Page 124 of The Chance

I rub at the ache.

It only seems to spread. Deepen.

Crack wide open until the agony can swallow me whole.

Screams in Spanish.

Arms so tight I can’t breathe.

Singed hair. Clothes. Skin.

Deafening roars of blistering heat.

“I’m sorry.” The thickness of Rex’s voice filters through a fog of crackling timber and my chest studders painfully. “I’m sorry he pushed you away.”

A fissure snakes its way down the center of me and it’s like I can feel every inch of bone and muscles ripping apart.

“It was my fault,” I whisper to the blanket tucked around the cool packs on Peach’s sides.

“No, it was—it was mine.”

The outline of the bed blurs.

“He’s better when he’s with you.”

I shake my head, and it dislodges a tear clinging to my lashes. “Don’t you dare blame Peach for this.”

“No.No.” Rex’s exhale is so deep that I hear it over the sound of the machines assuring Peach is alive between us. “I don’t blame him. Or Mac. Or you.” I would say the addition of me joltsme, but it doesn’t. “The asshole that chased them, nowthat’sa different story.”

Sniffing, I nod.

“But I do need you to get your head out of your ass.”

The statement is slow to compute and has me furrowing a brow at red-rimmed blue eyes. “Me?”

He juts his chin. “Stop running from him. He’s going to fucking need you.”

Another chip breaks off from that crack widening my chest. “He doesn’t need me. This is what I bring.” I tip my head.

“Bullshit,” Rex growls. “Don’t make me break your fucking nose.Again.”

I scoff and shake my head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Except I do.” He points to his chest. “I fuckingfeelit, Jordan.”

Sighing, I lean back in my seat.

“He told me.”

I stiffen.

“Told you what?”

“That he fell in love with a straight man.” He looks around, then pins me to the spot with the intensity staring back. “How much longer are you going to make my brother wait?”

That crater inside me caves in, burying me in the rubble.

He told his brother that?

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