Blitz (Blast Brothers #3) - Sabrina Stark Page 0,107

dick, but…"

"But what?" she snapped.

"Don't you think you overreacted?"

Just as I said it, I heard a tap at the passenger's side window. When I turned to look, I saw Angelique Delmonico, smiling like she'd caught us fucking in the back seat.

From the other side of the glass, she called out, "Well, if it isn't the happy couple."

In the driver's seat, Mina muttered, "I'll give her happy, alright."

Standing behind Angelique was the same camera guy as before. But this time, his camera wasn't loose at his side. Instead, it was pointed straight in our direction, and filming us, too, from the looks of it.

With a muttered curse, Mina fired up the engine and shifted her car into reverse. She hit the gas, leaving Angelique, along with the camera guy, staring after us in the parking lot.

Two minutes later, we were on the road, leaving the fairgrounds behind us.

Mina kept her gaze straight ahead, looking royally pissed off as we made our escape.

But hey, I was getting pissed, too.

I'd confessed my love. I'd followed after her. I'd even tried to be understanding through all of the drama – unnecessary drama, the way I saw it.

And Mina still hadn't answered my very basic question. Or maybe she had, and I was just having a hard time believing it.

"Just so we're clear," I said, "you dumped me because you saw me hugging my brother's fiancée? Are you serious?"

She made a sound, a half-laugh, half-sob. It tore at my heart and made me question the wisdom of letting her drive anywhere.

Still, I persisted. "So was that the reason?"

She said nothing. Instead, she stomped on the gas. Her car lurched forward, picking up speed along the lonely country road.

Soon, I heard a low, but supremely irritating noise – wind noise, but messed up, like it was pummeling my brain.

I glanced up at her sunroof. "What's that noise?"

When she replied, her voice dripped with innocence. "What noise?"

"It's your sunroof."

She smiled. "Is it?"

Oh, yeah. She was definitely losing it. But hey, that made two of us, because I was losing it, too. As the noise burrowed its way into my skull, I told her, "If that's why you dumped me, you're even crazier than I thought in the beginning."

"Oh, I’m crazy, alright," she said. "And you wanna know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I thought what we had was real."

"And it wasn't?"

Her voice broke. "I heard you."

By now, I felt like I was losing my mind. "You heard me what?"

"I heard you telling your brothers you were going to dump me as soon as the campaign ended."

And just like that, everything clicked into place.

Fuck.

Chapter 73

Mina

In the passenger's seat, Chase grew utterly still.

From the corner of my eye, I studied his face in profile.

Judging from his expression, he looked just as sick as I'd felt when I'd heard him say those awful words.

Even now, they haunted me like a bad dream. "Because I’m just gonna dump her when the campaign's over."

He'd said it in Buckville, when I'd been searching all over for him. During my search, I'd happened to wander by the festival office, only to hear him through the open window, bragging about how he was going to ditch me as soon as I was no longer needed.

In my car, I continued. "So you can imagine how I felt, knowing that none of it was real."

"Mina—"

"Don't 'Mina' me," I snapped. "I heard you."

He turned in his seat to face me. "Yeah, but I was joking."

"Oh yeah? Then how come nobody laughed?"

His mouth opened and then slowly shut again. This gesture, as small as it was, told me everything I needed to know.

So I answered on his behalf. "I'll tell you why. It was because you didn't sound like you were joking."

"Yeah, because I was pissed."

Sure he was. "At who?"

"My family," he said. "They were hassling the shit out of me. You don't know how they've been lately."

Now that was a joke. "I know I don't know. And you wanna know why?" Before he could even think to respond, I said, "It's because you refused to introduce us. And now I know the reason."

"You do, huh?"

"Sure. I mean, why bother, right? I was on my way out, anyway. No need to get the family involved."

"You're wrong," he said. "I didn't introduce you, because I didn't want you hassled."

"Oh, so you were doing it for me? That's your story?"

"It's no story," he said. "Maybe I didn't want to complicate things."

"Right." With as much sarcasm as I could muster, I said, "Because you wanted to