Dissonance (39 page)

When one slid open near the far end, I moved for it with unyielding purpose. My focus so tuned to getting to Logan that I hardly noticed the man exiting the elevator, his hand cupping one cheek until I nearly ran into him.

When I looked up into aquamarine eyes, I stumbled back a step.

The similarity of appearance between the Westfield brothers was as shocking as the resemblance between Logan and James had been. The strong face, the chestnut hair, the lean build, it was all their beneath slight distinctions. Though we hadn’t met, I knew immediately that I was looking at Caleb.

Unsure of what to do, I attempted to step around him and keep going. Caleb had other ideas. I could scarcely move before his hand wrapped around my wrist. The surprise of seeing the bruise forming on the cheek he had been hiding distracted me from the feeling of his fingertips on my bare skin where my sleeve had ridden up. Between the fabric and the silver bracelet, he’d made contact with my scar.

“So, you’re Charlotte?” he asked in a voice that seemed too pleasant to be sincere. Or maybe it was just his eyes. They weren’t bright like his brother's, but dull and hazy. The redness at the edges told me he was still using.

“Um... yeah,” I stammered. “I’m just visiting Logan.”

He considered me for a moment, an edge coming to his gaze. His fingers shifted on my wrist a bit before he spoke. “That desperate, are you?”

“What?” I wasn’t sure what was going on anymore, all I knew was that Caleb had me more than slightly uncomfortable. I would abandon my mission to talk to Logan if it meant I could turn and walk away from that increasingly hard gaze.

The grip on my wrist tightened, pulling it towards Caleb’s chest, wrenching the scarred inner surface upward so hard that it hurt. The whimper that escaped seemed to elicit a glint in Caleb’s eyes.

“You know,” he said in the same amiable tone that was so at odds with his demeanor, “Logan does love the broken ones.”

I couldn’t respond. His thumb rubbed up and down over my scar, his fingers gripping my wrist so hard I knew I would bruise.

“He’ll want to fix you, but people as broken as we are can’t be fixed, can we? We’ll always be broken. When he realizes that, he’ll give up on you. Just like he did with me. You’ll be nothing to him when he sees the darkness inside.”

My throat was so tight I could hardly draw a breath. Nausea overtook me. Caleb was right. I had always know what he was saying was true, but I’d let myself get wrapped up in the high that Logan’s affection gave me. I had let myself forget the painful lessons I had learned so long ago. I was broken, and there was no fixing me.

“I… I need to go,” I barely whispered, praying for Caleb to just release me.

“That’s probably best,” he replied coolly. The vice grip on m wrist lessened, and I bolted towards the doors.

My eyes were burning, brimming with the threat of tears.

By the time I flew through the revolving door, I could hardly see through the onslaught of emotion. I felt my body make contact with someone else’s, my shoulder careening into theirs.

“Charlotte?” the body said, I knew the voice, but I couldn’t place it. Not caring who it was, I tried to keep going. I had no idea where to go, but I needed to get far away from there.

“Charlotte, stop,” the voice came again, more distressed this time. Hands wrapped around my upper arms, holding me gently but not letting me pull away.

Trying to blink some of the tears away, I looked up and saw Leo’s concerned face looking down at me.

“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” he asked beseechingly.

I couldn’t talk. I knew if I tried, all he would get would be sobs.

“Let’s go inside, we’ll get Logan and–”

“No!” I choked out. “No… please, no.”

“Please talk to me, Charlotte. What happened?” he pleaded with me.

No, there was nothing I could say. There was nothing in my mind but the desperate desire to get as far away as I could. I shook, viciously, throwing any strength that I had into each jerk until his hands lost their hold on me. The moment I felt that freedom, I took off, my feet hitting the pavement as fast as they could carry me.

I heard Leo call out my name again, but I didn’t stop. I didn’t even slow. I had to get out of there. I had to get away.

“I was wondering if you and Lottie could sing again for our first dance,” Eli asked. “Alex is just planning to have the band play the song, but I want to surprise her.”

I was about to agree, to say that I’d be honored to do it and I knew Charlotte would too, when my door was slammed open for the second time in one day.

Leo came barreling through the entry, charging straight towards me with an unconstrained menace about him that I’d never seen before. I was so shocked by it I didn’t even realize he had cocked his fist.

Pain exploded in my jaw. Distantly, I heard the clattering of Eli’s chair toppling over as he grabbed hold of Leo to stop his onslaught.

“What the hell did you do, you sorry son of a bitch?!” he bellowed at me.

