Read Online Wild Dakota Heart by Lisa Mondello - Free Book Online

just the point. I didn’t want him to come here. I came with him because I was scared for him to come here alone.”
    “You expect me to believe that?” She took in a breath of air to keep her anger from becoming a sob. “I was fine before you came back, Ethan. Why couldn’t you have just stayed in the military?”
    He swung around and looked at her straight on. “Better yet, why didn’t I just die there?”
    His words left her cold. “I didn’t say that.”
    “You wanted me dead.”
    Tears stung her eyes. “I never wanted you dead, Ethan. Why would I want that? I didn’t want either of you dead. But the two of you had this death wish anyway. And when he died you just left him here alone. He died alone, Ethan.”
    “He did. He was alive when I left to get help and by the time I got back, he was gone. But he wanted to die that day, Maddie. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
    She was sure her heart stopped beating. “What?”
    Tears filled Ethan’s eyes and his expression was shattered. She’d never seen Ethan cry, not even at Denny’s funeral. But then she was too wrapped up in her own fragile emotions to remember.
    “Look out there,” he said, his voice low against the whistle of the wind blowing past them. “Denny used to look out there at the view and say this was the closest to heaven he was ever going to get here on earth.”
    Ethan took a few steps closer to the edge of the cliff.
    “I came here with him that day because he was talking crazy. It only got worse the closer it got to the time I was supposed to leave for boot camp. He kept telling me I was going to be someone. I was going to be a hero. People were going to respect me. But he couldn’t be that way. He always built me up to be more than I was.” He looked back at Maddie and she saw the tears rolling down Ethan’s cheeks. “He believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. I never thought I’d be any of that. Not back then. I was just as lost as he was. Or so I thought.”
    He swiped his face with his hand. “You remember what we were like. My father used to say me and Denny were two bullets just waiting for the right gun. But it was more than being wild at heart for Denny. He…wanted to die, Maddie.”
    She couldn’t talk. All her emotions were lodged in her throat, choking her. Her brother wanted to die? She knew he was depressed. But he always put on a brave face for her. Could it be that he’d confided his darkest feelings to Ethan?
    “I don’t believe you,” she finally said. “Denny never would have done that.”
    Ethan cleared his throat and pointed to the steepest decline on the rock formation they were standing on. “He told me he was going to try driving down The Mammoth. I didn’t want him to. He’d been drinking. He had this wild look in his eyes and it terrified me. So I stayed in the truck and told him to just give me the keys. But he wouldn’t.”
    “You weren’t driving? They told my parents you jumped out of the truck before it went over. They found Denny on the passenger side.”
    “He didn’t have his seat belt on. I took mine off just as he started down the incline. I was afraid the brakes were going to lock. But as soon as I jumped out of the truck, he hit the gas. He disappeared over the side. I couldn’t see him. By the time I got to my feet, I heard the crash.”
    Ethan’s whole body looked depleted. His shoulders shook and Maddie knew he was sobbing.
    Consumed with emotion, Ethan bent down and snatched a handful of rocks from the ground and starting throwing them out into the direction where Denny’s truck plunged off the cliff with all his strength.
    “You stupid idiot!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “I was your friend, Denny! You didn’t have to do this! I wouldn’t have left you if I thought you’d go through with it!”
    She couldn’t hold back the tears. “Why didn’t you tell my parents this?”
    Ethan turned to look at her, unashamed of the outburst that had