Lust (The Elite Seven #1)(3)

By the time I make it through the brush, I’m a mess. Mud cakes my boots and jeans, and I may as well not be wearing a shirt. My dark hair flops over my eyes, blinding me.

Mom’s going to owe me for this shit.

I cross the street, and my stomach knots when I don’t see Robbie’s silhouette under the lamppost where he’s supposed to wait.

Shit.

Scanning the parking lot, I look for any sheltered areas he might have taken refuge, but there’s nowhere he could be.

Jogging over to the building, I grab the handle on the door and give it a tug, but it’s locked and there are no lights coming from inside.

Mom had warned me this was the last class of the night and they lock the building up so Robbie would be outside with no way of getting back in.

I’m a cunt.

There’s a pounding in my chest—a vibrating, nervous energy trying to rip from under my skin with each passing second he’s not materialising in front of me.

Where are you?

The sky darkens with each fleeting breath I take, my body jolting with the thunder as it rips through the night.

Unease settles in my chest, and panic races up my throat as I call out for him.

“Robbie!” I shout, water spraying from my lips.

Nothing.

“Robbie,” I try again, my tone more urgent. I pat down my pockets for my cell, but already know I left it in the car. Fuck. Fuck.

The lights from the emergency vehicles taunt me through the trees, then someone emerging through the same brush I just came from catches my eye and I take off in their direction.

I come to a slow walk when I see the silhouette is too large to be Robbie.

It’s the officer from before.

What the hell?

My car’s not even in anyone’s way, and finding my brother is more important. Let the jerk give me a ticket.

“What’s your name, son?” he asks, coming to a stop in front of me.

“Rhett. Rhett Masters, why?” I bark, anger and fear eating away at me.

He looks around me to the building where Robbie should be, then back to me.

“He’s not here,” I tell him before he gets suspicious that I was making shit up.

Where are you, Robbie?

“Ok, I need you to listen to me and prepare yourself for what I’m going to tell you.” His eyes hold mine with an intensity that makes every hair on my body rise.

Thud.

My head swims, and there’s this knowledge taking over my mind I can’t possibly predict, but my head turns to the emergency chaos happening through the trees and I stagger backwards.

Robbie.

“Wait. Wait, no, no.” I shake my head, holding out my arm to him. I’m not prepared to hear what I know he’s going to tell me.

I just fucking know he’s going to say something bad.

The darkness of the impending night wraps its angry fist around my throat and begins to squeeze.

“The accident…a truck swerved off the road and hit a boy.”

Stop.

Don’t fucking say it.

“We believe him to be around eleven or twelve years old.”

Shut up. I can’t hear this.

“He’s wearing a Karate Gi.”

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Robbie.

Thick fog begins stirring inside my mind, making me woozy. My stomach clenches, and I dry heave.

It’s not Robbie. This isn’t real.

No.

No fucking way.

I try to tell my mind it’s not factual, but I feel the truth constricting my heart.

Robbie tried to walk because I left him here and now he’s pinned by a truck to a tree.

“He didn’t make it,” the officer says, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry, son.”

No.

My head shakes back and forth manically, and I bat his hand off me.

“He died on impact. He wouldn’t have felt a thing.”

Take that back.

It’s not Robbie.

“Can you come with me? We need to contact your parents.” He makes a move with his hand, but I step away.

No.

Shut the fuck up. Stop touching me.

My legs steady themselves, becoming solid once more beneath me instead of jelly, and I run.

Before I even realize it, I’ve cleared the trees and I’m at the truck.

Thud… Thud….

“Whoa, what the hell? Move away now,” someone barks, but my knees fail me.

“Robbie,” I yell, tears clogging my throat and acid burning in my chest.

It’s then I see it—his backpack peeking up just over the bumper—his brown hair soaked to his head that’s slumped to the side.

Robbie. My baby brother…

Arms and hands grab at me, but I pull away, stumbling back and falling on my ass to the muddy ground beneath me. My heart is going to burst through my chest, tears burn my eyes, and vomit chases my soul, vacating my body.

“Get him away,” voices shout, but everything is threatening to fade out.

Mother Nature tears the sky apart above, mourning along with me for what I’ve lost.

My arms reach out, grasping air. “Robbie,” I choke.

It’s my fault.

It’s my fucking fault.





Nothing is real.

Nothing feels solid anymore.