Secondhand Heart (22 page)

I stopped short at the door, my hand in midair to knock. I realized when I heard Ashley’s voice, screeching and sobbing. I hadn’t seen her at the table with her friends.

We were way too late.

“You were the best thing that ever happened to me!” Ashley sobbed. “Why don’t you want me anymore?”

“You kicked me out.” Cam’s voice was even, almost robotic. How did everyone else in my life have the knack of keeping their shit together when they got upset? I freaked out within seconds, and always looked like a jackass.

“I didn’t mean forever.” she sniffled, too loudly. That must have been sexy. “I just wanted a break.”

“Jesus,” Bree whispered. “What a spoiled, delusional brat. Should we break the door down SWAT team style or what?”

I shook my head. “Give it another second.”

“I didn’t want a break,” Cam said, still calm. “You walked out on me in the worst time in my life. And then I realized I didn’t miss you.”

“How can you say that!” Something in the office broke into pieces it wasn’t supposed to be in. “You’re torturing me with that whale.”

That was my cue. I still knocked on the door, so it wouldn’t appear like we’d been standing outside, listening.

“Come in.”

“Hi, honey,” I declared, syrupy sweet, and went right over to Cam and kissed his cheek. He put his arm around me, almost defensively. God only knows what that crash had been seconds before. Whatever anyone had been saying behind my back about the whole Me-Cam-Ashley thing, I knew just by the way he held me with his ex-wife practically dissolving into a puddle like the Wicked Witch before our eyes, I had nothing to worry about. “I was just coming in to tell you that I talked to Ashley at lunch, but it looks like she beat me to it.”

“Shut up!” She sneered at me, taking a step towards me with her arms outreached. Jesus, what the hell had she done to herself in the last hour? Her eyes were the ugliest red I’d ever seen, like she’d squeezed tomato juice into them, and she was visibly shaking. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anyone that kind of fucked up before.

Bree grabbed Ashley before she could get to me. “If you touch her, I’ll kill you.”

“Girls. Enough,” Cam finally yelled. “Ashley, get the fuck out of here. Now! The next time you set foot in here, I’ll call the police.”

“So what.” Ashley wobbled, still in Bree’s grasp. “I don’t care about the police.”

“The tabloids will get a hold of your mug shot, again, and you’ll look like a fool,” Cam continued.

“You’d really fuck with my TV show?” Ashley bared her teeth, like a rabid animal. Shit, we didn’t need to call the police, we needed to call an ambulance. This chick was going to start foaming at the mouth any second. She had way more to be concerned about then some show.

“You’re doing it to yourself.” Cam pulled me in tighter. “Go.”

“Fine, I’ll go.” Ashley pulled away from Bree, stumbling. “I’m going to make you sorry you ever met me, Cam Hunter.”

“I already am.”

Ashley bumped against the door frame on her way out, and slammed the door. Cam dropped his head onto mine. “Boy, am I glad to see you.” He turned me into him so he could kiss me.

“We saw her at lunch, and she threatened us there,” I told him. “So we wanted to come here and warn you.”

“Wait a minute. You had lunch somewhere other than here?” Cam raised his eyebrow and looked back and forth between me and Bree. “I should make you go explain yourself to Marcos.”

“It was her idea.” I pointed at Bree.

“You asked me in front of The Blue Eyed Crab!” Bree threw her hands up. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Okay, new rule. No one eats anywhere but The Lonely Heart Saloon. I don’t care if you just want Cheez Its.” Cam had a hard time holding in his laugh. “You get them from me.”

“Yes, sir.” I jumped back as I said it, and Bree raised her eyebrows. She knew I used to say that all the time to Jordan.

Cam let me go, and perched on the desk. “Actually, it all worked out. Seeing you sent her over the edge. She’s been playing the poor me thing, and camping out here, not really doing anything. So I felt kind of bad for her.” My heart sank. “But her coming in here and losing her shit, I finally had the balls to get rid of her.”

I had to wonder if he would have had those same balls if I hadn’t walked in in the middle of her tantrum, but the more I doubted Cam, the more power I gave Ashley over our relationship. I just needed to convince myself I was being strong, not stupid.

“When are you going to make this divorce final?” Bree asked, she must have had the same doubts about the scenario I did.

“I’ve signed my half of the paperwork. I did it months ago.” Cam raked his fingers through his hair. “The lawyers can’t deliver the papers to her, since she’s never at our old house, and I’d have to go to California to get a court date, because that’s where we filed. She is making this as difficult as humanly possible.”

“This is why I’m never getting married.” Bree shook her head, sinking into one of the seats in front of Cam’s desk.

“Oh, bullshit.” I called shenanigans. “Like if things got serious with this Head Start guy, you’d say no if he asked you. I don’t believe that for a second, because—“

“State pensions are sexy!” Both of us said at the same time, and we all laughed. One of my aunts was a chronic dater, even in her fifties, and it was one of her favorite sayings.

“I thought I’d broken my streak of crazy girlfriends,” Cam said, and now I understood how he could put up with my cold feet. My crazy was so tame compared to what he was used to dealing with. “And I can’t get rid of the one I was stupid enough to marry.”

“Has she ever been like that before?” I asked. “She was fucked up.”

“Oh yeah. That wasn’t anything new.”

“Shouldn’t someone be taking care of her?” I couldn’t believe I was actually concerned about this girl. “Are her friends really friends? I mean, she’s going to hurt herself.”

“Forgive me if this sounds awful, but I’m so past the point of caring.” Cam frowned. “I have to totally shut myself off from her, or she’ll sink her hooks back in to me.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. Not one bit.

