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.”
*