Letting Go (Thatch 1)

“You swear it’s not you?” I asked softly.

“I swear, Jagger, I could never do that to her.”

I nodded and fell back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling fan. “I need to find the person doing this, they need to stop. This is killing Grey.”

“I would help you if I could, but I don’t know who it is. I honestly thought my keys were just lost in here somewhere.”

I blew out a ragged breath, got off the bed, and walked over to Charlie. Holding a hand out, I helped her up and pulled her into my arms. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. I’m sorry for blaming you—this is making me crazy and I just freaked when I remembered how mad you’ve been.”

“I understand,” she mumbled against my chest.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated. She would never know how sorry I was. For not being there for her, for blaming her . . . for so much.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I reached for it, thinking it would be Grey and knowing I needed to get back to her. My body froze and I stopped breathing as I looked at the message on my screen. With shaking fingers, I opened up the Facebook message and ground my jaw when I saw a picture of Ben and Grey kissing. Looking closer at the picture, I knew it was from the day they’d officially gotten engaged. Underneath were the words: Don’t forget, she’s always belonged to me.

“Jagger?”

Kissing the top of Charlie’s head quickly, I backed away from her. “I have to get back to Grey. We need to figure out who this is. I’m sorry, Charlie.”

Her eyes widened. “Wait, what’s wrong? What just happened?”

“Whoever this is isn’t done. And they need to be stopped. I have to go.” Turning around, I left her room and walked quickly down the hall and into Keith’s room. After checking his closet and the kitchen pantry, I walked toward the front door and didn’t even look at my mom or her boyfriend as I let them know I would bring diapers and food the next day. As soon as I was out of the house and in my car, I pulled up Grey’s name to call her as I flipped my car around and tore off down the street.

“Hey!” she answered on the first ring. “Where are you?”

“I’m coming back to you, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I just—did you find out who it is?”

I blew out a slow breath and shook my head as guilt filled me. “No, I didn’t.”

“Well, who did you think it was? My parents said you’d said ‘she.’ ”

As much sense as it had made earlier, I felt like a dick. No matter that everything pointed to Charlie, I couldn’t believe I’d accused my sister of everything that had happened. “Let’s talk about it when I get to you, okay? But tell me, has anything else happened since I left?”

“No,” she said slowly, drawing out the word when she noticed my eager tone. “Why did you ask like that? Should I be expecting something?”

“No,” I assured her. “No, I just needed to know. I’m only a couple minutes away, I’ll see you soon.”

There was a pause before she reluctantly said, “Okay. Be safe.”

I ended the call and sank deeper into the seat as I ran one hand over my head. I knew I’d have to tell her where I’d gone, and I knew in telling her this, I’d have to tell her about Charlie, and it was killing me. Grey hadn’t known that Charlie had been getting upset about us, or that she’d been mad at her . . . and right now seemed like the worst possible time to tell her. But I couldn’t lie to her. When I pulled up to a red light, I quickly tapped out a text to Charlie.

I have to tell her. I’m so sorry . . . for everything.

By the time I’d pulled into Grey’s neighborhood, Charlie had responded.

I know. Tell her I love her.

I replied with an I will as I walked up the driveway to Grey’s parents’ house and took a deep breath before knocking on the door and letting myself in.

Grey launched herself at me before I even had the door shut behind me, and I stumbled back a step. “Hey, you wanna go to the dock?” I asked into her ear; her only response was to nod her head against my chest. “Okay, hold on a second and we’ll go.” Unwrapping myself from her, I kept a hand on her waist as I looked up at her parents, both of whom were looking at me expectantly. “I was wrong, and I’m sorry I ran out of here. But do you mind if I take Grey for the night?”

“She is not staying with you overnight again. You’ll bring her back tonight,” Mr. LaRue said firmly, and I smiled.

“Of course, sir. It’ll only be for a couple hours.”

“Mark,” Mrs. LaRue hissed, and slapped at his chest. “Just bring her home whenever, Jagger.”