The row of warehouses came into view. We reached the lot, and I barely waited for the car to stop before jumping out and marching across it to the doors, pushing them open.
They didn’t budge, and I growled, slamming my hand down on the buzzer repeatedly until Graham’s voice came over the intercom. “Little sis?”
“Where is he?”
“Ah…” A beat of silence as Aiden stood at my back, then, “Let me get your brother.”
A minute later, Hendrix walked outside, his eyes widening as if he’d just realized it was night. “God, any longer in this bunker, and we’re all going to turn into pasty vampires.”
“Everett,” I rushed out. “He left the apartment at Zoe’s and paid out his rent.”
Hendrix let out a long breath, his gaze moving from me to Aiden and back again as the rest of the band filed out behind him. Heaving out a pained sound, he rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Motherfucker.”
He could play dumb all he wanted, but I knew that spark of recognition in his eyes. “Hendrix, tell me. Where is he?”
“I don’t know, Steve. I swear.”
Rage colored my vision, and I shoved at his chest, screaming, “Bullshit.” My hands slammed down, and he did nothing to stop me, just stood there as I hit his chest again and again. “You’re lying. One of you has to know. You’d know, he’s your best fucking friend.” Tears choked my voice. “He can’t do this to me again. Not again. I can’t…” Hands pulled me back, turning me into a warm, hard chest as the fading screams became a garbled, keening sound. “He can’t. Not this time.” I gasped, gritting out, “Not this time.”
Aiden’s hold tightened, and I sagged against him, then he was half carrying me back to his car. The door slammed and the engine started, cool air blowing over my skin as he stood outside, talking to Hendrix.
My hands ripped into my hair as I lowered my head to my knees. I remained locked that way until Aiden helped me out of the car at home.
The days passed, carrying years of history in a taunting cycle.
Fleeting snippets of time mingled. The good and the bad and the heartbreakingly horrible moments all coalescing into a multicolored web of something so beautifully imperfect, it was a wonder they ever existed at all. That we’d ever existed at all.
Love was supposed to forgive all things. Of that I was a strong believer. But what happened when love was only capable of taking so much? What happened when the bad started outweighing the good, and the good was never meant to be a song sang to completion?
We’d ended time and time again, yet we’d never really started. And now we had. We had a beginning and an ending, and the pain was infinitely harder to carry than before, to swallow like a foul-tasting pill and trudge onward.
I wasn’t sure which was more difficult to admit. That we were never meant to make something whole out of something too broken, or that it was time to give up, once and for all.
He never answered my calls, and as the first day of his absence rolled into the second, it became clear that his phone was either off, discarded, or disconnected.
Aiden had taken me home after the murky events of me losing my shit outside the studio. He’d laid down behind me on my bed, listening to me cry for another man. Just like that other man had done when Aiden had left me in a similar position. He didn’t touch me or say anything, but his presence alone soothed more than it shamed.
Still, I wished I could have turned it off. That I’d done something to make it easier for him, but that was impossible. In fact, misery had pulled me so deep, I’d forgotten he was there until he’d set a bottle of water and a mug of tea on my nightstand, then kissed my forehead before Adela took his place.
He’d left after that, and I hadn’t heard from him since. Not that I could blame him or find it within me to care enough to call.
Adela remained a force of quiet strength in those first few days, flitting around the apartment to fetch me food. Not only did she remind me to shower, but she also took me to my first sonogram.
I was numb, too numb. And though the sight of my baby caused a ripple of happiness, of excitement