Page 25 of The Lie
“Um…” Mila reaches for the ends of her hair and starts to play with it as she worries her lip. I didn’t mean to upset her. “No?”
I raise my brows at her. Is that no, as in “no, it’s fine” or no, as in “I don’t know”?
“Call him.” I pull out my phone and hand it to her. He’s going to kill me, I just know it.
She laughs and shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. I’m with you, and he trusts you.”
I give her my best “you better be sure” look, and she chuckles. I quirk one side of my mouth and she shakes her head.
“It’s fine, Hunter.Ugh.”
She better be sure because I don’t want him to lose that trust in me. I plan to be in his life forever…after I marry his daughter.
“Okay. Maybe we can grab some stuff from Annie’s Diner and take it to Roman. I bet he hasn’t eaten lunch yet, and neither have we.”
She smiles as she reaches over to touch my thigh. “Sounds perfect, babe.”
And I grin.
It doesn’t take long before the hand on my thigh starts to tighten, and not in a good way. She’s squeezing hard. I pull up to a stop sign a look over at Mila. Her face is pale and her eyes wide. She’s breathing fast and shallow. Fuck. What’s happening? Is this something from the accident? Like PTSD?
I pull over quickly. “Babe? Mila? Lala?” I reach toward her cheek and she stiffens under my touch. Fuck, what’s happening right now? I turn her to me. Her eyes are facing me, but she’s not looking at me. It’s like she’s stuck in her own head and can’t see me.
“Lala, breathe, babe. Breathe with me. In…out…in…out.”
She blinks and her eyes roam over mine before she lets out a deep breath and her body sags under my hands.
Fuck,what just happened?
ELEVEN
MILA
Hunter drives by the cemetery and I can’t see anything but them…their car…the men from the fight.
“Well, hello there, angel.”
My heart races, and all I can see is their twisted faces as they laughed cruelly at me. I feel hands touch my face, and I freeze. I can’t breathe, my chest feeling like it’s being compressed.
“In…out…in…out,” Hunter says in a calming voice. He’s here, with me. I’m safe. I blink and see him. It’s his hands touching me, and I almost collapse at the sight of him.
“Mila, babe, what just happened? Are you okay?”
My heart’s still racing, and I really don’t know what to say. So, I swallow the lump and give him a weak smile. “I think being in the car for the first time since I’ve been home just gave me a mini panic attack…I don’t know why,” I add so he won’t ask any more questions.
But I do know why. I think the cemetery is somewhere I’ll be avoiding for a while. It doesn’t take long for Hunter to realize what happened. He’s smarter than he lets on, always joking around, but he has a serious side too. I know that, but I wish he wouldn’t put two and two together, because I don’t want him to feel bad. It’s not like I’d known that would happen or I would have warned him.
“Fuck, shit. Mila, babe. I shouldn’t have gone that way. It was stupid of me not to think that would trigger you. You can talk to me, you know. You can tell me what really happened that day.”
I twist my fingers in my lap. If I say it out loud, that’s another person who knows the truth. How many is too many for this secret? I want him to know so badly, but I’m scared.
“I know you’ve told everyone whathappened, but I know it had something to do with Roman’s fight. Roman wasn’t there when you called me. You were leaving, then…it happened, and he was there with you. I’m glad he was, but it doesn’t add up and I won’t push you or you would have told me already, but I know it’s connected.”
My fingers start to shake, and I hold them tighter. It’s true—Roman wasn’t there. I was leaving to go to Hunter. He knew that,shit.
“Did you tell anyone that?” My chest feels tight again.
Hunter’s eyes are on mine, and he shakes his head. I let out a breath and look around us. We are a little farther away from the cemetery now, but the memories of that day still itch at the back of my mind.
