Broken Bonds (Unbreakable Bonds #1)

Chapter Twelve

chapter twelve

CELINE

A loud crack of lightning followed by thunder jerked me out of my sleep. I groaned. My cold, wet clothes were sticking uncomfortably to my skin, and my back was sore from sleeping on the ground. The arms around me tightened before I heard Ace let out a soft grumble of protest and discomfort.

He had held me all night. It felt strangely… nice to wake up next to him on the hard ground. I was sure it had to do with the loneliness I’d been feeling lately. Couple that with my terror over this storm and it was no wonder why I was seeking out his comfort. Desperate for it, really.

“Fuck,” he mumbled, sitting up beside me, his blue eyes bloodshot from exhaustion. He moved a little bit away from me and looked at the gray sky. My eyes lingered on his messy hair and rumpled clothes before I followed his gaze, taking in the chaos surrounding us.

It was lighter out this morning than yesterday evening, but it was still dark. The ominous, gray clouds covered the once-blue sky, making it feel like nighttime was descending upon us. The wind had only gotten stronger, and more debris was flying around. I was surprised we hadn’t gotten hit by something while we were sleeping.

Right as I thought that, a small, potted plant came hurtling in my direction. Ace pulled me into his body and flattened us to the ground before it could hit me. “We need to get to that shelter, Celine,” he rasped, seeming as shaken as I was. I nodded, my voice stuck in my throat.

He stood slowly, fighting against the raging wind that pushed through the overhand above us, and stretched, lifting his arms above his head. His shirt rose up a bit, revealing a sliver of his flat stomach, and my belly swooped. His back cracked loud enough for me to hear it over the wind, and he sighed in relief. Looking away from him, I rummaged through the bag, looking for my phone.

Pulling it out, I saw I still had some battery life left, so I called my mom, hoping she was awake. “Celine?” she answered on the first ring, no trace of sleep in her voice.

“Mom, we’re okay,” I croaked, my throat dry. I needed water, but I could go a little longer. We needed to conserve what we had. We had no idea how much longer we’d be out in the elements, if we’d even reach proper shelter before the worst of the hurricane hit.

“I knew you would be, baby. I knew,” her voice was filled with relief, but there was a tinge of urgency to her tone, too. “You need to hurry and get to that shelter. The storm is going to be stronger today, and you won’t have a lot of time. Soon, the wind will be too strong for you to walk in. And the speed of the hurricane has slowed down, so it’s going to hang around the area for a few days, which isn’t good.”

My gut tightened, and I had to tighten my fingers around my phone. “Everything is going to be destroyed, Mom!” Ace’s eyes lingered on me, trying to figure out what had me so distressed.

“None of that matters as long as you make it to that shelter before the worst of the storm hits,” she told me firmly. “I want you to get going now and only stop if you’re in pain. You hear me?”

“Yes, I understand.” It was a miracle I could talk. My throat felt too tight. “Trust me, I want to get to the shelter, too.”

“Let me speak to Ace, baby.” I turned to hand the phone to him and almost hit him in the face with it. I was not expecting him to be so close. When had he moved?

“Good morning—” he started, but my mom interrupted him. He walked away from me and started to pace. “I understand,” he repeated a few times.

I took the time to stand and stretch, feeling my bones protest with every movement. My legs were still sore but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. I hoped they could carry me to the shelter. I knew I wasn’t supposed to do this much strenuous activity, that they could fail me if I did, but I didn’t have a choice.

Ace handed me the phone, his expression grim. I frowned up at him as I raised the phone to my ear. “Mom?”

“I love you, baby girl.”

I swallowed past the sudden lump in my throat. “I love you, too, Mom. I love you so much.” I hung up, looking at Ace, waiting to hear his plan. He was bending down, picking up the bag. Then, he slung it onto his shoulders, adjusted the straps, and finally met my gaze. Fear lingered in his blue eyes. Something my mom told him wasn’t good.

He was scared. Why was he scared? What didn’t I know?

I watched him swallow, his throat muscles tense. “We have to get going, Celine, and we have to hurry. We don’t have a lot of time.”

