Page 12 of I Choose You (Wilder #2)

Reid

The tree lighting had turned out to be a good time. Claire had charmed the shit out of my brothers and friends. She was so damn likable, now I had to listen to them bitch about how I could ever have not liked her.

“You’re such a dick sometimes. Claire was so sweet.

How does she even put up with you?” Wyatt asked.

We went back to Wes’s house after the event ended.

It was just me, Wyatt, and Wes here now.

Luke went home to check on Juliet, and Maeve wanted to put Jane to bed.

Seb had disappeared after chatting up some girl.

That boy didn’t lack for female attention, that was damn sure.

“Yeah, she’s pretty hot too. You know if she’s single, Reid?” Wes chimed in.

“Oh, she is.” Wyatt grinned. “I checked on it for you.”

I rolled my eyes and flipped him the bird. He was obviously just trying to get a rise out of me. I didn’t know why they thought that talking about Claire would affect me. She was her own person. If Wes wanted to chase after her, he was more than welcome to try. Didn’t make any difference to me .

My shoulders and back were suddenly tense, and I rolled them out, cracking my neck from side to side. Wes chuckled like my strained muscles had anything to do with him or this conversation.

“When are you going to get your head out of your ass, kid. Get back out there.” Wes was sitting back in one of the camping chairs, his can of Coke cracked open in the cup holder, wearing a scowl on his face like I personally offended him by not dating anyone.

His mean mug used to scare me as a kid, but I’d gotten used to it by now, mostly.

“Don’t you start too,” I groaned. I’d already gotten this speech from Lydia at Thanksgiving. “Claire and I tolerate each other, and even that is relatively new. And I’m not not getting out there. No one I’m interested in right now, that’s all.”

Wyatt coughed into his hand, and it sounded a lot like “Bullshit.”

Lydia and Wyatt had tag-teamed me yesterday about getting back into the dating world. I had never been one for quick hookups, having had the same girlfriend for the last seven years, and I wasn’t looking to get back into anything serious. So what did that leave?

Lydia kept trying to hook me up with her friend from New York, but Wyatt told her not to bother. I was pretty sure he was holding out hope that Claire and I would get together, but honestly, I was just happy that he helped get Lydia off my back.

The police scanner that Wes kept in his garage sounded, static noise changing over to the dispatcher’s voice.

It had been a pretty quiet night for the police.

A couple of traffic stops, some kids caught vandalizing property, that kind of thing.

I wasn’t really paying attention to it, but apparently, something was going down at the Cove’s End Motel. That shithole was a magnet for trouble.

“All units respond to Cove’s End Motel…chshch… be advised the suspect is considered armed and dangerous…chshch…”

Police had been called out to the Cove’s End more times than I could count, just in the last few months alone.

Bar fights, drug busts, domestic disputes because someone found their partner sharing a room with someone else.

It wasn’t often weapons were involved. That certainly ratcheted up the drama, but it wasn’t exactly surprising either, considering their clientele.

“What about you, anyway?” I asked Wes. “I can’t even remember the last time you dated someone.”

I shot him a challenging look and a smirk.

He could dish it, but he couldn’t take it.

Not when it came to his love life. Wes was a private guy.

Hell, I didn’t even think I had ever been inside his actual house before.

We always hung out in the garage like we were now.

But if he was dating someone seriously, it would have come up. And it never did.

“Don’t need to date anyone,” he grumbled just as my phone vibrated on the workstation next to me. “Just answer your phone.”

Wyatt laughed, knowing that Wes was trying to change the subject. He was saved by the bell, or the vibrating phone, for now.

Claire’s name lit up my cell. I debated about letting it go to voicemail just so I wouldn’t have to listen to these idiots if I answered her, but I couldn’t make myself do it.

“Hey, what’s up?” I answered .

“I didn’t… I didn’t know… who else to call.” Claire’s voice was strained and quiet. It sounded like she was close to tears. My stomach dropped, and my heart stopped. What could have possibly happened to her in the past hour since she left?

“What happened? What’s wrong?” Panic crawled up my throat.

Her breathing was stuttered on the other end of the line, and she was sniffling.

