Broken Bonds (Unbreakable Bonds #1)

Chapter Ten

chapter ten

CELINE

After just five minutes of walking, our clothes were drenched. Ace let go of my hand to push the wet strands of hair out of his eyes, and then, he loosened the straps on the backpack before taking my hand into his warm grasp again.

At the end of the driveway, I turned to look back at the house, my heart in my throat. My stomach sank to my feet when I saw the waves crashing against the side of the house. We wouldn’t have survived there; Ace was right. And it hurt to see a house I loved getting ruined.

So many memories were in that house. Aidan kissed me for the first time on the private beach behind it. He told me he loved me for the first time in the same lounge where I had told Ace how he died.

As I looked down at Ace’s hand in mine, I wished for the world to wash away my memories of Aidan. I was ready to let him go. I couldn’t keep living with him clouding every moment of my existence. I couldn’t keep seeing his death replay in my mind over and over again like a horror movie stuck on replay.

Most of all, I had to get the image of his dead body out of my nightmares. I’d thought survivor’s guilt might kill me, but his memory would probably be what actually took me out of this world.

Ace tugged on my hand, gaining my attention, and pulled me toward the road away from the drive. Away from the house.

I looked back at it one more time, and through the thick rain, I almost felt like I could make out Aidan standing by the front door, his brown curls flat from the water. He was smiling and waving at me.

With a heavy heart, I turned and took one step away. Another step took me out of view of the house. Another step, and all I could think about was Ace’s warm hand grasping mine.

Thinking about Ace was better than thinking about saying goodbye to my dead ex. Saying goodbye to all the memories of us in that house.

The warm hand in mine was a solid reminder that Ace was here protecting me, and Aidan was in my past… where he belonged. Where I hoped he stayed.

We didn’t talk for a long time. I was shivering, and since we had left the house, his hand had gone cold, and mine just felt numb. I just hoped he didn’t let go. I wasn’t sure if I could keep pushing on if he did.

Another thirty minutes passed by agonizingly slow. I had never been one for exercise, especially walking miles—not to mention, all the surgery I had done that kind of prevented much of it. My Converses definitely weren’t the right shoes for all this walking, and I was beginning to feel the ache in my feet and the pain in my legs. I glanced at Ace’s feet, only to see a pair of black Timberlands. He wasn’t wearing the right shoes either. Neither of us were ready for this.

I was hungry, and my entire body was beginning to ache. Blisters had formed along my heel and under my toes from rubbing against the wet fabric of my shoes. The rain had lightened to a drizzle though, and the sun was fighting against the thundering clouds, but it never won. The dark clouds continued to prevail.

Ace had gotten us onto the A1A now, and we were walking toward Atlantic Ave. in hopes of finding a shelter or at least a sign for one that could point us in the right direction. Hope flickered inside my cold heart when I saw a gas station in the distance. “Do you think anyone is there?” It was the first thing I had said since we left. My throat was so dry; a sip of water would be amazing. I was so dehydrated.

“No, but we can rest under the overhang for a few minutes. We need to eat and drink something,” Ace answered, his voice low and raspy from lack of use.

Despite us being able to see the gas station in the distance, it still took us another thirty minutes to reach the deserted overhang due to the wind and our legs and feet aching.

There was a decently-sized dry spot beneath the overhang between the pumps and the store, where we finally sat down and rested our legs. I closed my eyes for a second, enjoying this moment, biting back a groan of relief as I sank to my ass on the cold, damp ground. I took off my shoes next, and while Ace rifled through the bag, I noticed the clothes he packed weren’t too wet. I was grateful I would have something to wear once we reached the shelter. I was so cold, and I longed to change into something warm. But I didn’t want to waste our mostly-dry clothes if we were just going to get rained on even more during our search for proper shelter.

Ace handed me a granola bar, then pulled out a water bottle. After taking a long sip, Ace handed it to me, and I quickly brought the bottle to my lips, not even caring that we were technically swapping spit. The cool liquid moved down my throat smoothly, and I could’ve wept when it wet my too-dry throat. I hadn’t realized just how thirsty I was until I finally had something to drink. When I pulled the bottle from my lips, I noticed Ace had finished his bar, so I handed him the water bottle back. There was still a quarter left.

“Are you sure, princess?” I nodded, and he didn’t ask again, instead bringing the bottle to his lips, clearly as thirsty as I’d been. Honestly, I could’ve finished off the whole bottle, but that was greedy, and I knew he needed hydration just as badly as I did.

I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed the cool liquid. The more I watched him, the more I noticed just how sexy he was. And how much I wanted him. And I couldn’t want him.

But then, sometimes, he made the word ‘princess’ sound so lovely, making me almost begin falling for him. And then, he would turn around and say it as though I was some stuck-up snob who should be in a huge palace and he wanted nothing to do with me. I wished he was consistent so that my heart could make up its mind about him, at the very least. I could figure out the rest from there.

“Can I have my phone?” I asked, and he pulled it from the backpack a moment later. It was already four P.M. There was still eighty percent battery and a missed call from my mother. “Do you want to call your parents?” I asked him. He hadn’t spoken to them—or anyone at all, really, since we had been trapped at the house.

“No; they won’t care anyway.” He looked away from me, and I decided that was a conversation for another time. He didn’t look too keen on talking about it anyway. After what I had gone through, I understood the need to keep secrets, and I knew how hard it was to open up about personal problems. I just thought he might be more comfortable to share with me now since I’d shared so much with him the night before. Or, at least, I’d been hopeful he would be.

