WITSEC

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Logan was gone when I went home the following morning. Dinner from last night had been cleaned up and his stuff was missing from the spare bedroom. There was a note pinned to the fridge.

Shi,

All I want is for you to be safe.

Call me and I’ll always come.

-Logan

I hated how things were between us. Even though I was so, so mad at him and I’d asked him to leave, I was still sad that he was gone.

I arrived at Desert Stone with minutes to spare before class started. “Hi, Derek,” I said as I rushed past the front desk toward Keelan’s office to drop off my gym bag.

“Cutting it close,” he said back.

“I know,” I said before dashing down the hall. Creed had taken me home from school. I might have been feeling a little frisky during the drive and teased the hell out of him with touches and kisses. He’d chased me inside my house and tackled me to the living-room floor. He’d returned the favor for the teasing with his tongue between my legs. The torture had felt like forever, but when he’d finally let me cum, my eyes had rolled into the back of my head. After that, he’d thrown my legs over his shoulders and buried himself inside of me.

Once we’d been both satiated and lying next to each other, trying to catch our breath, I had said, “The movies are deceiving.”

He had tilted his head to look at me. “What do you mean?”

“It is not comfortable having sex on the floor. I mean, it got the job done, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

He had laughed and we had made out on that uncomfortable wood floor until it had been past the time for me to leave.

My legs were still shaking as I dropped my bag off in Keelan’s office and headed back out. I was almost to the door where the class was held when an arm grabbed me around my middle, stopping me. Its owner ran their nose along my neck. “Keelan,” I said, giggling, because there was no way this was Knox. “We’re going to be late.”

“Who’s Keelan?” a familiar voice whispered into my ear.

Jacob.

I dropped my water bottle and tried to get out of his hold. He wrapped his other arm over the top of my arms and lifted me off the ground, carrying me down the hall that led to more classrooms and out of sight.

“Help!” I screamed before he covered my mouth.

He chuckled next to my ear. “It looks like you pissed some people off, Shiloh. The judge decided to let me go home until my trial. That is, if my new friend, the sheriff, doesn’t convince the judge to throw out my case.”

He made the mistake of trying to open one of the classroom doors because he had to release my mouth.

“Help me!” I screamed and got one of my arms free. As he tried to pull me into the room, I grabbed a hold of the doorframe. “Keelan!” I was going to have to let go of the door. I’d have to do it to fight him because no one was coming. Just as he yanked on me to get me to let go, the door swung open wide, revealing Knox.

He didn’t hesitate in grabbing me and ripping me free from Jacob’s grasp, which pulled us both out of the classroom. Knox shoved me behind him and grabbed Jacob by his shirt before slamming his fist into Jacob’s face. Jacob crumpled to the ground and Knox followed him down to hit him again and again.

“I should fucking kill you for touching her!” Knox roared and punched him again.

People were beginning to gather and watch.

“Everyone, out of the way!” I heard Keelan yell before he pushed through the crowd. He took in the scene, from me to Knox pummeling Jacob. “Knox!” He grabbed his brother and pulled him off Jacob.

Knox struggled against Keelan, his rage overriding his good sense. I put myself in front of him, blocking his sight of Jacob, who rolled over, groaning. I grabbed Knox’s hand and held his wild eyes. “I’m alright.” Breathing laboriously, he tried to look past me. I brought his bloody hand up to cup my face. “Look at me,” I said firmly, and he did. “Hold me,” I pleaded. His hand twitched against my face before he moved it behind my neck and pulled me to him.

“Get out of my way!” Jacob roared behind me.

Knox went to go after him, but I dug my feet into the ground and held onto him. Keelan tried to go after him next. I grabbed him by his shirt just in time. “Let him go,” I barked. “He isn’t worth it.”

Keelan frowned. “We need to call the police.”

“No,” I said. “They won’t help us with him.”

“What do you mean?” Keelan asked.

I looked at the crowd, which was slowly thinning out. “Not here.”

He nodded. “I’ll get everything squared away here. Go to his office and I’ll meet you two there.”

I grabbed Knox’s hand and led him to his office. I pulled him into the bathroom and flipped on the light so I could see his hand. His knuckles were split, and blood was already drying on his skin. I cupped his cheek. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice low and slightly detached. “Did he hurt you?”

“He didn’t have time.” I turned on the sink and led his hand under the water. I washed away the blood gently. I could feel him watching me the entire time. When all the blood had washed away, I turned off the water and grabbed a towel off the rack. I patted his hand dry. “I was prepared to fight him. I was ready to face what he might do to me in that room, alone. But when I saw you…I knew everything would be alright. I feel that way every time I look at you.” I brought his hand up to my mouth and kissed his knuckles. “Thank you for saving me.”

