Two Blue Lines (Crossing The Line #1) (27 page)

The car picked up speed as my heartbeat accelerated in my ears, my fury riding my bloodstream like a drug, surging me forward.

I gripped the wheel, wishing I could get a grip in my head. My heart. Wishing an ounce of this pain would go away so I could breathe.

I couldn’t breathe.

No air.

I was choking. Suffocating on my own blinding, raging, agonizing, all-consuming wrath.

As I neared the last bend at the entrance of Jonah’s subdivision, I flexed my fingers, ignoring the ache from what would probably be bloody, swollen knuckles, and urged the car faster. I needed away. Where, I didn’t care right now.

Then, in less than a blink, a blur darted out into the street a few yards in front of me. As fast as I was going, I barely had time to react . . .

My heart stuffed in my throat, I slammed on the brakes with both feet, my tires skidding ominously, my car fishtailing as it came to a halt, barely avoiding the wide-eyed creature.

I swallowed as my adrenalin surged. Holy shit. That was close.

A woman came running out into the street screaming and scooped up the little girl, who was staring at me with wide, dark eyes. I stared back, realizing for the first time that I’d nearly killed a child. A little girl, maybe four or five by the looks of her, in a cowgirl costume, with a spill of dark brown hair . . . and those eyes.

Mel’s eyes, I realized.

I studied my hands, realizing they were shaking, and heaved a breath. I could not go there.

I sat there unmoving for several seconds until I got it together. And still I shook. Finally, I drove on, forcing myself to go slower, my anger miraculously fizzled, replaced by visions of those big, brown eyes. I tried not to wonder if the baby would have eyes like that, and mentally kicked my own ass for the thought. Stupid.

I wandered around town for a while going nowhere in particular. I grabbed a burger and a milkshake I barely touched, and pulled over to fill up my gas tank.

My cell rang and I frowned, knowing it couldn’t possibly be Jonah. Or Mel. I vaguely recognized the number, but it wasn’t coming right to me. “Hello?”

“Hey, dude, it’s Mike.”

I topped off the tank and got back in the car. “Hey. What’s up?”

Laughter and conversation floated in the background behind him. “We’re having a bonfire on the west end of Surfside. We thought we’d see if you and your girl wanted to come by.” A girl squealed and he mumbled something I didn’t catch.

Damn. I didn’t know what to say. The truth was way too messy. “Oh. Um. That’s cool.”

“So you guys’ll come?”

I checked my watch. I had nowhere to be. I sure didn’t want to go home. The hospital was out. “Sure. But just me. Mel’s . . . uh, not feeling good tonight.” The lie slid off my tongue easily enough. Was it too much to ask to just forget and be young tonight? I’d had enough bullshit today. I could deal tomorrow. Maybe never.

“Oh. Too bad. Then I guess you can bring your sorry ass by, we’ll be here, waiting.” More laughter.

“’Kay.”

We hung up and I stared at the phone, feeling strangely empty. I ignored the hollowness and headed toward Surfside.

Fingers of orange flame danced lazily against the velvet black night, pops of golden embers cascading off the bonfire, as I slowly strolled up, taking in the laughing crowd.

Mike and his girlfriend, Mackenzie, were snuggled up dancing next to the small radio as it played some smooth love song, a soda in each of their hands.

Aaron and Dean were shirtless, tossing a football just out of the light of the fire while a group of kids, several of whom I didn’t recognize, looked on, laughing, talking, drinking.

“Hey.”

I tugged my long sleeves down to cover the baby band that felt like a branding iron on my wrist and glanced into a smiling face with slightly glazed eyes. Um, Sierra, Dean’s girl, I think? “Hey,” I murmured.

“You’re Reed, right? Dean’s friend? From the boat?”

I nodded, my eyes roaming back to the group as a collective gasp and laughter roared, then Aaron fell on his ass trying to catch the ball.

“You want a drink?”

I faced her again and noticed her pointing to a row of coolers a few feet away. “Sure.”

Her smile spread and I followed her over. She bent and opened the biggest cooler, glancing over her shoulder, nearly toppling over in the process. “Shit.” She righted herself. “Little too much Halloween candy.” She giggled.

I didn’t say anything as she shuffled around in the ice and came up with two fresh Dr. Peppers and handed me one. “So, you here alone?”

I met her eyes. It was an innocent question, but pain, clear and sharp, lanced across my chest like a knife wound. Shit. I glanced down at my drink so she wouldn’t see it in my face. “Yeah.”

“Oh. Well . . .” I literally felt her attention drifting away from me and all my awkwardness and back toward the party. “See ya later?”

“Sure.”

I found a quieter edge to the bonfire and sipped my drink, watching the other kids. Before I knew it, my soda was gone. I grabbed another and plopped my ass in the sand.

I was on my third and getting a brain freeze when Mike found me. “Hey! You made it.”

“Yup.”

Mackenzie joined us and settled herself between his legs, smiling at me, her face flushed, her big green eyes twinkling against the fire. “Hi, Reed.”

“Hey.” I sipped my half-gone soda.

“So, how’s it goin’?” Mike asked.

I kept my eyes trained on the fire, letting the first dull calm of my day soothe me. I shrugged. “Okay.”

