Unforgettable: Haven Falls (Book 4) Read online

  “Ahh…no. He just…”

  Noah’s hand flies across the table to hover in front of her face. “Give me your phone.”

  She blanches. “Um. What?”

  “Phone,” he demands again, this time his tone letting on that he’s not playing games.

  Alyssa fumbles around and hurries to get her phone out of her back pocket. She thrusts her hand back out, attempting to pass it to Noah, but her nerves are eating her up and cause the phone to slip out of her fingertips.

  Noah catches it in the blink of an eye as though he's used to teenage girls turning into fumbling messes around him, though, I guess he is. He flicks the phone around between his fingers and hits the home button while keeping his other hand firmly in mine. When the phone prompts a passcode, Noah looks up at her expectantly, the only sign of his frustration; a slight twitch in his thumb. I squeeze his hand in response and hope it's enough for him to keep his cool until we're alone.

  Alyssa blanches once again, momentarily forgetting her code when she realizes that she has all of two seconds to pull her shit together or risk facing the wrath of Noah Cage.

  "4827," she finally rushes out, a little too breathy and showcasing her fear to the whole cafeteria.

  Noah enters the code and moves his arm across so I can clearly see the screen. His thumb quickly finds the messages app and before I know it, he’s scrolling through until he finds Rivers name attached to one.

  He clicks on it and I instantly smirk at the one-sided, desperate texts she’s been sending him over the past two weeks.

  Noah scrolls up to see them all.

  He finds the last text he sent her all the way back from the afternoon of the crash.

  Rivers – Meet me after school. I’ll drop your fine ass home.

  Alyssa – Sure thing, babe. Xx

  The next message comes only a few short hours later.

  Alyssa – OMG! Rivers. Are you ok? I heard there was a crash.

  Alyssa – Baby? What happened? Are you alright? Please answer me.

  Alyssa – Rivers?

  The texts go on, each and every one of them left unanswered for the following week.

  Alyssa – What’s going on, Rivers? People are starting to talk. They say you crashed on purpose. I hope that’s not true.

  Alyssa – Are you coming to school? I miss you.

  Alyssa – Shit. Rivers, everyone is saying you were the one who sent out that video. Noah and Henley just ripped into me about it. Where are you?

  Alyssa – Are you even coming today?

  Alyssa – Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?

  Alyssa - ??

  Finally, it seems she gave up as she stops texting him. There’s nothing for a week until one last one from Alyssa. It was sent this morning.

  Alyssa – Please tell me you’re coming back.

  Just as Alyssa had promised, she finally heard back from him. My eyes feast over the response from two hours ago.

  Rivers – Stop texting me, Alyssa. We’re through.

  I stare at the message for a long, drawn out second before raising my eyes to Noah, only to find his staring right back at me.

  Noah tosses the phone back to Alyssa and she squeaks before fumbling around, trying to catch it in her butterfingers, clearly not having expected him to toss it quite like that. She quickly scurries off only for me to realize that Jared has also disappeared, clearly seeing this is pack business and giving us the privacy we need.

  “What does this mean?” I whisper, searching his eyes and hoping for good news, but the look I see in them tells me anything but.

  “It means that he’s burning bridges,” Noah explains, unsure if it’s a good thing or not. After all, he’s Noah’s best friend, but he’s also the guy who betrayed me. “He’s getting the fuck out of here and he has no intention of coming back.”

  Chapter 2

  Noah and I walk into Tully’s hospital room, the very one that used to be mine. “Well, if it isn’t the whore who tried to get me naked in the darkroom,” Tully grins as I collapse down into the chair beside her bed.

  “You know it,” I laugh, proud of my little fuck-up from history class.

  “Wait. What?” Noah grumbles, looking between the two of us in confusion.

  “Didn’t you hear?” Tully says. “Your girlfriend is through with you. She’s been after me the whole time.”

  Noah’s eyes roam over me as I pull out my phone and bring up mine and Tully’s texts from this afternoon. “I might have sent her a text that was meant for you,” I explain.

