Savage Little Lies (Court Legacy 2)

“I wished I could forget,” Mommy stated, her voice low. “I wish I could as easily as you.”

A door slammed, and I shook, frightened by it. It also hurt my head, and I touched it, the bandage soft under my fingers. The doctor said I’d heal soon, but that my head hurting would happen. He said that was normal, though.

It was normal after a fall.

I didn’t remember falling. Mommy and Daddy had told me about it. I’d just woken up with lots of doctors and a hurting head.

I wished it didn’t hurt now. I wished Mommy and Daddy didn’t fight. They kept fighting since I’d hurt myself.

This is my fault.

If I hadn’t fallen, Mommy and Daddy wouldn’t argue anymore. It started real bad after the fall.

I hugged my pillow, pinching at my wrist. My bracelet wasn’t there when I woke up in the hospital. I wondered if I’d left it there.

I wished I could find it.

Chapter Forty-Two

Dorian - present

I heard her voice for all of a second before the call ended, and when I lowered my phone, my friends were staring at me. Wolf and I had gone back to his place, and Wells and Thatcher returned when we called them back. They’d dropped Bow off at Thatch’s before they arrived, making up some excuse. I didn’t know what they’d ended up telling her, but I wasn’t thinking about any of that right now.

“Did she answer?” shot right away in my direction, Wolf on the couch. He sat completely still between Wells and Thatcher, his hands together. He sat up. “Dorian?”

“Yeah,” I said because she had. I heard my name, but then the call ended. I shook my head. “I lost her. I don’t know if the call dropped or…”

I redialed before I could finish the statement, hoping she just had a bad connection or something. She’d answered me.

She had answered.

Pick up, Sloane. Pick up, baby.

She didn’t, the call moving right away to voicemail. It didn’t even fucking ring.

“Dorian?”

My friends had gathered around me, but only one of them spoke.

Wolf pushed his way through, his head shaking. I found him hard to look at while I restlessly attempted to contact Sloane. He’d wanted to do it.

But it couldn’t be him, though. It had to be me. It always had to be me because it was me and her. I had to bring her back.

Why hadn’t she let me?

I’d tried to talk her down. I’d tried to talk her back, but she’d shut me down. She’d shut me out. I swallowed. “Ares…”

He laced his fingers above his head, spinning out of the huddle. My buddy was on his way to a quick spiral, and I knew what had to be done next.

It was like the record stopped when I lifted my phone, my friends’ eyes on me. I spun through contacts, and Wolf pushed his way over again.

“What are you doing?” he asked, his swallow making his throat jump. He was a wreck, visible pain all over his face. I’d only seen him that way one other time, and that was the day I’d told him I was done with him. He looked like he’d died a slow death.

“I’m calling my dad,” I said, but upon finding his contact, I paused. I looked at Wolf. “But I don’t think it should just be me.”

Bringing our parents into this, all of them, was well overdue. It had been before, but especially now.

And that went triple for him.