Knowing that staying down here and pacing my kitchen another million times isn’t helping anything, I take off up the stairs and push through to my room. Out of habit, my gaze falls to my window, and I come to a stop, finding Brielle on her knees, crying on her bedroom floor.
My heart falls right out of my chest. Seeing the anger and pain I caused last night at the track is nothing compared to the pure torment of watching her fall apart. God, I’d give anything just to hold her, to press a kiss to her temple and tell her that everything is going to be alright. Fuck, the things I’d do to Colby for bringing this down on her.
Unable to help myself, I move across my room until I’m standing right in front of the window. My fingers latch around the frame, and I slowly draw it open, desperate for her. As if sensing me here, Bri’s head snaps up. Those blazing blue eyes come to mine, holding me hostage with nothing but her stare and willpower.
Tears race down her cheeks, dropping to her uniform, and it guts me, but I hold still. I need her more than I ever knew I could. Brielle stands and I swallow hard, watching as she moves toward her window.
That’s right, Killer. Come to me.
A flare of hope surges through me, and my chest heaves with heavy breaths. Just a little bit closer and she’ll be able to open her window.
My fingers ball into fists at my sides, the anticipation too much to handle. All I need is two seconds of her time. I just need her to hear me, to tell her that I have her back in all of this. That I know she didn’t do it.
If she leans, I’m going to fucking lean too. Hell, I’ll fucking jump if that’s what she needs me to do.
Brielle moves in front of her window and my mind races with all the things I need to say to her. My eyes zone in on her every movement, watching as she reaches for the window. Only she keeps going, gripping the blinds instead.
No. No, baby, no. Don’t do it.
Her stare hardens and, in a split moment, she yanks them closed, blocking me out. Pain rocks through my chest like a fucking dagger to the heart.
Fuck. That stung like a motherfucker.
It’s nothing I didn’t deserve, but one thing is for sure, she can block me out all she wants, it doesn’t mean I’m going to sit back and accept it though. She’s crumbling in there, and there’s no way in hell I’m about to sit here and let it happen. She might not want me, but she needs me.
I launch myself out the window and take a few steps across the roof to the edge before jumping straight down, landing in a low crouch. I waste no time, dashing across the boundary line of the two properties before pushing my way through Channing’s front door.
The sound of an argument comes flowing through from the formal dining room, and irritation pulses into my veins. I don’t hang around long enough to determine what the argument is about, but the brief second I spent passing by is enough to realize that Brielle’s mom is a piece of shit.
Skipping up the stairs two at a time has me in front of Brielle’s bedroom door in three seconds flat, and I’m not surprised to find the door handle locked. I slip back a step to the hallway closet and push my way inside before closing the door behind me and reaching up to remove the ceiling panel for the crawl space.
I pull myself up and crawl through the roof before dropping back down inside Brielle’s closet. I’m not exactly quiet, but I’m not surprised when Bri doesn’t hear me coming. There are clothes everywhere and I step over them to get out of her closet.
It’s insane to think it was only last night I was in here with her and everything was okay. That was before Colby tore the breathing tube from my sister’s throat and before I took my anger out on the track … and on her.
So much has gone down over the past twenty-four hours, I can barely wrap my head around it, but fuck, I’d do anything to change it, to take it all back and make her pain go away.
Bri lays across her bed, her face pressed into her pillow as she silently cries, and everything inside me breaks for the millionth time today. I make my way around her room and watch as her body tenses, realizing I’m here.
She doesn’t say anything and doesn’t move, simply allowing me to turn off the light, kick my shoes off, and climb into her bed. I wrap my arms around her and pull her tight into my chest, right where she was always supposed to be.