AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The sound I made must have been terrible because every trace of color drained from Gray’s face. I should have been embarrassed, but it felt like someone had just parked a Ford F-150 on my chest. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything but stare into Gray’s eyes and shiver. The scent of gasoline and burnt-out matchsticks was overwhelming.
His hands squeezed my shoulders, and he leaned forward, pressing his forehead against mine. “You’re okay,” he whispered to me. “I won’t let anything happen to you, but I need you to go into my office, okay? Before he comes in. Do this for me.” He squeezed my shoulder again, and as I gazed into his big, brown eyes, I could finally breathe. Gray let out a sigh of relief. His words were firm, but they weren’t harsh. Instead, he coated them in a comforting tone, as if he was pouring his strength directly into me. He rushed me toward his office, and once he opened the door, he practically shoved me up the stairs.
“Stay in here and stay down. No matter what.”
As he spoke, all I saw were flashes of an eighteen-year-old Gray Collins’ terrified face as two hands pulled me out of his bed and away from him.
“Gray,” I croaked.
“I know. I know, Kent. It’s okay.” His hand squeezed my knee. “I’ll be back as soon as he’s gone. I want you on this floor and away from that window.”
I grabbed his hand as he turned to leave. “Please don’t let him … I can’t.”
“He won’t touch you. I won’t let him. I promise. As soon as he’s gone, I’ll come back. Just stay down for me.” Before I could respond, he spun around and walked down the stairs. The sound of the lock clicking gave me a fleeting feeling of safety. It didn’t stay with me long, but for the briefest of moments, I was okay. Then the panic returned.
There was a surveillance system on the wall across from me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at it. The thought of seeing his face again made my blood run cold. I felt like a coward. Like a toddler crying out for his mommy with claims of monsters hiding under his bed. Trevor Collins was no invisible foe, hellbent on terrorizing my dreams, though. He was a living, breathing beast. A demon who’d almost killed me when he caught me in bed with his brother.
I wasn’t sure how long I had been alone, but in those endlessseconds-days-minutes,his face ran through my mind on a loop. It was gasoline and fists and matchsticks and Gray begging me to say those words. Words I could never say. Not even to save myself.
A pair of arms wrapped around me, and I jolted, hitting my head on the wall behind me. When I opened my eyes, I was under Gray’s desk. He was in front of me, his face calm, radiating strength.
He pulled me against his chest. “He’s gone. You did great. You did so good, Half-pint. He didn’t even mention you. I don’t think he knows you’re working here.”
I brought my teeth to my arm and bit down against the skin, needing an outlet for the fear that was still running through me.
“I’m sorry,” Gray whispered as he buried his face in the crook of my neck. “I’d never … Kent, I could never have forgiven myself if he—”
“Don’t,” I warned him. Despite the anger in my voice, I pulled him closer, clinging to him like a life preserver. It felt like I was lost. Adrift in the middle of an ocean of gasoline, just waiting for someone to light a match. “You let him take me. You sat there watching him and you didn’t do a thing. I was crying for you, and you just watched.”
“That’s not true. I tried. I begged him.” He was pleading with me. Demanding absolution that I couldn’t give. He’d had two months to beg me after that night. Two months that he could have come to my house to plead his case.
I shoved him away and brought my hands to his thighs, digging my nails in, just needing him to feel a fraction of the pain I felt. “He took me out to that lake. Toourlake, and he—he ruined it. It was ours. That lake was special, and it was true, and it was ours.” Reaching for him, desperate and determined, I pulled Gray back to me, needing something or someone to cling to. “I lost everything. My parents. My life here. You didn’t lose a goddamn thing.”
He pulled away, fixing his eyes on mine. “Didn’t lose anything? I lost you. I lost my best friend. I lost the life I was supposed—”
“You didn’t even tell me goodbye. Two months. You ignored me for two damn months before I left. I fucking begged you to talk, and you wouldn’t even look at me! I hated you, Gray. I hated you so much.”
His grip tightened around me, and even as I tried to push him away, his hold didn’t loosen. When he finally let me go, I felt like every bit of strength had left me. He stepped back, letting me out from under his desk. I couldn’t bring myself to look him in the eyes. When I was back on my feet again, he pulled me in for another hug, and as his hands explored my back, he hummed into my ear. A song that had always been meant just for me.
***
A week later, Mom sent me on a road trip to Priscilla, roughly forty miles east of West Clark. She wanted me to pick up a signed copy of a Leah Grant-Carter autobiography she’d found on Craigslist. I told her if she was willing to spend an extra two dollars and thirty-nine cents, we could get a copy off eBay. She flat-out refused. When I told her it would cost at least ten times more than that in gas alone, she’d just scoffed and told me I knew nothing about economics. I took that moment to remind her I had been the Director of Finance for a nationwide hotel chain, and she’d simply glared at me, saying, “Yes. And are no longer.”
I didn’t have a rebuttal for that argument, so I just scoffed right back at her.
I left the house that morning and absent-mindedly slid into the driver’s seat of the Pontiac of Death. I was still cursing my mother under my breath, lost in my head as I turned on the ignition. When Dottie Pruitt breathed a loud sigh of relief from the passenger seat, I let out a shriek.
“What the fuck, Dottie?” I said, trying to catch my breath. “How long have you been out here?”
“Goodness. I ain’t heard a mouth that filthy in years,” she said with a laugh. “Ain’t been too long. I have to admit, I was starting to think you were never coming out. Then again, I think all of us in this town have said that at one point or another about you.”
“Why are you like this?” I cried out, still trying to regain control of my racing heart. “And why are you just sitting out here like a kidnapper?” I turned my head and glared at her. “Are you kidnapping me? Because I’m warning you now, I make a terrible hostage. I’ve been told that on several occasions.”
“Honey, who’s been kidnapping you?” She reached down and squeezed my hand. “Dang. I’m sorry. I forgot all about that.”
My eyes bulged. “How the hell do you even know about that?”
“Your momma, sweetie. She had a real tough time after. Needed a shoulder to lean on.” Dottie took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “The lake,” she said solemnly. “That dang lake.”
