“Find a rehab,” Ty tells Evan. “One where she can still train, training is a way for her to escape and she’ll need to escape all of the shit they’re gonna have her do.”
“On it,” Evan replies, typing away. “It needs a garden too.”
“You know who her dealer is?” Luke asks, his voice practically a growl.
“No.” I shake my head. “I didn’t ask.”
“We need to find out,” he tells Ty.
“No, you don’t. What we need to do is get Kitty better,” Ty tells him, his jaw clenched.
“The hell with that!” Luke shouts.
“Keep it fucking down,” I growl. “She’s sleeping.”
His eyes narrow at me and his lips move into a grim line. He lifts his arms, the colorful tattoos catching the morning light that shines through the window. I don’t give a shit if he isn’t happy about any of this.
“Found one, two states over,” Evan announces, standing up.
“Let me look,” I say, holding my hand out for the laptop.
Evan hands it to me as Ty pulls out his cell, telling us that he’s calling Kay to pack Kitty a bag and to bring it over after she’s taken Eli to school.
I scroll down the website and pull my cell out of my sweatpants pocket, typing the number in and listening to the sound of the tone over the line.
I stand up when someone answers and walk into the kitchen, explaining the situation to the person who answers. She tells me she’ll talk to the doctor onsite and call me back within the hour and to make travel arrangements as there’s an opening right now.
I walk back into the living room, telling Evan, “Book two flights.” Handing him my credit card.
“Charlie?” Kitty calls and my stomach drops. “What’s going on?”
“Sit down, Kitty Kat.”
She shakes her head no and wraps her arms around her stomach, her eyes flicking between us all. “What did you do?” she seethes.
“You need help,” I tell her.
Her face drops and tears stream down her cheeks, I take a step toward her but she shakes her head and spins around, running back into the bedroom, the slamming of the door vibrating throughout the house.
I sit on the bed for what feels like hours, not willing to go back out there and face them all. I can’t believe that Charlie called them here and did this to me. I trusted him, I trusted them all, and now they’re doing this to me. I thought they were my friends, my family.
My jaw clenches and my hands ball into fists as I get angrier and angrier at all of them. I heard them talking about rehab, sending me away so they don’t have to deal with me.
I can hear them all murmuring right now, trying not to be heard as they sit around like a bunch of old ladies gossiping. I won’t let them do this to me, I won’t be a problem that they can just send away. No, I’ll walk away, I’ll walk away from them all.
I jump off the bed, pushing my legs through the first pair of jeans that I can find and pulling on a t-shirt; I don’t bother to look at myself, knowing that it’ll be my undoing. Instead, I pack up the few things that I have here and put my glasses on, not having the patience to put my contacts in before I pull open the bedroom door.
All conversation stops when they hear my footsteps and I stop briefly, looking into the living room and meeting all of their eyes.
“Kitty?” Charlie asks, moving a couple of steps forward, his eyes moving down to my bag. “What are you doing?”
I flick my eyes away from him and to Ty, not willing to talk to Charlie because he betrayed me.
“I’m going,” I tell them, nodding my head briefly like I’m confirming it not only to them but to myself too.
Luke stands, coming shoulder to shoulder with Charlie as I take a step back. “And where would you be going?”
My heart rate spikes at the sound of his voice, the sorrow evident. I hate the look of pity in his ice blue eyes, and that’s exactly what I didn’t want, their pity.