Chapter 13 #2
“Oh look,” Alyssa pointed out of the back window, maniacally waving at someone who’d pulled up behind us. “It’s my Aunt Amber. And she’s in her SUV. Maybe she can take JV to the game and we’ll get another bus in time for Varsity.”
My stomach rolled, and a quick thought burst through my mind. Did Amber do this? And why? To roll up, looking like the hero? I eyed Alyssa, trying to decipher if she’d been in on it. But no amount of acting could conjure up her present excitement.
I didn’t want to be a buzz kill, but, “Every single player would need a signed permission slip to ride with her. Not happening.”
As Amber made her way out of her car, I hurried back to the front of the bus. I did not want Christy anywhere near her without me there.
When Amber got to the top of the steps, she flung her dark hair over her shoulder and smiled.
“Looks like you’re having some technical difficulties.
Anything I can help with?” She roved me up and down and I could see that look in her eye.
It was the same one from a decade ago that yelled, Challenge Accepted.
“Nope,” I said, shutting that down. “We’ve got it handled.
You should head on to the game.” I knew that’s where she was going.
Why else would she be out here in the middle of nowhere?
And she hadn’t missed a game yet. As a matter of fact, she came to games that Amber’s parents hadn’t even made it to.
I’d never seen an aunt as dedicated as she was.
Christy scowled. I wasn’t sure if she was scowling at me, or if she’d seen the way Amber had just undressed me with her eyes. In a much kinder tone than mine, Christy said, “Don is already on his way with another bus. Thank you for stopping, though.”
But then Amber waltzed right past us and down the aisle toward the girls. “Who’s thirsty? Anybody want a snack while you wait?”
The girls squealed and yelled that they did.
Christy and I shared a questioning look.
Amber sauntered back up the aisle, wearing a devious smile.
My eyes narrowed, and I had a feeling that the pit in my stomach wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“C’mon, Holden. Let’s put those big biceps to work.” Her voice was seductive. Bile rose in my throat. “I’m going to need help grabbing everything from my trunk.”
Christy’s eyebrow cocked. “You have enough snacks for twenty-six girls in your car?” Her tone was seventy-five percent disbelief, twenty-five percent jealous. There was no need. I wouldn’t be caught dead with this woman.
Amber’s expression went stony as she eyed Christy up and down. “And drinks. If you were a better coach and principal, you would’ve been prepared for something like this.”
Christy’s head snapped back, shocked.
For a second I wanted to lash back, but Amber was clearly playing a game here. I was going to play harder. “Actually, Coach Christy’s the best.” I winked at my girl. “And nice to look at too.”
Amber’s head looked like it might explode for a split second. Then she slid her flirty smile back on like I hadn’t just ogled my girlfriend right in her face and tipped her head at me. “Let’s go, hottie.” She bounded down the stairs and off the bus.
Christy stiffened, her eyes wide like she did not want me going anywhere with this horrible woman.
“You have nothing to worry about. Trust me.” I leaned by her ear.
“She’s a literal psycho. Don’t believe anything she says or does.
And don’t let her get to you.” I needed to get that in, just in case.
Amber was a loose cannon, and I couldn’t guarantee anything when it came to her.
I gave Christy a soft smile to ease her worry. “I’ll be right back.”
I was going to nip this in the bud, right here, right now.
I kept my eyes trained on Amber as she walked ahead of me.
Who knew someone in jeans and tennis shoes could master a runway walk on the gravel-strewn shoulder of the highway, but Amber was putting on a show.
She was the very last person I should ever be alone with.
But we were in broad daylight with a bus full of girls watching. And I had to do this for Christy.
As soon as we were behind her van, I let her have it. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but it ends now,” I said through gritted teeth.
She looked at me, wide-eyed and innocent as she clicked the lift button on her trunk.
“I just thought it would be nice to give the girls some energy for their game. Geez, Holden. Chill.” Then she winked.
I wondered how many guys had fallen to their deaths because of that wink.
Probably way too many. But I couldn’t worry about any of them right then.
I had one person to protect, and I was here to make sure it happened.
“Don’t act like we’re friends. We’re not and we never will be,” I hissed. “And you stay away from Christy, do you hear me?”
