From Ashes (From Ashes #1)(74)
“Gage, I was just trying to scare you off. I know you wouldn’t touch her. I was pissed that you had her and . . . I don’t know, I wanted you to think you would lose her.”
“And now I have.”
“You haven’t. Look, last night, I was all for making you feel like shit even though I know you had no idea that was Cassi standing behind you. I know you wouldn’t hurt her; you’re probably the only guy I would ever trust with her,” he admitted reluctantly. “So believe me when I say I’m not trying to make you feel bad about this next part. You know what happened to her; you don’t know the extent, but you know. Imagine having her past, then seeing your past come out of the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.”
My breath came out in a huff and I clenched the steering wheel harder.
“Cassi knows you’d never intentionally hurt her; I can see her struggling with what she knows and what she saw for that split second. I think she’s running away just while she tries to work through that, Gage. I saw the way you were beating yourself up before she asked me to leave the room, which means she saw it too. I know Cassi better than anyone. I have no doubt that what’s going through her mind is that her struggle to get through this is hurting you more. She probably thinks running away is what you want her to do.”
“How the hell could she think that I’d want her to leave?” My voice was shaking and low, but if I tried to push harder, I’d break. My girl was gone, and while I wanted to believe Tyler, I didn’t know if I could after all the times he’d screwed Cassi and me over.
“This is Cassi we’re talking about,” Tyler reasoned. “She’ll probably be back soon; I should go before she catches me on the phone.”
“I can’t lose her, Tyler.”
He groaned out a breath. “Yeah, I know. Just give her a little time; when she slips away, she’s usually gone for a few days at least, a week at most. You’ve never seen her like that because when I brought her to Texas, a couple times when she began to slip away, I was able to remind her we were away from her mom and Jeff. The only time she’s actually gone away since we’ve been here was when you moved out, so you weren’t there for that either. That was the worst I’ve ever seen it, and this one has to do with you too, so it might take a while. Don’t give up on her, and I’ll keep you updated, all right?”
“Why are you doing this? You’ve been trying to come between us this whole time, so why back off now?”
He was silent for a second. “I can’t lose her either. And last night, it finally hit me that I was about to. If nothing else, she’ll always be my best friend and I will always take care of her. Giving her ice packs at night or helping her not make the biggest mistake of her life by running from you—either way, I’ll take care of her.”
“Thanks, Tyler, I appreciate it.”
“Gotta go, bro.”
“Keep her safe for me, yeah?”
Tyler grunted in agreement. “Always. She loves you, Gage. She’ll come back to you.”
I knew she loved me, but nothing could convince me right then that she would come back to me. My head slowly shook back and forth as I dropped my phone onto the seat next to me.
CASSIDY
“THIS IS JUST so—I don’t even know,” Tyler said with an exasperated sigh.
“It’s weird, right?” Weird didn’t even begin to describe it. It’s like I was looking at some stranger’s smoldering lot and melted Lexus, which now resembled a marshmallow that had caught on fire, not my mom’s. Other than that sick sense of relief, I felt nothing. No pain, no heartache, no longing.
According to the investigators, the fire started in the bar area, which wasn’t a surprise. As I said, that house had just as much liquor as an actual bar, and if Mom and Jeff were in there like the investigators believed, that settled that. Jeff smoked a lot, but being the rich prick he was, he liked smoking expensive loose tobacco out of a pipe like he was freaking Hugh Hefner, so he was always lighting up matches to take a couple puffs. Spill some Everclear, Jeff’s spirit of choice, and try to light his pipe next to that . . . and poof. There goes the bar and house.
We watched as a couple men and one woman walked cautiously around the ashes, searching through piles of brick and avoiding support beams that were still standing. Tyler wrapped his arms around my waist and drew me close into his chest as one of the men called out to the others. They all slowly made their way to him and peered closely for a few moments, called an officer over to them, and showed him whatever it was they’d found. I held my breath and Tyler’s arms tightened as the officer spoke to a detective and that detective walked over to where we were standing with Ty’s parents and half the neighborhood.
“Miss Jameson?”
“Yes?”
“I’m Detective Sanders, could we talk somewhere a little more private? Or if you would prefer we can speak in my car or at the station.”
“Why don’t we take this into the house, Cassidy?” Tyler’s dad, Jim, suggested.
Detective Sanders looked at a notepad quickly and clicked on a pen. “And you are?”
“This is James Bradley. The Bradleys are practically family and their house is just right there,” I answered, and pointed in the direction of their house.