RIPPED: A Rockstar Romance (Wreckage Book 2) Page 14

  There was a burst of road noise on the other end, and then an unfamiliar voice spoke up above the din. "Is this August?" he asked. "Tate's sister?"

  I was on my feet. "Yes! I'm his sister."

  "I'm with Tate right now."

  "What's wrong? Where is he? Who are you?"

  "My name is Michael," the panicked voice said. "His roommate." The road noise was louder now and the cold wail of a siren pierced the line, drowning out the rest of his sentence.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Jules

  "She's late," Hudson said, looking around the lobby of the record label as if August must be hiding behind some curtain somewhere.

  If I said anything, I was going to regret it, so I looked down at my hands, drumming them in the tops of my knees. There was a tightness in my chest that made it feel like my heart was pressing into my lungs. I was having a hard time getting a full breath.

  Ewan looked down at me, and I caught glimpse of understanding in his eyes. A look passed between us, and he glanced back at Hudson. "We can get started without her," he said.

  "Yeah, we've done this before," Niall said, acting as back-up. "Talking to reps on our own without management? We can do it without her, mate."

  I shook my head. "That isn't it," I said. My mates were trying to protect me. But I knew way down that no matter what had happened between her and I, August would never be this late on her own.

  And that was why I was so panicked right now.

  It was one thing to ignore my calls, but to completely blow off a meeting with the label rep like this? No, that tightness in my chest that I'd been feeling all morning, it squeezed even tighter.

  Something was wrong.

  "You guys go in without me," I said, suddenly jumping to my feet. I hurried away before they could question me, and pushed my way out into the cool, drizzly street.

  "Pick up," I chanted, as I dialed her number again. When her voicemail picked up, I growled and smacked my hand against the side of the building. "Love, I don't give a fuck if you never talk to me again, but not showing up for meetings is really screwing over the rest of the guys. We're here at the record label and we don't know where you are, and frankly I'm starting to get a little worried about you." I paced in a tight circle, ignoring the glares of passersby on the sidewalk. "Call me fucking back," I hissed. "Or, if you don't want to talk to me, just show up for the meeting so I know you're not dead in a gutter somewhere."

  I stabbed my finger into the off button, pissed it myself for losing it on her voicemail like that. I needed to get a hold of myself, but that tight, wild panic in my chest was only getting worse every minute she was late.

  I scrolled down through my contacts list until I found the number for Celia Silver, our former label rep, August's best friend and the future Mrs. Ewan Boyd.

  "Jules!" she said, picking up on the first ring. "What's going on? Aren't you guys in the meeting?"

  "August isn't here," I said flatly.

  CeCe paused, and I knew she was thinking the same thing as me. There was no way that August would miss a meeting like this, no matter how pissed she was. "That's not good," she said slowly.

  "I know."

  "You know, I called her last night to welcome her back. She never picked up," CeCe told me.

  I balled my fist, digging my nails into my palm. "Okay well, I called her about fifty times last night and she never picked up," I said, deciding to dispense with my dignity. "I thought if I annoyed her enough she'd get pissed enough to answer, you know?"

  "I do," CeCe said grimly. "Okay then," he said. "Something's wrong. Do you want to meet me at her place? We can go check together?"

  Heart pounding, I told her I would and hung up.

  It was the first time I'd seen August's apartment building since the morning we'd left for Bearsville. Today, a gray November day, it looked so different that I almost walked past it. But it was more like my body recognized it than my brain. I stopped in front of the awning to wait for CeCe.

  She came hurrying out of a cab about five minutes later, breathless, and streaming her coat behind her. "Shit," she said when she saw me. "What the hell do you think is going on?"

  I shook my head. There was no reason to keep any secrets now. "I'd hoped it's that she was just giving me the silent treatment."

  CeCe cocked her head. "You guys finally..." she trailed off and shook her head. "Okay well you know then that if there's one thing August isn't, it's silent. If she's pissed at you, you're gonna know it."

