Secret Obsession: Chapter 53

It’s been three days since we checked on the body. Daniel Freeman.

I’d rather not have his name attached. That’s where Miles got it right. As he said: It doesn’t really matter. A dead body is a dead body.

Jacob, via phone, warned us not to search this guy’s name. If the police do end up doing a deep dive into us, then our search histories could be evidence.

Nothing like terrifying a girl when all she wants is to find out who this guy is. What made him tick, what made him evil. What made him decide to put something in my drink that night.

He could’ve gotten away with it if Miles wasn’t watching out for me. Actually, he absolutely would’ve. If I didn’t have a murderous guardian angel. If he didn’t carry me out of the bar before the drug took hold, I would’ve been helpless.

My breath catches, and I wrap my jacket tighter around me. Violet, Aspen, and Thalia are spread out across the row beside and below me, textbooks or laptops out. We’re at the arena waiting for practice to start. I have a notebook on my lap, with the pretense of copying my notes to study for an upcoming exam, but I’ve only written two lines.

I just can’t concentrate.

Something is rubbing me wrong on the inside. Like… a precursor to something bad happening.

And then I see waving arms across the rink, and I narrow my eyes at Knox.

I’d ignore him—in fact, I do. But a moment later, I hear him shouting my name, and I raise my head again.

“Meet me at the exit,” he yells. “Right now.”

I scowl at him, but whatever. I toss my notebook on top of my bag and shove my phone in my pocket, murmuring an, “I’ll be right back,” to the girls.

Five minutes later, I’m outside.

Knox is pacing. He grabs my upper arm and drags me toward his car, so fast I stumble.

“What the fuck?” I shove at him. “What are you doing?”

“You got Miles into this mess,” he seethes. “If anything happens to my baby brother—”

“Knox.” I dig my heels in. “Where are we going?”

“Get in the car, Reed.” He gets up in my face, his hand wrapping around the back of my neck. Holding me nose to nose with him. “My brother would sacrifice everything to save you. We’re going to do the exact same fucking thing.”

I search his frantic gaze.

Something happened. That wild, out-of-control feeling doubles in my chest, and I nod. He’s right: Miles would do anything for me, and it’s about time I learned to do the same.

He releases me when he sees my acceptance, and I get into the passenger seat of his car. He pulls out of the lot with a squeal of tires, turning toward their house. It isn’t long before we come up on the rental Miles’ insurance gave him. At least, it seems like it…

It’s upside down, the driver’s door open and blocking our view into the car. Smoke pours from the hood—and a second later, the whole car goes up in flames.

I gasp and slam my palm over my mouth. I scramble for the door handle, getting halfway to the burning car before Knox catches up with me. He yanks me back, ignoring the keening noise coming out of me. I can’t stop it any more than I can stop trying to get to the car.

“Look,” he orders, directing my face to the marks in the snow. Drag marks, not unlike the ones we’re leaving in the snow now. “Someone pulled him out.”

“Someone?”

Daniel Freeman’s brother, I’d bet.

Sirens scream in the distance. Knox shoves me into the car and hurries around to the driver’s side, hopping in and throwing it in reverse. We speed backward fast enough to make me sick. I hold on to the door handle, my stomach all but in my throat, until he swings the back end around and smoothly tucks us into a driveway.

A second later, police cruisers pass us at high speed, their lights bouncing through the interior of the car. A firetruck follows. And then an ambulance.

He wasn’t in it, I tell myself.

“This is a situation for the police,” I tell Knox. “He took your brother. They can help—”

“No.” He glares at me. “No, they can’t help. We’re going to fix this.”

I swallow past the lump in my throat. Gone is any trace of the man I dated for a whole fucking year. Who I convinced myself I loved. The months apart, the eye-opening experience given to me by Miles, has proven that Knox never actually gave a shit. He was pretending, and so was I. It just took my heart a little time to be convinced of that.

Oh my God.

Do I love Miles?

Stop it. I sink into the seat as Knox speeds away from the car crash.

But Jesus, I thought I was going to lose it when I saw his car upside down.

“Willow.”

“Yeah.”

“Get out of the car.”

I look up. We’re at the hockey house, idling at the curb.

The front door is open.

My stomach is doing funny things. Why did Knox bring me here?

“What’s going on?”

He grits his teeth. “You for him. That’s what he said.”

“You talked to him? The brother—”

He reaches out and grabs my wrist. Like I might try to bolt or something. Utterly ridiculous, seeing as we’ve come this far. But I let him drag me across the center console, and I try to reconcile the guy I knew with the one sitting in front of me.

He already said he’d do anything to save his baby brother—he knew that this was part of it.

“I was on the phone with Miles when he crashed,” Knox says quietly. “I listened as that fucker hit his car repeatedly until he crashed, and then he dragged my brother out of it. And he took his phone, too. I heard his voice. He just wants answers, Willow, and he thinks you can give them to him.”

My shoulders sag. I should’ve known Knox had an ulterior motive. If it was just a matter of getting to his baby brother, he would’ve gone without me.

“Okay,” I whisper. “But he won’t forgive you.”

“But at least he’ll be alive.”

He releases my wrist, and I climb out of the car. My legs feel wooden, a bit shaky, as I walk toward the house. The open door isn’t unusual in parties. How many times have I stood on the darkened porch after a game or dance competition, with the sounds of a party going on inside, and contemplated just running away?

I glance at the corner of the porch.

I cried there once. Because Knox was flirting with someone else, and because he missed my competition. That’s when Miles sat down and told me that I was going to fall in love with him. That our love lines were destined for it, or whatever nonsense he spouted. I trace the line in my palm with my fingernail.

This is it.

Lie convincingly or die.

I take a deep breath and step into the house.