Total pages in book: 188
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
His frown has thickened, and he doesn’t look so sleepy anymore. Although, he still looks pathetic. I take a step back from him and turn around. But then change my mind and face him again, before rearing back and laying a heavy one in his face. It pushes him so far back that he crashes against the opposite wall and slides down, unconscious.
So apparently, my anger wasn’t gone anywhere. She’s going to be pissed, my Little Strawberry, when I tell her I broke my promise but at least, I didn’t kill him, just knocked him out. Her mother screams from behind me and rushes over to see to him but I don’t want to stay here a moment longer. I have things to do. I stride back out, my brothers in wake, just a cop car is pulling up. I march over to the rental car that we got at the airport and slide into the driver’s seat. We just flew into town to take care of our parents but now, we’re flying back to the city where everything fell apart.
“Any luck?” I ask Conrad as I start the car.
His jaw clenches and he shakes his head. “If Wyn knows where Jupiter is, then she isn’t telling me.”
I grip the wheel tighter as I pull out and Ledger chimes in from the backseat. “She knows. They all know. But they aren’t telling us.”
No, they aren’t.
And while I’ve tried to keep my cool for over twenty-four hours, tried to keep myself distracted from the list of things I need to do before I can go get her but now, I’m starting to get antsy. Where could she be?
She told me the other night before I stupidly fucking left to get away from her and her truth, that she wouldn’t be here when I came back. I didn’t think this is what she meant. I didn’t think it meant me getting back to the hotel after that bullshit fucking meeting with the management—they’re still deciding my fate by the way, but I should hear something by tonight because the next game is in two days—going straight to her room to find Callie in there, looking at me with accusation. My sister handed me her note with a muttered, “Idiot.” And then left.
It said three words: Don’t chase me.
I ignored it and called her cell to find out she left it in her hotel room. Quite possibly because it has the tracking software on it. I went back to Callie to ask her exactly what happened and where she went. My sister said she didn’t know. All Jupiter said to her was she needed space and handed Callie the note. So I went to Snow because she wouldn’t leave without telling Snow where she went. But again, Snow gave me no information other than: “She loves you, Shepard. And you broke her heart. She’s not here because of you. Fix it. Bring her back.”
Meanwhile, Reed was making his own phone calls so we could take care of our asshole parents. And my brothers were trying to get any information they could from their women about where Jupiter went. All of them kept—still keep—saying the same thing: I’m an asshole and she needs to be away from me for a bit. But they aren’t telling us anything else.
Enough is enough though. I need to find her. I need to fucking tell her that I love her and then I have to find a way to win her back. Because we’re connected and I’m not giving up on her and neither am I letting her give up on me.
On us.
Chapter Thirty-Four
When you’re part of a family, disappearing takes a lot of work.
It takes planning and scheming. Not that I was in any shape to scheme or plan the night everything happened. I was a wreck, for lack of a better word. Or rather, wreck is a perfect word. Because that’s what he makes me.
In any case when he left me in my room, I crumpled to the floor and I cried and cried. Then I got up and decided that I didn’t want to be here. I couldn’t be here when he got back. I couldn’t face him, and neither could I face anyone when my heart was breaking.
My first call was to Tempest because she’s the one who knows at least part of it. She left the party to come to me because that’s what good friends do. I confessed to her about me and Shepard, that something had been going on between us. But now it was over. I didn’t tell her the details as to why or what happened, and she respected my privacy enough to not ask. Although I bet she could see whatever had happened was probably brutal and heartbreaking with the way I kept hiccupping and sniffling.