Twisted(107)

How could he? From his question, he’d obviously believed Gray had been in the bedroom with her.

“He’s not here?” Nick didn’t appear to notice she was naked, which gave her enough time to wrap the sheet around herself toga-style. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know.” She rubbed her hand under her nose and rushed to the nightstand to grab her own phone.

It only took her a moment to discover her only missed calls were from Harper, who was wondering when she’d get her catering truck back—luckily she didn’t have a job today—and why Jazz had been under the mistaken impression that she wanted a kitten. Actually two kittens, since Jazz had foisted them onto Harper last night before hurrying back to the cabin with Gray.

“He hasn’t called me. Oh God, what time is it?” Jazz answered her own question by glancing at her phone. Past three in the afternoon. Fuck. She’d slept through the meeting with Lila. “I missed the meeting. We missed it.”

“Lila rescheduled until tomorrow. She had something come up.”

“But rehearsal—”

“Simon bagged on rehearsal today. Something about a scratchy throat. He probably can’t feel his legs after partying too hard last night and needed to sleep it off for a few more hours.”

Nick’s voice sounded too cheerful, as if he grasped that she was on the verge of losing it so he didn’t want to say anything to push her over the edge. Too fucking late.

“He said he’d be back hours ago and he’s not here. He didn’t call me. Did he call you?”

“Uh, no. Why would he?”

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t know.” She sat on the edge of the bed and sent off a quick text to Gray, trying not to panic. She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t reply. She’d known he wouldn’t.

Goddammit, she’d known this was going to happen. Even without fully grasping what this was, she’d felt it coming this morning even before he’d gotten the call that had taken him away from her.

“I didn’t say I love you back,” she said dully, staring at her silent phone. “He said it to me and I didn’t say anything back because I was pissed he wouldn’t tell me where he was going.” Eyes painfully dry, she lifted her head. “He went to score, didn’t he?”

Nick pushed a hand through his hair. “I don’t know.”

“You didn’t find out he was using the other night from Snake,” she said slowly, taking in the way his body stiffened degree-by-degree. “You’ve known for a while.”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it matters. Yes, it fucking matters!” She hurled her phone. It smacked against the wall and dropped to the floor. “You said we were friends, that you cared about me.”

“Christ, you’re naked and wearing his ring, but I’m still standing here with you. Doesn’t that fucking prove that I do?” he gritted out, pacing to the window.

She glanced down at her engagement ring and something inside her shattered, just broke in two. The sound that came out of her wasn’t human. She clutched her stomach and bent over, scarcely aware of him kneeling at her side to stroke her back.

“Jazz. Listen to me. Get dressed and we’ll figure this out.”

She shook her head, eyes so full she couldn’t see through the wall of tears. “No, no, no.”

She hurt so deeply that she couldn’t identify where all the pain was coming from. It seemed to originate both inside and outside of her body, as if hammers were pounding nails into her skin. Into soft tissue. Breathing was almost impossible over the lump in her throat. And her stomach. God. She felt violently sick, on the verge of throwing up everything she hadn’t eaten all day. Just retching until she purged all of the agony taking up space inside her.

“Dammit, you’re not going to break down on me. Do you hear me? Fuck it all, he’s fine. He better be, because I intend to fucking kill him myself for this stunt.”

Nick dragged her into his lap. All she could do was press her face into his shoulder and cling to his neck for everything she was worth.

“Y-you don’t understand. He promised me. He never lied, never. Something’s wrong. I feel it. Oh God, I’m going to be sick.” She tried to shift off his lap but got tangled in the sheet and fell on the rug, landing hard on her ass. Even that pain barely registered over all of the rest. “They could hurt him.” She stared blearily up at Nick. His helplessness poured over her, and she still couldn’t find it in herself to get it together. “He could be hurt, and I didn’t even tell him I love him.”