Page 14 of Forgiving Fate

Her eyes are fixed on the windshield, as she watches the cars on the nearby highway zoom by on the way to work.

“Allie, did you hear me?”

She is so lost in her own mind, I can tell she has no idea what I just said. I say her name again and her head snaps to look at me. Her brown hair is down in loose waves resting just past her shoulders. Her clothes are slightly too big for her and anger bubbles in my chest.

If Mike Nicholson wasn’t already shark food, I would hunt him down and kill him myself.

Her light blue eyes lock onto mine, and I notice the deep purple circles underneath them.

She looks at me and I can see that she doesn’t know why I said her name and that she is waiting for me to speak first.

“I’m sorry. I need to make a phone call before we get on the road. This should be the last time I have to deal with business back home before we get to your parents’ house.”

She nods and pulls the sleeves of her hoodie over her hands, then returns her gaze to looking out the windshield.

I shut the door and walk over to the small grass area in front of the car. I’m far enough away that Allie can’t hear me, but close enough that I can see every angle of the car.

I refuse to let her out of my sight. I failed her once. My carelessness almost led me to break the promises I made to Logan, my brothers, and her. That will never happen again.

Never again.

Taking my phone out of my back pocket, I unlock it and hit my brother’s contact.

“Hello.” Wes’s deep voice filters through the phone and I can already tell he is not happy.

“How did the rest of the night go? Did Logan get her to the hospital in time?”

“Yes. You would have known that if you answered any of the calls or text messages we sent you.”

I take a deep breath to calm myself before I snap on Wes.

“Sorry,” I say through gritted teeth. “A situation happened here last night, and I was preoccupied.”

The last thing I want to do right now is tell my family what happened with the clerk. I already know they don’t think I am the best person to be with Allie. And if they found out I was seconds away from letting a guy break into Allie’s hotel room, I would prove them right.

Because they are, idiot. You almost failed her, just like you fail everything else.

I ignore the voices and wait for Wes to respond. He was the only calm one last night. Not that I blame the others. It was fucking chaos. With Logan brought into the mix, Noah and Gray were on edge.

“Landon. I’m tired and want to go to bed. You know I never say shit to you, but last night was a fucking disaster. I understand you were given misinformation, but if Logan hadn’t reacted so quickly, the night could have gone very differently. No one says shit to you because you are the best at what you do. But when you go away, someone here needs to know how to operate the system in your place.”

Anger boils in my chest and my fist clenches at my side. What the fuck? Why the fuck am I being blamed for a mission gone wrong?

Because you are the lead. You are the reason Noah didn’t know that there was a second victim that was laced with enough cocaine to bring down a man his size. It is your fault he was stabbed in the arm.

The voices screaming in my head and the fire burning in my veins cause me to snap and I make sure Allie is fine before speaking.

“What the fuck did you want me to do, Wesley? I’m fucking sorry Noah got stabbed. I’m sorry I wasn’t given all the information. I’m sorry that I couldn’t fucking teleport to Washington and help everyone. God fucking forbid someone else takes the blame or realizes when something goes wrong, it’s not always my fucking fault.” My temper rises and I continue. “Actually, you know what. I’m not sorry. If I had answered, Allie would have fucking been attacked by the front desk clerk. I should have fucking noticed, but I was too busy dealing with shit none of you could handle.”

My chest rises and falls.

I need a fucking drink, and I hate myself for it.

“What happened to Allie?” Wes asks, his voice more calm.

Scrubbing my hand down my face, I check on Allie again and more guilt fills me. I tell him about the text I got from Allie and if I would have gotten there seconds later, the clerk would have gotten in. All I could see in my head was her sitting in the room, scared out of her mind, begging this not to be happening again.

And what makes it worse is, I should have caught it like I did the first guy. All it took with him was a simple search of his name and an anonymous text threatening his father. Not that I would ever harm an innocent bystander, because unlike my brothers, I prefer not to get my hands bloody unless I have to.

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