I nodded. “Let’s go.” I grabbed his hand and started walking. The cold rain lashed against my face as soon as we left the overhang, and I shivered. But I still kept moving forward. I didn’t have any other safe option. Ace silently walked beside me, and together, we became lost in our thoughts, fighting against the wind and forcing one foot in front of the other as we fought to make our way to the shelter.

“I heard you screaming the other night,” Ace said out of nowhere, walking slightly ahead of me now. I had slowed down a bit, my legs tired and aching from fighting the wind and enduring old injuries. Ace’s steps were now more in time with mine, taking smaller steps than usual so he didn’t leave me behind.

Why did he have to slow down? It just made me feel worse. I knew I was making us lag behind. And I hated even more that I couldn’t help it.

He didn’t look at me, only shoved his hands into his jean pockets. I looked down at my cold, discolored fingers, wishing I had pockets, too.

Why did Ace have to bring up my nightmare now ? How was I supposed to play it off?

“What are you talking about, Ace?” I asked, playing stupid, my gaze focused on the ground, trying to just put one foot in front of the other. “I don’t scream in my sleep. Maybe you were dreaming about me.”

I wanted to pretend I didn’t know what he was talking about. I didn’t want him to know any more details about me. I didn’t want to share any more secrets.

Looking away from the angry sea, whose waves were crashing harder and harder against the wall, I could see the BurgerFi sign, and I knew we were finally making it to the Ave . Finally .

We were closer to shelter. Each step was bringing us closer to warmth and safety.

And each step was a little more painful than the last. But I had to make it. I would make it. I refused to face any other option.

“Don’t try to blame it on a dream.” Ace scowled at me. “I heard you! You screamed the first night, which woke me, and the other night, too. If you hadn’t been screaming your head off, I wouldn’t have woken up and heard the water rushing in. You were screaming his name over and over.” He was walking faster again, leaving me behind him, trying to catch up, which was damn near impossible.

He knew Aidan still haunted my subconscious mind. He knew, and he wasn’t taking my bullshit answers. He wasn’t letting me take the easy way out. Didn’t I have enough to deal with right now? Couldn’t he just let this go?

“You must’ve misheard,” I muttered, getting aggravated. “It was probably just your inner voice waking you up to save yourself. You know—God? I don’t rememb?—”

“Cut the crap, Celine!” Ace barked at me, making me flinch. “I heard you screaming his name over and over. You were dreaming about the accident, weren’t you? You were reliving that nightmare. You don’t just recover from something like that overnight. It takes years to move on.” He stopped abruptly, and I slammed into his back. When he turned to me, I looked into his blue eyes, only to see pity. I hated it .

“Why do you want to know?” I snapped, my voice filled with bitterness. “Maybe it was a dream about sex.”

He shook his head and laughed. He was seeing through my lies. Seeing right through me to the bloodied part of my soul. It left me feeling more vulnerable than I had when I’d been trying to walk again.

“After everything you shared with me, I know for certain you were reliving that accident. You’ve been having those nightmares since that night, haven’t you?” I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t let him know just how right he was. He heaved a heavy, tired sigh. “Don’t lie to me, Celine. Don’t even think about lying.”

“You know nothing ,” I spat. I looked to the ocean again, trying to calm down before I said something I would regret. A small wave had gone over the wall, and another followed. Soon, this road would flood just like the beach house had. We needed to keep moving. But instead, he chose now to interrogate me. Couldn’t this have waited until we were at least further away from the beach?

I shouldn’t have told him. He hadn’t needed to know. But I had felt so much better after I opened up. I hadn’t been able to talk about that night since I told my parents and the police what happened. I couldn’t even tell my best friend; my mom had to. I couldn’t talk about Aidan for an entire year after his death. I hadn’t even gone to his funeral, and I hadn’t even given my condolences to his mother and father.

Ace didn’t understand my pain. He had no idea what it felt like to lose someone you loved that young.

A gust of wind blew my wet hair and dried my eyes of any possible tears.

I would not cry. Nobody would ever make me cry again. I was strong. I had survived.

I closed my eyes, chanting those phrases over and over until I felt strong enough to continue again. I looked into his eyes again, steely determination straightening my spine. A storm of intense emotions ranging from anger to confusion to sadness swirled between us.