  I nodded. "That's what's worrying me." I opened the door to the building. "After you."

  We walked into the lobby. When I saw the stairs, I had a renewed respect for August, seeing as she had to deal with them every morning and every evening. We climbed up the six floors to her place. "August? You in there?" Celia called, knocking on her door. "Hey girl, you're sort of freaking me out."

  From the floor below us, I heard a door creak open. "Hey there!" a man's voice called up. "You looking for the girl in 6D?"

  I looked over the railing. "Yeah, you know her?"

  The guy nodded, looking a little sheepish. "We were supposed to go out together last night," he said. I squeezed the railing tighter to head off my blinding rage, forcing myself to listen to the rest of his story. "But she got a call, I had to drive her to the hospital right then and there. But she didn't tell me who it was or why.

  At the word hospital, all the moisture in my mouth dried up and I lost the ability to speak.

  "What hospital?" Celia said, quicker on the uptake when I was.

  "Winthrop, in Nassau County," he said.

  Celia looked at me with big round eyes. "That's neear Hofstra."

  I blinked. "Isn't that where her little brother goes?"

  She nodded, looking terrified. "We going?

  I nodded. "I'll drive.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  August

  "It's too loud," I whispered. "It's too fucking loud in this place."

  Leo looked up from the law textbook he was mindlessly flipping through. "It's a hospital," he said. I glared at him and he dropped his voice to a whisper. "Not much they can do."

  "But he needs to sleep," I said, gesturing to the bed. "How can he sleep when it's so loud here?"

  An ambulance screamed by, drowning out his answer. Leo pressed his lips together and then gave up, shaking his head.

  I drummed my fingers on my knee. I'd been doing that all morning, a bad habit I'd picked up...somewhere. In another life. Before Tate's fall.

  Tate moaned and shifted in his bed. Outside of his room, a code alarm was going off. Skin crawling with helpless irritation, I leaped up from my chair and went to Tate's side. "You waking up, Tater Tot?" I said softly, pasting a smile across my face so he'd hear it in my words. Because Tate always knew when I was faking. "It's okay, you can sleep. You're not missing anything." I looked over at Leo who was watching us both. "Just me and Lee being boring together."

  "I'm reading a text for law-school," Leo said, a little louder for Tate's benefit. "If you need help falling back to sleep I can read it aloud for you."

  His eyelids fluttered. The skin under his eyes was a painfully dark purple. That was the first thing I noticed when they'd let me see him. Not the casts on his leg and arm, not the bandages wrapped tight to help his broken ribs heal correctly. I saw the awful exhaustion on his face.

  Tate had always been the most beautiful of my brothers, with his long dark lashes and shock of dark auburn hair. But right now he looked like a zombie, pale and sick.

  The door slid open. "Heyyyy," my mother whisper-sang, the voice she reserved for comforting sick children. "How are we all doing in here?"

  I swallowed back a lump in my throat. As much as I needed it right now, that voice of comfort was not meant for me. My mother needed me to be her rock right now. "He's moaning a little," I told her. "When was the last time they gave him painkillers?"

  She pressed her lips together tightly. "Too long ago," she spat. "The
y tell me they don't want him forming a habit."

  "He's hurting," I protested. "He fell out of a window, three stories up."

  My mother looked at me, unblinking. "Honey, you know he didn't fall, right?"

  The lump in my throat wouldn't budge. No matter how hard I swallowed, it still sat there, burning and choking me. I blinked hard and then nodded.

  I knew.

  Everything in my chest was squeezed down into a ball, leaving a hollow ache where my heart should have been. Tate's roommate had called me last night, frantic. 5D had driven like something out of Nascar, getting me out onto Long Island in record time, but I was still the last one in my family to get there. I missed seeing him wheeled into surgery, but that wasn't the only thing I'd missed.

  I'd missed the signs. I'd missed the warnings. The thought that Tate, my special little Tater Tot, could jump like this had never even occurred to me.

