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She asked to speak with Willie herself, first, and didn’t cringe when she heard his voice. Her memory of that night would never leave her. She knew that for certain. But the parts that she focused on were changing. She remembered how hard she’d fought. How she’d sent one guy howling in the sand. And she was thinking about the boy who’d been so distraught that he’d hurt her in his attempt to keep her legs together against their assault—and then done everything in his power to see that she would be safe.
Love really did have the power to change how you viewed the world. The power to change perception.
She just hoped to God it had the power to get through one man’s very thick skull.
* * *
MIKE WAS NOT happy when he pulled up in front of the police station to pick up his brother. He’d considered telling the detective to call their father to come get Willie. But in the end, his heart had driven him down there.
The kid looked him straight in the eye when he got in the car.
“Kacey is not pressing charges,” Willie said.
Shit. He’d been so certain Lacey would talk some sense into her. Yet, looking at his kid brother...Mike felt a surge of relief. And then shame for feeling it.
“Can I still stay with you?”
For Willie, he supposed, nothing had changed in his immediate future. He still wanted to graduate and get on with his life. So far the boy had made good on every single agreement they’d made in that regard.
Sending him home now... He’d have to tell their folks what had happened. It would have to be done at some point, but Mike wasn’t up for another dramafest.
“Yes,” he said, feeling disloyal to Kacey for housing one of her attackers—and knowing that this was more proof that they didn’t belong together. He was convinced that she’d refused to press charges against Willie because of him. But he loved his kid brother. There was just no denying that one. He loved Willie—still. And the way the kid had called the cops on his own when he’d already been promised a free ride? That was the man he’d expected Willie to become.
“I’m so pissed at you right now, I’m not going to be very good company,” he said.
Willie nodded. “That’s cool.”
He glanced over, thinking that Willie was smiling. But the boy was staring out the front windshield, looking like he wished he’d shot himself instead of Mike.
* * *
MIKE WAS WORKING that evening, having ordered pizza for himself and Willie and taken his own to his home office, when a message started scrolling across his machine.
What the hell?
Thinking he’d been hacked, he went for the plug, immediate shutdown...when Willie spoke up. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Looking toward the doorway, he saw no one, so he glanced back at the screen.
Michael Seth Valentine, do you love me?
He looked around the room. Read the scrolling message as it came across a second time. And then watched as it stopped in the middle of his screen.
Willie was up to something. Playing some kind of geeky prank on him. As if the kid didn’t realize he was already on such thin ice nothing was going to work but time where the two of them were considered.
Two boxes popped up. One marked Yes. One marked No.
Sitting back, he watched the screen, waiting for the prank to unfold. He thought about his brother. Willie had had the courage to turn himself in after he’d been told he never had to tell another soul what he’d done.
He’d been let off the hook. Hadn’t had to be accountable.
And still he’d turned himself in, believing he was going to be put in jail.
A white box came up on the screen with a blinking cursor. It had to be Willie. In the other room. Accessing his computer through the home network. Mike’s work files were all locked, but his basic system was set to share for his own convenience.
Who is this? he typed into the box.
He wasn’t in a good mood. Wasn’t o
