Page 146 of Dangerous Men

Earl gives me an assessing look. “Miss Sinclair, I doubt very much I would get in trouble for giving you a ride. But if I were to leave you in this state without offering to drive you home?” He chuckles. “Mr. Sterling would probably kill me for that.”

He might, I think. He’s killed before.

“Thank you,” I say, tugging nervously on the sleeve of Alec’s dress shirt. “Sorry to inconvenience you.”

“It’s not a bother at all.” Earl gives me a kind smile as he holds the door open for me. “There’s tissues under the cushion in the middle seat—you just need to give it a lift. And I have bottled water up front if you need some.”

I shake my head. “Thank you, but… I just want to go home.”

“I can do that for you, ma’am.”

When I slide into the back seat, pulling the shirt down as far as I can to cover myself, Earl looks away to give me my privacy.

Then the door closes, and I’m trapped in the backseat with nothing but my pain and the ghost of Alec’s voice.

I could make you a queen.

He could, too. Alec has the money and power to give a girlanything she could ever ask for. Anything I could ever dream of.

You already have a queen,I think furiously, wiping my face on my sleeve.You should be giving her the world, not me…

I’m such an idiot. And I knew. From the very first day, I knew I should have been more careful, should have been cautious with him. With them. It was all too good to be true.

Now I’m nothing but another home-wrecker.

My phone rings, loud and impatient in my purse, and I jump, startled by the noise. I pull it out, noticing for the first time how much I’m shaking. My fingers are trembling.

When I look at the caller ID, I’m shocked enough by the caller listed there that I can't bring myself to answer. The call rings out. My phone goes dark, but then it rings again immediately, the same name displayed on the screen.

This time I answer.

“Katie?” I ask, apprehension thick, answering on speaker phone. I don’t think my hands are steady enough to hold it right now.

“Hey,” she says. She sounds tired. Hesitant.

There’s a long beat of silence.

“Why are you calling me?” I ask. My voice is surprisingly steady. As if my heart hadn’t just been ripped out of my chest. “If you’re trying to apologize for that horrible set up, spare me. I can’t believe you would put me in that position?—”

“I’m not calling about that,” Katie says quickly. “Look, things got out of hand, whatever, I get it. But that’s not…” There’s a pause while she takes a shuddering breath. “Chase is in the hospital, Sydney. Someone nearly beat him to death today. He’s not doing well. You needto come down here.”

I don’t process the words right away, my mind skipping over them. “He’s… what?” I finally manage to say. “Wait, what happened?”

“Ihave no idea!” Katie’s voice is shrill as it echoes in the car. “He was on his way home from work and…someone just jumped him, I guess? He was unconscious when he was brought in, so we don’t know all the details yet.” I can tell she’s near tears, her voice frantic and close to breaking.

How the hell did that happen? Chase works in a relatively safe part of town. He’s never been super flashy with his money or the way he dresses. For a moment—just one fleeting moment—I feel the urge to go to him. Like I should rush to the hospital to be by his side.

And then another thought snares me, tight as a noose. I don’t actually care what happened to him. I don’t actually care that he’s hurt.

After all the pain he caused me? I’m almost happy to hear it.

I stare at the reflection of myself in the car’s dark, tinted windows, lights blurring behind my image as we drive through the city. This will irrevocably break my friendship with Katie. With Sarah, with all of them, really. There will be no going back after this.

But after everything I’ve been through with Chase, I can’t be his support system anymore. I can’t even wish him well.

I want him to suffer, I realize.

“I’m not coming,” I say with renewed strength in my voice. The reflection of me doesn’t seem to move as I say it. She just stares back at me, face a cold, calm mask.