  I'd failed him.

  I cleared my throat but the lump was still lodged there. I turned and adjusted the covers around Tate's body, tucking them carefully around his broken arm. The door squeaked open and my youngest brother darted inside.

  "How was the vending machine situation?" I asked Simon.

  He shook his head, refusing to look in the direction of the bed. He hadn't looked at Tate once since he'd gotten here. I thought that he'd be scared, but the grim set of his suddenly shadowed jaw told me he was angry. Angry at our brother.

  I walked over and patted him on the shoulder, circling around so he could look at me without seeing Tate. "Just give me another hour and I can take you home, does that sound okay?"

  "Mom?" Simon said, not looking away from me.

  Our mother was sitting at Tate's side, rhythmically patting Tate's hand. She wasn't going to handle this. I'd need to. "Did you want to go to school tomorrow?" I asked.

  "Yes," he said, quickly.

  I nodded and patted him on the shoulder again. "Then I'll take you home so you can finish your homework. You should talk to a counselor when you go," I told him.

  He grimaced. "Mrs. Devon smells like dirt."

  "Yeah, you're right she kind of does. But she can help you."

  "I don't need help." He twisted his shoulder towards the bed without moving his head. "He does."

  I took a deep breath. "Simon," I said, warningly.

  "Fine," he muttered.

  "You can go sit in the waiting area if you want," I told him, placing significantly in Leo's direction.

  Leo snapped his book closed. "I'll go sit with you, little man."

  "I'm hungry," Simon muttered.

  I stood up. "Where did you say Dad and Cab went for food?"

  "They said McDonald's but knowing Cab he ate all of it on the car ride here and they had to go back."

  I sighed and reached for my purse. "Here," I said, pulling out a five dollar bill. "Raid the good vending machines, they're on the first floor."

  Simon grunted his thanks and followed Leo out the door. That was two people taken care of. "Hey mom?" I called gently. "Have you slept?"

  My mother turned to me and blinked like the idea confused her. "I caught a quick nap in the chair this morning."

  "I'm going to ask them to wheel in a bed for you, okay?" I told her, heading for the door.

  "Okay honey," she said distantly.

  I stepped out of Tate's room. The brightly lit hallway seemed weird cartoonish after the muzzy dark of my brother's room. I blinked and then blinked again, and then kept my eyes closed tight, wavering a little on my feet. I realized I could fall asleep right here, standing up.

  But I still had to get my mom that bed. I forced my eyes open.

  For a second I wondered if I had fallen asleep after all. If I was now dreaming. Or hallucinating from exhaustion. Because there was no way he was here.

  I took two steps forward and crashed into his chest. He was real. "Hey, love," Jules murmured, stroking my hair back from my face. "I'm here. How can I help?"

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Jules

  The woman by the side of the bed, the boy asleep in it - even if I hadn't known who they were, I could have guessed immediately that they were related to my August. They all shared the same flame-red hair.

  Her mother, because who else could the woman be, looked up as we walked into the room together. "Honey?"

  "This is Jules," August said, by way of both introduction and explanation. "He's here to help."

  Mrs. Waverly smiled faintly. "Thank you Jules," she said, then turned back to her son.

  August was watching her with her mouth pressed in a thin line. "His roommate called me from the ambulance," she said.

  "Do you know why he did it?"

  She shook her head. "But this might help him get the help he needs." She swallowed and shook her head. "That's what I hope, anyway."

  Her mother slumped forward and cradled her head in her arms by her son's elbow.

  "I was supposed to get her a bed," August chided herself.

  "Sit," I ordered her. "I've got it."

  She looked at me, wide-eyed.

  "Sit back and let someone else do the work for a while," I reminded her.

  Her smile was faint. But it was there. And that's all that I needed to know that I was where I belonged.

  I was wheeling the squeaky cot back into the room when a guy with red hair came walking up. When he saw me at the door he did a double-take. "Jules Spencer," he blurted.