She lifted a case of Gatorade from her trunk, bending over way too long. When she turned back to face me, she was wearing a sickeningly sweet smile.
I glared as I let her transfer the drinks into my arms. “I mean it. I’m on to you. You’re not going to do to her what you did to Savannah. I won’t let you.” I should’ve left it at that, taken the drinks, and walked away. But I needed to make sure we were clear.
She grabbed a case of Goldfish crackers, tucked it under one arm, and smiled sweetly.
“I didn’t do anything to Savannah but try to be her friend.
You’re the one who couldn’t save her. And no worries.
Because I’m on to you too.” She trailed a fingertip across my shoulders.
I fought the urge to shudder. “And it’s only a matter of time until you let me on you. ”
And there it was.
I clenched my jaw, trying to destroy her with my eyes. “Not if you were the last woman on earth.”
She shrugged and laughed. “We’ll see about that.” Her gaze narrowed. “And trust me, I know all about you and Christy.”
I sucked in a ragged breath.
That one line told me everything. She was behind it all. She’d taken the balls, wiped the security feed, and cut the gas line.
And she’d seen the shirtless kiss.
She grinned, her eyes dark and excited as if to say, “I know you’re going to watch me walk away.”
And I was. But not like that. Never like that.
I made the biggest mistake of my life in seventh grade when I checked the yes box on a Will You Be My Boyfriend note she’d passed to me in English.
But how can a twelve-year-old boy possibly know that the pretty brunette he’d been crushing on all year was a psychopath in the making?
I figured it out pretty fast. Took about two weeks to realize she didn’t want a boyfriend.
She wanted a puppet. My heart, my actions, every second of my time, my entire future, she wanted to rule them all.
All I wanted was to walk down the hall together and brag to my friends.
Thankfully, my parents figured out I was in over my head and helped me back my way out of that train wreck.
But she couldn’t let me go. Ever. Every time I got in a relationship bad things happened.
Threatening texts to my girlfriends from random numbers, horrible rumors, flat tires.
The last girl I tried to have a relationship with was at the end of my junior year of undergrad at UVA.
Margo Finnigan, a sassy strawberry blonde, who was pre-law like me.
Lasted three months, long enough that I thought we were in the clear, but then one night when we were chilling at my apartment, a girl I’d never seen before showed up, overnight bag in hand, insisting that I’d asked her to sleep over.
Apparently, we’d had an online “relationship” going on for a month.
She had screenshots of our “conversations” to prove it. Margo left in tears.
I stopped trying after that. Hadn’t had a serious girlfriend since.
I’d go out with someone once or twice but that was it.
If I moved faster than Amber could find out, they wouldn’t get hurt.
Not much anyway. I’d been a fool to think at twenty-seven she was any different.
Part of the Dupree Family Creed was “Forgive, forget, and let people change.” As an attorney, I tried to live by it.
In my opinion, the prison system should’ve been renamed the Reformation System, because that’s what it was meant to be.
At least, when it worked right and people complied.
Not everyone deserves to be remembered for the one stupid thing they did way back when.
But over the years I’d also learned that, sadly, some people never change.
And that’s when you have to set boundaries.
I’d tried to do that with Amber. So many times.
But what can you do when someone takes a jackhammer to your safely constructed walls faster than you can rebuild them?
As I followed her back to the bus, my shoulders slumped, and the darkness tried to pull me down.
My brain, which I’d worked so hard to retrain, flipped my positive thoughts upside down like all the cognitive therapy my parents had paid for never even happened.
The voices I’d kept down for so long were neon signs in my head.
You can’t stop her. She’s too strong and you’re just a weakling. You’re not up for this. Run. Just go. If you leave, you protect everyone you love. As long as you’re here in Seddledowne, you’re putting everyone at risk.
But the worst voice of all…
You couldn’t protect Savannah from her. What makes you think Christy will be any different?
I’d strode back to Amber’s van full of confidence and fire, certain I’d stop her once and for all. But heading back to the bus, I realized I’d been a fool. Amber had taken one look at me, finally with the woman of my dreams, and said, hold my beer.