Wild North (The North Brothers, #1) - J.B. Salsbury Page 0,3
close my eyes. A rush of tears fights for release from behind my lids. Part of me wants to run away—ignorance is bliss and all that. But I have to know. I have to see with my own eyes, or I’ll always wonder if I misunderstood what I heard.
My eyelids pop open, wide, terrified. Sickly curious.
I move slowly and peer around the tree.
There, right in front of my eyes, is Lincoln’s blue coat, his brown beanie, and his hand, disappearing between Courtney’s thighs.
He’s been cheating on me. And worse, all three of them have known about it!
Coherent thought escapes me. Only one driving need spurs me forward.
Get away.
I’ve always wondered what I would do in a fight-or-flight situation. Turns out, I’m flight.
I run. Hoping to get far enough away before the first primal scream rips from my chest. It’s not just Lincoln. I had a feeling our relationship had run its course. But Courtney? She was my friend. And even Darin, who I’ve known for years, how could he not tell me?
My toe catches on something, and the force of it throws me forward. My hands skid against the rough, cold earth. I stagger to my feet, pushing myself on. Away. My vision blurs with tears, not from a broken heart as much as betrayal. How did I not see this coming? I balance from tree to tree while distance does nothing to clear what I saw from my mind.
Two years we’ve been together.
He gave me a ring.
A feral growl works its way up my throat. I push to move faster, as if I could escape my thoughts on foot
We share an apartment. My God, has he been a lying cheater all this time?
I met his family. I met Courtney’s family, and her parents took me in as if one of their own.
How many times did she crash on our couch after a night out drinking?
How many trips did she tag along with us?
Have they been screwing this whole time?
Does he love her? The ground disappears beneath me and sends me into a free fall. Pain slices through my shoulder. The world spins around me in a blur of brown and green. A pierce to my side robs my lungs of air and my voice. Cold, wet pain claws up my stomach beneath my jacket. With every twist, a new agony. My stomach drops, and I’m airborne. My legs flail, and my arms search for something to grab onto, something to stop my free fall. I land hard. Knock the wind from my chest. The world goes black.
My head feels like it’s being squeezed between two boulders. The pain between my ears is so intense that it makes my stomach sick. My bones quake with the cold, every muscle tense with the chill. Everything hurts. I crack an eyelid, hoping to find that I’m home in bed with a nasty flu bug, but I’m met with wet, dense earth as far as I can see.
Lincoln and Courtney.
Agony rips through my chest, and I try to roll to my side, to curl around the place that hurts the most. A splintering pain in my ribs freezes me on the spot and makes it impossible to take a full breath. Hot tears run tracks down my temples.
“Help…” The sound is so weak, barely loud enough to be heard over the wind that whips around my face.
I clear my throat and then groan as the action sends another wave of pain through me.
Broken ribs. I’m sure of it.
The knowledge comes with a flood of adrenaline and awareness that I’m going to have to fight for my life.
“I can do this.” I don’t know if I say the words out loud or in my head. Either way, it’s enough to get me to force open my eyes. I sense more than see that I’m at the base of a steep cliff. I fell, that much I remember.
My left arm is immobile. I think it’s something in my shoulder. Broken, maybe. My right arm moves, and with shaking fingers, I feel around my face. I hiss when they brush against a sensitive, wet spot on my forehead.
With a pain-riddled body and an aching heart, I become hypersensitive to every gust of wind and change in temperature. How long have I been here? I don’t know if the sun is behind the clouds or if I’m in a shaded spot of the forest. All I know is it’s dark.