Mercy (Somerset University #3) - Ruby Vincent Page 0,71

My friend is coming for me. I’ll check on Sawyer and then leave you two to talk.”

“All right.”

Sawyer shifted as we came into the room. A pale imitation of him lay beneath the covers. Like a photocopy from a machine running out of ink. How didn’t I see he wasn’t well before?

Cydney bent over him. Whispered kind words in his ear and kissed his forehead. She patted my arm on the way out, leaving me to it.

“Hey.” His voice was no louder than a thin, reedy whisper. “I remember you slapping me around. Thanks.”

I pulled up a chair next to him. “I’d say anytime, but I’m hoping we never have to do this again.”

He dropped his gaze. “I know what it looked like, Rick. Trust me when I say it was an accident. It can happen... after you get clean.”

“Clean?”

“Your body can’t handle the amount you were shooting up before. They told us that in rehab. Warned us.” He laughed mirthlessly. “I should’ve listened.”

“You went to rehab,” I repeated as things began to click into place.

“For a year and a half.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “I see.”

“Do you see? You understand why I refused to tell you where I was? Why I dropped off the face of the planet? My parents spent a lot of money to put me in a discrete facility. They didn’t want this tarnishing my future. A stain I couldn’t recover from.” He sighed. “This will kill them.”

“I understand that this wasn’t any of my business. But we weren’t trying to dig up dirt, Sawyer. We thought you were kidnapped.”

“I... kind of was,” he admitted. “Confessing that I had a problem didn’t come easy. Even with the lengths I was going through to pretend everything was fine. I refused to take a look at what my act covered up. But Aiden saw it,” he said. “Because of that file he keeps on us.”

My head snapped up.

“Yeah, I knew about that. He was watching me so closely, he noticed my running times lagging. That I wasn’t lifting as much or pushing as hard. I partied with the guys in the club, but my change in the house proved to him that the party didn’t stop for me outside of Friday nights.”

“So, he kidnapped you and made you go to rehab?”

“No,” he replied. “Aiden contacted my parents who tried everything to reach me. I shut them out, insisted the booze and drugs were under control, and bitched at Aiden for ratting me out. The next thing I knew I was being thrown in the back of a van, and yes, that was my parents. They arranged it with Aiden believing the only way to get through to me was to haul me off for an intervention. It took a while, but eventually I agreed to go.”

“Then, where was Teagan?”

“It’s not my place to say.” Sawyer sighed. “But I will say she left to take a break. College is intense and the Sallys and Sams turn that up to a thousand. It was a lie that she left to be with her mom, but it’s not a lie that she was grieving.”

I nodded slowly, putting the pieces together. “Aiden flipped out on you at the party because you relapsed.”

“He warned me not to rejoin if I couldn’t handle myself.” He scoffed. “I couldn’t.”

“Hey,” I said. “It’s not easy. Especially being around that much temptation. You did your best and you’ll keep doing your best today and each day after. That’s all your family and friends want from you.”

“Thanks,” he gruffed, eyes shining. “For not judging me.”

“I’m glad you’ll be okay.”

“I will be. Walsh says you saved my life. The least I can do is repay you, Rick, so go ahead and ask.”

“Ask? Ask what?”

“The questions you’re holding back because you’re a good fucking guy. You don’t have to. I— We owe you this and time is running out. Ask what you want to know about Aiden.”

I rocked back in my chair. I wasn’t ready for that offer and didn’t have a response to go with it.

“Go on,” Sawyer pushed. “Ask.”

The name worked its way to my tongue. Unbidden, it forced itself out. “Leighton Lewis.”

“Leighton? What about her?”

“Does Aiden know where she is or who is helping her?”

“Where she is?” He scrunched up his face and even that much pained him. “Leighton is dead. Didn’t Valentina tell you?”

I studied him, searching down to his pores for a hint that he was lying. He stared back at me, eyes