Heart in Wire: A by a Thread Companion Novel Read Online Free

had been drugged and that Jamie had taken her to a house in the middle of the ocean, but she’d escaped. He wondered how she escaped without killing Jamie.
    Patrick chuckled. “The video is hilarious, man.”
    “Great,” George muttered.
    “I’ll send it to you so you can see it.” Patrick laughed again. “I mean, you need help.”
    “Fuck you, Patrick.” George laughed and hung up.
    Patrick looked at Billy and nodded. “She’s okay.”
    “How does she get in all this fucked up shit? I mean bombings, shootings, and fake deaths? It’s like we’re on Dallas or something. Are we going to wake up and all of this has been a dream?”
    “I wish, dude.” Patrick grabbed Billy’s water off the table and drank the entire bottle. He let out a loud burp in Billy’s direction.
    “That was an asshole move, man,” Billy commented, waving his hands at Patrick’s torso.
    “You know, you just keep asking for shit to show up on YouTube or Twitter with all that.”
    “With all what?” Patrick asked, amused.
    “Taking your shirt off and running with your muscles.” He motioned again at Patrick’s torso, clad in skintight black Under Armor.
    “You’re jealous.” Patrick flexed his abdominals and then just laughed at Billy, who was referencing a YouTube video that’d gone viral after El was in the hospital. Someone had videotaped him cutting the grass without a shirt on and it’d garnered over two million hits. It was hysterical, but irritating. Both his and Billy’s lives had changed multiple times since the enigma that was El had entered into their lives. Even their first meeting didn’t go exactly like Patrick had expected.

    Fuck. This is going to be great; he’s on his way to tell his new roommate that her fiancé died. This isn’t what he’d signed up for when he’d started training young ATF agents. Fucking Jamie had agreed to go undercover without even talking to him about it. Having her as Patrick’s roommate complicated things, now he’d have to live this lie every day.
    Opening the door to the house, he was met with a wet nose on his crotch. A lab-golden mix dog that was at least three feet tall was circling Patrick’s feet, the dog’s tail going a mile a minute. He smiled to himself and patted the dog on his head. As he went further into the house he was met with the smell of something fantastic. He sniffed the air—it was oregano and thyme; it reminded him of his mother’s homemade spaghetti.
    Rounding the corner of the kitchen, he almost collid ed with a fresh-faced girl, her wet hair, braided down her back, making her shirt stick to her body. She smelled tropical. Her smile lit up the room and reached her eyes. Her green eyes glimmered with something…
    “Hi!” She beamed and stuck out her hand. “You must be Patrick.”
    Patrick blinked. He’d seen pictures of her, but she was...stunning. “Stella?”
    When she saw his expression, the smile melted off her face. “Are you okay?” she asked sincerely, her hand warm in his palm. He didn’t remember even putting his hand out.
    “Um, I don’t know how to tell you this…” he began. He looked away from her innocent face.
    “Tell me what?” she asked.
    “There was an accident,” he started, and looked back into her eyes, which were now clouding over.
    She blinked. She was blinding him. He couldn’t concentrate.
    “Okay...” she coaxed.
    “Jamie.” Jamie’s name felt foreign on his tongue; this wasn’t going the way he’d frantically planned on his way home from the bar.
    Her face disintegrated before him. He didn’t have to say anything else. She knew. She crumpled at his feet. Shocked for a moment, he just stood there, staring at the wet spot on her blue shirt under her braid. Getting his wits about him, he pulled her up and braced her body against his before he was able to carry her down to her room. She sobbed into his chest and he kept talking to her; he didn’t know what else to do.
    “He was in an accident. A