Page 127 of Down Shift (Driven 8)
With his reaction giving me a stronger foundation beneath my feet, I take a step toward him and ask again. “No one else knew her name. How did you know her name was Katy, Father?” I shout the words, tears of anger thick in my voice, such a different kind of hurt in my heart from what’s been plaguing me the last several days.
And with his sputtered lack of coherent response, my mind starts to pull together hints and connect them. “It was his phone, wasn’t it?” I shake my head. It’s spinning and yet I can see things very clearly now. “When Ethan broke in the house. Zander’s phone was on the counter. He tracked it somehow, didn’t he? While Ethan waited for me to come home, he found the phone on the counter and uploaded the app to it just like he did to mine before. Must have been a big surprise for him to come home after you bailed him out, go to snoop on my whereabouts, and find out the phone wasn’t even mine. I bet that pissed both of you off until you figured Zander’s phone worked just as well. It allowed you to know where Zander was going to be. Where he was going to stay. What was going on between us. You tracked him, his travel plans, outgoing texts, and made sure Katy was right there. Paid her to set up the photo opportunity worthy enough of making me think he cheated on me. The shirt. The tag to the Lazy Dog account.”
Oh my God. How could I have been so stupid? How could I not have seen this from a mile away? Control. It was always the name of their game, and they did just that, even when I wasn’t anywhere near them.
“Gertrude.” All he can say as he tries to stop me from putting all the pieces together. From realizing the extremes to which he and Ethan would go to deflate my confidence, to ruin my self-worth, in the hopes that I’d come running back home.
“You wanted me to believe he’d slept with her, didn’t you?” I scream. Emotion overflows out of me at this point, heart torn in so many pieces and yet being put back together on a whole different level. “You wanted me to see the photo and run back home with my tail between my legs.” He steps toward me and I step back. “How could you?” Tears stream down my face. They won’t stop. “How could you take the only happiness I’ve had since Mother died and try to ruin it for your benefit?”
Emotion finally flickers through the ice of his stern expression. Regret. Apology. Embarrassment. But I don’t believe them for a single second.
“I don’t ever want to see you again. You are dead to me.”
I turn my back and walk between the twenty or so customers standing out in front of the Lazy Dog. They part as I stride through, murmurs of support surrounding me and buoying me forward.
Chapter 41
GETTY
From the scramble to make travel arrangements to throwing clothes in a suitcase to running between connecting flights, I feel as if I haven’t had a minute’s time to catch my breath.
And yet I wouldn’t have it any other way because I know the truth now. I know Zander was right. That I should have listened to him. That what we have is real and worth the chance.
Now I just can’t wait to get there and tell him face-to-face. Kiss his lips. Wrap my arms around him. I’m just hoping I can do it before the race starts, because I don’t think I can wait four or five hours. I’ve waited long enough as it is.
The cabbie honks his horn. My knee jogs up and down from my seat as I bite a desperate shout for the other cars to get out of the way. I have a man to make mine.
I extract my phone from my backpack to text Rylee that I’ve landed. And I silently thank Zander for programming her number in my phone. It feels like days ago, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget her response when she answered my call. After a rambling explanation about how I needed to get to Zander and see him and talk to him—and she could direct me how to get to the track once I landed, because it was dire that I see him—she told me, “You are his water.”
Too focused on the details of how soon I could get to Boston, I had no idea what she meant; now I’m trying to figure it out.
By the time the taxi gets me to the location Rylee had indicated, my body is riding high on adrenaline. I’m so close.
“Okay. I see the taxi,” Rylee says through the phone as I collect my bag and backpack and stand there amid a massive amount of people milling around in the prerace excitement as the cab pulls away.
“Getty!” Her voice is in my ear and behind me simultaneously.
As soon as I turn around, I’m engulfed in her arms. She pulls back and stunning violet eyes meet mine with a smile lighting up her face. We just stare at each other for a moment. It’s like I don’t have to say a word for her to understand how much I love her son. I can see it in her eyes. She already knows.
And the nerves I thought I’d feel disappear as she laughs out loud and pulls me against her again. “I’m so glad you’re here, Getty.” Her voice holds so much warmth, so much welcome, that I’m not sure how to respond, because I’m not used to it. “I’m Rylee. So nice to meet you.”
“Hi. Thank you for helping
me get here.” Tears well in her eyes and she just shakes her head as if she’s really trying to believe I’m here.
“Anything for one of my boys.” She looks away from me and around at the crowd. “We’ll talk properly during the race, but right now I want to get you to Zander. Here. Put this on.” She loops a lanyard around my neck with all kinds of official-looking information on it that matches the one she’s wearing. “Let’s go!” She grabs my hand and begins to lead me through the crowd.
We move through security, around barricades, and weave in and out of the crowd of people that line the street. Their excitement is contagious. The exhilaration of being so close to Zander and the chance to right my wrongs is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. And strangely enough, the woman whose hand is holding mine is also providing me with a sense of acceptance that I never expected.
We can’t really talk, given the noise of the crowd and how fast we’re moving as we skirt through openings in the mass of people.
The crowd begins to thin some. The security becomes tighter, its presence more visible. We have to show our badges at a gate before we’re allowed through. Men in fire suits of different colors stand all around us now. Some say hi to Rylee as we pass by. Some just nod in greeting. The clatter of tools as they’re dropped on concrete can be heard here and there.
My nerves jitter with anticipation. With uncertainty. With hope. But we keep walking at our brisk pace. And while the crowd may have thinned, Rylee keeps my hand in hers. I have a feeling she can sense how freaked out I am.
And just like that, in the middle of a makeshift alley where concrete barriers divide the track from the pits, she stops abruptly. I look at her, startled, my heart pounding.
“Just remember, more hearts break from words left unspoken than from saying too much.” I nod my head as the tears well up at her absolute compassion. The kind she’s taught her son. Her eyes hold mine, encourage me, ground me. I take a deep breath and squeeze her hands in mine before she helps to take my bags from me. “Welcome to the family, Getty. Zander’s right over there.” She lifts her chin over my shoulder.
