“Yes… no… none of this was supposed to happen.” Liam glanced back at the hospital, misery written in the red blotches staining his neck and face. “Iamsorry. But my brother’s in there. He’s not waking up. And I need another opinion. We’re going to need private healthcare. Therapy… It’s so expensive!” The sheen of unshed tears caught the hospital lights. “I lost ten thousand pounds of my mother’s savings,” Liam admitted in a rough voice. “Warren said he’d give me the full amount back if I helped him.”
Fuck it all. His mum hadn’t mentioned the missing money. Probably because she knew what Josh would have said. “You arsehole!” He strode in front of Liam and gripped his shoulders, trying to shake him but failing. “You already helped him! You helped him to run Ellie off the road! And you’d already lost Mum’s savings!”
Liam blanched, his body wracked by a violent shiver. “What are you doing to me?” he croaked, stepping back. “Don’t do that.”
Josh wanted to follow and shake harder. Finally, he was doing something. Finally, Liam could feel him. But Ellie put her hand on his arm and steered him away. “You forced me off the road!” Ellie snapped at Liam. “I broke two ribs and punctured a lung! I nearly died. And Josh—” Her voice broke. “Josh was hurt even more.”
“I know,” Liam whispered. “I’m so sorry. Warren said he wanted you alone at the front so he could speak to you. I thought he was going to tell you to pull over. Like you had a puncture or something. He said you wouldn’t speak to him otherwise, no matter how hard he tried. That he just needed this chance to convince you to do the right thing for your friend. For everyone.”
“You didn’t think at all,” Josh spat, staying back. The temptation to strangle him was too high. And maybe Liam would feel it. Maybe it would actually make an impact.
“What do you want me to do?” Liam asked in a broken voice. “I’ll do it. Honestly. All I want is Josh back.”
Ellie sighed, softening. “Me too.”
Liam stared at her long enough—his gaze troubled enough—that Josh wrapped his arm around her and glared.
He needed to have his real body back, damn it. He needed to be able to hold her and kiss her and claim her so that everyone could see. So that Liam and the rest of the bloody world knew he was with her. So that they didn’t fuck with her ever again.
She leaned into his side, taking the support he offered. But to anyone else it would have just looked like she was standing slightly off-balance.
“How do you know my brother?” Liam asked.
Ellie narrowed her eyes. “We met cycling,” she said.
Josh huffed out a half chuckle at the dark joke. But then she continued and took the breath right out of his lungs. “He’s important to me.”
Josh tightened his hold on her and looked down to meet her eyes. “You’re important to me too,” he admitted softly, wishing he could have said it anywhere else than in a windy, gray hospital car park, two feet from his increasingly disturbed-looking brother, and a few thin walls away from his own unconscious body.
Chapter Thirty-One
Everything was wrong.Warren had tried to take everything from her. Vic was still with him. They were standing in the cold wind outside the hospital where Josh’s body lay, unconscious and locked in darkness. Liam was staring at them—her—like she was insane. And Josh looked like he was going to finally tip over the edge and kill his own brother. Except… it also felt right.
All her life, she’d battled to be perfect. Battled and tried, and worked, until the pressure had almost crushed her. Now, nothing about his situation was perfect. But for the first time, it didn’t matter. Josh was beside her. They would figure it all out. Together.
“Did you mean it?” she asked Liam. “That you’ll help?”
Liam shoved his hands into his pockets, looking even more dejected. But he didn’t try to weasel away. “Yes, I’ll help.”
“Warren started all of this,” Ellie said. “It’ll never be over until we’re rid of him. That has to be our priority.”
“Absolutely,” Josh agreed, far too quickly. Just by looking at his face, she knew he was already imagining several scenarios for how that could be achieved.
She scowled back at him. “Not by killing him.”
Liam’s eyes widened, and he took a step back. “I don’t want anything to do with killing him!”
“You didn’t seem to have a problem with attacking Ellie—” Josh started, turning his glare onto glare at his brother.
She cut him off. “None of that is helpful now.” She stepped between them, focusing on Liam. “Nobody is killing anybody. We need to do this properly, which means getting the police back and making a statement.”
Liam chewed the inside of his cheek. He looked like he wanted to be sick. “What kind of statement?”
“The kind that—” Josh started, but Ellie spoke over him.
“I’ll keep you out of it as much as I can. I promise.”
Josh growled, and Ellie ignored it. Liam was his brother; she wasn’t sending him to jail for being selfish and naïve—especially when she needed him to help her. Her priority had to be Josh and Vic.
