Page 24 of Dare (Fighting Fate)

Austin’s eyes narrowed. It was obvious I was confusing him. “Okay, so are you second-guessing your decision?”

I shook my head. “No, not really. I know I made the right one.”

He gave me a hard look, letting me know I was starting to piss him off. “Then what the hell are you upset about? I’m having a hard time here, Rabbit.”

My shoulders slumped as the real problem drifted to the surface. “A few nights ago, I was drugged,” I said quietly.

“You fucking what?” Austin said, halting his swing to stare at me.

I sighed. “Nothing happened to me. I don’t even know who it was that did it. Wyatt took me home, and I passed out on the couch. I was still fully dressed in jeans when I woke the next morning.”

“Then how the hell do you know you were drugged?”

This was the part I was dreading. “Eli told me the next day that Wyatt’s best friend had been seen buying a similar kind of drug. He made me go get tested.”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” he said, pushing to his feet. “Did you go to the police?”

Pressing my lips together, I swallowed down the anxiety that was forcing its way in. I should’ve known this was coming. I forgot how protective he could be. “No, not yet.”

“Why the hell not, Jess? When did this happen?” he demanded, hands on hips.

“Monday night.”

Tilting his head back, he looked up at the sky, turning his body away from me. After a moment, he sat back down on the swing and rubbed his forehead. “Okay, do you think Wyatt could’ve had something to do with it?”

“No, I don’t. I’m just confused about the whole situation. It’s been a really emotional week, and I’m having trouble processing everything that’s happened.”

He sighed before he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and taking my hand. “Jess, I get what you’re saying, but drugging someone is a pretty fucking serious thing. It’s not something you should just sit back and contemplate. What if he tries it again? What if he tries it on someone else? These are the things you need to be thinking about, Rabbit. These are the important things.”

“I know,” I said, squeezing his hand back. “I really do. And I will go to the police. I promise. I just need a little more time to process it. I’ll get there. My heart’s just a little bruised right now.”

“All right,” he said, nodding.

Taking a deep breath, I gave him an intense look. “While we’re on the topic of bruised hearts—” I started.

Austin’s hand disappeared from mine in a blink. “Oh, no,” he said, pushing to his feet. “Not going there, Rabbit. I’m fine. As fine as I’ll ever be.”

My lips pressed together, desperate to push the issue further. The death of a girlfriend was not something you recovered from easily. Fine was not the word I would use to describe Austin’s heart at all. But it was Christmas, after all. For once, we were all together, and it wasn’t the time to linger on past hurts, recent or ancient.

Fleetingly, my mind drifted to the one thing that had been my only form of distraction from the chaos these past couple of days. The dream. My very fucked-up, drug-induced, erotic dream. The one that was quickly making my life very weird whenever I saw Eli. Because whenever he came anywhere near me, all I could see, all I could hear, and all I could feel, was him. On me. Against me. In me. And, as much as I’d tried pushing it away, it just wouldn’t leave me alone.

“Are you okay?” Austin asked, his brow creasing as though I was freaking him the fuck out.

Crap. “I’m fine.”

His eyes narrowed with disbelief. “Do I even want to know what you were thinking about just then? Because it was kind of creepy, Rabbit.”

“Shut up,” I said, slapping him on the arm as he tried to duck away from me. “We both know you’re the creepy one in the family.”

He threw his head back and laughed as we started making our way around the back of the house, to where Mom and Norman were fussing around. “Dream on, little sister. Dream on. Red, remember?”

I slapped him again as we rounded the house, but that was that. He was exactly the kick up the ass I’d needed to get me moving past this whole mess with Wyatt. And that was why I loved my brother to the other end of the universe and back.

Now, if only I could do the same for him.

Chapter 16

Eli

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