Page 70 of Scorching Lies

Ally hasn’t moved from the couch, but I don’t give her the comfort of hearing our conversation so I motion to West. Signaling for him to keep an eye on her, Ryker follows me intomy bedroom. Ryker walks over to my bed, pulling me with him. My ass settles over his lap.

“Where are you?”

“That doesn’t matter. I need to talk to you, are you alone?”

Looking over my shoulder, brown eyes crash against my grey ones. Closing my eyes I lie.

“I am.”

“Liar. Ryker is with you isn’t he?”

Sighing, “Cole, please. Where are you?”

“I need to tell you I’m sorry. Blaming you for Paige and my dad. You were right, Kenna. It wasn’t your dad.”

He sounds defeated and broken. His voice is low, but his words are drawn out by the alcohol he must have had.

“Have you been drinking?”

He doesn’t respond and a part of me wonders if in his stupor he nodded his head instead of speaking.

“I’m sorry, Kenna. You need to understand that your dad didn’t do this. We were all betrayed. They just keep piling up.”

Ryker looks at me with his eyebrows raised. I wish I could tell him what I know, but first I need to see what Cole found.

“Tell me where you are and I can come to you. We can talk alone if that’s what you want.”

Silence.

“Cole.”

Heavy breathing.

“Please, Cole.” I beg.

“I can’t take the secrets anymore. I’ve found so much more than we thought. We turned our backs on you.”

“It’s okay, I promise. Just let me come to you and you can tell me face to face how sorry you are.”

His broken words has tears rolling down my face. Feeling his pain through the phone has the oxygen in the room thinning. My lungs try to drag in a gulp of air. My skin itches with awareness.

“Cole, tell me where you are right now.”

“It’ll break them. What I’ve found.”

“What did you find?” I ask.

Ryker rubs my knee, his worry for Cole leaking from him in waves.

Cole sighs into the phone. “Do you ever wish you didn’t find the things you have? What if we were better off not knowing the truth?” He says, talking more to himself than to me. “I’m sorry.”

The line goes dead. Jumping from the bed my blood runs cold. A numb fear nagging at the back of my head. The way he spoke, his words, the distant way he said sorry. No. No. Dear god.

“We need to find him now!”

Ryker grabs me by my arms. “What is it?”

Shaking my head, tears fall down my cheeks. Shoving him off me I burst out the bedroom to find West standing over Ally who is playing on her phone.

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