Taking the steps to close the gap, I casually leaned against the lockers next to her. “What?”
At first, she didn’t want to say anything, biting hard on her lower lip, but she just couldn’t resist voicing that inner monologue of hers. Dropping her bag to the floor, her hands went straight to her hips. Somebody should tell her that’ll only give guys a legitimate reason to check out that part of her body. Then again, maybe she already knew that.
“Why don’t you just tell them no? Why lead them on and make them think there’s a chance when you know you’ll never take any of them?”
Sassy. I liked that. “What makes you think I won’t take one of them?”
“Because if even one of them caught your interest, you would’ve accepted on the spot, before she asked someone else.”
Sassy and smart. This was getting better and better. “So…if you were to ask me to the dance and I didn’t want to go with you, you’d flat-out want me to reject you?”
She laughed uncomfortably, looking to the floor and shaking her head. Scratching her head, her eyes returned to mine. “Well, I’m not asking you to the dance so it wouldn’t matter what you’d say. But yes, a little honesty goes a long way.” Crossing her arms and regaining her stance, she taunted, “Or are you too afraid you’ll get knocked down a few branches in the popularity tree?”
Was it wrong that I found her cocked brown eyes and wicked half smile so damn attractive? Spunky and hard to get was rare in this school and this chick was oozing with both.
“So, you wouldn’t go to the dance with me if I broke the rule and was the one to ask you?”
Huffing, she boldly replied, “And have a posse of Nick-rejectees ganging up on me in the bathroom trying to stab me in the eyes with their stripper heels? No, thank you.”
I smiled. She knew my name.
“What’s your name?” I asked, and it took her off guard.
Off guard, but not stupid. “I’m not telling you my name.”
“Well, you’re not a senior, so whose locker is this?”
Slowly, she haughtily replied, “Maybe it’s my boyfriend’s.”
I peeked inside the locker. “Not unless your man digs purple locker accessories.”
She slammed the locker shut and I tried not to laugh. “So, girl whose name I don’t know, who are you taking to the dance then?”
“Nobody.”
“Nobody-nobody? Or nobody you’re going to tell me about?” She licked her lips and offered me nothing but a pressed smile. “Are you always this stubborn?”
“Incredibly,” she snarked.
“Alright, then. I accept your challenge.”
She actually looked taken aback. “What?”
“You won’t tell me your name, so clearly, you want to make me work for it.”
“That’s not what I–”
“Tell you what,” I interrupted, pulling my phone from my back pocket. “If I can find out your name by the end of the school day, you have to come have a drink with me.” She was a little hesitant, so I quickly added, “Come on. There’s only three hours left so the odds are in your favor.”
She grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. “Fine. But what do I get when you fail?”
When I failed. Cute.
I shrugged. “The satisfaction of one-upping me?”
“No,” she said slowly, thinking it over. “That comes without saying.” A larger than life smile appeared, and for a second there, I actually began to worry. “No. When you fail, you have to tell each of those girls you’re not going with them.”
Well…that sucked. Good thing I wasn’t going to lose this round. I fiddled with my phone, activating the camera. “Deal. Say cheese.” I snapped the picture before she could even change her expression.
“Hey!”
“Sorry, but I can’t exactly take the time to draw you, now can I?”
Eyes narrowed playfully, she turned and walked away. For once a girl didn’t clack, but I was too busy admiring the tight curves that filled out her jeans to notice the specifics of her shoes. Immediately, I sent her picture to everyone in my contact list for school, along with the text: Ten bucks to the first person who can give me a name.
I slowly walked the long hallway behind her, the voices in the cafeteria growing as I neared. Nameless girl turned and walked in long before I got there, but I was too busy smiling at the text message from Brad to follow just yet: Claire Whitaker. Friends with my sis. I asked him if he could get her number and he got it to me in less than five minutes.
