Watch Me Fall (Ross Siblings, #5)(84)
“I wouldn’t move if you want to keep that arm,” Ghost said conversationally. “This motherf*cker here rides bulls for fun. I doubt a sack of shit like you can throw him off.”
Jared couldn’t resist giving his arm an extra wrench to punctuate those words, thinking of Starla, thinking of her fear, her pain, her guilt, her shame…and Brian, lying in the hospital trying not to die when he should have been at home with his new family… Jared almost didn’t realize he was increasing the pressure until Max’s inane jabbering formed into words. “Okay, man, okay, okay! Stop, you’re breaking my f*cking arm—”
“Oh, it hurts?” Ghost asked conversationally, thrusting his face close to Max’s. “Did you think about how much it hurt when you stuck a knife in Brian’s f*cking back? Huh? Did you?”
“What was it for?” Jared demanded, barely recognizing his own voice. “Starla? She hates your goddamn guts. I picked her up when you threw her out of the car. If you wanted to kill the one she loves, *, you should’ve come for me.”
Except for his wild panting, Max was silent.
“Something tells me you wouldn’t have been too successful at that either,” Ghost said. He caught Jared’s eye. “You good?”
“I can stay here all night.”
“Let’s end this shit.” Ghost plucked his phone from his hoodie pocket and began to dial.
Chapter Twenty-five
Dawn streaked the sky by the time he trudged up his front steps sore and exhausted, but he barely noticed the colors or the still mist in the air. The police had come and hauled Max away for questioning, but Jared had little doubt there would be charges to follow—the guy was cracking. Apparently, he wasn’t such a badass after all; he’d been sobbing when they put him in the police car. Swat had been as meek as a kitten, swearing innocence about knowing Max was wanted. Ghost and Jared had hung around answering questions themselves and stoically enduring their ass chewing for taking matters into their own hands this way. In the end, they were released. It had been worth it.
Jared might have been imagining it, but he thought he’d seen a grim respect in Ghost’s eyes as they shook on a mission well accomplished and parted ways. If Ghost was a perceptive guy, he would’ve seen the same thing in Jared’s. Ghost had stood to lose a lot too because of Max’s stupidity. Hopefully, he would have some peace now—and having Macy at home waiting for him would certainly help with that.
Starla came running and threw herself into Jared’s arms as soon as he opened the door. He’d been texting her the events, but he hadn’t wanted her to come down there.
“Oh God!” she said, so soft in his arms and smelling of coffee and that peachy scent that was entirely Starla. “I’ve been watching from up here. I could see the flashing lights but not much else. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.”
He buried his face in her hair, his muscles shaking on the verge of collapse. Yeah, he might ride bulls for fun, but he’d held Max immobile for so long, had been so keyed up on the edge of bursting, he felt as if he could sleep for days. His dad would just have to forgive him again. No damn way was he going to work today.
“Are you okay?” she went on, pulling back to look at him and stroking his hair. She was beautiful. “Do you need anything? Name it.”
“A shower. Sleep.”
“I’ll start your shower. You relax.”
He couldn’t. Even when she led him to his bedroom and sat him on the bed. He listlessly pulled off his boots and shirt and watched her move around his bathroom, starting the shower, warming it up, getting towels from the cabinet. She came back to him smiling, but he couldn’t muster the will or the strength to return it from the deepest depths of his soul right now, no matter how far inside he reached.
Lifting his gaze to hers, he had but one question. “How?”
Starla’s jubilant expression began a slow fall. “How what?”
“That…him. How?”
She seemed to be struggling with some inner turmoil—maybe she was trying to convince herself he didn’t mean what she thought he meant.
Except he did. He held her gaze steadily while the slow dawn of understanding spread across her features and, with it, despair.
“What the f*ck, are you serious right now?”
All his exhaustion fled in a burst of rage. “I can’t even imagine you with someone like that, or hanging out in some of the places I’ve been tonight. He’s a goddamn drug dealer, Starla. Jesus! What the hell is your problem, getting hooked up with someone like him?”
“Don’t you do this to me right now,” she ground out, her voice trembling, her eyes like dark ice. She backed away several steps. “Not you too. I can deal with this shit from anybody else, but not you.”
“I have a family—” he yelled at her, surging to his feet, but she cut him off.
“Oh, f*cking good for you! I didn’t ask for you to take me in either, did I? You jumped up all knight-in-shining armor and did that on your own! You ran out in the middle of the night to find him yourself. What, do you think I do any of that shit he deals in?”
“Do you?”
“I can’t believe you would ask me that. I really can’t. Have I ever seemed high to you?”