“T
here’s been an accident,” Shauna ran in to the office. “In the parking lot. Someone got hit by a car.”

“Holy shit.” The color drained from Cam’s face and his body went rigid before he ran past Shauna, down the hallway. Shauna stood in the middle of the office, staring at me and Bree.

“Is it bad?” I asked. Stupid. Like it could be good.

Shauna hesitated. “I haven’t seen it, but from what people are saying, it doesn’t sound good.”

I glanced at Bree, exhaled sharply, and started to leave the office. Shauna grabbed my arm, startling me. Her eyes were so wide, and her bottom lip quivered. “Someone said something about Ev.”

“Oh my God.” I pulled my arm away from her and starting running.

“Daisy!” Shauna called after me. “I’m not sure! I just had to tell you.”

The police and ambulance had already arrived, and I could only see the top of the emergency vehicles over the crowd of people that had gathered. Someone in the middle of the crowd wouldn’t stop screaming. High pitched, and sounding suspiciously like Ashley had when she was alone in the office with Cam. Just a whole lot crazier. Like that was possible.

I wondered if she’d seen whatever happened or if she was a part of it.

But what the hell was Ev doing here? Shauna had to be wrong. She had to be. Ev didn’t even have a car. And she had a suburb allergy on weekdays.

“Come on.” Bree pulled my arm. My feet didn’t respond right away, she dragged me forward like you’d see in a cartoon.

“Sorry, ladies.” A police officer held up a hand to stop us, not in a douchebaggy way, more to warn us that we just probably didn’t want to see whatever was coming. “This is an active crime scene.”

“You have to let us through!” Bree cried. “We need to know what happened.”

I squeezed her hand. Cops made Bree nervous. Too many baby daddies and boyfriends with rap sheets tended to have that effect on a person. “Calm down, Bree. Officer, someone said my sister might be there.”

The words sounded surreal coming out of my mouth.

“Oh.” He frowned, then nodded at his partner. “Come this way, near the cruiser. We’re keeping this spot clear so we can get in and out.” He brought us to a spot near the open door of the car where I could see everything.

Too much everything.

“Daisy! Are you okay?” Bree fell beside me, I’d sunk to my knees. I ripped them open on the way down. I squeezed my eyes closed to try to make what I saw go away. I felt Bree’s arm rubbing my back, and I concentrated on the motion. Up, down. Comforting. Good. Love. The blood seeping out of my skin, just a trickle, the sting of the dirt in the wounds. Real. But Bree was crying too, her body rose and fell with sobs against mine. None of it took us out of the scene happening in front of us.

My hands covered my eyes as I brought my head up, I needed all the protection I could get. Opening my eyes felt like pulling flesh from the bone. The shiny silver Mercedes still sat in the middle of the crime scene, splattered in blood.

Ev’s blood.

My sister lay on the ground in front of the car, a coppery dark crimson pool surrounding her and the paramedics working on her. Her mouth was frozen open, her eyes shut. Long blond hair fanned out in a pile of gore.

“She’s pregnant!” I screamed to everyone and no one. I tugged on the officer’s pant leg and looked up at him. “She’s pregnant. The girl who got hit.”

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered under his breath. “That’s your sister?”

I nodded, then looked back to see the paramedics slide the stabilizer under Ev. Her paisley dress was mostly brown with bloodstains, and she only had on one sandal. The officer spoke into his walkie-talkie, hopefully telling this really fucking important thing to whoever needed to know. Whoever could make it stop.

I cringed against Bree’s body as they covered her with a sheet, but then felt flooded with relief when they didn’t cover her face. Ev was still alive. Mangled, but alive.

The screaming came back to the forefront. It intensified as the paramedics loaded the ambulance, and Ashley came into sight, pulling at one of the paramedics’ arms as he tried to help load Ev into the vehicle. Cam came quickly behind her, pulling her away from the workers and wrapping her up in his arms, trying to comfort her.

What the fuck happened? I kept blinking, trying to make this nightmare go away. I wanted to open my eyes and see the ocean, like I did from the giant window across from Cam’s bed every morning. But I seemed to be really in this parking lot, and this was really happening.

“We have to go,” I said to Bree, words difficult to form. “With Ev.”

“I know.” But she didn’t move, she just stared at the abandoned pool of blood in front of the car, with tears streaming down her face. I couldn’t say anything. We didn’t really need words right now. “I’m not sure I can drive.”

We were still huddled together, the asphalt scalding my bare, bloody calves. I couldn’t let go of her. What if I did and something happened to her, too? But we had to get to the fucking hospital.

My mom and dad. Someone had to tell them. Fuck.

Cam wrestled with Ashley beside the carnage. She fought him as hard as she could, her body bucking and flailing against his. His eyes caught mine. His anger and pain ripped me in a place I didn’t know was still whole. I expected him to let her go, to come to me because God damn it, I needed him more than that awful bitch did right now. It wasn’t her sister that had her guts splattered all over the parking lot. Her sister’s baby.

But he didn’t come. He stayed with her.

The last piece of me shattered like someone sucked the air out of the universe.

I needed to get the fuck out of here.

I tugged one more time on the policeman’s pant leg. This time, he crouched down to my level and put his hand softly on my arm.

“We need to go to the hospital.” Bree found the strength to actually speak. All I could do was point in the direction that would bring us there.

The officer nodded. “I’ll take you there.”

This man was an angel. But why was he the one helping us, when the man I fucking lived with wasn’t?

Ev needed me. I couldn’t worry about Cam and Ashley. Right now, they deserved each other.