“Please, Chloe—I’m begging you. We’re out of options here. We don’t have anyone else to turn to.”
Redeye might as well have been holding out a shot glass because he was not to be deterred. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone else to take the drink for me. I had Aiden for that before. He’d stepped in for me, knowing I couldn’t handle it all on my own. He’d been there for me.
He had taken the shots for me.
He had been there with me when we fell from the sky.
He held me in the sand and showed me what was really important in life.
He didn’t have to do any of that. He’d taken me out of my sheltered world and taught me that there wasn’t anything to fear out there and that risks were just a part of living. He’d done all of that for me and I was…I was…
I was grateful.
He’d changed me. Regardless of what kind of mess he was caught up in, he’d changed me for
the better.
Was I really going to turn my back on him now?
There’s more to the story than I know.
I wanted to know the rest. I owed him that much.
“All right,” I whispered. “I’ll come down there.”
And with that, I called in sick and headed back to Miami.
SIXTEEN
“I can’t tell you how glad I am that you agreed to do this, Chloe.” Redeye tossed my luggage into the back of his car. “Lance is going to meet us there. Hunter’s in bad shape, Chloe. I hope you can get through to him.”
“I’ll do what I can,” I said. I climbed into the car and buckled my seatbelt.
He pulled away from the terminal and headed to the highway. I couldn’t help but think of my ride with Aiden on the motorcycle. The route wasn’t exactly the same—Redeye took the highways more than the back roads—but similar enough to evoke the memory of holding tightly to Aiden’s body as we sped down the streets.
Redeye focused on his driving and didn’t talk much, which was fine with me. I could barely believe I was back here already, planning to see the man I had run away from just…how long had it been? Eighteen days. Eighteen says since I ran from Aiden in the parking lot. Eighteen days since I had decided to close the book on that chapter of my life.
Thoughts of returning had been the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted to forget it all. I wanted to pretend it never happened. But I hadn’t forgotten. Not only did I remember, but I also knew how much I had changed because of it. Aiden had shown me something inside of myself I didn’t realize was there, and I was grateful to him for it.
Drug dealer or not, I couldn’t just ignore him if he really needed someone. I didn’t know what I was going to find, but the image of Aiden, broken and alone in the back room of his house, continued to haunt my thoughts.
I began to recognize the houses on the side of the road, and I rolled down my window to smell the ocean breeze. Another block down, I saw the bright flowers that lined the property, and I knew we were close. As Redeye pulled into the driveway, I recognized Lance, sitting on the retaining wall near the front door. He stood up as we approached.
“No answer?” Redeye asked as soon as he opened the car door.
“None,” Lance said with a shake of his head. “He’s in there, I’m sure. The jeep and his bike are in the garage, but he won’t answer.”
Lance turned to me and gave me a hug.
“Thanks for coming, Chloe,” he said as he patted my back. “It means a lot to us.”
“You’re welcome,” I replied automatically. Lance released me, and I took a quick glance between him and Redeye. I was touched by how close Aiden and his friends seemed to be. There was no doubt Lance and Redeye’s concern was genuine, not that I had doubted it. After all, they’d paid for my plane ticket to come back down here. The loyalty and friendship they shared with Aiden was so evident, I wasn’t sure what I could do that they could not.
“We going to go through the back again?” Redeye asked.
“Yeah. Mo disabled the alarm system.”
“Good. I hate that fucking alarm.”