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Fucked what up?

He’d been leading me on this entire time. If he hadn’t told any of the others, then he’d never meant it in the first place.

I ripped my eyes from Court’s and turned back to Brooks. He looked so guilty for having said anything. Brooks seemed to be the only one with a soft, caring side, but I knew he’d never take my side if push came to shove. Why would he? I was nobody to him.

I knew this was too good to be true. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted this asshole. I just couldn’t help myself, could I? Lay the idea of twenty grand at my feet and you had me. Now I was smack dab in the middle of fucking nowhere with a bunch of lying bastards. How could I be so fucking naïve with everything I’d gone through in my life? Why had I placed any kind of trust in this man or his words? Because he was pretty and treated me with a kindness that was all a manufactured ploy? For fucking what? What the fuck was his end game?

“Whitney.”

Court’s voice carried a dark command in it, but I was done listening to him.

“I have to go,” I said, hating how shaky my voice had become. Pushing my chair out, I stepped away from the table as my breaths came in shallow pants. I walked toward the open archway leading to the hall, the dull roaring in my ears growing louder with every step. Panic was setting in. I’d fucked up. I had fucked up big fucking time. I knew better than to trust anyone, and to let this man whisk me away to the middle of nowhere?

What the fuck was I thinking? I hadn’t been thinking, that was the fucking problem. And now I was cornered somewhere, no way out.

When Court repeated my name, I glanced at him. His jaw was clenched so tightly that a muscle kept jumping in his cheek, and he slowly set his coffee down on the counter. His eyes had taken on a dark, predatory glint as he watched me creep toward the hall.

Agitation and self-preservation crackled through my veins like lightening. I was thrumming with a panicked energy that felt just like adrenaline.

Fuck this. Fuck all of this.

Ripping my eyes from Court’s, I turned and sprinted out of the room, flew down the hall and wrenched open the front door. I ran down the steps and tore off down the driveway.

My heart was racing as I pushed myself to run faster. Everything in front of me blurred as tears welled in my eyes. Blobs of green and blue filled my vision, the sun beating into my back as my feet carried me down the gravel and dirt road. Little rocks and pebbles scraped into my skin, reminding me I wasn’t even wearing shoes.

How long was this fucking driveway? Where was I? Had they lied about being in Davenport, too?

I was so stupid. So, so stupid. I didn’t ask enough questions and I just took everything at face value, when I’d never done that before. I was greedy and dumb, and I deserved to be taken advantage of. I deserved everything that had ever happened to me because I never learned, and at this point, I wasn’t sure I ever would.

The gravel crunched behind me, and then Court slammed into my back, wrapping his arms around me in a crushing embrace. We went crashing to the ground, those unforgiving arms tightening like clamps, legs locking around my own. I could barely breathe, and I was sure my heart would explode.

My head smacked into Court’s chest as he took the brunt of the fall, the exact spot where Tom had slammed it into the ground, and a white-hot flare of pain had dots dancing in my vision. I wanted to lose myself in the pain. When we stopped moving, I was staring up at the sky, lying on top of Court as his chest moved up and down in a slow rhythm, as if none of this had winded him at all.

He sat up as I struggled against him, but of course, there was no point. I would only be free when he decided to release me. He bowed forward and tucked his cheek against mine, so I whipped my head into his.

It was the side my wound was on, and when it slammed into Court’s jaw, I hollered in pain. My vision whited out for a moment, and I sat there trying to collect myself, breathing hard.

“Whitney,” he gritted out. “Get ahold of yourself. I don’t know why you’re so pissed off right now, but the majority of the money we’re taking isn’t for us.”

Fucking liar.

He kept talking, kept lying. “You wanna know why we’re doing this? Because my younger brother is dying, and we need that fucking money to save him. None of us can afford his treatment on our regular incomes because we live hand to mouth, and the only way to save him—and save him fast—is with that money.”

What?

My head spun as I tried to comprehend what he was telling me.

“He’s got leukemia and we can’t afford the treatments. We have no insurance, but even if we did, it’s a disgusting amount of money. He’s not going to live if we can’t pay for it. Everyone is getting a cut, but the bulk of it is going to Jesse. He needs this. I can’t lose him.” There was so much emotion in his words, so much anguish and heartache tangled with bitter acceptance, that I couldn’t tell myself he was lying anymore.

I wanted to. I wanted so badly to hold onto my anger. It had been my only constant all these years. It had been my armor, my sword, and my shield. But ever since meeting Court, it felt like it had become a knife I was plunging into my own chest, over and over again.

I sagged against him, my head falling back to rest on his shoulder, as I stared at endless fields of grass and the cloudless blue sky. And then I said two words that rarely, if ever, left my mouth. I said them and I meant them.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, a tear spilling over my lashes and down my cheek.

God, I was such a selfish piece of shit. But that was what happened when you only had yourself to look out for.

Ugly shadows swirled from the rotten wounds festering in my soul. A stain that began to spread through me until it covered every inch of me.