Page 125 of Her Ex-Husband's Brother

Just for a second.

While the gas pumps, August grabs the squeegee and starts washing the front windshield, scraping off the moths that havebeen massacring themselves en masse against the glass for the last couple of hours. I watch him through my lashes as he leans over the hood, shoulders flexing under his hoodie, mouth set in that focused line he gets when he’s taking care of something.

Taking care of me.

My eyes drift closed again.

And then I hear the driver’s side door open and the voice out of my nightmare.

“Lennon.”

My eyes fly open.

For half a second, my brain refuses to make sense of what I’m seeing. Jake is sliding behind the wheel where August was sitting two minutes ago.

Jake.

In the driver’s seat of August’s truck.

“What the?—”

He reaches for the key August left in the ignition.

Oh my God.

I sit upright so fast the world lurches. “Jake?” I gasp. “How did you find?—”

He turns toward me, calm and already shifting the truck into gear like he has every right in the world.

He smiles, and it’s not his public smile. Not the one that makes folks at church lean in because he sounds like a man who knows how to be listened to.

This smile is just for me.

“You think I only had one way to track you? You don’t go anywhere without that damn laptop.”

My stomach drops.

Outside the truck, August’s yelling my name and yanking on my car door handle. “Lennon! Get out! Get out of there!”

The nozzle is still in the tank when Jake hits the gas.

For one wild second, everything happens in a blur of sound: August shouting, the hose snapping free with a metallic crack, an alarm going off, and my own scream tearing out of me as the truck lurches away from the island.

“Jake!” I grab for the door handle. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you home where you belong.”

Over my dead body.

I yank at the handle, but it won’t give. Jake’s got one hand on the wheel and the other on the lock button, clicking it over and over.

“Stop the truck!” I scream.

“You’re just sick, Lennon.” His voice is so steady it’s like hebelieveshe’s soothing me. “You’re exhausted and confused. You’re letting him do this to you.”

“August isn’t doing anything to me!”

“He’s unstable, Lennon. You know that.”