  He takes my phone and reads over the messages before his face falls and he looks up at me with fierce devastation. “Shit,” he sighs. “I missed out on fucking you in the darkroom?”

  “You sure did,” I laugh.

  “You better make it up to me.”

  “I’ll make it up to you right now if you want.”

  He raises an intrigued brow as a grin slowly pulls at his lips. “I’m not going to say no to that.”

  “Hell yes, you are, motherfucker,” Tully snaps. “You’re here to see me, remember? Not screw my girlfriend in the supply closet. Besides, didn’t you read the texts? I was kind enough to let you screw her when we’re ready for a baby.”

  A chuckle rips up my throat as horror flashes over Noah’s face. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he grunts, his eyes flashing back down to my phone and reading over more of our messages. “Fuck off,” he groans a moment later before turning to his sister. “How does this shit even come into your head?”

  She grins back at him and I’m assuming it’s because he read over the text where Tully suggested that she won’t be getting around with his jizz inside of her. “What?” she laughs before shrugging, unapologetically. “It’s true.”

  “Jesus,” he groans. “I know it’s true but it’s one of those things that don’t get talked about. I mean, why the fuck are we even talking about it now? You’re not stealing my girl.”

  “Tough shit, bro,” Tully grins, spreading her arms wide. “She wants me.”

  Noah turns to me, expecting me to correct her and finish this once and for all. “What can I say?” I laugh. “She’s like a prettier version of you and comes fully equipped with a wardrobe I can borrow and won’t poke me in the ass every day with her morning wood.”

  His mouth drops in shock, but I’m not quite finished twisting the knife. “Besides, who would know how to eat pussy better than another chick?” I wink and lower my voice. “We already know what we like.”

  A challenge burns in his eyes and a moment later, he grabs me and pins me up against the wall, his hand claiming my ass with my leg hooked around his waist. “Is that a fucking challenge, Spitfire?” he questions, leaning in and running his lips over the sensitive skin of my neck. “Because you and I both know that when my tongue runs over your clit, you start squirming and screaming out my name,” he murmurs as my chest begins to rise and fall with needy desperation. “Or how about the way your legs wrap around my head, holding me there, begging for more as your fingers twine into my hair? No, baby! Nobody knows what you like more than me.”

  I grin, not needing to bother wording a response. He knows what I’m putting down and I don’t doubt that he’ll come through. “Tully,” Noah murmurs. “You have about three seconds to get your ass out of here.”

  My hands fist into his shirt, the talk of just how good he works my body is driving me insane with need. His hand on my ass squeezes, but it’s not nearly enough. I need it. I need everything he’s got.

  His lips brush over mine, teasing me with the knowledge of what they can do.

  “Fuck, no,” Tully grumbles, grabbing a pillow from behind her back and launching it across the room. It hits Noah’s back but it’s like he doesn’t even notice it, his eyes remain firmly locked on mine. “You two go and find somewhere else to test Noah’s skills. There’s no way in hell you’re fucking in my bed. I sleep in these sheets.”

  “Right,” Noah warns, sliding his o
ther arm down my body and lifting me. “Then you better close your eyes real damn fast.”

  Noah turns us before striding towards Tully’s bed. He lays me down on the end while standing between my legs which are still wrapped around his waist before diving for the button of my jeans.

  “NO,” Tully screams, grabbing another pillow and hitting us with it. “Stop. Stop. Stop.”

  Noah bursts out laughing before grabbing me and helping sit me up. I turn to face Tully. “Are you kidding me?” I laugh. “Do you seriously think we’d actually do that to you?”

  “Uhhh, yeah,” she grumbles. “You might have a little self-respect, but Noah sure as hell doesn’t. If he thought for even a second that you’d go through with it, you’d already be in your birthday suit, screaming his name, and just about done.”

  My eyes slice to Noah and I grin at him. I have to admit, Tully is right. Noah certainly would have gone through with it and he would have laughed when Tully desperately scrambled out of here. What she got wrong though, is that I definitely would have gone through with it. If he had kissed me a second longer, all signs of self-control would have flown right out the window.

