With Every Heartbeat(153)

Sociopath, I reminded myself. But a sociopath with kidney failure?

I gripped my head with both hands, because oh yeah, my temples were throbbing like crazy.

“Sickness and disease is gross,” Ten said. “Stupid, careless people like me, like Whora, look at people with cancer and terminal illness with revulsion. They’re weak and repugnant and should be hidden away from society. To learn she’s one of them...” He laughed and shook his head, “She’s in denial, man. She doesn’t want people to know she’s not perfect. She wants to stay the fucking queen bee. She can’t have a flaw, or no one will follow her. So she hides it.”

“Even from me?” I had to ask. I felt sick to my stomach. Ten might’ve classified himself in that same category with her, but I knew he didn’t belong. He didn’t really see others that way, no matter how much he wanted us to think he did.

Sympathy filled his eyes, letting me know just how right I was. Cora wouldn’t have been sympathetic right then. But Ten was. “Especially from you,” he said.

I nodded and blew out a breath. “And Zoey?” I asked, my voice going hoarse because thinking about her keeping this from me hurt worse than knowing Cora had. And I knew she had to have known about it.

“She’s going to donate one of her kidneys for the transplant,” Ten answered quietly.

Closing my eyes, I bowed my head. “Of course she is.” I wouldn’t have expected anything less from her. And wow, now that I thought of it, that was why Cora had brought her here. I was sure Zoey had willingly volunteered the transplant; she probably thought it’d been her idea entirely. But Cora had orchestrated the whole thing because she knew Zoey, and she knew what Zoey would offer.

How had Cora phrased it? Zoey will do anything for me, because I’m like, I don’t know, her god, I guess.

Everything made so much sense now. All the times Zoey had been so guilty around me, unable to divulge Cora’s secret, knowing it would probably impact my relationship with her, because let’s face it...if I’d known Cora was going through what she was going through, I never would’ve dumped her, faithless whore or not. It just wasn’t in my chemical makeup to be that cruel. And Zoey had known that, because she would’ve done the same exact thing if she’d been in my shoes.

Cora had been right; Zoey and I were the same.

I pushed to my feet.

All three guys watching me warily jumped as if they expected me to start raging and tearing the room apart or something.

“So, what’re you going to do?” Noel asked.

“I’m going over there and getting Zoey’s things out of that apartment. She might be donating Cora a kidney, but that doesn’t mean she has to live with her another day. I’m getting her as far away from that crazy, lying bitch as possible.”

“Man, you don’t think she’s still going to cough up a kidney, do you?” Ten asked incredulously. “Even after tonight?”

I nodded. “Yes. She will.” Because I would if I were her. “You guys coming with me, or not? It’ll probably take a couple trips to move all her things out.”





“That was Noel.”

Aspen’s voice in the other room made me sit up. Caroline had tucked me into her bed about half an hour ago. Then she settled in next to me and booted up a movie on her laptop. She was all about romantic comedies of the eighties. But tonight, I just didn’t care if Baby had been left in a corner or not. I couldn’t concentrate on anything except the ringing of the phone a couple minutes earlier, or Aspen when she appeared in the doorway to wave Caroline into the hall for a hushed conversation.

I shoved the sheet off me and hurried to the door to listen in on them.

“Did Quinn finally make it home?” Caroline asked.

Closing my eyes, I held my breath and waited to hear Aspen’s response.

“Yeah. And they’re headed over to Cora’s apartment right now to—”

“No!” I yelled, leaping into the hall. “He can’t.”

Quinn couldn’t hurt Cora, no matter what.

“Zoey!” Aspen covered her heart. “You scared me. I didn’t think you were—”

“We have to stop him.” I grabbed Caroline’s arm and started tugging her away. “He can’t touch Cora. He can’t hurt her.”

“Zo—” She tried to resist, but I was having none of it.

“We have to go.”

So, we went. Aspen stayed home with Noel’s sleeping younger brothers. But Caroline drove me to Cora’s apartment.

“There’s Oren’s truck,” she murmured when we pulled into the parking garage.