Page 78 of Wait For It

Then again, if I’d just listened to what Bailey was trying to tell me, I would have known. If Ari wasn’t suffering from a brain injury, she never would have considered a man like me.

Just like Tampa and Chicago, I’d fought to exploit her weakness to get what I wanted, because I knew a good thing when I saw one. But Ari deserved more—she deserved that high-dollar, long-term contract with the right person—not damaged goods offered up by a man who’d fucked around with his teammates’ wives.

I continued my internal rant on into my room, just shy of the bed when my throat contracted painfully. That first sob was like the sounding of a gong—a deep, reverberating ache that rattled my bones and tore my chest open.

Reed men didn’t show emotion—crying was a sign of weakness that got you nowhere. If Joe were here, he’d no doubt have clicked his tongue against his teeth before shaking his head in disapproval.

Maybe he’d never wanted a son, but a dog—something that could have been trained to obey his every command.

For whatever reason, that thought, along with the sight of my shell-shocked expression reflected in the mirror above the sink, made my tears come faster.

I sucked in a ragged breath and mashed my lips together, but it was no use. My grief was not content to go quietly. No, it demanded to be heard as it stripped the flesh off the bone, leaving me to bleed out.

On what should have been the best day of my life, I’d been reduced to a loud, blubbering mess, forced to let go of burdens I’d carried for far too long. With a sharp exhale, I released the anger I’d held toward my father, wishing I could have lived up to his expectations and wondering if it would have made a damn bit of difference.

But Ari—Ari was a wound that would never heal.

I felt the loss of her in each strangled sob, and the gaping hole in my chest grew wider. Eventually, what was left of my heart fell through to the floor.

Chapter Sixteen

Ariana

“I looked at the stars, and considered how awful it would be for a man to turn his face up to them as he froze to death, and see no help or pity in all the glittering multitude.”

-Charles Dickens,Great Expectations

All that running and I’d managed to end up back where I started. Shards of glass from the shattered windshield bit into the skin around my ankles, holding me captive. The headlights flashed on and off like a message being sent in Morse code.

My palms squeaked noisily against the hood of the convertible as I clumsily searched for something to grip—some object that would free me from my glass prison.

But there was no escape.

The motor was still running, heating the metal hood until it burned against my cheek, but I couldn’t move. The radio switched stations at random, the volume rising higher and higher. That, coupled with the vicious pounding in my skull, drowned out any hope at a coherent thought.

I was Humpty Dumpty—if he’d tried escaping the wall instead of just sitting atop it. Regardless, the outcome was the same. We’d both ended up cracked open on the pavement below.

And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Ari together again…

“Ari? Oh, Ari, what have they done to you?”

My skin prickled in fear at the sound. It had been easy to feign bravery with Killian sitting beside me, but I was alone now, and this ghost felt just as real to me as he did.

The leaves began to rustle as if something big was tearing its way through them. I didn’t want to be scared, but I knew what was coming through the trees, just like I knew exactly what it wanted.

Me.

“Ariana,” it taunted, masked behind the green foliage. I choked back a scream, recognizing that this was no ghost.

This monster was real.

“Those walls were built just for you.”

“Ari?” The ghost cried out again, pushing into the clearing. She jerked her head to the left and right, searching for me in the dense smoke of the wreckage. “I can help you, but you have to come back to me!”

The monster mocked her words with a cold laugh. “Ariana, I can help you! Why don’t you tell me your sins, and I’ll tell you mine!”

I brought my palm down over my ear, trying to block the sound of their voices, but they were too loud. Almost as if the noise was coming from inside my head.

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