come to terms with the fact that the man I love may not feel the same way…”
My heart sinks. “Shit.”
“Yeah, big bro,” Kylie murmurs. “You fucked up.”
“Yup,” Colt agrees.
But I can’t acknowledge them.