What the fuck?

“Leo, man, calm the fuck down. What the hell just happened?” Eli was in front of him, trying to placate him. The two were pretty evenly matched, but it was obvious Leo had rage on his side. Eli knew better than to take that on.

“Why aren’t you kicking his ass?” Leo demanded. “She’s your fucking sister!”

That had me on my feet.

“What are you talking about?”

“I think you already know, asshole,” he answered, trying to get around Eli.

“Explain. Now!” There was no room for argument in my tone. He was talking about Charlotte, I wasn’t entertaining stupid games.

“Why don’t you explain why your girlfriend came running out of the building in tears? What did you do to her?!”

No. That couldn’t be right. Charlotte hadn’t been here. And did he say she was crying? She didn’t show emotion like that. “I haven’t seen her since I left this morning.”

“You fucking liar!” Leo’s yell was followed by a harsh grunt as Eli slammed him into the wall.

“What. Happened?” Eli enunciated, ready to attack if he didn’t get some answers.

“She came running out of the doors. I grabbed her arm and she was sobbing,” Leo explained, causing my chest to constrict with each word. “I told her we should come up here to talk to that prick,” he indicated me, “and she started panicking. She fucking bolted. I chased her for a few blocks, but I couldn’t keep up.”

Fuck. No. No. No. She was not getting away.

“Which way did she go?”

He sneered at me. “I’m not fucking telling you!”

I shouldered Eli out of the way, grabbing the bastard by his collar, ready to beat him within an inch of his damn life if he didn’t tell me how to find her.

“Which. Way. Did. She. Go?”

Maybe he saw that I sincerely had not spoken to Charlotte. Maybe he wanted to give me a chance to fix whatever he thought I had done. Or maybe he could just see that I was ready to decapitate him by hand if I didn’t get an answer. It didn’t matter to me.

“She turned left out of the doors, then right three blocks down. I lost her after that.”

I thought about the direction. Where the hell would she go? I imagined her, running from her fears through the streets of Seattle. And it hit me.

I took off after her without a damn word.

Eli kept up with me, jumping into the passenger seat of my car before I pulled away. I didn’t say a damn thing as I swerved between cars, getting through the city as fast as I could. When I pulled up to the park, a briefly saw a look of understanding cross his face, but I was taking off on the path Charlotte always ran before he said anything.

I found her exactly where I expected her, the same little clearing where I’d told her I loved her the first time. I thought the spot was one of the most beautiful places in the world that day. Finding Charlotte there curled over herself, sobbing between terrible retching noises, shattered that in an instant. The sight terrified me, cemented my feet where I stood. I wanted to rush to her, to pull her to me and make it go away, but I couldn’t move.

“Charlotte,” my voice sounded broken to my own ears.

Her head whipped up towards me, her eyes bloodshot and her cheeks soaked with tears. Where her face wasn’t bright red, it was pale from being sick. Nothing sliced my heart open about her appearance the way her words did, though.

“Go,” she sobbed. “Please, go. You have to leave.”

I was at her side in a second, trying to wrap my arms around her, but she wasn’t having it.

“Get away from me!” she shrieked.

My entire body jerked backwards.

Eli rushed forward, holding her while I tried to pull air into my lungs. The blinding pain of it, I could feel it in every inch of my body. I thought it might honestly kill me. Charlotte was saying something to her brother, but I couldn’t hear it past the echo of her words in my ears.

Get away from me!

Time ceased to exist. The only thing that was real were those words and the destroyed look on her face when she had yelled them at me. When a hand landed softly on my shoulder, I nearly shot out of my skin.

“Logan, come on.” I turned to see a miserable Alex leaning over me. How long had I been lost that she managed to get there?

The sobbing sound that had been ripping my heart open was gone. I looked around to see Eli had taken Charlotte. I flew to my feet, knowing I needed to go after her. I needed to stop her. I needed her.

Alex grabbed me. “He took her to the car. She’s…” The sorrow on her face gutted me again. I knew her next words were going to tear me apart. “She said she doesn’t want to see you.”

“Why?” I could barely articulate the word.

Alex’s arms wrapped around me, but I couldn’t hug her back. I couldn’t move.

“She said she’s…” Alex’s voice broke with soft sobs of her own. “She was murmuring about being broken. About how you couldn’t love her… not when she’s so broken.”

No. No, that wasn’t true. I did love her. I didn’t care about her past. I loved her.

I loved her.

And she was gone.

I collapsed to the ground, and let my own tears fall.