“Jesse,” Sarah says, resting a hand on my shoulder. I flinch, shrugging her off. “Come on, let’s clean you up.”

“No.” I pace to my car, hearing her running across the gravel to keep up with me.

“You can’t drive like this,” she argues, sounding worried.

I yank the handle on the door of my car, nearly ripping it off. “My keys,” I say, feeling at my pockets. No keys. No phone. I head back inside, my head clouded, my mission clear. Don’t let her end this. Fix this. Prove to her what needs to be proven.

“John!” Sarah yells as she flanks me, calling for reinforcements. “John, tell him, please. He can’t drive in this state.”

“I’m fine,” I grate as I pass John, who’s managed to get Mike on the bottom step of the staircase. Coral’s husband looks up at me and recoils, scrambling up a few steps. He thinks I’m coming back for another round. If I didn’t have more important things to do, I would. “I never want to see your face around here again,” I say as I pass.

“John,” Sarah pleads. “Stop him.”

“Just leave him,” John replies as I stalk on. “Choose your battles, Sarah. Where that woman is concerned, he’ll do what he has to do, and you’ll do well to keep out of it.”

I find my keys but no phone. “Where the fuck’s my phone?” I growl, tossing pillows off the couch, searching the drinks cabinet.

“Here.”

I turn and see Sarah pulling it from beneath a file on my desk, but when I take it, it slips right out of my hand, hitting the floor with a thud. “For fuck’s sake.” I look at my keys. Covered in blood.

Sarah dips and collects my phone, grabbing a Kleenex from the box on the desk. She wipes it over and moves in, taking my hands in turn and gently cleaning them. “You’ll slip all over the steering wheel,” she says as I stand, silent, letting her do her thing. And I think as I watch her.

“What have you been saying to Ava?” I ask, relatively calmly, considering. “And don’t lie to me this time.”

She wilts. It doesn’t suit her. “I just told her you’re not the kind of man to build dreams on.” She takes my keys and wipes those too as I laugh under my breath. Because I’m an unstable fuck-up who can’t offer anything more than lies and poison.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I withdraw from her, stepping back, and she looks up at me, her face tortured. But I bet it’s still nowhere close to the ruin embedded into mine.

“This is our life, Jesse. You, me, and John. I’m just looking out for you.”