Page 105 of Open To Negotiation

“I didn’t dream you,” I said, looking at Asher who gave me a soft smile.

“Dreaming of me, are you?” he teased and Theo cut him a look.

“Miss West. I’m Detective Mitchell and this is Detective Wells.” The man stepped forward, the other was standing near Jaxson, they looked friendly. “We would like to speak to you about the accident.”

“Right…” I looked around at all the men in the room watching me. They were going to be pissed. I pulled on the scratchy hospital sheet.

“Can we have the room?” Wells asked, misreading my reaction.

“No!” I said quickly before anyone could move. “I want them to stay. They need to hear this… I just…” I looked up at Theo who was still by my side. They were all going to be mad, but he would be the worst. “You have to promise to stay here and not get mad and leave, okay?” His jaw tightened but after a short hesitation he nodded. “All of you have to promise. No one leaves.” I got nods from the other five men I had grown so close to.

“Are you sure?” Mitchell asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay, please tell us what happened tonight,” Mitchell said as he and Wells both grabbed their notebooks.

“I was at Pulse with Aubrey. We were drinking.” I saw the detectives exchange a look. “I stopped at least an hour before we left. I switched to water.” Wells nodded. “I was ready to go after—”

“After what Riley said to you?”

I whipped my head up to look up at Theo, the fast movement hurting my whole body.

Did she run to him and tell him about our conversation? Had he gone to her when he got back and slipped into her bed?

Either option made my stomach sick and jealousy burned my gut. Not a good thing when I already felt pretty beat up. I placed a hand gingerly on my side and tried to take a breath even though it hurt.

“Who’s Riley?” Wells asked.

“She doesn’t matter for this.” I looked back at the detectives. “Anyway, I wanted to go. Aubrey said her boyfriend Max was close and that he would drive us. They were fighting a lot, she was acting weird. I knew I should have taken the cab that Dane was going to call for me. I shouldn’t have let us get in that damn car. I should have—” Theo put his hand on my shoulder, it forced me to take another breath, now that the story was coming out, it was coming fast but his touch grounded me. “When I opened the car door I got a whiff of alcohol.” Mitchell looked up at me. “I know, we were both drinking, I could have been smelling it on us. That’s what I thought at first too, especially when the smell lessened the longer we stood there. He could have also had a beer and still been in the legal limit.

“I got in the car. I shouldn’t have but I didn’t want her to go alone, and I thought I was being ridiculous. I sat in the car as they argued back and forth. They were fighting and he was keeping this calm, low voice that was weirding me out. But then he yelled and I realized it was because he was trying to hide the way he was slurring his words.”

“He drove you when he was drunk?” Theo fumed murderously from beside me. I couldn’t even grab his hand because he was on my left side.

“What happened next, Miss West?” Wells sent Theo a worried look. The others in the room had tensed too. Asher was scowling so hard I was worried his face might freeze that way.

“He yelled and when he turned to scream some more at her, the car drifted right. He didn’t need to correct as hard as he did, but he yanked the wheel too far to the left in to the oncoming car.”

“Are you saying he intentionally crashed?” Mitchell asked carefully.

“I don’t know. But I do know he was drunk, he shouldn’t have been driving.”

Mitchell turned to the door, another man now standing in the doorway that I hadn’t noticed.

“Is Max Welch still in the hospital? We need to make sure they run a tox screen.”

“You aren’t my boss,” the man commented and then wandered off, supposedly to track down Max.

They asked me a few more questions but everything after the crash was blank. I didn’t even remember getting pulled out of the car. They asked about the fight that Aubrey and Max were having and with each answer I saw everyone in the room getting more and more tense.

Once they decided that there was nothing else to ask, they said they were going to find Max. Jaxson followed them out, and Will closed the door behind them.

Theo pushed off from beside me, went to the foot of my bed and started pacing the room. Noah looked at him and me a few times, Asher did the same. I didn’t know what they were waiting for but I tried to stand up again.

“Stay in bed,” Theo growled as he stomped toward me.

“I have to go find out how Aubrey is.” I shoved away his hand as he reached out for me.