Stolen Course (Wrecked and Ruined #2)(79)

“Back it up, Emma,” I say coldly.

“Shut it up, Caleb,” she responds, challenging me and blocking my view.

Casey pulls in a deep breath and bares it all. “Sarah thought she could drive but pulled over at a gas station when she realized she couldn’t. I had a friend drop me off, but I was all f*cked up.”

“What the f*ck?” I say as adrenaline rushes through my system. How the f*ck did I miss this all these years? “Where did you go? Stephens would have seen you.”

“I wasn’t there when Stephens showed up.”

“Well where the f*ck did you go? You couldn’t just disappear!” I roar, stepping close, but Emma stops me with a hand to the chest.

“Please calm down,” she says, but there is damn near nothing that can ease the rush of my emotions right now. Not even Emma.

“Where?” I demand again in a lower voice.

No one speaks up. They all just stand frozen, and I suddenly realize, judging by their faces, that this is about to get a hell of a lot worse.

“Eli was first on the scene,” Emma answers when it’s obvious Casey isn’t going to.

My ears begin to ring as that night starts to unfold in my mind. All of the missing pieces finally click together to form one perfectly devastating puzzle.

Eli Tanner, one of my best friends, has held the answers to what really happened that night all along. He sat by and watched me running myself ragged while investigating it for years. He watched Sarah fall apart from the grief and the hatred eat me alive. He stood quietly while Brett watched his wife repeatedly try to kill herself over something she’d had nothing to do with. Casey may have been driving, but Eli could have saved us all years ago.

“I’m going to kill him,” I growl through clenched teeth.

And in this moment, I mean those words with my entire being.





“WAIT! PLEASE!” I yell as Caleb turns to stalk out of the apartment.

He doesn’t even acknowledge that I’m following him as he strides down the sidewalk to his truck.

“Damn it, Caleb! Stop!” I slip on the ice while trying to keep up with him. I’m not even sure he can hear me as rage controls of his body.

He jerks open his door and climbs in his truck. I rush around to the passenger’s side and climb in too. I absolutely refuse to let him do this alone.

“Get out,” he says calmly, starting his truck.

“No, I’m going with you. You are not confronting Eli about this alone.”

“Get. Out. I don’t want you anywhere near this. You’re not f*ckin’ going with me.”

“Then you will have to physically remove me from this truck, because hell will freeze over before I get out. Cuss, scream, say hateful words—whatever you need to do. But I am not budging.”

He looks over at me with wild eyes. He’s looking right at me, but his eyes never actually connect with mine. They’re glazed over as if he were drunk, flashing around the truck, probably at the same speed his mind is racing.

“Whatever.” He finally relents and peels out of the parking lot.

My only saving grace in all of this is that Eli lives a good thirty minutes away. I have a little bit of time to try to talk Caleb down.

“He was trying to protect her.”

“Fuck him,” he snaps back at me.

“She was all f*cked up, and he was trying to protect her. You would have done the same for me. Or Manda.”

His eyes swing to me. “I never would have left two dying woman on the side of the road. I’m sorry, Emma. Not. Even. For. You.”

I cringe at the truth in his words, and he goes back to silently driving.

I’m not defending Eli. What he did was vile. He silently watched his friends crumble just to cover his own ass. That’s not a man, even if what he was doing was out of love for Casey. This whole situation is f*cked up, but something or someone has to defuse Caleb before he explodes on Eli.

“He thought they were both dead,” I whisper, but it only serves to fuel his fire.

“Well he’s a f*cking idiot then. It doesn’t take a genius to check for a pulse. You’re not talking me out of this, so please be quiet. He watched all of us fall apart for years without saying a God damn word. Casey at least had the decency to take off and disappear from our lives. Eli has sat in my f*cking house pretending to be my friend while keeping this secret. I’m going to kill him!” He bangs his hand on the steering wheel, pushing his truck even faster.

“Please slow—”

Before I can even get another word out, he hits an invisible patch of ice, causing the truck to swerve.

“Caleb!” I scream before the silence takes over.





“EMMA,” I croak out as the ringing in my ears rouses me back to consciousness.

I open my eyes to find my truck lying on the driver’s side. I’m resting against the crushed glass from my window. I painfully turn my head to the side to find Emma hanging lifelessly, suspended by her seatbelt.

“Emma!” I scream, reaching for her, but I can’t quite touch her. I fight against my seatbelt, desperate to get to her. Oh God. “Emma, please. Hang on, sweetheart. I’m coming. I’m coming,” I chant as I struggle to get the damn restraint off.

It’s f*cking stuck, and I’m pinned to my seat while Emma might as well be dying inches away from me. She hasn’t moved, and her head is hanging at an unnatural angle. Bile threatens to rise into my throat as I look down at her pregnant stomach being pulled snug by the seatbelt. I’m going to lose them both. I can feel it. The cycle of my life is about repeat itself.