Dirty, Reckless Love (Boys of Jackson Harbor 3)

I lower myself into a waiting room chair and glare at my brother. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He shakes his head. “Suit yourself.” Then to Ava, he says, “Contact her family.”

Ava nods, and we both watch him go. When my brother’s gone, Ava turns to me. “Don’t you have a race in Indianapolis tomorrow—today?” She looks at her watch. “Shouldn’t you be leaving?”

I shake my head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She nods, and I know she understands. Ava wouldn’t leave Ellie right now either.

I squeeze the knots at the back of my neck, where tension has coiled tighter and tighter since I got the call. Where the fuck is Colton?

Levi

Saturday, October 20th

Six weeks later . . .

I pull up to the two-story brick house and cut the engine. Ava reaches across the center console and squeezes my arm.

It’s been a quiet drive to Northern Indiana, with Ava and I lost in our thoughts. We’re equal parts eager to see Ellie again and hurt that we have to show up unannounced to get the chance.

Ava absently rubs her belly. She’s only three months pregnant, but she can’t stop touching her stomach, as if she needs some sort of reassurance the baby is still here. After everything she’s lost in the last two months, I can’t blame her. “If she doesn’t want to see us, we’ll just leave,” she says.

I glare at the house, a run-down split-level. The lawn is a couple of weeks overdue for a cut, and there are more weeds than flowers in the beds around the door. I’m pretty sure if Ellie wanted to see us, she’d take our calls and we wouldn’t have had to drive down here.

The last time I saw her, she’d been moved from Jackson Harbor’s small hospital to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She was still unconscious, still in a medically induced coma, still attached to half a dozen machines that hummed and beeped all around her. The second her sister realized I was Colton’s friend, she threw a fit, insisted I leave, and threatened to call the police if I came back.

Since Ellie was released and taken to her family home in Dyer, Indiana, I’ve called, but it goes straight to voicemail. I’ve texted, but she never replies. I’ve even logged on to the Facebook account I otherwise neglect and sent her a message, but no matter how long I stare at the screen waiting for the little blue “received” checkmark to appear, it doesn’t. I wouldn’t have known she’d been released if Teagan hadn’t violated half a dozen medical privacy laws to find out.

“Are you ready?” I ask.

Ava shrugs and stares at the house. I silently curse Ellie for the hundredth time since we found out she was awake, home, and recovering. Doesn’t she understand that Ava has lost something too? That Ava’s grieving too? Doesn’t she understand that she should be leaning on her friends right now and not shutting us out?

Does she hate me that much?

“Let’s do this.” I climb out of the car and rush around to Ava’s side to open the door, offering my hand to help her out. The way Ava braces her shoulders as she steps forward, you’d think we were approaching a house of horrors and not her best friend’s childhood home.

I press the button to ring the bell and wait. A tiny dog yaps maniacally and pops up in the window beside the door, growling as the boom of steps comes closer.

“Hush now,” a woman says. “Go to bed.”

The dog growls at us one last time and then races away. The woman opens the door only a few inches and frowns at us. “May I help you?”

“Is Ellie home?” I ask.

Ava offers the bouquet of flowers we picked up at the supermarket around the corner. “We’re old friends hoping to see her.”

The woman narrows her eyes at Ava, then shifts them to me and shakes her head. “I recognize you two from Ellie’s pictures.”

“This is Levi,” Ava says, “and I’m Ava.”

“Ava McKinley,” the woman says. Her lips press into a thin line. “Colton’s sister.”

Ava shoots a pleading glance in my direction before nodding. “Yes, that’s true.”

“We’re not here about Colton,” I say. Does Ellie not want to see us, or does this woman think she needs to protect her from us? “We’re Ellie’s friends.”