Page 78 of The Penalty

“I need to see you. I’ll start a video call.” I hung up, not waiting for her to say anything. My finger shook trying to touch the little fucking camera icon.

Victoria appeared. My anxiety level lowered immediately. She looked aggravated but okay.

“Where are you?”

“Parking lot.” She reversed the camera so I could see Hannah and her bodyguard, Alex. Bodyguard. That happens now whether she wants one or not. Her face reappeared. “The night security guard said he’d wait for the tow truck. Hannah’s giving me a ride home.”

Night security. Where was this guy when it happened?

Her astute emerald eyes studied me through the screen. I swallowed hard, feeling the intensity of her stare. “Why are you out driving like a maniac?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I felt—” I can’t lose you “—I had to do something.”

“There’s nothing you can do from London.” Exhaustion lined her eyes and mouth. “We don’t even know who did—”

“It was him,” I seethed. “He won’t get away with it.”

“Xavier.” Her voice trembled. “You don’t know that. Please stop making reckless decisions. I can’t handle the thought of you getting hurt or—” a pained expression passed over her face “—please go home. I’ll stay on the call with you. That way you’ll know I’m home safe, too.”

Fury darkened the edges of my vision hearing her this upset. But then it hit me like a fucking brick.

I made her this upset. I added to her stress by acting like a lunatic. Tearing through the streets of London to exact revenge on…on what? A gut feeling? An instinctual assumption based on past events? I had zero proof Jordan had a hand in this. Zero. Yet here I was, ready to burn down the world.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. What the fuck is wrong with me?

“I’m sorry, Tori.” I barely managed to get the words out. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m just…sometimes I can’t control my impulses.”

Her head rested against the window of Hannah’s car. Even through the lights and shadows of the interior, I could see a small smile. “I’ve heard that about you.”

My lips curved as I started the car. My pulse slowed back to its normal pattern.

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear. Especially if it’s about me.”

We stared at one another quietly for a few minutes. Six weeks was too long to be without her.

“Did you have a good night out? Aside from this?”

Victoria’s eyes widened. “It was interesting.” She pointed the camera at Hannah. “Wasn’t it?”

Hannah’s eyebrows winged up. “Yeah. Definitely.”

“I’m about to drive. Is there something else you two want to tell me before I do?” I kept my tone light for the most part.

Victoria appeared. “Nope. I need you to get home safe. You have a soccer game to win in a few days.”

“Football match,” I muttered, grinning into the darkness.

“I heard that.”

“Did you really? I could swear the word soccer keeps coming out of your mouth.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

I heard Hannah laughing in the background.

“When do you have to be at the training facility tomorrow?”

---