Page 153 of Bring You Back

No one knows Banks like I do. No one saw how he spoke up for Reyna against Landon. But I saw. He had her back when he knew she needed him, and he has my back when he knows I need him. I trusted him to look for her, like I trusted he hadn’t taken Grumbles. He’s come through, for both of us.

“Banks was good for this,” I tell him, my tone confident, but the look Tommy returns lacks faith. “Well, doyouknow where she is?” His face slackens as he looks off, his eyes roving with knowledge.Of course he does.“Where is she?”

“Why?” he shoots at me. “You want me to bring her back here so you can just make things worse?”

“This can’t get any worse right now,” I say as I step up to him, my volume building, and he welcomes my proximity, not stepping back like I half expected him to.

“Maybe not for you. Everything worked out for you. You still get to be happy.”

I ignore the resentment in his words and gesture to the closed door next to us. “Does she sound happy to you?” Tommy eyes the door, takes in the muffled sound of Camille’s crying, and steps back with a sigh. “So, no, not everything worked out for me. I’m losing here, too.”We all are.

I ask again. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” he rushes out.

“Are you sure about that?”

“I might have an idea,” he says with a shrug, and I stare, wait for him to elaborate. But he just stares back, refusing to give me an inch like the one I gave him by calling his ass over here. I know he cares, but for some reason, he thinks he has to keep whatever he knows to himself.

“Tommy—”

“Are you sure it was her?” he cuts me off, repeating the question he asked me over the phone.

“She said it herself,” I remind him.

He shakes his head in disbelief. “She wouldn’t do that.”

“Shetoldus—”

“She probably said that to get a rise out of you. To get back at you.”

“Seriously, Tommy?” I say through my own disbelief. He tries to see the best in us, but right now, he needs to see the truth. “Shedidit to get back at Camille.” I’d already considered the possibility of Reyna simply taking credit for Grumbles’s disappearance, but she was here for a reason, delivering the news unfazed. There was a whole speech that Tommy wasn’t here for, but he’s so deep in denial that he wouldn’t have believed her own words if he was.

“Reyna’s not Reyna right now, man,” I stress, try to get through his still shaking head. “Yeah, the Reyna we know wouldn’t do that, but she did.”

“Because she’s hurting,” Tommy points out, possibly accepting Reyna’s involvement, but still arguing in her defense, throwing the excuse I used for my behavior back in my face. “Look at the shit you did to all of us when you were hurting.”

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out, the memories of my shit stalling any words. I have no argument of my own for this one.

The guest room door opens. “You can’t cut usallslack anymore, Tommy.” Camille leans against the frame, arms folded over her chest. Her face is red, eyes swollen, voice thick.

“Camille,” Tommy breathes, softening at the sight of her pain. “I’m sorry.”

She sniffs, wipes a cheek. “What are you more sorry for?”

Tommy hides his hands inside his jeans pockets, but the denim doesn’t hide his clenched fists. “That’s not fair.”

“None of this is fair, man,” I speak for both of us. “This isn’t okay.”

“I know,” he says, his stare back on me. “ButIdidn’t cause this.”

Now I shake my head. Part of him still wants to be left out of this. Tommy’s been leaning, swaying back and forth to avoid falling to one side. But it’s not just me, or Camille who’s fucked up anymore. Reyna is now on that list. The two in our group he cares for the most are both broken, split apart. This has divided us more than anything ever has.

And we know that Tommy already fell four years ago.

While I still don’t think he’ll make Camille lose him, there’s still a choice to be made, in this moment. And Tommy has to decide.Out loud.

“Your problems are our problems,” I remind him, and his jaw sets at the push in my voice. He knows there’s no neutral ground to stand on here. No line he can straddle this time.

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