We were quiet a few moments, then Mackenzie giggled. I glanced over as she whispered into Mike’s ear. A brief memory of Mel doing something similar yanked on me. I looked away.

“Reed?” Mackenzie said, drawing my attention back. She was grinning mischievously.

I looked at her, then Mike, who was wearing a guilty expression. I raised my eyebrows in question. “Yeah?”

She flicked a quick glance across the bonfire to a girl with short, curly red hair and big eyes, wearing a little white bikini top. “My friend, Amy, thinks you’re cute.”

I looked closer and Amy turned away, her face lighting in a furious blush.

Crap.

I hung my head and focused on popping the tab off my can. My head was fuzzy—hell, so was my heart—but I couldn’t do
that
. Not again. It would be beyond stupid.

My heart, my soul, may currently be strewn into a million, billion pieces, but Melissa Summers still owned every bruised and battered piece.

Damn it all to Hell.

“I . . .” I looked Mike and Mackenzie dead in the eye. “I’m flattered, but I can’t. Mel. The baby.” I couldn’t claim her as mine and that was . . . that was . . . I didn’t even know.

Mackenzie’s eyes widened. “Oh, crap. I totally forgot. I’m so sorry!”

“Yeah, well . . . No biggie.” No sense explaining anything. I was the idiot. I glanced at Amy again, who was doing anything and everything to avoid looking at me now.

“Seriously.” Mackenzie touched my arm. “I’m so embarrassed. I forgot about your girlfriend. I only met her that one time, so . . .” She shrugged and glanced at Mike then back to me. “It’s just girls love a guy they think they can fix.”

My gaze cut to hers. “What?”

Her brows dipped in a cute frown. “Oh, come on. Surely you know you carry around that sorta dark, mysterious, ‘I’ve got a wounded heart’ vibe that makes girls want to cuddle up and heal you.”

“I—” I did?

Mike broke in and laughed. “Whatever. Chicks.” That earned him a smack in the arm, but it thankfully steered the conversation away from me and my “vibe.” I’d never heard of such crap.

I stood, feeling Amy’s eyes on me, and weaved away from the crowd to sit on one of the coolers.

I watched the other kids for probably an hour, feeling like I was a bystander in my own life; there, and yet somehow removed, as it all circled around me. As the fire died down to embers and everyone settled down to chat or make-out, no one even seemed to notice me or my absence. I was invisible. Guess my wounded vibe wasn’t enough to get me attention in my own life after all.

Only Mel had ever truly known me. Just me.

I got up and blindly started walking down the beach. Away from those that deemed me invisible. A ghost. At least to the night I was a shadow.

I walked until I couldn’t see the fire anymore. Until the only sounds were the push and pull of the ocean’s waves and the occasional gull crying as it flew by. Those, combined with the numbness still flowing smoothly through my bloodstream, were finally calming me.

Then, about a hundred feet ahead I saw it. As virginal white as a wedding dress, it beckoned to me in the cloaking blackness. Lettie’s cross sprouted up from the sand like an answered prayer, calling me home.

Maybe Mackenzie was right. Maybe I did have a wounded heart. And there was only one place I knew to go to start fixing it. And so I let my liquidy legs begin to pound in an awkward sprint toward salvation.

October 31
st

Fingerprints on the Soul

“R
eed?” Something hard nudged my ribcage. “Reed!”

I cracked an eye open when someone began shaking my shoulder, and groaned at the painful crick in my neck. I twisted to my side and grit scraped across my arm as I tried to sit up, squinting against the murky gray light of a cloudy early morning.

Wait. Morning?

I shifted my gaze up and met my father’s eyes. Worried, slightly angry eyes, if my read was right. “Dad?” I croaked against my dry throat.

How had I—? One glance answered that question as I noticed Lettie’s cross to my left, an eerie pale skeleton in the morning haze. Guess I’d found my way here last night in my emotionally nauseated state, upchucked it all at her grave, then fell asleep in the aftermath.

Great.

“What are you doing?” Dad asked, drawing my attention back. “You worried your mother sick when you didn’t come home last night, but I told her I knew where to come look for you.”

I hung my head. “I’m sorry.”

Silence. The waves called to me as never before as I just wanted to melt. To hide.

“Well?” he prompted, shifting his stance so I’d know he was irritated. “That’s all you’ve got to say for yourself? Why shouldn’t we ground you for the rest of the school year, young man? Jonah didn’t know where you were, and neither you nor Melissa were answering your phones. We still have a right to know where you are, Reed.”

My head snapped up. “You called Jonah? What did he say?”

His brows thundered down. “Nothing. Just that he had no idea where you could be.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes. Why?”

“No reason.” I ran a hand down my face alternately relieved that Jonah hadn’t told about Mel and my subsequent blow-up, but sorta wishing he’d done the honors for me at the same time.

Dad crouched down to his haunches so we were eye level. “What’s going on, buddy?”

I shrunk back a little, hoping to avoid what was coming. “Whadya mean?”

“You know what I mean.” His eyes searched mine. No judgment today. Just worry. “What happened to make you spend the night out here? Why didn’t you come home?”