Blacklisted (Loveless, Texas #3) - Jay Crownover Page 0,106

didn’t doubt the man I knew he’d warned away from me.

Case pulled his hand away from mine and curled it around the rail of the hospital bed. His knuckles turned white as he clenched his fingers around the surface.

“I owe both of you an apology. I was the one who asked Shot to draw Ashby Grant out into the open. I was the one who urged him to keep the plan a secret from you. He wasn’t with her because he wanted to be. He didn’t have a choice.” Case shook his head and sighed heavily once more. “If it had been up to Shot, Ashby would’ve disappeared from all our lives for good with no one being the wiser. He played by my rules because I convinced him it was better for you. I told him it would be best if she confessed to being involved in your mother’s murder and if she confessed to screwing with your cases to cost you the promotion. I was the one who wanted you out of the way so my plan could work. So I’m the one who left you unaware Ashby was back and close enough to harm you. I fucked up. It wasn’t Shot.”

He sounded so remorseful and looked so devastated, my heart broke for him.

He was blaming himself for everything that had happened. I knew those feelings intimately. I’d drowned in blame when Ashby murdered our father because she wanted to hurt me. I let the guilt bury me when she burned their childhood home to the ground in an effort to further divide us. So while his plan had been flawed, the only person who was responsible for me being in my current state was my former friend.

It took a lot of effort and all the energy I had to reach up and put one of my hands over his. The tension in him was so tight that it felt like he might shatter at the slightest touch.

“Don’t blame anyone…but Ashby, and that man.” I awkwardly tried to pat his hand. “If Shot went along with your plan, he must’ve seen some truth in what you were saying. He doesn’t blindly follow anyone. I was in the wrong place at the right time. It couldn’t be helped.”

It was a lot of words at once after I hadn’t said anything in days. My throat was dry, and getting my tongue to work the way it should took some work. But it was important that Case didn’t carry around the weight of what Ashby did any longer.

“Things went awry, but if I hadn’t needed surgery, who knows when I would have found out disease was eating away at my kidneys. I felt fine but I was slowly dying. Getting shot might’ve saved my life. Things worked out the way they were supposed to, Case. You did what you did to protect me. I’ve never had a big brother before, but it seems like that’s what you’re supposed to do. I’m not mad at you and I’m not mad at Shot.” Almost dying put things in perspective.

If you cared about someone, loved them, and knew they felt the same way about you, instead of running away or assuming the worst, you owed it to them to give them the benefit of the doubt. I knew Shot. Knew him better than I ever thought I would. Sure, it hurt to see him with another woman in a compromising position, but I should’ve known there was more to the story. I let my heart overrule my head and in hindsight regretted it. I was supposed to be smart, but then again, love made fools out of everyone.

“Things will work out with Shot if they are supposed to as well.” And if they didn’t, I’d be okay because I had him and Crew and Kody. No matter what I was facing in the future, I was no longer alone. I no longer had to stand by myself when the world was coming down around me.

Case cleared his throat aggressively and blinked his eyes rapidly. I knew he was fighting to keep back tears, and I was completely touched. I was also totally wiped out. My eyes drifted closed and my hand slipped away from his.

“You’re probably tired. Go back to sleep. I’m gonna hang out until the doctor pops in to check on you and get an update on how you’re doing. Now that you’re awake, we hope we can take you home soon.”

I