Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(113)

But then he realized it was lips.

And the hand at his stomach lowered down, landing near his crotch and honing in, and she was gripping, but she grabbed at his thigh instead and squeezed.

The pain radiated through him, stopping him from pulling away from the fake kiss. She’d pressed onto an area he’d been kicked in last night. The sharp sensation ripped through his system, the jolt intensifying by the voices over top of one another. To stop himself from falling on top of Danielle, he reached out, gripping at her biceps strongly to prop himself up.

This had him leaning into her unwanted kiss instead of away, but he was about to break his teeth on hers at the same time. He split his lip with the act, a slice across his upper lip creating a new pain on top of a bruise that had been developing there.

There was a hushed moment then. Or perhaps his ears ceased input the moment he broke away, ripping himself from Danielle before she could do any more and then shoving her, probably more forcefully than he meant. That was the last straw. No more...He’d get the info from Marie another way. She had to know this was over the line...

But his attention drew to the other side of the room. Sang, with Jessica, standing just inside the room.

Jessica didn’t appear at all surprised. The guys were behind them. Lips were moving but with all that was going on; Nathan didn’t understand any of the words. His ears filled with ringing alarm, confusion from the pain and sudden shock.

It was Sang’s face that he locked in on.

Frozen.

Horrified.

Danielle was screaming at the boys and they were yelling back. Marie was backing off with the phone.

But Sang stood, wide eyed, swaying a bit where she was. Her face pale.

She turned, slowly, and Gabriel reached for her.

Only she put a hand up to him, warding him off, as she went for the front door in a jog.

Nathan tripped over Danielle as he started to go after her. Suddenly time returned to a normal pace.

Sang was gone and out the door before he could get to her.





Aftershock




Gabriel ran after Sang as she left. But Nathan couldn’t get to her because of everyone else in the way, including Victor, coming up to him to block him from going.

“Your lip,” he said.

“Fuck my lip,” Nathan said. He turned his fury onto Danielle.

This was her fault. Sang saw something without context and left, probably crazy out of her mind, and after everything that’d happened. He needed to go explain it to her.

With the others blocking the way to the front, Nathan grabbed his hoodie, and put it on as he threw open the sliding glass door and ran out.

Victor was calling out behind him but remained with the girls. Good. Someone else could deal with their crazy antics. He’d done enough.

He should have known Danielle would try something like that. It’d be just like her to time Sang and Jessica coming in the door in that moment.

Is that why she was taking so long? He had to wonder if this wasn’t the plan all along. Either revenge on Sang or jealousy or something horrible.

And he fell for it.

All because Danielle knew way too much. He wondered if they even had a name. Maybe Marie didn’t know anything, like Sang guessed. Danielle just made something up to get whatever she wanted.

Nathan started running first toward Kota’s house, but he realized quickly she wouldn’t go there.

Where would she go? Not back to the Sorenson house. She ran out front to the street. The woods on the other side perhaps?

Just in case, he ran to the bend in the curb, looking down the road.

He spotted Gabriel at the trailer behind the diner. He disappeared inside and the door closed.

Nathan ran that direction. At the diner, he slowed as a truck almost ran him over trying to get into the back of the lot, the big truck that made the food delivery. The driver honked at him a few times.

He probably looked insane, but he didn’t care. He dodged the truck and ran at the trailer.

Once he was on the stoop, he paused, his nerves rattling, ready with an explanation of how Danielle had tricked him.

He’d let it go too far.

It was his fault.

He tried to open the door and found it locked. He checked his pockets, no keys. He left them behind.

He knocked. “Let me in,” he said.

“Not now!” Gabriel said. “Go away.”

Nathan grabbed the door handle, shook it hard and rattled the door doing so. “Let me in! I need to talk to her!”

“Stop!” Gabriel said.

Stop? Why?

Or did he not understand, either? Was he with the others, mad at him for trying to help Sang by going to Lily before? He knew what really happened. Won’t he help him explain?

He tried the door again, and this time, he lifted the handle as high as he could and dropped it down, which sometimes allowed the locking mechanism to catch on locked doors.

It worked and the door opened.

But Gabriel blocked his way. His eyes were big, wild and his teeth bared.

“I said don’t come in!” he cried out. “Don’t you fucking listen?” He blocked the door with his body, trying to shove Nathan out.

“I need to talk to her!” He continued to press. “Let me in.”

“I’ve got her,” he said. “I’m not the one that royally fucked up.”