Page 132 of Break Me

I don’t look at him when I speak. “I’ve got it.”

Mouse doesn’t argue. He steps back as I head for my bike.

The engine roars to life beneath me. Gravel spits beneath the rear tire as I pull onto the road. The throttle twists beneath my hand, and the clubhouse disappears in my mirrors.

We go wherever we have to.

We spend whatever it costs.

We find the doctor who says the others are wrong.

Because this story doesn't end here

Raven

Darkness settles around me so gradually I don't notice it until the living room has almost disappeared. At some point, the sun slipped behind the trees, but I never got up to turn on the lights.

Beyond the open window, the creek moves through the backyard with the same quiet rhythm it always has, gliding over stone as though nothing in the world has changed.

It keeps going.

Tomorrow it will sound exactly the same.

The thought should comfort me.

Instead, it makes my chest ache.

The familiar rumble of Sam's bike reaches me a few moments later.

The engine is quieter than usual by the time it dies, and then there's only the sound of his boots crossing the porch. They stop just inside the front door.

I can feel the energy rolling off him before I even look up. For a long moment, neither of us speaks.

“There’s a doctor in California,” he finally says, his words sure. “He takes cases other doctors won’t. I left a message and emailed your files. We can leave tomorrow so we’re there when he can see you.”

He’s pacing.

“We don’t have to accept what that guy said.” We get another opinion. We get ten.”

I watch him. His hands move when he talks.

“Sam.”

He keeps going.

“We’ll fly out. We’ll stay as long as we have to. I don’t care what it costs. I’ll sell the cottage. My bike. I’ll call in every favor I’m owed.”

“Wolf.”

He stops this time and turns toward me.

I stand slowly. “I don’t want to go to California.”

His face changes.

Not anger.

Fear.