We’d just cleared the gates when Trevor grabbed my arm, yanking me away from Willow and Sheldon. “Not so fast, sweetheart. Didn’t you miss me?”
“Take your hands off of me.”
“Why?” Anya snarled. “You think because you have Keiran that no one else is good enough for you? You couldn’t even get a boyfriend before.”
“Anya please get over yourself. Keiran never wanted you. You threw yourself at him.”
I almost had my arm out of his grip when he tightened it and began walking off with me in tow. “You’re coming with me. There is someone who wants to meet you.”
Before I could respond or scream for help I fell to the ground. Willow had jumped on Trevor’s back and began hurling insults and pulling his hair while Sheldon hit and kicked him from every angle. Luckily with Trevor’s arm broken he couldn’t get the upper hand, or so I thought.
“Get off me you crazy bitches!” he roared just before Willow went airborne and Sheldon hit the ground.
I saw red at seeing him manhandle my friends and before I could rethink it I delivered a two-piece to his face and swift kick to his groin bringing him to his knees.
I turned to help Sheldon and Willow who wasn’t moving from the ground. Pepé was sniffing at Willow’s face and making small sounds for his mother.
“Lake, watch out!”
I turned in time to see Trevor lunge for me with a murderous expression but before he could grab me he was thrown a few feet away by Dash and grabbed up by Keenan who delivered powerful blows to his face. They proceeded to tag team and beat the shit out of him. I winced at the beating he was taking. What surprised me most though was the absence of Keiran and how they’d gotten here so fast.
Sheldon was screaming for them to stop and as much as I hated Trevor I had to agree. They were quickly moving from assault to attempted murder if they carried on.
After a few more blows, Keenan grabbed Trevor by the arms and dragged him to Dash’s waiting car and threw him inside while Dash hurried over to Willow. He gathered her up into his arms and scooped up a scared Pepé.
“Where is her car?” His voice was rough and harsh and his face was a mask of unconfined fury. His whole body was shaking with barely controlled rage.
“Over – over there.” I pointed to her purple eclipse a few aisles over with a shaking hand. Willow seemed a little dazed from the fall but she was conscious and didn’t appear to have any injuries. He placed her in the passenger seat along with Pepé and turned to me.
“Go to her house and stay there. Keiran will come for you.” He jogged back over to his car. He and Keenan hopped in, and drove off… with an unconscious Trevor.
I looked around the empty parking lot and sighed in relief that no one was there to see Trevor assaulted and basically kidnapped. Then again, that could have been a bad thing. If Sheldon had never called her brother, who knows what Trevor would have done or where he would have taken me? What did he mean someone wanted to meet me?
I looked around again and noticed Anya was gone as well. “Where did Anya go? Did she run off?”
“Unfortunately, no. Keenan grabbed her too.”
“What!”
“Yup.”
“Why?”
“I don’t think I want to know.”
“We can’t just ignore the fact that happened Sheldon.”
“Do you really want to go against all three of them?”
“But Keiran wasn’t here.”
She looked at me as if I was dense. “Where do you think they are taking them? Look, let’s get Willow home and worry about that later.”
I reluctantly got into the car and dropped Sheldon off before driving us over to Willow’s house. Willow was silent the entire ride home and I kept checking to make sure she was still conscious. It didn’t look as if she hit her head from the fall.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she croaked.
“It doesn’t sound like it.”
“I’m fine.”
“What did Dash say to you?”
“What makes you think he said something?” she asked.
I shot her an impatient look but didn’t say anything more. I knew Willow sometimes better than I knew myself and vice versa.
She released an aggravated breath before stating, “He said he would be over to deal with my stupidity later.”
“He’s not making this easy for you is he?”
She snorted. “Nothing about Dash is easy. He’s always so determined to have his way. He doesn’t even really want me. He just thinks the world is supposed to change to fit him.”
Willow sounded so sad and heartbroken and I cursed my inexperience with boys because I had absolutely no idea what to tell her.
“So what are you going to do?”
“Wait for college to start and run away?”
“Aren’t you and Dash interested in the same school?”
“No. He only went to piss his father off. He will end up at some Ivy League school. If luck is on my side it will be on the other side of the country.”
“I don’t know Willow…”
“What don’t you know?”
“I don’t know if it will be enough.”
“It has to be.”
“I don’t know him very well but I know a man slut when I see one. He seems different with you. He looks at you differently.”
“Because I have meat on my skin?”
I laughed at her comment. Willow had curves but fat she was not. “No simpleton. Because you’re beautiful in a way he has never known and will never know again. Guys like him only have this opportunity once and he is smart enough to seize it.”
“Can I ask you something?” She asked.
“Sure.”
“How could you forgive Keiran so easily?”
“You think I forgave him?” She shrugged and I sighed.
“I don’t know what I’m doing with him. I’ve been hurt by him, Willow. I was hurt too many times and still I feel something for him and it confuses me.”
“You’re still afraid of him,” she stated.
I nodded and felt a pang of guilt admitting it. In truth, I was his proverbial punching bag. He took the frustration of his past out on me and I was afraid that any moment he could slip back because no one knew just how buried his past really was but him. I knew I couldn’t survive that again after knowing him so intimately. There was more between us than attraction but I wasn’t brave enough to say it out loud.
“You’re right, Lake. Something is haunting him. It’s there in his eyes. Guilt. Shame. Anger. It’s all there. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I don’t know what else to do, Willow.”
“You survive, Lake. That’s all you can do. If he loves you, he will do what it takes to make sure you do.”
* * *
Ifhe loves you…She’d said love. I was sure she did. I was numbed into silence and haven’t spoken a word since Willow’s last statement. She took my silence as an opportunity to retreat back into her own thoughts.
Keiran and I had never discussed love. I was still coming to terms with the fact that we even had sex with each other. There wasn’t any space for love was there? Our relationship was on shaky ground already without adding love into the equation. I couldn’t help but think of what it could be like to have someone as sinful and dangerous as Keiran to love you. The powerful feeling that swept through my body made me shiver with delight.
Oh God.
I shook off the feeling and checked the time. It was after ten and getting later. Willow’s parents had taken a trip for their honeymoon. Willow said it took them forever to save for. I knew they wouldn’t mind me being here so late as I have slept over many times. Buddy was nowhere to be found as usual on a Friday night so we were here alone. I was beyond tired but I knew what I was waiting for. Dash had told me Keiran would come for me. Two hours passed but he still wasn’t here.
I briefly wondered what they did with Trevor and Anya. Trevor was dangerous but Anya was little more than a simple bitch. She didn’t have the mental capacity to be anything more. Maybe that was a little harsh.