From somewhere down the hall, Jaden called. "I heard that!"
Jax turned his head and called back, "You were meant to hear it, jackass, so quit your bitching."
Allie and I exchanged a look. I whispered, "They're brothers."
"I know," she replied. "He just said so."
"Oh. Right."I'd heard him with my own ears. But I was so surprised by all of this, I hardly knew what I was saying.
From the doorway, Jax told Allie, "Let me know when you change your mind."
When? Not if?
I might've asked what he meant, but already, he'd turned and disappeared to who-knows-where. I looked back to Allie and said, "Come on. Let's talk in my room, okay?"
She frowned. "Yourroom?"
"Just for last night. But it'll give us someplace to talk." I reached for her hand and gave it a gentle tug. "Now, come on."
With a sigh, she let me lead her away from the closet. As we picked our way through the mess, I tried not to cringe. I meant what I'd told Jax earlier. I'd definitely clean it up. Just not right now.
First, I had a friend to take care of, and not just because she was the closest thing I had to a sister.I owed her, bigtime.
She'd just driven through the nightandborrowed a vehicle to do it. This was a lot more than I deserved, especially after we'd parted on such awful terms just a week earlier.
But when I finally got the full story out of her, I almost wanted to cry. Apparently, things were a lot worse than I realized.
Chapter 28
I was still staring. "You stole it?"
"No," she said. "I borrowed it, just like I told you."
I almost didn't know what to say. We were sitting in the same bedroom where I'd slept last night. Before leaving for breakfast, I'd made the bed and straightened up as best I could. Now, Allie was sitting in a small armchair facing me, as I perched on the edge of the bed wondering if she'd lost her mind.
She muttered, "Hey, I left a note."
I tried to laugh. "Well, that's good. What did it say? 'I'm taking your vintage truck to Florida'?"
As I'd just learned, the truck belonged to Allie's ex-boyfriend. They'd been together for nearly six months until their breakup just a few weeks ago. Correction – theirbadbreakup.
Unless something had changed, they weren't even on speaking terms.
For this, I was glad. The guy reallywasa douchebag. Still, he didn't deserve to have his truck stolen, especially on my behalf.
Allie still hadn't answered my question, and I had a pretty good idea why. I gave her a no-nonsense look. "He doesn't know the truck's here, does he?"
"Notexactly." Her chin lifted. "I mean, I didn't tell himspecificallywhere I was going, just that it was an emergency." She glanced away. "And besides, he was sleeping. I didn't want to wake him."
I rolled my eyes. "How thoughtful of you."
"Oh, shut up."
"Alright, forget last night." I gave her a hopeful look. "Did you at least call him this morning?"
"Are you kidding?" she said. "He'd just tell me to bring it back."
"Well, obviously."
