Letting Go (Thatch #1)(43)

In my head, I knew he was gone. I knew this wasn’t him, and I couldn’t let myself believe he was sending me messages. He’s gone, Grey. He’s gone. With a steady breath out, I typed back a message and hit send.

Who is this, and why are you doing this to me?

Just before I closed out the app, a bubble popped up indicating Ben was responding—no, not Ben. Someone. I stared at the screen, holding my breath until it all came out in a hard rush when I saw the response. There was a picture of Jagger kissing my forehead from just a couple weeks ago. Below, the words:

Ben Craft: How could you do this to us? We were supposed to be forever, Grey.

“No, no, no, no,” I whimpered. “Ben, no.”

“I don’t know how—Grey, what is it?” Jagger asked in a rush, reaching for my phone. I tightened my grip, but he somehow swiftly and gently pulled it from my fingers. “It’ll be okay, we’ll find out who did . . . what the hell? You sick f*ck!” he roared out toward the street, and people turned to look at him. “Stop hiding, you have something to say, come and say it!”

Graham walked quickly over to where Jagger was turning in circles, his eyes looking suspiciously at everyone. Wrapping his arms around Jagger’s chest, he started pulling him back toward the car. “Calm down, man.”

“I swear to God I will find out who you are!” Jagger yelled at everyone, and yet no one.

“Calm down, Jagger,” Graham grunted as he released him. “Calm down and get Grey out of here.”

“This piece of paper came from my place. It was in my f*cking house!” Jagger hissed at Graham, shoving the vows in his face. “You know I wouldn’t do this shit to her, now tell me how this got here. Tell me who took this!” he yelled back toward the street. Jagger bent into my open car door and took my chin between his fingers, his eyes were wild and his voice was harsh. “That is not Ben, Grey. Whoever it is, is sick and twisted, but it’s not him. Okay?”

I exhaled roughly and nodded my head once.

Everything about him softened as he continued looking at me. “I need to hear you say it. I need to know you believe it,” he whispered, pressing his lips softly to mine. “It’s not him, baby.”

“It’s not Ben,” I finally choked out, and Jagger released a ragged breath as he moved his hands to cradle my face, holding me close to him. “You had the vows?” I asked shakily. “W-why . . . why would you?”

He moved back far enough to look at me better and shook his head slowly. “He’d been working on them at my mom’s place the week before the wedding. He kept them there because he knew you’d look for them at his parents’ house.”

A startled laugh escaped my lips, because I had looked so many times in the days leading up to the wedding.

“I didn’t know if you’d want to see them . . . after . . . but I knew you would hate me if I got rid of them. So I’ve just been holding on to them until you were ready. I knew one day you would ask about them. But they—I mean, they were hidden in my loft so you wouldn’t stumble upon them, Grey. I don’t understand. No one else goes in there . . .”

My eyes widened. “I’m not doing this!” I said quickly. “I’m not doing this to myself, I swear to God, Jag, I’m not!”

“No, baby, no. That’s not what I was saying, I know you wouldn’t. Someone cruel is doing this, and I promise you I’m going to find out who. Okay?”

I nodded and he pressed a firm kiss to my lips.

“I need to get you out of here. Where do you want to go? Do you still want to come to my place, or do you want to go to your parents’ house?”

My mouth opened to say my parents’, but I quickly shut it. Part of me screamed that I’d just seen the vows Ben had been preparing for our wedding, and now I was betraying him by being with his best friend. But I realized that is what the person who stole the copy of the vows was trying to do; they were trying to separate me from Jagger. They were trying to make me take ten steps back in my healing from Ben’s death.

“Yours,” I whispered.

“All right. Let’s get you into the passenger seat, I’ll drive you over there.”

“What about your—”

“We can pick up my car later, it’s fine where it is. Just let me drive you.”

I don’t remember the drive to the warehouse, or going inside. Actually, I don’t remember much of that day at all except the fear of getting another message and cringing every time my phone went off. And most of all, wondering what Ben would say about us if he were here.





Chapter 10

Jagger

August 6, 2014



“I DON’T KNOW what you’re seeing, but that is not a dinosaur.” Glancing down at Grey when she giggled, I squinted at her, then looked closely into her gold eyes. “Are you stoned?”

“Shut up, Jag.” She pushed against my chest and kept one hand there to lightly trail her nails against my skin. “That is totally a T. rex! You’re just looking at it upside down.”

I looked back up at the clouds in the sky, and shook my head. “That’s not an upside-down T. rex either.”

Her free hand splashed water up at me, and I laughed. “Babe, seriously, if anything, that’s a tree.”