Wild Love (Rose Hill, #1)(98)
While my lawyer chews me out about how I need to get my ass to Vancouver and help my friend because some asshole named Stan is hell-bent on pressing charges, I soak Rosie in, not fully listening.
Pleading with the universe for this to not be something she holds against me for too long.
“Got it,” I say back to her. “We’re on our way.” I hang up and take in the confused expression lining Rosie’s face.
“What’s going on? Is Cora okay?”
My heart thuds heavily against my ribs, knowing what I’m about to tell her and feeling even more in love with her for asking about Cora before anything else.
“Cora is fine. But…” I scrub a hand over my stubbled jaw and let loose a muttered, “Fuck.”
“Ford.” Rosie tugs the sheet up over herself, like a layer of protection. Like she’s already anticipating some sort of blow. “What’s wrong?”
“West got arrested. We need to go to Vancouver.”
She rears back ever so slightly—this wasn’t what she was expecting. We both know her bother has stayed out of trouble since having kids. They seemed to soothe some of that reckless abandon in him. That ferocity.
But now I’m the one who pushed him too far.
“For what? And why the hell was he in Vancouver?”
She pushes up onto her knees, gathering the sheet higher, almost wrapping it around herself, reading my face—my body.
“He was helping me.”
Her face is blank, eyes wide like saucers. The silence in the room crescendos.
“With Stan.”
She stays eerily still, staring—no, glaring—at me as splotches of red expand on her chest and travel up her throat, unspoken words forming in her heart and moving up to her vocal cords so she can hurl them at me.
Angry, pissed-off words. Because I know I shouldn’t have involved West in this.
“You…” Her voice is stony, a troublesome sort of calm. “You told my brother about what happened with Stan?”
I drop my phone on the desk beside me and take a step toward her, but she holds a shaking hand up to stop me.
“No. You’re going to stay right there.”
I swallow heavily and stop my forward motion before lifting my arms and raking my fingers through my hair. “Rosie, I’m sorry. We weren’t together at that point. When I told him, I still… I figured we were going to be what we’d always been. Nothing had happened between us yet. I never knew we’d be where we are now.”
“I…” She glances around the room now, a breathy, disbelieving chuckle lurching from her throat, followed by a pained groan. “I told you that in confidence.” Her eyes slice back to mine, pinning me to the spot. “You are the only person I’ve told that to other than Ryan. And something has always been happening between us. We’ve always had secrets.”
“I’m sorry.” It’s all I can say, and I’ll say it over and over again. No matter how many times it takes.
“You told me you wouldn’t tell anyone. And then you decide that of all the people in the world to tell, my brother seemed like the ideal candidate? Who else? My parents? God.” She drops her face into one hand while the other clutches at the white sheet. “How humiliating.”
“You have nothing to be humiliated about.” I spit the words out like venom.
She looks back up at me, face drawn, hands limp at her sides. “Fine. So why exactly is my brother facing charges?”
My molars grind. West and his fucking temper. “I don’t know the details. He hit Stan. I thought he would be okay just being the one to hand-deliver the eviction notices. He wanted to do something and was getting a kick out of tormenting the guy. But apparently Stan came at him this time, and you know how that goes over with West.”
She shakes her head at me, like she can’t quite believe what I’m telling her.
“You know we’ve always been partners in crime.”
She scoffs. “Yeah, when you were kids playing ding-dong ditch or getting booze underage, it was fine. You guys are adults now, and you can’t just play this off like you are two teenagers getting into trouble. This isn’t… Ha!” She barks out a laugh. “I’m sorry. I’m just having a really hard time wrapping my head around how someone as intelligent as you can be so deeply oblivious. He has two children who need him, Ford. He doesn’t have billions of dollars in his coffers. You can’t use him to do your dirty work just because he’s always been a little rougher around the edges than you. You keep your hands clean and play chess while West takes the fall? If you’re as good a friend to him as you claim to be, how could you have put him in this position?”
“That’s never how I meant it. We were working together as a team.”
“Right, well, one of you is sitting in a police station and the other is lounging around in a thousand-dollar-a-night boutique hotel room. Forgive me for missing the team aspect of this venture.”
My throat dries as I wrap my head around what she’s saying, finally seeing the entire situation from a perspective other than my own. Beyond my tunnel vision for revenge on a man who wronged someone I love.
“I didn’t think?—”
“No.” She stands and the sheet drops, leaving her entirely naked as she walks to me. “You didn’t think because you are privileged beyond compare.” Her arms fly out wide. “You have power you don’t even recognize. Money. Clout. A name you complain about but wield like a weapon. And that’s okay. You should make the most of what you’ve got. But goddamn it, Ford. At least recognize it. Own it.”