I turned the corner into the cafeteria and leaned against the column. I spotted her taking a lunch tray to a table packed with a mixture of younger girls and guys. I wore a huge smile as I activated the call, hoping she didn’t keep it completely off at school. On the third ring, she realized something was happening inside her bag and reached in for it. Putting the phone to her ear, she curiously asked, “Hello?”
“Hey Claire. It’s Nick.” She stood and scanned the cafeteria with three quick passes before she spotted me, her mouth hung wide. I offered her a teasing wave and asked, “Today good for you? I’ll meet you out front at two-thirty.”
“So did I actually show up?” I asked as we pulled through the garage gate at our building.
“Of course you did. You can deny, deny, deny, but you wanted that date.”
“Like you didn’t,” I argued.
“Hell, yeah I did. There was a feistiness about you I couldn’t resist. I knew I was in trouble the moment you put your hands to those curvy h*ps and told me off.”
“Please tell me you at least gave those girls an answer,” I asked as he pulled the car into our spot and cut the engine.
Rolling his eyes, he moaned, “You. Made. Me. Said you wouldn’t go on a second date until I did. And by the way, it was just high school! It’s not like I did anything to make those girls want to ask me out.”
“Oh, God,” I playfully teased. “Were you one of those social butterflies that the girls all swarmed after in high school? Some hottie sports guy they drooled over?”
“Shut up,” he muttered, failing miserably at suppressing that grin.
I was still laughing when he made his way over to open my door to let me out, and I gave a quick scan to confirm we were alone in the garage. “Well, tell me this.” I let my fingertips trace up his abdomen and chest until I wrapped my arms around his neck, as his locked securely around my hips. “Did you kiss me on that first date?”
A half smile stretched so far I actually saw dimple. Wickedly, he teased, “Sorry, but I’m going to hold on to that secret a little longer.”
“What? Why? It’s not supposed to be kept a secret from me!”
Fingers dug in deep around my hips. “Megan, all you need to know is that the day I met you, I knew right then and there that you were the girl for me, and that I was going to do everything possible to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Still a little perturbed over him not sharing the details of our first kiss, I couldn’t resist pulling on his neck to bring his mouth down to mine, and I softly caressed my lips against his, feeling the butterflies come to life in my belly. I could kiss those warm lips forever, as I could never get enough. Content to just stay in that position all night, I reluctantly allowed him to lead me on, but whined my disapproval.
I don’t know what happened next. Before we could even get out from between the cars, there was a quick sound, like an engine backfiring somewhere in the garage. I understood why Nick startled, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why he stopped dead in his tracks right in front of me.
“Nick?”
His grip on my hand loosened. I screamed once I realized he wasn’t just bending, but keeling over as he hit the car on his way down. Now slumped on the ground, he no longer obstructed my view and I inhaled so sharply, my lungs strained in pain.
Him!
How did I miss that? The garage was empty, but here he stood, not fifteen feet away with a gun pointed straight at my chest.
But I didn’t care. All I could see was Nick crumpled up on the pavement. I fell to my knees gasping, completely losing it when I couldn’t turn him around to assess the damage. Was he even breathing anymore? I screamed, heaved and cried all at once like a f**king tsunami hit my chest, but I managed to feel the slightest rise when I placed my hands on his back. For a split second, relief rushed my senses.
My chest constricted when a pair of black sneakers stepped before me. I fearfully looked up, noting the sleek gun held at his side. It was a long look up, and a blurry one at that due to gushing tears. My head shook endlessly, completely disbelieving the sight before me. I had been checking everywhere I went, always looking over my shoulder, thinking that if I just remained vigilant about my surroundings, then he’d never get the jump on me. But here that lunatic stood over me with a gun. And that f**king bastard shot Nick instead of me! In total disbelief, I somehow managed a strained, “Why?”
My eyes were drowning and the world blurred around me. I couldn’t really see him, but I recalled his most distinctive features from memory: dirty blond hair, hazel eyes, sharp cheekbones, dimple in the chin. When his gun angled towards me again, a short squeak of terror burst from my throat. My heart flat-out quit on me and I froze in fear. This is it. I’m going to die.
