Fallen Crest Forever (Fallen Crest Series Book 7)(34)

“Are you sure?” I heard Taylor ask as I came around the doorway.

Logan leaned against the counter in sweats. His arms were crossed over his chest, and Taylor rested against his side.

“Do they know what happened?” she said into the phone.

I mouthed to Logan, “Who is that?”

He mouthed back, “Her dad.”

I sat down on a chair that was already pulled out from the table and slid my hands under my legs to keep them warm. Then I waited.

Taylor nodded as she listened. After a few minutes, she sighed into the phone. “Okay. Thanks for letting me know. Yeah. I love you, Dad.”

She hung up and didn’t say anything at first. Her shoulders slumped forward as she continued to hold the phone in her hand.

She sighed again. “That was my dad.”

Logan frowned.

I frowned. My heart beat faster, and I wet my lips. This wasn’t going to be good.

She still didn’t look at either of us. “He wanted me to know there had been a car accident. Someone from campus called him.”

I expected her to say her friend Jason’s name, or one of her other friends. Maybe even one of her relatives.

Then she looked at me. “Raelynn’s in the hospital. A drunk driver hit her car.”





Faith wasn’t at Monday’s practice.

Courtney told me the girls from the team had gone to visit Raelynn on Saturday. Taylor and I hadn’t been invited, but I didn’t know what we would’ve done if we had been. Taylor still had PTSD every time she visited hospitals, since she saw her mom gunned down in one. I completely understood that, but I still felt I needed to show up. So instead of Taylor, Logan went with me on Monday afternoon. Mason was at football. I wouldn’t see him till that evening anyways.

“Is this wrong?” Logan was almost bouncing next to me as we walked down the hallway. Our shoes scraped against the floor, and the stench of bleach and chemicals was thick in the air. “I’m a little excited to see if she’s really hurt or if she’s just faking. My bet’s on faking. This whole thing is a scam. They want to pin it on you somehow.”

I stopped and stared at him. “Are you joking? Please tell me you’re joking. You think this is a huge ploy?”

He frowned. “Uh, yeah. That bitch is crazy. I wouldn’t put it past her to ask her friend to sit in her car, then pay a drunk homeless guy to ram a truck into her. I bet she didn’t tell the homeless guy her friend was in there either.”

“That’s horrible.”

“Have we not met before?” He held out his hand, much like he had when we were going to the career counselor. “I’m Logan. I’m a jaded son of a bitch. I can’t technically call my mom a bitch, but I know Helen is one.” He wiggled his fingers. “And you are?”

I knocked his hand aside. “This isn’t funny, and stop introducing yourself to me. That joke’s getting old.”

He twisted around, looking up and down the hallway. “Who’s laughing? Not me.” He stared down at me, long and hard. “People have done worse shit to us. Fuck. If she did orchestrate this, at least it wasn’t your car. Remember Nate?”

Budd Broudou had once cut Nate’s brake lines, thinking they were Mason’s. Nate pulled out of the school parking lot and was T-boned by an oncoming truck. His recovery took weeks.

I didn’t know if Faith or Raelynn had orchestrated this, but I didn’t want to walk into Raelynn’s hospital room with that suspicion in mind. Too late, though. Logan said it, and now it was in my head. I pushed it to the back. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to be ecstatic to see me anyway, but I still wanted her to know I felt badly. I was just being a decent human being.

“You’ve got to be kidding?”

The contorted, half-gasped statement came from behind us. We turned to see Faith in the middle of the hallway. She had a Styrofoam cup in her hand, and the blood drained from her face. She had bags under her eyes and looked like she hadn’t slept in days.

“Get out.” A mangled growl erupted from the back of her throat. Her eyes blazed, and she moved toward us. “Out! Now!”

I frowned. “Why are you reacting like this?”

She took another step toward us. The liquid in her cup spilled out over her hand, but she didn’t seem to notice. She could only glare at me.

“Because for all I know, you paid someone to hit her. Did you have someone follow us home and then get her as she pulled out of my driveway? Was that how it went down?”

This was ridiculous. I held my hands up, shaking my head. “Has it occurred to you that maybe someone hit her by accident? That it really was a horrible, horrible accident?”