“Good. Because we don’t have much time. Remus’ pack will be more on edge than ever thanks to the eclipse. They’re not going to show him any mercy.”
I’m still so confused. I know that Rory and the boys cared about me, but they left.
“I don’t understand,” I say to her—one hand frozen on the gear shifter. “Why would Rory do this? He left. They all left. Why would he just throw himself away like this?”
“You’re an idiot!” Vivian snaps at me. She pushes my hand off and changes the gear herself. The car jerks forward, the engine roaring to life. “Just drive, Sabrina! Don’t you get it? Seriously, how stupid do you have to be?”
My face apparently indicates just how stupid I am, because Vivian can see that I still don’t understand what she’s talking about. She groans as if she’s having to explain biochemistry to a toddler and there isn’t time.
“The boys are tied to you, Sabrina. They can’t just give you up, it’s impossible for them to. You’re a complete fool if you think that they left because they didn’t love you. They left because they thought it would keep you safe.”
Keep me safe.
My laugh is bitter.
“Is that what they called it? Abandoning me?”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. All this time, I felt like I was sitting in an empty pit alone. I thought they had abandoned me and broken their promise to me, and that they didn’t love me enough to stay with me anymore.
That was the only explanation.
I don’t care if they left because they thought they were protecting me by doing it. That wasn’t their call to make.
Whatever their reasons … they still left.
Which is what I tell Vivian, but she just stares at me.
“So, you’re just going to let him die then? Because as petty as you want to be, it doesn’t change the fact that Rory’s out there somewhere about to kill himself because of you.”
I shake my head as if my denial can make the danger Rory has put himself in disappear. As if it would make it all cease to exist.
“No,” I say. “But Rory has always been the most level-headed one. He is too responsible, too strong do something as foolish as running head-first into Remus’ pack on the night of the eclipse. You must have made a mistake.” I shake my head again. “He must be heading somewhere else.”
“He’s not,” Vivian says.
The anger in Vivian’s expression lessens, although the fear and urgency are still there. She looks at me with more empathy than anyone has ever looked at me before.
Though I can tell she’s itching for us to get going, for the pavement to fly beneath our tires once more, she forces herself to lean over and press a hand to my shoulder. Her voice softens and her eyes darken as she tilts her head down to look me squarely in the eyes.
“Sabrina, any man can be broken by love, even the most level-headed ones. In fact, I think that sometimes it’s those men, the ones that seem the strongest, the most reserved, the most in-control … they fall the hardest of all.”
I bite my bottom lip, trying to take in what she’s saying.
“Can’t you see what’s happening here?” she says. “Rory doesn’t want to be without you. He doesn’t want to live without you. He was willing to leave you even when it killed him to do it because he thought he was protecting you. Now, for whatever reason he thinks he’s lost you, and he can’t live with that.”
I’m so shocked that I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. I’ve gone from feeling months of nothingness, to feeling like I am so flooded with emotions so strong that I’m going to drown right here, right now, in the front seat of this stolen car.
After a moment, I finally find my voice. It’s small and broken.
“What are we going to do?” I ask her. Acid is clawing at the back of my throat and my nerves feel like they’re on fire. If anything happens to Rory, it will be my fault.
“I’ve already called the rest of the pack, but when I left, they were all so focused on getting ready for the ceremony that I don’t know if they’ll even get my messages. Even if they do, I still don’t know if they’ll be able to get here in time.”
I know that when she said, “in time”, she means “in time to save Rory’s life”.
“Shit,” she says, suddenly looking down at her pockets as she pats them frantically. “I must have dropped my phone back there when you nearly ran me over. I have no way of calling or checking messages.”
“I’m no use there,” I say, quietly. “They changed their numbers when they left. Or they blocked me. I can’t call either.”