Page 106 of Broken Pieces
I look up at him and see him pointing at my face. I look down at my hands and notice the wetness I stuck them in wasn’t water, it was blood.
At the same time, Easton walks through the door. “Hey Rae, are you ready? I tried callin’ you to say I’d be late, but you didn’t answer.”
We make eye contact and he notices the blood I accidentally rubbed on my face.
“Brooks, she isn’t in the house…” Brett trails off when he sees the scene before him.
“Fuck,” I yell. I run back toward the bedrooms. “I need to find her phone, she wouldn’t have left without it.”
“Why is there blood?” Easton shouts at me.
“There is blood?” I hear Brett ask as I tear apart my room.
Easton comes barreling into my room as I search the drawers and mumble, “She leaves her phone in here a lot when she’s baking. If she ran away, she would have at least taken it.”
“When did you get out?” Easton grumbles.
“Don’t blame me for this,” I growl at him. “I just got home. Just found out she left me without letting me give her an explanation. And this is what I come home to.”
Easton puts his hands up in front of him. “Brooks, I am not blaming you for this. God, I know you loved my sister. It’s more evident now than before. The look on your face…” he pauses and shakes his head. “You love her. I never should have said those things to her.”
“What things?” I snarl.
“I just told her she better be careful around you. I didn’t trust you. I knew your past.” He takes a deep breath. “I knew about the party. I knew it was you who gave those drugs to Derrick. But I never blamed you for what happened to her. You need to know that. I warned her because you needed to tell her. I knew trust and honesty meant more to her than anything.”
I collapse on to the bed, leaning my face into my hands as I brace my elbows on my knees. “I should have told her. I should have listened to Mac who told me this would happen. I was so scared I would lose her if I told her. I didn’t think she would find out the way she did.”
I feel Easton sit on the bed next to me. “For all it’s worth, I am glad you beat the shit out of Michael. He deserved it. And despite it all, I think you are the right man for my sister. She is—she is a different person with you, a better one and I think she makes you a better man too.”
I look at Easton, stunned that he thinks I am good enough for Rae.
“Now let’s go find my sister. Maybe she cut herself cooking and went to look for something to bandage it.”
I nod. “Maybe she went to the gym in the barn. She knows there are bandages up there.”
We walk out of the room and head outside where Brett and my dad are talking. “Did you find her phone?” Brett asks.
“No, we were gonna head to the gym, see if she went there to get a bandage.”
Summer waddles down the steps of the deck and walks as quickly as she can toward us. “I heard so much commotion over here as I was making the beds. Easton, what are you doing here? I thought you stopped by half an hour ago to pick up Rae.”
“No, I called her to tell her I would be late, but she didn’t answer.”
“I heard a truck come by here about thirty minutes ago.”
Easton and I look at each other as we try to piece everything together.
“Her duffel bag is still inside,” I say.
There is a chirping coming from the ground right by the driveway. Brett runs over and picks up a phone. “This must be hers. Tacoma is calling.”
“Did you see the truck?” Easton softly asks.
Summer shakes her head. “Barely, I was doing laundry. I just heard it pull out the drive. Maybe it was tan. I wasn’t paying attention. I assumed it was you. Rae said goodbye to me not ten minutes before that.”
“Logan,” Easton and I say in unison.
“How the fuck did he find her?” I ask rhetorically.