Page 95 of Wanting Wentworth

I don’t have any secret fiancés, Sunshine—scout’s honor.

I guess, technically, he told me the truth—at least about that.

“I don’t think he did it,” Abbey says without looking at me. “According to Hollywood Buzz, he wasn’t even at the club that night because he and Lexi broke up.” Picking up the tail end of her long, blonde braid, she studies it for split ends. “He’s trying to keep it quiet but TMZ says he had his lawyer donate over a million dollars to the hospital to cover Mr. Maxwell’s hospital bills. A lot of people think that makes him look guilty but I think he just feels bad about what happened and wants to help.”

If that’s true, why was he at the scene of the accident? When EMS and police arrived on the scene, Went was giving the man that was hit CPR. If he wasn’t driving, why else would he be there? If he’s not hiding from the truth then what is he doing here?

When I don’t say anything, Abbey turns her head to look at me. “Why don’t you want to marry Brock?”

“What?” I manage to squeak out, the complete one-eighty throwing me for a loop.

“I mean, you’ve never come right out and said it but, it’s not like you’ve tried very hard to pretend otherwise, at least around me…” she trails off before turning her head to look at the ceiling again. “Would getting married and staying in Barrett be such a bad thing?”

“No.” I shake my head even though it’s pretty much my worst nightmare. “I suppose not.”

“But it’s not what you want?”

What I want.

There’s that word again.

Want.

“What I want doesn’t matter, Abbey,” I tell her truthfully. “It never has.”

And if you stay here, it never will.

Ignoring Luke’s voice in my head, I gather up the scatter of magazines strewn across my bed. “I’ve got to go to sleep,” I tell her, stacking her magazines on the nightstand between our beds. “I have to be up in a few hours.” Getting under the covers, I turn off the bedside lamp, plunging us both into darkness.

From where she’s still flopped across her bed, I hear Abbey sigh. “He’ll be leaving soon. Celebrity Talk says his lawyer is working on finding a break in the case—something about ATM security footage. Pretty soon, he’ll be able to prove it wasn’t him driving and he’ll go back to California.”

“That’s good.” I force myself to say it, even though the thought of Went leaving makes me feel like my lungs are being shrink-wrapped. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to get out of Barrett and back to his real life.”

“Maybe…” She hesitates like before. Like she’s not entirely sure she wants to say what comes next. “Maybe when he leaves, he’ll take you with him.”

I let myself think about it—want it—but only for a moment.

“Goodnight, Abbey.”

Abbey sighs again. “Goodnight, Kaity.”

After that we both go quiet and I don’t move again until I hear the change in her breathing that tells me she’s asleep. As soon as she’s out, I get out of bed. Pulling on a pair of jeans under the T-shirt I stole from Went, I ease our bedroom door open and slip into the hall as quietly as possible.

Downstairs, I gather my boots from under the bench by the front door and carry them into the kitchen. Setting my boots on one of the kitchen chairs, I pull a glass from one of the cabinets and fill it with cold water from the tap. Drinking it as fast as I can, I note that Abbey did a more than decent job of cleaning up after dinner.

Setting my empty glass in the sink, I retrieve my boots before making my way to the mudroom. There, I sit down long enough to put them on before lifting my mother’s keys from their hook, careful to close my hand around them to keep them from rattling together. Reasoning that it’s not stealing, that she’d let me borrow her car if I asked, I pocket them before making my way out the back door and into the dark.

What are you doing, Kaity?

For once, it’s not my brother’s voice in my head. It’s my own and it sounds anxious, dancing on the edge of panic. Ignoring it, I slide into the drivers’ seat of my mother’s Land Rover and start the engine, wincing slightly at the muffled roar of it. Not waiting to see if the sound of it woke my mother, I shift into drive and white knuckle my way up the mountain so I can see Went, one last time.

FIFTY-FIVE

Kaitlyn

I don’t park in the front.

Driving along the side of the house, I pull the Land Rover into the space between Two-tone’s empty paddock and the backside of Northpoint before killing the engine.

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