She hasn’t moved. Her arms still wrap around herselflike she’s trying to disappear into her skin. But it doesn’t matter; he stalks past me before I can stop him.
“Don’t you fucking touch her!”
She cries out as his hand clamps around her wrist, yanking her toward the porch steps. Her feet trip over themselves, and her body stumbles after him.
“Catalina!” I cry out.
I take off after them, my bare feet slam against the slick gravel as rain pours down my bare back, but my body’s moving seconds too slow. She’s not fighting him; her body goes limp. Like she’s trying to be a good daughter, like maybe if she doesn’t resist, it’ll hurt less.
No. No. No. Not like this.
I reach them just as he throws the passenger door open. He shoves her inside like she’s nothing. Before I can rip the door back open, before I can fucking reach her—he turns and hits me. His fist slams into my ribs, just below my chest, knocking the air straight out of my lungs.
Pain explodes through my side. I stumble back, clutching my ribs as the breath punches out of me, each inhale slicing through bone like glass.
The door slams shut, and the lock clicks.
“Catalina!” I wheezed.
I force myself to straighten, barely making it to the side of the car before the engine revs. I slam my palm against the car window, the glass rattling beneath the force.
“Our friendship is over, you piece of shit!” I roar, my voice cracking with everything I didn’t get to say.
My fists bang again against the glass. “She means more to me than you ever fucking will!”
The engine growls louder, but I don’t fucking move.
“I’ll find her, Vartan,” I spit, pounding once more. “Iwon’t fucking sleep until I do. I’ll bring her home and that’s a fucking promise.”
He looks at me through the windshield. No warmth, nor is there any flicker of regret. Just a smug, soulless bastard I don’t recognize anymore.
It shouldn’t hurt this much, but it fucking does. I trusted him. He’s not the man I once knew. And I was a fucking fool ever to believe he was.
Vartan rolls the window down just enough to make eye contact. His face is unreadable, but his voice is tight.
“You were my best friend,” he says, each word laced with disbelief. “I trusted you. I trusted you with my daughter.”
He shakes his head. “And this is what you do?” His voice cracks. “You sleep with her, and you make me look like a fucking fool.”
His eyes narrowed, his dark brown eyes piercing into mine.
“She’ll be married before you even figure out where we’ve gone,” he spits, rolling his shoulders.
When I think he’s done talking, his voice slices through the rain.
“And Carter? I don’t keep traitors in my life. Especially not ones playing house with my biggest disappointment.”
Son of a bitch.
The tires screech against the gravel, as rocks spit out in every direction as the car speeds off into the storm. I stand there, trying to breathe through the ache in my chest. The rain comes down hard, drenching my bare skin.
My ribs ache with every breath, but I don’t fucking care.
All I can see, that’s been burned into my fucking skull, is her face in the window, pressed againstthe glass.
Silent. Shattered. Gone.
“I’m coming for you, baby,” I whisper into the rain-soaked air. “No matter what it takes.”
