Page 46 of Truths

Pain stabs at him. “Why are you saying this?”

“Because she loves you more than anything, but she risked losing you to try and save me.”

“She did save you,” he chokes out. “She was in the house getting the number of men she saw to report to Lex. She did save you.”

“I hope I see her soon to thank her.”

Dax walks back up to them, and Chance stands. “I'm so sorry, guys. So fucking sorry.”

He walks outside and hops on his bike. He has to see Kara. Someone mentioned she was staying at the motel on the outskirts of town, and he hopes she's still there. She has to be there.

“I need to know what room Kara Gallagher is in,” he says at the front desk.

“We don’t give out room numbers,” the man with dead eyes says.

Chance grabs him by his collar and pulls him half over the desk. “It’s my girl, and I need to know what room she’s in. Now.”

“Seven,” he says, and is rewarded with being released while Chance runs outside.

Pounding on the door, he leans against it, praying she's here.

“Who is it?” Kara calls.

“It's me.”

“Hold on.”

It takes a few minutes before the door opens, and he sees Kara with wet hair wearing a dingy white robe. She'd been in the bathtub, and based on her puffy, red eyes, she'd been crying.

“What are you doing here?”

Seeing her now and seeing Dani, it's like the entire world did a one-eighty. He's so stupid. “Can I come inside?”

Nodding, she moves aside, and he walks into the small room. He watches her brace herself after she shuts the door, and he hates how she expects some type of verbal lashing. “What can I do for you?”

“I saw Dani tonight,” he says and sits on the edge of the bed. “She's so... different.”

“Different how? Is she okay?”

He runs his tongue over his lips, and the concern for her friend hits him like two fists to the chest. “She looks like a ghost.”

“I think she's probably looked like that for a while now. That's what I thought when I first saw her in that basement window.”

Chance stares at the muted television. “Kara-”

“Chance, you have to understand, I couldn't stop thinking about Dani. About how I would feel in her position, seeing someone who knows me, and how I’d feel if they did nothing to help me,” she says, tears streaming down her face. “And knowing she tried to end her life to get herself out of the situation... I can't bear it.”

“It's how I feel thinking about you with that Kingsmen asshole,” he admits.

“I know you can't forgive me for what I did, and I understand. I do. I don't blame you, but can you tell me that you at least understand why I had to do something?”

Nodding, he looks at his hands. “I do. It doesn't make me hate the image of that asshole grabbing at you while he shoved his tongue down your throat any easier, though.”

“Everything I did... God, it makes me sick, but I did it for Dani. I hated every minute of it, and I know it was terrible and awful. But what I hated most of all was the pain on your face. The last thing I wanted was to cause you pain.”

“When I saw Dani tonight, I realized something. Maybe some of this could have been avoided if I'd just listened to you. If I'd taken what you said seriously and gone to look for myself. But I realized that I didn't want it to be true. Because knowing she was right under our noses for so fucking long drives me insane. Looking back, we should have known something wasn't right. None of it made any fucking sense.”

Kara holds back a sob, and she wipes at her tears, her eyes on the ground. “I think there were so many other factors in play that made it easier if we just accepted it.”

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