“Talk to me, Claire. What happened? Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I went to the bar at the hotel when I got back. There was an altercation.” She stopped to sniffle again, trying to collect herself.

My brain was trying to put pieces together that didn’t make any sense. I was jumping to conclusions, expecting her to say something ridiculous, like that she had been staying at the Cove’s End this whole time.

“The guy was waving a gun around. The bartender had to tackle him to the ground and knock him out. The police are here now, and it’s total chaos. I don’t know what to do.”

Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my feet. “Claire. Where are you?”

There was no way. Absolutely no way that Claire DeLuca—senator’s daughter, prim and put-together Claire DeLuca—was staying at that abomination.

“Cove’s End Motel, down on Mulberry Street.”

“Fuck. Claire, I’m on my way.”

“You don’t have to come down here,” she said. “I just needed to call someone. I was kind of shaken up, and I just needed… someone.”

“I’m on my way,” I told her again.

I turned to Wyatt and Wes. They were both watching me, listening to the conversation.

“Let’s go,” Wes said, out of his chair in an instant.

“We need to get her the fuck out of there,” Wyatt chimed in.

“You guys stay here. I’ve got her.”

I raced to the door without a backward glance. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I just felt like I needed to get there.

The streets were mostly empty, people either making their way home or to Harpoon’s or Courtside, the two bars in town, after the tree lighting ended.

The one stoplight in town was red as I made my way up to it.

I was seriously debating if I should just blow through it, but it changed to green before I had to make that call. Thank fuck.

Red and blue flashed up ahead in a dizzying array of lights.

I pulled up to the curb as close as I could and jumped out of my truck.

Police cruisers, ambulances, and fire trucks were lined up in the parking lot, creating a blockade between the street and the motel’s bar and restaurant.

As I came around the vehicles that were barricading the entrance, I was faced with a sea of people.

Police, patrons, spectators from the motel—they’d all come out to watch.

Rusty Burgess was in cuffs, sitting on the ground, with a couple of officers keeping him company. Rusty’s trouble with alcohol was well-known around town. He may have been a “fun” drunk twenty years ago, but he’d turned into the town drunk over the years.

James Clayton was talking animatedly with two other police officers. As the bartender here, he’d probably had the best vantage point for whatever went down. His hands waved wildly as he reenacted the events. I saw him make the universal hand sign for a gun and gesture it around in the air .

I continued to scan the faces in the crowd.

In the back, huddled up against the side of the building, was Claire.

I pushed through the throng of people to make my way to her.

Her eyes widened when she saw me, and immediately, her chin started quivering.

I wrapped my arms around her and brought her into my chest, holding her close for a long while.

A couple of minutes? More? I honestly couldn’t say.

My heart cracked every time she tried to catch her breath and couldn’t get enough air.

Claire was sunshine personified. So much so that I resented her for it during the first few weeks of our acquaintance.

But I would give anything to get that sunshine spark back for her.

This distress was doing things to my heart that I didn’t know what to do with.

She didn’t have a coat on, and I could feel her shivering against me.

I rubbed my hands up and down her arms, trying to warm her up.

She hadn’t spoken or moved since I showed up, only staring and shivering.

I sandwiched her arms between my chest and hers, pressing her to me as tightly as I could.

My hand held the back of her head as I breathed her in.

Safe.

She was safe.

I pulled back and held her face in my hands, studying her. “Come on, Claire. Let’s get you out of here.”

She nodded a small, quick nod. I took her hand in mine and started walking, but she didn’t budge.

“I…” she started. “I… ah… I think I have to stay. I haven’t given anyone my statement yet. One of the officers told me to wait here.”

My blood was still on fire. I could see that she was safe. Physically, she was unharmed as far as I could see. But this overwhelming need to protect her surged in me.

“You’re not staying here a single fucking second longer. They know who I am. If they need your statement tonight, they’ll know where to find you. But they’ll have to get through me first, so they better think twice.”

I pulled off the flannel I was wearing and wrapped Claire up in it.

Pulling her along with me, I kept my arm around her the entire way back to the car.

On the way out, Officer Neves spotted me leaving with Claire.

He took two steps toward us, but he caught on to how this was going to play out and wisely let us go without a word, only a nod of acknowledgment.