He hadn’t shared anything with me though. Maybe he was right last night to not get too close. It was better if I didn’t know why his family didn’t care, but I wanted to know. I wanted to know where the pain in his blue eyes stemmed from.

“I’m going to call my mom and tell her what’s happened and give her an update.” He didn’t answer me. A gust of wind blew through the gas station, and I shivered, but it didn’t seem to affect him. Sighing when he seemed to be only ignoring me, I pressed the green phone icon beside my mom’s contact and listened to it ring over and over.

“Celine!” she exclaimed when she finally answered. “Oh, God, Honey, I’ve been so worried.”

Tears threatened at the sound of her voice, all the strength I’d been feeling crumbling around me. “Oh, Mom, we had to leave the house.” My voice cracked. “Water was rushing in. It was starting to flood when we managed to get out. Ace heard it and woke us both up.”

She gasped, calling for my father before she cried, “Oh, my God, Celine! I knew something bad was going to happen. I’m going to fucking kill your father. Where are you now?”

I shrugged, even though she couldn’t see me. “Some gas station on the A1A. We’re heading toward the Ave. Hopefully, there’s a shelter there. We weren’t safe at home anymore.” My voice cracked again. “Mom, we don’t know where to go.”

“We never should have let her go alone to the house, Rick. Now, look what has happened!” Mom was shouting at him, damn near hysterical. I had to pull the phone away from my ear, wincing at the shrill note in her voice.

“It’s too late to worry about that, Kendall. We need to help her find a shelter now.” She seemed to have put the phone on speaker, as I could now clearly hear my dad speaking.

“Tell them we should be at the Ave in maybe two or three hours, depending on our pace,” Ace piped up, still looking away from me. I needed to keep calling him Asshole to remind myself that he truly was one. I had to guard my heart and keep my distance. Why was he being so dickish right now? He was just shut off from me—as if he wanted to be anywhere else but here. I did, too, but I wasn’t going to treat him like garbage because of it.

“Asshole,” I snapped, making him huff and glare at me, “says we should be at the Ave in two or three hours. Do you think there will be a shelter, Dad?”

Well, at least he was looking at me again, even if was because I’d annoyed him.

“I don’t think so,” Dad told me. My gut sank. “That was probably an evacuation zone. Your best bet is to find a school or hospital. It’s getting late, so you need to hurry, or you’ll be outside for the night.” Ace and I shared a panicked look. We hadn’t thought about that. Being outside overnight in the cold and rain—in all the dangerous elements—with absolutely no light to speak of?

Fear crept down my spine, chilling me to the bone in a way the cold rain could never hope to do.

Dad continued, “Once you get to the Ave, you can just follow it. There’s a school around there. Not the greatest area, but you should find shelter there. Mom and I are going to see what we can find and call back when we have more information.”

“I love you, Honey,” Mom said before I could answer. “And be nice to Ace,” she scolded. “He came to help you with your Jeep, and I bet he’s just as scared as you are. He’s just a young boy—not a big, ugly man like your father.” I heard Dad scoff, making a tiny smile tilt my lips. “Don’t start acting like a brat.”

“I love you guys so much,” I said softly.

“Stay safe, baby girl,” they said right before the line dropped.

Ace had turned to look away again; he seemed deep in thought, staring out at the deserted road. I roughly cleared my throat. “Dad said to go down the Ave to find a school. That should take us another two to three hours once we reach the Ave. We need to get going soon, so we can make it before the sun sets. I don’t want to be wandering the streets in the dark.”

“Sounds like a plan, Princess.” There he went again, saying that name in that condescending way. God, I hated him. “We can go in five minutes. I need to rest.” He leaned back against the backpack and closed his eyes.

“Didn’t you hear me?” I snapped. “That’s another five hours—if we’re lucky—and it’s already four P.M. I want to go now .” The sky rumbled in agreement, and the wind picked up again. Someone’s patio furniture blew by as it started to pour.

“Five minutes,” Ace said, sounding exasperated. “Just five minutes, and I’ll get us to safety. Trust me.” Last time a guy asked me to trust him, I almost died. I wasn’t ready to trust anyone again just yet.

I closed my eyes, calming my uneven breathing by listening to the waves crashing against the bushes. The noise was soothing in my panicked state. The sound of the ocean was the only noise I could handle after the accident. My mom and I would sit on the beach for hours in silence. But now, those beautiful memories were becoming a nightmare, too. Was life just determined to snatch away everything I needed to remain sane?

If Mom had known how many times I went over that accident in my head while we were sitting there, she probably would’ve stopped taking me. But sitting on that beach every day helped me come to terms with Aidan’s death. Helped me come to terms with the fact that I was the one who survived. That I would forever be scarred—both mentally and physically.

Ace suddenly got up, swung the bag onto his shoulders again, and started walking toward the A1A, leaving me behind. I scrambled to get up, shoved my shoes back on, and rushed to his side. He didn’t apologize—as expected. What the fuck had happened to make him turn on me like this?

We walked for another hour, and I wished the rain would stop for just a few minutes. We hadn’t spoken since the gas station. I hated the silence. I hated when he acted like an asshole, especially when I saw last night just how kind he was capable of being. I hated even that I kept analyzing everything he did when he definitely wasn’t thinking about me that way.

He’d blatantly stated I wasn’t his type, and he promised Ryan he would never go there with me.

I was glad he didn’t kiss me last night. I would’ve regretted it this morning—or at the very least, I’d be regretting it right now. After this hurricane, I hoped we never saw each other again. I didn’t need his friendship. I didn’t need his pity. I was fine before him, and I would be after.

Once this was all over, Ace could fuck right off.