The Wright Mistake(70)

Twenty-Eight



Austin


“Austin! Austin!” a voice shouted over me.

“Fuck!” someone else cried.

My mind was fuzzy. Everything fucking hurt. My ribs, my face, my head. God, I felt like my head was about to rip in fucking two.

“Whaaaa…” I slurred.

“Oh, fuck, he’s okay,” the voice said.

I opened a puffy eye and saw the person standing over me. “Heidi?”

“Yeah, Austin, I’m here. We’re all here. We called the cops and an ambulance. They should be here soon. What the fuck happened to you?”

“Jules,” I got out. Then, I spat, and blood landed in a wad on the floor.

Floor? Hadn’t I been on the pavement? I looked around and saw that I was back inside Flips, lying on top of the bar. They must have carried me in here without me knowing. That meant, I must have blacked out.

“What happened with Julia?” Heidi asked frantically. “Is she okay?”

“Austin, man, take it slow. Tell us everything you know.”

I looked up into the face of my brother. “Landon.”

“Yeah, I’m here. Patrick and Emery are here, too. Jensen and Morgan are on their way.”

“Don’t tell Sutton,” I muttered. She’d been through enough.

“Okay,” Landon said hesitantly. Guilt swept his features. “Why don’t you tell us what happened. Is Julia okay?”

I winced and tried to sit up. But everything ached, and I crashed back onto the top of the bar.

“Whoa. Take it easy,” Heidi said.

I could see she was worried. Everything felt so far away. I tried to grasp on to what had happened outside, but it kept slipping through my fingertips. Suddenly, nausea hit me over the head. I turned my head and threw up all over the bar floor.

“Fuck,” Heidi groaned, turning away.

“That looks like a concussion. Fuck,” Landon said. “Sorry, Peter.”

“Not the first time. Not the last.”

I closed my eyes and tried to remember all the details. I didn’t know why everything kept slipping away. Is it the alcohol? Did I have a concussion? Fuck!

Then, it hit me.

And my blood chilled.

“Dillon,” I spat.

Heidi froze. “Julia’s ex-boyfriend?”

“He’s Evan.”

“Um, what?” Heidi asked.

“Evan is Dillon, and Dillon is Evan. Evan’s been my friend, but he’s not. He’s—” I cut off as a wave of disorientation hit me.

“Isn’t Evan the guy you go to the gym with?” Landon filled in for me.

“He’s Dillon. He took her.”

“Evan or Dillon?” Landon asked, clearly confused.

“Oh no,” Heidi gasped. “I think I get it. Dillon has been pretending to be Evan. And he took Julia tonight?”

“Who is Dillon?” Landon asked.

“Long story. We need to be out there, looking for her. We need the cops out there, looking for her. She’s in a lot of trouble.”

Heidi rushed off to go talk to Emery and Patrick. I slowly eased into a sitting position against Landon’s better judgment.

“Did this Dillon-slash-Evan guy do this to you?” Landon asked.

I nodded and regretted it. I cradled my head and winced at the pain. “Yeah, he did. He beat the shit out of me, and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get to Julia. And she left with him. I don’t know what she was thinking. We need to find her, man.”

“We will,” Landon assured me.

But I could see that he had no clue how to do that. For once, the Wrights didn’t have a plan. We didn’t know how to fix this. My girlfriend, the love of my life, was out there, somewhere, with a psychopath, and I couldn’t do a damn thing. I couldn’t even walk yet.

If I hadn’t been drunk, then none of this would have happened. If I’d told Julia everything, then she wouldn’t have been pissed at me. If she could have trusted me with her story, maybe I never would have fallen for Evan’s bullshit.

Instead, I’d stepped right into his trap. We’d done exactly what he wanted. And, now, he had Julia.

I couldn’t stand for that.

I might have messed up, but she hadn’t left of her own free will. She’d done it to save me. After what she had told me about Dillon, I knew that she wouldn’t have gone willingly. She hated him. And that wasn’t about to change in a matter of hours. Even if we weren’t together, she wasn’t going to run back to the guy she’d run from in the first place.

That meant, there was only one course of action. I had to get out of this fucking bar, and I had to get my girl back.





Twenty-Nine



Julia


I’d saved Austin’s life.