Page 214 of Hard Pass

“You did this, didn’t you? This was why . . .” The secrecy. The silence. The introspection the past few days. “The hushed conversation with Malachi about your hand?”

“Yeah,” he says softly. “I was testing each one of them.”

The pain in his voice makes my chest ache.

He didn’t just clear himself.

He fought for me.

Pride and relief and elation are a vicious combination of emotions that race through me, but I’m not immune to what this has cost him. His inner circle. His trust. His friend.

“Where are you?” I ask.

He exhales and somehow, I hear the emotion he’s trying to hide. “The offsite facility.”

Of course he is. The place that was our point of no return. Where everything changed between us.

I’m already on my feet, keys in hand. “I’m coming,” I say.

“You don’t hav—”

“Damn it, I’m coming,” I repeat.

CHAPTER SIXTY

Dublin

I break numerous speeding records on the way to the facility.

My hands grip the steering wheel while I replay Tristan’s words over and over until they became a blur of sound.

Get to Cole.

That’s my only thought. My only focus.

By the time I whip into the offsite facility’s parking lot, my heart is beating so hard it feels like it’s trying to outrun me. My tires squeal. I park crooked in the first available spot.

I don’t care.

I’m out of the car before I even fully register turning it off.

“Dublin.”

“That’s her.”

“Dublin Locke.”

I don’t care that there are reporters filing out of the press room. I don’t care that I’m in leggings with my hair thrown up and no makeup on and there will be pictures of me running like a madwoman on social media shortly.

All I know is that I need to get to Cole.

I throw open the door and run to the only room I know in this place and hope like hell that’s where he is.

“Move,” I say as I run through the crowd, skidding to a stop at the last door of the hallway. I throw it open and stop dead when I see Cole standing there.

For one suspended moment, neither of us moves.

He looks wrecked. Exhausted. His eyes are shadowed with everything he’s carried and everything he’s just set down in the past few days.