His hand twisted in mine and moved it to cup my chin. He tilted my head back to look up at him and he slammed his mouth down onto mine. Shock held me for a breath until I kissed him back. He kissed like I remembered. Demanding. Controlling. This time I didn’t rebel against him. I melted. I wanted to take everything he was offering, greedily. Because I was scared I’d never have this again.

When I realized that, I found the will to push against his chest and break away from him. “You cannot kiss me if you’re just going to pull away,” I said, looking down. I couldn’t meet his eyes. I was scared of what I’d see. “You’ll break my heart if you do.”

“Look at me,” he said.

It took a lot of strength to do that, but I did. I met his beautiful golden-brown eyes.

“Every time I look at you, I get a glimpse at happiness.”

I held my breath, refusing to assume what that meant.

“You’re my match, Shiloh.” His hands framed my face. “I’m so fucking sorry if I hurt you. I let my fear of the worst get the best of me.”

“Living in fear isn’t living.” That was what he had told me once.

“I should have taken my own advice.”

I put my hand on his forearm. “I’ve been guilty of not listening to my own advice a time or two.”

He leaned closer. “Will you forgive me?”

“Don’t pull away from me again,” I said.

“I won’t.”

I leaned in the rest of the way. His mouth covered mine and his hands moved to the back of my neck. This time when he tried to control the kiss with his tongue, I rebelled. My tongue lashed back at his in a sensual dance.

He smiled against my lips. “You just won’t let me be in charge, will you?”

“You want to be in charge, you gotta earn it,” I said against his lips.

He seemed to like the challenge and he kissed me again. His fingers tugged on my hair a little, making me gasp, and he gained the upper hand. He’d nearly made me swoon when we heard someone clear their throat. We pulled apart and found Keelan standing just outside the bathroom, grinning at us.

“Am I interrupting?” he asked.

Knox sighed through his nose.

“What did you do about the class?” I asked Keelan.

“I canceled the class today. As an apology for the inconvenience, I gave them a month’s free membership. Derek’s crediting their accounts right now,” he explained, sounding a little irritated.

“I’m sorry you had to do that,” I said.

“It’s not your fault, baby girl.”

It kind of was.

“What did you mean earlier about the police not helping us with Jacob?” Keelan asked.

I told them what Jacob had said to me. How he had a guardian sheriff looking over his shoulder.

Both looked really pissed off the more I spoke.

“I hate to say this, but you’re going to have to call your uncle,” Keelan said.

Knox nodded, agreeing.

My shoulders slumped. I wasn’t looking forward to that.

Logan knocked on my door later that evening. I let him in. “What’s in the bag?” I asked, spotting the grocery bag in his hand.

He held it up. “Ice cream. It’s a peace offering.”

I bit my cheek and took the bag from him. “Would you like to have some now?”

He looked slightly surprised. “Sure.”

He followed me into the kitchen. I grabbed two bowls from the cabinet and took the ice cream out of the bag. He’d gotten me strawberry, one of my favorites. He watched me as I began scooping the ice cream into each of the bowls and then slid one of the bowls across the island toward him.

He just stared down at it as I picked up my own bowl. “I need to say something before you tell me what happened today,” he said.

“Go ahead,” I said and took a bite.

“I have no idea how to be a parent or be accountable for anyone other than myself. Your mother always made it look easy.” He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “When I became your guardian, I didn’t know what the hell to do. I regretfully treated this guardian role as a mission. Get you better. Get you somewhere safe. Get you trained. That was my first mistake—to view taking care of you like that. I did you wrong by looking the other way when you started drinking and again when you started smoking. I didn’t know how to help you and the one person I would normally call for advice was gone.” His eyes got glassy and he cleared his throat to regain his composure. “When I found all those empty bottles under your bed, I knew I really fucked up. I thought that if my sister was looking down on us, she would hate me. I tried talking to you about the drinking. You seemed to listen, but then you started running and I could see it was another unhealthy coping mechanism. I looked away again. Ian started calling about that time and told me about all the shit that was going down with X. I wanted to help. I wanted a chance to find X so I could make him pay for what he’d done to our family and make sure you were safe. I got it in my head that if I caught X, everything would be okay. You would be okay. When we sparred the other day, you made me realize how epically I have failed you and I don’t know how to express how sorry I am.”

