Page 126 of Bling

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Come on, Isabelle. Go home and sleep. I’ll take a shift, and Catarina will be her to sit with her for a while after school.”

Isabelle tried to sit up from the uncomfortable reclining chair in her sister’s hospital room, but her back was so stiff it took multiple tries. She hadn’t left her sister’s bedside for the last three days. Her dad was right, though. She needed a shower and a nap in an actual bed.

A glance at her phone told her there were only three missed calls from Garrett. That was progress from the twelve the previous two days.

The more digging she’d done to find out how her sister got out of jail, the more she realized he’d just used her to get what he wanted, information on Darren and Maddox. It didn’t matter what he had to promise or do for her to get it. And he’d signed a fucking recommendation letter asking the state to let her out of prison early despite the fact that she’d asked him not to.

“Are we back in the apartment yet?” she asked as her dad sat in the chair she’d just vacated.

The old man shook his head. “The apartments are being renovated, and since we’re staying elsewhere, they started with ours and some of the empty ones. Fresh paint, upgraded appliances, that sort of thing. We’re fine where we are for now, Isabelle. There may still be danger.”

Anger bubbled deep inside. That wasn’t a coincidence. It was more of Garrett’s meddling.

“I don’t understand why he won’t go away,” she whispered.

“Men like him rarely give up easily, daughter. I know your heart is hurting, but you would be better off not dwelling on it right now. We’ll be back home soon enough.”

He gripped her hand and they both stared at Carmen’s unmoving body. Wires and tubes protruded from everywhere and the only sign of life was the rhythmic beep of the heart monitor. Things had been touch and go for the first twenty-four hours, but she was stable now. It was still a critical situation that she might not come out of, but doctors were hopeful that she would eventually wake up and make a full recovery.

“Go home, Isabelle.” He pulled his truck keys out of his pocket and handed them to her. “Your car is in the driveway, take my truck home and Henry will pick me up later.”

She gripped the keys and headed for the parking lot. When she came out of the main entrance of the hospital, a man who had driven her to and from work a few times jumped up from a bench.

“Miss Alvarado, I’m here to take you wherever you need to go.”

“I’m going home, but you can go back to wherever he is and tell him he can go to hell. I don’t want your help, or his help.”

Brushing past him, she scanned the large lot for her father’s truck, sprinting to it as soon as she spotted it.

At the safe house—a place she’d come to despise—she sorted through a stack of mail from the apartment and ate a sandwich. A letter from the U.S. Department of Education caught her eye.

It was probably something about her student loans. She suddenly couldn’t remember when the last time she’d sat down to pay bills was.

“God fucking damn it,” she said out loud as she read the letter. It was congratulating her on paying off her student loans. The final statement included showed a payment had been posted on Wednesday of last week.

Picking up her phone, she stabbed her finger at his number.

“Isabelle?” Garrett’s voice tore at her heart, but she willed herself not to react to the traitorous organ.

“For the last time, stop meddling. I don’t want your money. Call the Department of Education and tell them you want your money back.”

“Isabelle, I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about. Where are you?”

She growled. “Just like you don’t have any idea how my sister got out of prison? I have to go. Please don’t make me ask you to stop meddling again.”

She pressed the red disconnect button and tossed the phone on the pile of mail and made her way toward the stairs. As she stepped onto the bottom step, she heard it buzz, and she knew he was trying to call her back.

He needed to learn how to take no for an answer.

In her room, she took a hot shower and tried her best to erase images of Garrett from her mind, but he was there every time she closed her eyes.

When she climbed into bed, she quickly succumbed to exhaustion, but he was still in her dreams. Would she ever be able to go through a day without thinking of him? Why hadn’t she heeded her father’s warnings about men like Garrett?

Later, she woke to see her phone by her bedside. Her dad or one of the girls must have brought it to her. There was a missed call from Hunter, Austin, and Cassie, and text messages from Eli and Holly asking what was going on. Garrett must have told them she broke up with him. Would he have even bothered to mention that her sister got hurt in the midst of all this?

She responded to the texts and messaged Austin and Cassie saying she would update them later, but she wasn’t quite sure what to say to Hunter. Was he still going to want to help her finish her degree now that she wasn’t with Garrett? And what about Solitaire? Obviously she couldn’t be a house submissive anymore and there was no way she could afford the dues. Not to mention she had no desire to run into Garrett every weekend. At least not at first.

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