  "You've gotta be Leo," I said, brushing my hand against my jeans and then offering it to him.

  "Yeah, uh..." he seemed utterly dumbfounded that I knew his name. "Um, why are you here. This is sort of a...private thing."

  "I'm here for August," I informed him. "Now. Wanna help me bring this bed in for your mom?"

  August jumped back up again as we wheeled in the cot. "Here mom, look," she said, going over and gently rocking her mom's arm. "You can lie down."

  "Oh thank you, August," she said. Faintly, mechanically. I noticed that she thanked August rather than Leo and me, and realized that thanking August was a reflex. Because she was the one who did everything.

  Mrs. Waverly stretched out, and then rolled over onto her side to curl up in a fetal position. August found a thin blanket in a cupboard behind Tate's bed and gently tucked her mom in. "Where's Simon?" she asked Leo in a low murmur.

  "Left him downstairs, he's fine."

  She nodded. "He's wigged the fuck out."

  "Aren't we all," Leo said. "I was gonna run him home now so you don't have to leave," he said, glancing at me. "You okay here?"

  I reached for her hand. The whole family revolved around her like moons in orbit. I saw so clearly that she was the heart and soul of her family and they leaned on her. And my girl was strong enough to take it.

  But if she needed a rest, I was here. For when she needed someone to lean on herself.

  She glanced at me. "I'm good," she said.

  I spent the rest of the day in that darkened hospital room, but there wasn't a moment I wasn't grateful for. I was grateful I was there for August. I was grateful to see her thank her father for bringing food. I was grateful that her brother Cabot, after eyeing me up and down warily, silently offered me a Big Mac. I was grateful to see her quizzing the nurse about Tate's pain medication and I was desperately grateful when Tate's eyes fluttered open for a moment.

  "Auggie," he croaked through a haze of medications.

  "Hey Tater Tot." Her voice was so damn strong. "You fell and you're in the hospital now. But you're gonna be okay."

  His mouth twitched. "I'm sorry," he whispered, looking suddenly anguished.

  "Ssh, buddy," she said, smoothing his forehead. His red hair was sticking up in crazy cowlicks, just like a little boy's. "Don't worry. You just get better, okay? That's all you have to do right now."

  I swallowed back the sudden lump in my throat, and sat down heavily on the window sill.

  August brushed Tate's hair back again and again until he fell asleep once more. Then
she turned to me as if wondering what the hell to do now. Tears glimmered in her eyes, still unshed. She looked exhausted.

  I patted the sill next to me. "Sit down."

  She walked over and leaned on me, burrowing her head into my shoulder. She let out a quiet breath. "You're here," she whispered, still sounding amazed.

  I nodded. "I'm here," I echoed.

  "I had this weird feeling when I left the cabins yesterday that I was closing the book on us."

  "Nah, love. Just starting a new chapter."

  She looked at me with a small smile. "So you'll stay?"

  "Fuck yeah, I'll stay. If you want me to."

  She tilted her head up to look at me. "I want you to," she said simply.

  I pressed a hard, insistent kiss to her forehead, then brushed her hair away so I could kiss her lips. "Whatever you want, love. You know you're the boss of me." I kissed her again. "And you know I love you."

  Her eyelids fluttered. "Say that again."

  I smiled. "I said - You know I love you."

  "Just the last three words, please."

  "I love you, August Waverly."

  "I said only three words."

  "Yeah love, but I'm terrible at following directions."

  She laughed. "I don't know how you made me love you. But you did."

  "Say it again," I teased.

  "I don't know how you made me love you." She swallowed. "Wait, yes I do."

  "Tell me, because I don't know how I did it. Or how I got so fucking lucky."

  "You told me it was okay to make a mistake."

  "Best mistake you could ever make, didn't I promise you that?"

  "You did. I love you, Jules."

  "I fucking adore you, August."

  "You're still a pain in my ass though."

  I pulled her into my arms. "Aye love, and I mean to be one for a very long time."

  Epilogue