I set down my almost-empty bowl and exhaled heavily. “I haven’t been handling things with you in the best way, either. Instead of talking to you, I lashed out. I’m not very proud of myself for that.”

“You had every right to lash out like you did. I responded poorly to it, especially last night. I didn’t mean what I said. I don’t blame you at all for what X did. I promise. I just want you to be safe.”

“I know you do,” I said, eyeing his untouched ice cream. “Your ice cream is melting.”

Logan didn’t remove his hands from his pockets. “I changed my mind. Now, what happened at the gym?”

I put my hand to my chest as I looked from his bowl to mine. My eyes briefly flicked to the carton of ice cream next. There hadn’t been a plastic seal on it. How hadn’t I noticed that? It took everything in me not to react. Everyone had repeatedly told me I was a terrible liar. Right now, I needed to be the best liar there was, because my gut was telling me that I was in danger. I grabbed his bowl. “Since you’re not going to have any, can I have it?”

“Go ahead,” he said.

As I dumped his ice cream into my bowl, I asked, “Can we go sit in the living room? My body is a little sore from where Jacob grabbed me.” I picked up the bowl and my cell phone off the counter.

He nodded. “Of course.”

As I came around the island, I gestured for him to walk ahead of me. He hesitated at first, but eventually moved with me a step behind him.

“So like I said on the phone, Jacob showed up at the gym…” As soon as we were passing the hall to go into the living room, I dropped the bowl of ice cream and ran toward my room. I made it and slammed my door behind me.

As soon as I turned the lock, Logan began banging on the other side. “Shi, open the door.”

I leaned against the door and clicked the home screen on my phone. I pulled up my last calls and clicked on Keelan’s name. The phone rang once before he picked up.

“Hey, baby girl,” he answered.

“Help me!” I screamed. “I think he drugged me and is going to try to take me away.” Just as I said that, I felt lightheaded.

“We’re coming,” he said.

I shook my head, hoping to clear it, and dashed for the window. I kept having to shake my head to keep focused as I unlocked it and pushed the window open. I kicked the screen off and began to climb out. I had half my body out when a hand clamped around my wrist.

I screamed as Logan tried to pull me back inside. “Someone help me!” I screamed outside and I thought I heard gravel crunching underfoot.

I was beginning to feel disoriented and kind of high as I fought to get out the window. Just as Logan was about to get the upper hand and pull me back in, Creed appeared, then Colt, and they grabbed me. Logan suddenly let go. I glanced back to see Keelan had him in a choke hold on the ground. As the twins pulled me out through the window, I saw Knox run into my room. My legs gave out on me the moment my feet touched the ground. Colt scooped me up into his arms and walked with me to the front of the house.

“I’m going to check on Knox and Keelan inside. Get her out of here,” Creed said to Colt.

Colt rushed to their house and grabbed his keys from the bowl by the front door. Then he booked it to his car, put me in the passenger seat, ran around to the driver’s side, and climbed in. Colt got the car turned on and tore away down the road.

“I feel drunk and high,” I groaned.

Colt grabbed my hand.

“Where are your brothers?” I asked.

“They’ll meet up with us later,” he said.

The inside of the car was spinning, and I had to put my head between my legs or I was going to be sick. “I’m so dizzy.” I focused on breathing in through my nose, out through my mouth. “Do you think they’re alright?”

He didn’t answer.

“Where are we going?” I asked instead.

“I’m going to take you to our cabin.”

Cabin? Oh, right. The cabin they were planning to have the Halloween party at.

“I cannot believe he tried to take me,” I mumbled. “Never mind, yes I can. I should have been suspicious when he let me go last night.” My eyes began to feel heavy.

I must have fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes again, I was in a bed. I didn’t recognize the room, but there were wooden beams in the ceiling and bright sunlight coming from a sliding glass door that led to a balcony. Through the glass door, I could see trees everywhere.

“Shi! Colt!” I heard Creed yell from somewhere.

Someone groaned and I rolled over, finding Colt asleep in the bed next to me. Just as I was about to sit up, the door to the room burst open and Creed stormed in.

“Why haven’t you been answering your phone?!” Creed yelled, startling Colt awake.

“What?” he said, sitting up.

“What the fuck, bro?!” Creed roared.

Colt grabbed his phone off the nightstand and cursed. “It’s dead.”

Events from last night started coming back to me. “What happened? Where are Knox and Keelan?”

“That’s why I’ve been trying to call you,” Creed said, and he got this sullen look on his face. “Keelan’s in the hospital.”

To be continued.