Page 67 of When You're Gone
Her voice trembled a reply. “Jake… Please. I need help. Come now.” She sobbed through the phone. She knew she was likely scaring him—but she didn’t know what else to do with the physical pain and the very real fear that gripped her in that moment.
“Where are you?” he demanded.
“We’re in the back. By the pool. We’re both back here.”
“I’m turning into the driveway right now. I’ll be right fucking there.”
She heard car doors slam before she even ended the call. Part of her brain knew Fielding was droning on in the background, but she couldn’t make sense of his words. It was like her mind had shut down in an effort to protect her. Not that it would do her any good now. The damage had already been done.
Chapter twenty-five
Tori
“Whatthefuck?” Jake exclaimed as he tore across the backyard. That snapped her out of the mental fortress she’d built up over the last several seconds in an attempt to block out everything that had just happened.
“Wait!” she exclaimed. Both Jake and Dempsey halted on command. “Don’t come any closer! There’s glass everywhere.”
“Holy shit…” Jake murmured as he took in the scene. Fielding was still parked on the diving board, his long jean-clad legs dangling off the side and swinging back and forth like he didn’t have a care in the world.
She was surrounded by little pieces of glass and nearly soaked through from the steady drizzle of rain. Everything around her sparkled. The water. The broken fragments. It would be pretty if it wasn’t so dangerous.
“Baby… there’s glass all over. You’re covered in it. And you’re bleeding. What the hell is all this?”
She searched Jake’s face, her eyes frantic and desperate for help. She was too scared to speak; she knew her voice would tremble and the tears would start as soon as she did.
It was Fielding who broke the silence.
“Oh. Look,” he said conversationally. “Your backup husband’s here.”
Jake’s face contorted in rage as he continued to look between her and Fielding.
But it was Dempsey who spoke next. “What the fuck, Field? You haven’t answered any of my calls or texts. I had no idea where you were. What are you doing here?”
“You’re not the boss of me, Dempsey Haas.” Fielding sounded like a child as he playfully talked back to his brother.
Tori was certain she had never seen him this drunk, this out of touch, this far gone.
She swallowed past a lump that formed in her throat when she thought about what he’d said to her a few weeks ago…“You haven’t seen me in riot mode before.”Was this what he had meant? Was this the loose cannon version of Fielding Haas that had been so intriguing to her a few weeks ago? The immature imbecile taunting them on the diving board made her sick. Who declared their love for someone, then threw a glass bottle at them a minute later?
“Get down from there right now, Field. We’re going home.” Dempsey’s words were harsh, the seriousness behind his command crystal clear.
Fielding scoffed at the suggestion. “Home? I’ve already been home today. Did a little family bonding with our mother. Wound up here.” He shrugged like he hadn’t just admitted to getting wasted with a recovering alcoholic. Tori watched Dempsey’s face twist in anguish—their mom had been doing so well. Had Fielding been responsible for her picking up the bottle tonight?
“You got wasted at your mom’s house, then drove here drunk?” Jake deadpanned.
She hadn’t seen Jake move, but he was closer to them now. He shuffled forward another step: Quietly. Subtly. She knew he was trying to avoid the glass without drawing Fielding’s attention to him. Even though he didn’t know what had happened before he arrived, he knew the threat was still very real.
“Well, I’m not exactly sober,” Fielding joked. He decided at that moment to prove just how not sober he was by attempting to stand up. He raised to one knee, steadying himself in the middle of the diving board. But when he tried to plant the other foot, it slid right out from under him. He let out a groan as he fell sideways, hitting his hip and hooking one leg and arm around the diving board in an awkward fall.
“Fuck…” he hissed.
“Fielding, please,” Tori begged, finally trusting her voice not to shake. “Just stay there. Let Jake and Dempsey help you down. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“You don’t want me to hurt?” He looked up at her and glared. “I’m bleeding out in front of you, Victoria Thompson! Nothing can hurt me more than you pretending like you don’t feel this, too!”
How many times had she rolled her eyes at his playful antics over the last year? She didn’t want to play this game anymore. She let out a quiet sob, her limbs aching from standing in the same position with all her weight on one leg. They were at a stalemate.
“Come on, man,” Jake tried. He had inconspicuously worked his way to the edge of the pool and was now standing just a few feet from the diving board. She did a quick scan, but he didn’t seem to have stepped in any glass.
