Page 20 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
“I never meant for it to happen!” he yells. “I never meant for her to get hurt. I tried to stop them. I tried.”
“Not hard enough.”
“Who are you?” he yells. “Who the hell are you? Why are you doing this?”
“I’m the girl you let go to prison for her death.”
He goes silent.
Then the phone line goes dead.
“Chase?” I scream.
I pull the phone away from my ear and dial the number again. It rings a few times then hangs up. When I try again, it’s blocked.
“No,” I yell, throwing my phone to the ground. “No, dammit. No!”
God dammit.
No.
7
“IT’S OKAY,” JO SAYS as we stand on the street after having tried to call Chase back a million times even though I know he blocked me. She even tried on her phone, but he blocked that, too.
My only lead. Gone. He’s not going to answer any calls now, no matter who they’re from. The only person who would get through is Tatum, and getting his phone would be like pulling teeth out of an angry lion.
We’re screwed.
“We’ll find him,” she continues.
I look to her, my head spinning. Being tipsy isn’t helping, my thoughts are running wild. “I have to pop into the café, I left my house key in there. I’m going to go and get it, then come home, okay?” I tell Jo.
“Isn’t the café close?” she asks me, looking concerned.
“I’m opening tomorrow, I have the key.”
She raises her brows. “Andrea gave you the key?”
“Well, she gives it to all the staff, so if she doesn’t give it to me, it’s going to look suspicious, isn’t it?”
Jo nods. “Are you sure you’re okay? I have our apartment key. You don’t need yours. We can go home and talk …”
I shake my head. “I just need to clear my head. It’s okay. I’ll be fine. I’ll see you at home.”
“Are you sure, honey …”
I smile and step forward, hugging her. When I let go, I say, “I’m sure. I need to take a walk.”
She exhales. “We’ll find Chase, I promise you we’ll find him.”
I nod and then turn and walk off, the weight in my chest making me feel like I’m dragging my body. It hurts. Everything hurts. I want to scream, and yell, and punch something. I’m so angry, so hurt, and so sick of lies. I want to grab Tanner and scream into his face, I want to slap Ethan over and over again, and, at the same time, I want to curl into a ball and just cry because it all makes me feel so damned helpless.
I walk a few blocks, to clear my head a little, the cool night air helping me think more clearly. Then I flag down a cab and give them directions to the café. When I arrive, I pay the cab driver and step out, feeling a little tipsy still as my heels hit the sidewalk. My head is swarmy, not drunk but definitely not as clear as it should be.
I walk toward the café, digging around in my purse for the keys. When I curl my fingers around them, I look up and see the lights on inside. I stop, squinting, and I see Ethan and Andrea talking. I blink a few times, and then step a little closer. They’re standing at the counter, clearly arguing about something. Oh, god. Ethan is here. With Andrea.
I step back into the shadows of the trees lining the sidewalk and then move down closer to the café before ducking around the back. There’s a good chance I’ll get busted for what I’m about to do, but I want to hear what they’re saying, and the only way I can do that is to go through the back door, through the kitchen, and listen.
I carefully unlock the back door, step inside, and, very slowly, walk through the kitchen and try not to make a sound. I reach the door and press my ear against it. I can hear them, being that the counter is so close to the kitchen.
“It has to stop, Andrea,” Ethan growls. “If it doesn’t, someone is going to get hurt.”
“You think I don’t know that, Ethan?” Andrea snaps. “But Tanner is determined, and he’s not ready to back down anytime soon. Maybe he just needs to do this, to get it out of his system …”
“To do what? Torment Callie for something he can’t let go of? Where will it end? How far will it go? She could get hurt. I’m not going to sit back and watch that happen.”
“What other option is there? You were in on this, too. Now you’ve gone soft and want to call it quits, but you know it’s not that easy. You can’t just change your mind because you have fallen in love with her.”
“I’m not in love with her,” Ethan rasps, low, “but she matters to me.”
