about people very often, so it confused the hell out of me. I hated that I’d put her in the same boat with her mother and older sister, that I’d misjudged her. She was really a nice girl—sweet even.
The doctor was going to release Harris the next day now that they were sure all the narcotics he’d been drugged with were out of his system and he didn’t seem to have any side effects from them. I’d only seen him once since Lucy had left, but I couldn’t agree with the doctor on his assessment that Harris was going to be okay.
He wasn’t even close to being okay. His eyes were dead, his face hard and pale. There was a new anger in the usual carefree Harris Cutter that concerned me just as much as Lucy’s breakdown had. I didn’t know everything, Lucy hadn’t told me much about what had happened on her end the night everything had gone to hell and back. I knew that she’d gotten some text messages from Harris’s phone from Tessa, but that was all she would say.
Whatever it was, it had been enough to destroy two people’s lives. No, not just two. More. Harris and Lucy weren’t the only ones wrecked after what Tessa had done. Jenna, who was caught in a tug-of-war between her three siblings. Devlin and Natalie Cutter, who couldn’t wrap their minds around the fact that their son had nearly died. Jesse and Layla, who couldn’t make their daughter’s pain go away. Jace, who was still haunted by imagines of nearly losing his best friend as he watched him OD. I hurt for all of them.
With Harris being released, Jace was finally ready to go back to his place. I was ready to go with him, wanting to sleep in his bed snuggled up against him for a few hours before I had to face anyone at my father’s house.
That plan was quickly changed, however, when I started to leave with Jace. Out of nowhere Lana Stevenson appeared in front of me. Her pregnant belly was huge, near to busting it looked like. She was carrying her fourth daughter and only weeks away from giving birth, but the look on her face right then made me wonder if the newest little Demon family addition was going to be joining us sooner than expected.
“Kin, thank God you’re still here. I need your help. Will you come with me to Malibu? It’s Lucy. She needs us.”
I didn’t even blink. That was all she needed to say. If Lucy needed me, then I was going to be there for her. She was my best friend and had helped me through some of the worst times of my life. I owed her.
“Good, thank you.” She grasped my free hand—the one not entwined with Jace’s—and pulled me along with her to the idling SUV just outside the hospital’s entrance. I didn’t even have time to glance back at Jace as she rushed me away.
Drake Stevenson was behind the wheel and put it in gear as soon as the door shut behind me and his wife. He gave me a grim nod in the rearview mirror and hauled ass. I reached for my seatbelt. “Is Lucy okay?”
Lana glanced back at me from the front passenger seat. “No,” she said with tears in her eyes. “This is all a clusterfuck, Kin. I can’t explain right now because I don’t know what all is going on. All I know is that Layla called me, nearly hysterical. She and Jesse were having an argument and I could hear him raging in the background. I didn’t ask questions. Since we hadn’t made it home yet, I told Drake to come back and get you. Whatever is going on, I know Lucy will need us both.”
Layla and Jesse Thornton arguing? They were such an amazing couple. What the hell were they arguing about?
Drake remained mute the entire drive to the Thorntons’ house. I knew he adored Lucy and she loved him just as much. There was a strong bond between them, that much anyone could have seen when they were around each other. I figured that he was being pulled in two directions right then. Wanting to take care of Jenna. Wanting to comfort Lucy. It must have been killing him.
“It will all work out,” Lana kept murmuring and at first I thought she was just talking to herself, but then I saw the way she would reach for Drake’s hand