Wade
The cold sheets beside me were enough to rouse me from sle ep quicker than an alarm
clock.
“Ray?” I called, reaching over in case she’d rolled away in her sle ep. My fingers brushed
against her bedside table instead, the bed too small for anyone to go missing, and I sat up
within a second.
Did she move to the living room? I blinked past the haze of sle ep and fumbled for my phone.
Almost four in the morning if my lock screen was accurate and considering the lack of any light
coming through Ray’s de ep blue curtains, it tracked.
“Ray?” I r epeated, throwing the covers off of me and lifting myself from the cool mattress.
Rolling my shoulder to get out the kinks, I flicked the switch for the light, blinding myself in a
matter of a second.
No sign of her. My stomach sank. Has something happened with her mother? Surely she
would have woken me up.
Twisting the old brass doorknob, I made my way into the barely lit hallway that ran behind
her kitchen. Photos lined the walls, ones I’d not noticed as I’d taken her to bed last night, and
with the little bit of light that came through from her bedroom, I could make out two adults and a
child in the one closest to me.
I tapped a button on my phone, illuminating the photo with the flashlight app. The child was
definitely a younger version of Ray, braided pigtails and plaid overalls, a massive smile on her
face as she was sandwiched between two people I could only assume were her parents. I’d
not had the chance to meet her mother yet, but I could see where Ray got the majority of her
looks from. At the age she was in the photo, she could easily have been Ray’s twin.
The deafening silence in the house made my skin crawl as I st epped through the kitchen,
angling myself in odd positions so that I didn’t knock over anything. Things were so tightly
packed in the small space that it was nearly impossible, or maybe I’d just been living in overly
large mansions too long and had lost my sense of basic spatial distance.
The couch was empty save for a throw blanket crumpled on one end and a crumb-covered
paper plate on the other. I wasn’t sure where else to check for her; I could look in her mother's
room, but something about that felt like an invasion of privacy. Other than that, I wasn’t sure
what other rooms the house held. The garage, maybe? Though I hadn’t noticed one.
I flicked on a light and sat down on the couch, my stomach twisted in worry. I needed to call
her.
The line rang four times before directing me to voicemail. I hung up and tried again.
And again. And again. The lack of ringing in the house told me that she wasn’t there, and if
that wasn’t enough, the lack of her car in the driveway was damning.
My phone buzzed in my hand. I swiped across the screen without taking a second to check
who it was, hoping it was Ray. It had to be.
“Hello, brother.” What the fuck? “Why are you calling me, Zane? It’s four in the goddamn
morning,” I snapped. My fingers twisted around the curtains of the front window, needing
something to hold on to.
“Your darling Raylene has been in an accident,” he said, the words spoken far too
nonchalantly. A chill ran down my spine as my heart picked up its speed. I reached for my keys.
“Would you have preferred I wait until the sun rose to tell you?”
I steadied my breathing as best I could. Every nerve-ending was on high alert, every sharp
intake of air felt like a knife. “Where is she? Is she okay?”
“Last I heard, she was being taken to Boulder Community Hospital,” he drawled. I swear I
could hear the sound of him sipping on something. “Seems your little transaction was heading
out to see Hunter Harris.”
My fingers stilled on the handle of the front door. “What are you talking about?”
“She collided with an oncoming car just outside the entrance of his ranch. I don’t know
much, Wade, but that seems a little telling to me.”
Collided with an oncoming car. Outside of his ranch. “He gave me a call since he didn’t have
your number. I shouldn’t complain, really. Gave me the chance to speak to my favorite brother
again,” he chuckled. Something clinked on the other end, and my suspicions were solidified. He
was drinking.
I was going to kill him one day. “Is she okay?” I asked again. I could practically hear his
shrug. “I think so. Hunter said she was knocked out when he found her. All she k ept saying was
baby, baby, baby when she came to. Kind of cute, if you ask me. He went to the hospital with
her.”
Pressing the power button on the side of my phone, I silenced him within a second before it
fell to the floor.
Baby, baby, baby. She was seeing Hunter. She had to be, there wasn’t any other
reasonable explanation. I didn’t trust Zane within an inch of my life, but what other reason would
there be for her to be out there? How else would Zane have known what had happened?
Every part of me screamed to leave the house, to go to Boulder Community, to be with her.
But what was the point if she was with Hunter? What was the point in any of this?
I’d known in my bones that she and Hunter looked too chummy at the wedding. I’d seen the
little smiles she gave him as they spoke. She’d sworn to me there was nothing between them.
Was it just to ke ep her place as my acting girlfriend until the deal was done?
I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t stay at her house, I couldn’t go to the hospital, and home
sounded like an empty coffin. My chest ached in anger and sympathy, every part of me wanting
to make sure she was okay despite the heartbreak, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.