  Fuck. I can’t wait to get home and take what I’m missing.

  “For the record,” Noah says as I swivel around on Tully’s bed and cross my legs, facing her head on. “There’s no way I’d be anywhere near done.”

  “Please,” Tully scoffs. “Are you forgetting that we have paper thin walls? I hear everything.”

  My face falls as horror quickly takes over. I glance across to Noah who’s smirking proudly before turning my gaze back on Tully. “What do you mean by ‘everything’?” I question, cautiously.

  “I mean everything,” she says with a cheeky grin pulling at her lips despite how hard she’s trying to keep a straight face. “Every tiny little moan. Every time you cum. Every time he accidentally slips it in the wrong hole. I hear it all.”

  “Woahhhhhh,” I gasp, drawing it out. “Now I know you’re lying. He’s never done that.”

  “Which one?” she teases. “Made you cum? How disappointing for you.”

  “Hey,” Noah cuts in. “Trust me. I’ve more than made her cum. Every fucking day.”

  “Ok,” I say, looking up at Noah. “This is getting weird. Can we please stop discussing our sex life with your twin sister? It’s too much.”

  “What?” he laughs. “Don’t act like you two don’t discuss it every chance you get. I’ve overheard your ridiculous conversations.”

  “I never said that we don’t do it. We most certainly do, but it’s never with you in the room,” I tell him.

  Noah rolls his eyes and collapses into the chair I’d been in only a few short minutes ago as a nurse walks in and practically has to force-feed Tully her afternoon pain meds. Tully is quick to shoo her away and the second the door closes behind her, Tully lets out a deep sigh. “I can’t take it anymore,” she groans. “I need to go home. I haven’t had a proper sleep since it happened.”

  “Come on,” I tell her, trying to keep her spirits up. “Only another two days and you’ll be home. You just have to tough it out a little while longer.”

  “But I don’t want to,” she says on the verge of a breakdown as her eyes grow teary.

  Noah stands when he sees his sister so broken. “I’ll go talk to your doctor. See if we can get you home tonight.”

  Her whole body perks up. “Really?”

  “I’m not making any promises,” he tells her, moving forward and sliding an arm around her, giving her a quick hug as he pulls her into his side, “But I can try.”

  She leans her head into him. “Thank you.”

  With that, Noah walks out of the room and I crawl up to her side, laying down beside her. “You miss him, don’t you?” I murmur, knowing exactly where those tears were coming from.

  Tully is silent for a moment before she lets out a sigh and drops her head to my shoulder. “Yeah,” she admits. “I know I’m supposed to hate him right now for what he did to you, but I…I just…”

  “I know,” I tell her. “You love him. I can hardly believe it all myself.”

  “I…,” she lets out a deep sigh. “It’s just…something inside me is screaming that he didn’t do this. He wouldn’t.”

  “But, Tullz,” I say softly. “Every little bit of evidence points directly at him.”

  “I know,” she tells me. “But it doesn’t make sense. Why would he do that to you? It just doesn’t seem right. He wouldn’t do it, Henley. I know him, right down to the bone. He’s a good guy and he’s loyal as hell.”

  “Then why the hell did he disappear like that?”

  I feel her shrug against me. “I don’t know. If I could just see him for even a few minutes, I swear, I’d be able to work it out. I don’t think he’s the type to just disappear for doing something like that. If he betrayed you, he’d face it like a man. That’s just who he is. Something else has to be going on here.”

  “But what?”

  “I don’t know,” she groans. “That’s why I need to see him. He’ll talk to me.”

  “Are you sure though? You’ve known him since you were eleven and he’s never shared anything about his personal life before.”

  “That’s because I’ve never pushed him on it,” she explains. “If I really tried, he’ll tell me. At least…he owes me that much.”

  I let out a sigh, unsure how to respond. We lay in silence a while, both of us staring up at the ceiling, lost in our own thoughts. “You know, he ended things with Alyssa this morning,” I inform her.