“Princess, maybe I can help.” I didn’t want anything from him. Couldn’t he see that?

I scoffed. “What makes you think I need help? You can’t be all nice to me one minute, telling me you want to kiss me, then act like an asshole the next day. I’ve dealt with enough abuse and heartache. I don’t need to go through this again with another guy like Aidan. I’ve just recovered from him!” His eyes hardened. “I don’t want your help, Asshole, and I don’t want your pity. I don’t want anything from you other than to get home and forget this ever happened!” I shouted.

I pushed him out of my way and moved around him to keep walking. I didn’t care if he followed me anymore. I didn’t care that he had my phone in his pocket and my clean clothes. I wanted this to be over. I wanted to go back to being invisible. I wanted to go back to a world where I didn’t know Ace and where he didn’t know anything about my tragic past.

If I could just make it one more hour, I should make it to the school. Hopefully, they had a hot shower and dry clothes. My fingers were purple, and my body ached. My legs were tired, and my limp had returned.

I looked at the ground as I continued walking forward, trying to focus on making my legs continue working.

If I had just looked up, I would have seen it coming. I knew it was going to come, but not this fast.

“Celine! Watch out!” Ace shouted, raw terror in his voice, but he was too late. Wave after wave crashed through the barrier, taking me prisoner, knocking me off my feet, and pulling me away from him.

He didn’t know everything. He didn’t know that…

I couldn’t swim anymore.

The water took me away as wave after ice-cold wave beat against me. I fought against the current, trying to get back to Ace, who was being pulled in another direction.

I was going to drown.

I hadn’t been in a pool or the ocean since the accident. I hadn’t been taught how to swim again. I kicked my legs, which ached fiercely, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Ace, help!” Water rushed into my mouth, and I hurriedly spit it out.

He couldn’t hear me. Even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to save me. The waves were too strong. They were tugging me out to sea. Out where I would die. Drown.

I had been told countless times that the accident had made me stronger, that I survived for a reason, but at this moment, I didn’t believe any of those things. My arms and legs were tired of fighting. I was tired of fighting. I just wanted to rest. I was too tired. So, so tired.

I couldn’t swim—my legs no longer strong enough to even attempt it—and I couldn’t fight the ocean’s fury with my battered legs. My legs ached in protest with each kick. My body was so cold; my lips were trembling, and I couldn’t feel my toes.

My legs were tired from fighting the wind when I’d been walking, and now, they burned as I desperately kicked against the angry water, trying to keep my head above the water. But every time I broke the surface, another wave crashed over me, yanking me beneath the murky depths again.

I was so tired. I could hardly keep my eyes open against the harsh winds and freezing water. For the hundredth time, I wished again that I had never gone to the beach house. That’d I’d argued with my parents instead of being a good daughter.

Ace had promised to protect me. He had promised my parents and my brother that nothing would happen to me.

They were going to come home and have to bury their daughter—that was, if they ever found my body. Salty water splashed into my mouth, and I began to choke, unable to spit it out before more rushed into my mouth.

Where was Ace? Was he a strong swimmer? Would he survive? What would he tell my parents if he did? My brother?

The water was pushing me further away from the Ave, pulling me closer to the beach. I had to fight the current to keep my head above the water. The road wasn’t too far from me, but it was far enough that it made trepidation and paralyzing fear begin to cling to my limbs.

Through my burning eyes, I thought I could make out Ace, his arms waving in the air. He was safe on land. He couldn’t get to me; I was so far. I was going to drown .

“ACE, HELP!” I screamed for him again. Water rushed into my mouth, and I coughed and sputtered, the saltiness burning its way down my raw throat.

I was tired of always fighting and begging someone to save me. This was supposed to be a fun adventure. Ace was supposed to protect me. He wasn’t supposed to let me go.

He wasn’t supposed to be another Aidan.

Rain fell hard, hitting my face. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I couldn’t fight against the cold anymore. I hoped someone found my body. I hoped my parents found peace once I was gone. I hoped Ryan didn’t turn his back on Ace for this. I hoped Ace didn’t suffer from survivor’s guilt. I hoped he survived and made it to the shelter, where he would be safe and warm.

I closed my eyes against the harsh raindrops. I was so tired.

Aidan, I’m coming.