Page 21 of Chance
“You’ll have plenty of time with her later.We’re having girl time, bonding.”She tugged lightly on my arm, and I set my glass of water on the bar top, keeping the Bellini in the other hand.
Giving Chance a smile, I let Sammy pull me away, half relieved to have an excuse to put distance between us, yet missing him a little more with each step that took me farther from him.
“Sammy,” Chance snarled as we walked away.
“Get me another beer too!”she told him, giving him one of those finger-waves that were equal parts cute and bitchy.
“I want to be you when I grow up,” I confided.“Including your perfect ass.”
“Abi has such good taste in friends.Keep this up, and I’ll want you for myself and not just to share with Abs.”
“Thanks?”I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not, but it sounded sweet.
After the crowd swallowed us, Sammy turned us off course for the pool tables.“Abi is over here,” she explained.
And then I found myself being pushed into a chair in a quiet corner.Abi was sitting there, giving me her soft smile, but I barely saw her.It was impossible to see anyone but the man seated beside her.Memories flooded my mind.Some real.Some hallucinations.It was difficult to differentiate which was which.
A sob bubbled up.“You’re real.”
“Hello, Evie,” Ghost said quietly in that dark voice that had terrified me even as it had soothed my fears of the unknown.“I’m pleased to see you looking healthier.”
All I could do was sit there and stare at him, my throat too tight to release a single sound.I wasn’t going to waste energy asking how.This man had endless resources.Not just anyone could have done what he’d done.Slipped William Adams, a man who should have been untouchable, a drug that would induce a heart attack.And still had time to rescue me from myself.
He’d pulled it off, though.
I’d been so angry with him that night.Hated him for playing the white knight when all I’d wanted was to end the excruciating loneliness that was always there, making every inch of my body ache.Each day, it became harder to get out of bed, to make it through the hours of being on my own.Or worse, spending more time with the father who filled our time together telling me how lucky I was to have someone protect me from the horrors of the outside world.Too stupid to make it on my own.Reminding me daily that I was nothing without him.
There had never been a single day when I had any power over my own life.
Until that night.
Death was the only answer, and it was mine.I finally had a choice.And I made it.
Only for Ghost to take that away too.
But later, after I’d woken up in the hospital with Evy right there waiting for me, I was thankful.Erasing my existence would have been my out, but it would have devastated my sister.Nothing could have destroyed me more than letting her down.
It was difficult to look at him, yet I couldn’t tear my gaze away.He’d been such an asshole that night.Forcing me to take the medication that had induced vomiting.His hold had been firm, almost painful.And then he’d just sat there with me while I’d puked my guts out, along with all the pills I’d swallowed.Talking like it was the most natural thing to do.Telling me about how he’d met my sister.
Something in his face had shifted, a gentleness in his voice when he mentioned his wife and his own sister.I’d thought that part was a hallucination, but now that I saw him beside Abi, I couldn’t deny how real every moment of that evening had been.
“Evie.”Abi’s voice coaxed me to look at her.“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you when we first met today.But I kind of set all of this up.”
Surprised, confused, torn, I blinked at her.But if she expected me to speak, she was out of luck.My mouth opened then closed, still incapable of making a noise.I couldn’t give her my words.
“This is my husband, Vaughn.Just let me explain, and then you can decide if you still want to be my friend,” she suggested, her eyes hopeful.I nodded, and she glanced at the man beside her.
He tucked a few wisps of hair behind her ear, and she relaxed.“Everly was getting herself into trouble online.Considering who your father was, I think you can guess the type of trouble I’m talking about.”
Before that night, I hadn’t known who my father was.Not the real him.Not William Adams, the human trafficking king.
Now, however, I was all too aware of who he’d been and the crimes he’d committed.I shuddered, disgust roiling in my stomach.
“Vaughn keeps track of certain activities on the darker side of the web, and one night, your sister popped up on his radar.It was a chaotic evening.I still don’t know if it was that I needed to escape what was going on with the people I loved or if I was just nosy, but I got kind of focused on what he was doing and asked him to step in.To help Everly.And you.”
Hearing my twin’s name, I felt the pressure in my throat ease enough so that I could speak.“You helped Evy?”
“Some of the things she was searching for would have put her on the kinds of lists that would have gotten her attention from some not-so-nice people.Vaughn was only going to wipe her history and plant a virus so she couldn’t do it again, to protect her.But that was when I got curious.Her signal was close to where we happened to be that night, and as I said, things were a mess for me personally.”She grimaced.“I asked Vaughn to fix whatever was going on with Everly, thinking that would be it.Only, I got invested.It’s probably the pregnancy hormones, or maybe you and your sister were meant to be here all along.Ugh, I don’t know anymore.I sound crazy, and again, I’m so sorry.”