  “How do you know that? Did he show up at school?”

  “No,” I rush out, shaking my head. “He texted her. Told her to quit messaging him.”

  Anyone would think that she'd be thrilled about this news, but she knows Rivers, more than I do and on a different level than Noah, so I’m not surprised when she scoffs, the news clearly not bringing the same kind of joy as anyone else in this kind of situation. “He’s severing all ties.”

  “That’s what Noah said,” I murmur, pressing my lips together into a tight line, hating to be the one to break that news to her. “He thinks he’s not coming back.”

  Tully doesn’t reply, just stares off into the room, as quiet as a mouse.

  When the silence becomes too much for me to bear, I silently murmur, nudging her arm to draw her attention. “Are you ok?” I question, hating the pained look upon her face.

  She shrugs her shoulders and the move tears me apart. I can’t stand seeing her in pain. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what she’s going through. I know they weren’t together, but they may as well have been. They were crazy in love and now she’s left wondering what the hell happened, where he is, and if he’s alright. Not to mention, wondering if he had it in himself to betray her trust.

  I wouldn’t want to be in her position.

  “What about you?” she questions.

  I turn and look at her in confusion. “Um…I’m fine,” I say slowly. I mean, yeah, it sucks, but my heart’s not going through the wringer like hers is right now.

  Tully rolls her eyes. “I meant about everything else. You haven’t really talked about the whole ‘mom’ bomb your dad dropped on you the other week.

  I let out a sigh and scrunch up my face, wondering why the hell she’d have to go and bring that shit up. “I’m hoping that if I don’t talk about it, I can forget it ever happened.”

  “Well, tough shit,” she tells me. “If you don’t talk about it, it’s going to sit inside that brain of yours, growing into something bigger than it needs to be.”

  I scrunch up my face, knowing she’s right. Dad had dropped a massive bomb on me two weeks ago and revealed that the woman who I always thought was my mother, isn’t. My mom is some lady named Gina who gave me up to dad when I was only a few days old. Great news for my abandonment issues. Not only did I have the woman I thought was my mother for the first twelve years of my life walk out on me, but I also had a second mom abandon me as
well. How did I ever become so lucky?

  I guess I would have been able to deal with it had dad not also revealed that her surname is Rivers. Since that moment, all I’ve been able to think about is if this woman is also Rivers’ mother too. Every day I go over Rivers’ features in my mind, trying to figure out if there are any similarities between us. If only he was here to offer up a little assistance.

  All I know is that the thought of Rivers possibly being my half brother has been weighing heavily on my mind for the past two weeks and not knowing if it’s true or not is really starting to drive me insane. After all, the guy betrayed me. It would be so much worse finding out that not only my friend betrayed me, but that I’ve been betrayed by my own flesh and blood.

  There sure are a lot of unanswered questions revolving around Rivers right now. It couldn’t just be a coincidence that he’s not here right now.

  I look away from Tully, not wanting her to look into my eyes and read me like a map. “I guess, I just don’t know what to think about it. I’m still processing.”

  “Uh huh.” She says, knowing me well enough to know that I don’t like to sit and stew on things. I’m the queen of jumping to conclusions.

  I turn back to Tully. “Did Rivers ever talk to you about his mother?” I question.

  Her eyes narrow on me. “No. Why?” she asks slowly.

  “So, you don’t even know her name?”

  Tully watches me for a long drawn out second, her eyes still narrowed to slits. “Why are you being so weird right now?”

  I shake my head. “Nothing. Don’t worry, it’s nothing.”

  She’s about to question me further when the door of the room barges open with Noah looking as though he’s about to offer Tully the world on a silver platter. “Who’s the fucking best?” he questions with a shit-eating grin.

  Tully flies up in bed, forgetting me by her side and practically barging me out of the way. “Are you serious?” she demands. “Am I getting out of here?”

  The smile on Noah’s face drops a smidge. “Possibly,” he says. “The doctor is going to come and check you out and if he thinks you’re doing ok, then he’ll let you go.”