Branded(60)

“Oh, Jesus. Oh, my God,” he sobs, running his hands through his hair over and over as he stares at the wreckage.

“It just looks bad because they had to take the roof off,” I tell him stupidly. Shit, he’s used the Jaws of Life enough times in his life as a fireman and he’s seen what an accident that bad does to the people inside.

A cop who is assessing the damage to all the vehicles and checking the road for skid marks walks in front of us and crouches down to look under Finnley’s car.

“Any ideas on how this happened?” I ask him as he makes notes on a pad, hoping he can give Collin some peace of mind before we head to the hospital.

“Can’t really confirm anything until the vehicles are cleared,” he mutters over his shoulder.

“Best estimated guess. My fiancé was in this car,” Collin growls angrily.

The cop sighs, standing up to face us. “The driver of this one definitely caused the accident. Based on the noticeably absent skid marks, I’d say she ran right the red light without even tapping the breaks and the blue one over there t-boned her. I already spoke to the woman who was driving the third vehicle. She saw the accident happen, but was too close behind the guy driving this one to stop fast enough. Her car was the only one that left skid marks as she tried to slow down, but she still slammed into his back end.”

I thank the guy for the information and pull a zombie-like Collin to my truck as quickly as possible. As we head towards the hospital, I try calling Phina to give her a heads-up, but the call goes right to voicemail. I hope to God she’s holed up in her office instead of taking blood today. If she gets called down to the ER when Finnley comes in, she’s going to be a complete mess. Flipping the switch on my dashboard to turn on the emergency light bar on top of my work truck, I hit the gas and fly through every red light and intersection to get us to the hospital as fast as I can while Collin keeps his eyes closed and his head in his hands the entire way, most likely praying. If I were a religious man, I’d be doing some praying right about now, too. I try calling Jackson to tell him to keep Phina away from the ER until I can get there, but that call also goes to voicemail. I angrily throw my phone against the dashboard, cursing everyone who has a cell phone but never bothers to answer it.

Too many thoughts are running through my head and I don’t like any of them. Finnley is a good driver. How in the hell could she just run a light? Phina and I are being watched like hawks, so her father can’t get anywhere near us. What if it pissed him off enough that he decided to transfer his obsession over to someone else she cares about?





“Are you whistling?” Suzy asks in amusement as we head to the ER.

I immediately stop and then smile.

“Huh¸ I guess I was.”

I’ve been smiling like a lovesick fool all damn morning, and now I’ve started whistling catchy tunes like a fucking Disney princess. Even though the threat of my father still looms over my head, I can’t help but be happy. DJ sent me a text on his way to work that said I can’t wait to have naked playtime with you again, and I’ve pulled it out and read it about a hundred times. He even used a smiley face emoticon. A fucking smiley face! I’m in my own little bubble of happiness and not even the last secret I’ve kept hidden from him can mar that. I’ll take it one day at a time and I’ll ease him into it. Now that I’ve opened the floodgates and started being honest with him, explaining what it was like living with my father and showing him the proof of that life, I know I’ll have the strength to talk to him about everything else when the time is right. I’ll explain to him that he’s the reason I no longer feel the need to burn myself. His love and his belief in me make that need a thing of the past. I feel like I can face anything as long as I have him by my side.

“Where’s your guard dog?” Suzy asks as we get into the elevator and I press the button for the first floor.

I didn’t really want anyone at the hospital knowing my business, but it was hard to hide the fact that I had a constant shadow in the form of a police officer. I told her the absolute minimum, just that I had gotten a few weird notes at home and the police wanted to keep an eye on me.

“He had to go to the bathroom. He’s going to meet us downstairs,” I tell Suzy as I let my mind wander back to DJ while we descend downstairs.

As soon as I can go back to my place, the first thing I’m going to do is throw away that fucking lighter and pack of cigarettes. I know doing that doesn’t mean I’m completely healed. I know I should probably go back to therapy or some shit, but that can come in time. For right now, I’m going to let DJ be the healing balm to my wounds, mentally and physically. We can spend more time together getting to know one another, I can show him with my words and actions that I do trust him and I can finally remove that last burrier between us, confident that he’ll understand and still love every part of me, fucked up or not.