Page 131 of Wild

He doesn’t say he’s sorry. He just … leaves. The door closing softly behind him. It’s at odds with the way he busted in here.

A broken, ragged, sob leaves my throat and I drop to the floor as my tears pour out of me. Hollis kneels on the ground with me, holding me against his strong chest. My tears dampen his skin. He brushes his fingers through my hair murmuring over and over that it’s going to be okay, but he doesn’t sound so sure. I’m not either.

CHAPTER30

HOLLIS

Ihold Mia the rest of the night, somehow managing to carry her to the bed. I cover us both with a blanket and she curls against me, pressing her palms flat against my chest as she sobs. Her cries break me. I don’t know what to do or what to say. I don’t think there’s anything Icando.

I hate that I’m the one that put her in this position with her dad.

If I had never pursued her…

I don’t care about him being angry with me, or saying the contract is over. None of it is important compared to how hurt Mia feels. I hate seeing her suffering. I’d rather take a knife to the gut than to ever witness this again.

After a while her cries grow softer, and she begins to hiccup.

“I’m sorry, Mia. I’m so sorry this happened. I never meant for any of this to happen. I didn’t want … I’d never want to come between you and your dad.”

In a soft voice she says, “He had no right to say what he did. To show up like that, to act like your contract with him was nothing.” She rubs at her eyes. They’re swollen from crying.

I know how much she loves her dad, and cares about his opinion. It has to be devastating for him to find out about us through social media. I know she could’ve told him sooner, and that fucking sucks because maybe we could’ve avoided this thing, but then again maybe he would’ve acted like this no matter what.

We’ll never know.

“He’s your dad,” I whisper, looking up at the ceiling. “He wants to protect you.”

“He’s protecting me from all the wrong things,” she seethes. She raises up a bit, looking down at me. I have trouble meeting her eyes. “I know I should’ve told him about us a long time ago, I know he shouldn’t have found out like this, but he would’ve still been mad, no matter what I had done.” Her voice sounds defeated.

She lies back down and grows quiet. Eventually she drifts off to sleep. I hold her tighter than I did before, afraid any second from now she’ll be ripped from my arms.

It’s no less than I deserve.

* * *

I finish explainingto my friends about what happened with Hayes, or early this morning, whichever. It’s not important. They sit in stunned silence looking at me.

When I got here, they’d already seen our relationship splashed all over social media. Videos, various photos from different times, proving that as careful as we tried to be we got complacent and started slipping up too much. After the one video leaked, more and more people came forward with evidence of our involvement.

I’m sure Hayes is even more pissed off today than he was last night.

The articles vary in tone from headlines that say things like;Hollis Wilder’s new plaything is none other than Mia HayestoA new power couple in the making? Get all the deets on Mia Hayes and Hollis Wilder’s relationship here!

The one I saw that pissed me off the most was an article that suggested I was only using Hayes to fuck his daughter.

“Fuck, man, are you okay?” Cannon asks.

I can’t believe he’s asking me that right now. I should be asking them that since I’m the one who fucked everything up.

“I’m fine.” Looking away I add, “It’s Mia I’m worried about.”

The last thing I ever wanted was to drive a wedge between her and her dad. Sure, Hayes is over protective as hell, but knowing that Mia was kidnapped as a toddler it makes sense why he’s the way he is. I can imagine something like that leaves a long-lasting impression on a parent.

“Would you mind calling Kira and having her go over and check on her?” I ask Rush.

She barely slept and I don’t think she should be left alone today. She needs support right now—support I’m not sure I can be the one to give since I’m the reason this is happening.

“I’ll call her now.” He gets up, already fiddling with his phone.

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