Snatching my ponytail and yanking my neck backwards, he leaned closer, the blurriness beginning to sharpen, those facial features finally taking shape. Darkly, he sniped, “You killed my brother and you still ask why?”
My eyes bulged. Oh, f**king shit! I had no idea they were related!
He pointed the gun towards the ground where Nick was lying, and I startled in his grasp. “Now either you walk willingly to my car or I give your boyfriend one final shot to the head.”
My chest panicked, thrusting uncontrollably. Go with him? And be forced back into a basement so he could cut me up and rape me without mercy? Fuck no!
Something on his gun clicked and I wailed without thinking, throwing my hands in the air as if they could stop all this from happening. “No, wait! Stop! I’ll go.” I couldn’t believe those words ever left my lips, but I couldn’t let him shoot Nick again either. “Just please,” I begged, “don’t hurt him anymore.”
His head cocked in a twisted manner and I was yanked abruptly to my feet by the roots of my hair, a stinging sensation coursing across my scalp. His hand jerked down to my bicep, where he gripped so hard that I shrieked. I tried to look back at Nick as we hurried downward to the previous level, to see if he was stirring, but every attempt earned me a jerk forward that snapped my neck painfully.
A car was winding its way up the garage. My captor released my arm and shoved me deep between two large cars that were parked, his larger, dark clothed body hiding mine from view. “One wrong move and I won’t hesitate to go back and finish him off,” he threatened.
I believed him, without a doubt. I was terrified to be taken again; it was what always frightened me since I broke free from his brother’s grasp. I wanted to scream for help, to run for as long as my legs could physically take me, but I’d never do that with Nick’s life hanging in the balance. And the man before me knew that. I swear there was a smugness in his eyes that he hid from the rest of his face, some sort of personal pleasure from being able to force me into submission while not even holding me down or aiming that gun at me.
And it was beginning to anger me, because I didn’t want to be that girl; the one that was forced to just go along with what he wanted. I wasn’t the same girl they stole years ago. Sure, the thought of this guy chasing me down terrified me to the point that I hid myself away, but obviously, I was right to be fearful, because here he was standing before me with a loaded gun. I may not have had my memory back yet, but I was fairly certain captivity changed me. I didn’t stand over his brother’s body as he died, but I killed to get myself out of that life, and somewhere in the back of this man’s head, it had to be floating around that I had the will and courage to fight my way out.
I felt the terror leave and the anger take over, my eyes tapering sharply during the transition. Since his pair was already watching mine, he picked up on the difference as it happened, and the corner of his mouth slightly lifted, like he found me amusing. Because seriously, I was half his size and had no hope of maneuvering my way past him. At least not without the element of surprise. He tucked the gun into the back of his jeans underneath his jacket, then spread his hands outward, splaying each against their respective vehicles, a wicked smile growing deeper, daring me to try it anyway.
As much as I wanted to fight my way free, I wouldn’t right now. Not with Nick lying on the ground unable to defend himself. Not when he had the upper hand, and a gun within reach. But I swore to God right then and there that this guy wouldn’t get me for long. I wasn’t brainwashed. I knew I had something to fight for and I wasn’t going give that up just because some psycho wanted to steal me away and finish what his brother started.
“No?” he taunted, his eyes still beckoning me to have a go at him.
It was at that moment I knew, that if I could find a way to knock him on his ass like I did his brother, I could find the strength to leave him for dead, too. And the moment I got him far enough away from Nick, I was going to give him the fight he just urged me to give.
He gave the car enough time to turn the corner and disappear from sight. Satisfied I wouldn’t try anything right now, he snatched my arm and pulled me down another level, my damn heels making it difficult. Please help Nick, I repeated over and over again in my head, praying the occupants of that car would see him sprawled out on the ground and find him help.