Save Me(WITSEC #2)(58)

“Why did you decide to hide in here?” he asked me. “Keelan’s office is right across the hall.”

I was sitting behind his desk on the floor. “I’m not hiding.”

“That didn’t answer my question,” he grumbled.

Because I need you, I almost said. I hated that I had three wonderful guys who made me happy, yet I couldn’t stop feeling his absence. “I shouldn’t have come in here,” I said and got to my feet.

He didn’t stop me as I walked by and headed for the door. Chase me, I begged in my head. I made it all the way to the door and stopped walking.

Stop being a coward, Shiloh.

Instead of walking out, I spun around. I met Knox’s eyes. He was standing behind his desk, his hands in his pockets. “You said to me once that you only apologize to people you care about. You never came to me. You didn’t try to make things right with me. Or was avoiding me your way of telling me you didn’t want to?”

He looked away and I felt my heart crack.

“Did the other morning mean anything to you?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “It did.”

“Then why? Is it because I refused to sit back and let you dictate what’s best for me?”

“No.”

“Damn it, Knox!” I exploded, moving closer to him, leaving only the desk between us. “Use your fucking words and tell me why you don’t want me!”

Anger etched his features. “I want you. I want you so bad it’s driving me insane!”

I held my arms out at my sides. “Then what’s holding you back?”

He pointed to the door behind me. “Them.”

“What about them?”

“If your relationship with them doesn’t work or if it causes a rift between them, they’re going to need someone who wasn’t involved to bring them back together,” he finally admitted.

There went the rest of my heart. Shattered. I wasn’t worth the risk to him and what was really messed up was that I couldn’t be mad at him for it. He was ensuring his family wasn’t going to fall apart. “Thank you for telling me,” I forced out and numbly walked out the door.

Creed and Keelan were standing in the hall. By their somber expressions, they had overheard. Keelan was holding my shoes.

I held my hand out for them and without a word, Keelan handed them over. “Can someone take me home?” I asked.

Keelan looked at Creed. “You take her home.” He tilted his head slightly toward Knox’s office door. “I need to be here a little longer.”

Creed nodded. The two of them were quiet as I put my shoes on and grabbed my gym bag from Keelan’s office. Once I was all set to leave, Keelan kissed my head goodbye and went into Knox’s office. Creed laced his fingers with mine and the two of us went home.





The next morning, I was getting my school bag packed when there was a knock on my bedroom door. “Come in,” I said.

Logan walked in about a step. “I was wondering if I could ride with you to your school. I have a meeting with your principal and then I have a few errands to run after.”

“Errands?” I said. “And what are you meeting my principal for?”

“I want to speak to him. There’s got to be a better way to keep you safe at school, and I also want to see if he ever looked at their security footage of when your tires were slashed at school.”

“I forgot about that,” I mumbled.

“You had a lot going on,” he said. “I reviewed the footage of when the sheriff attacked you. Unfortunately, he spoke too low for the camera to pick up his threats.”

“Great,” I said caustically.

“But we do have it recorded of him shoving his way into the house. I sent a copy of that footage to Ian and I made a copy for the lawyer I have a meeting with this afternoon.”

“You found a lawyer?”

He nodded. “We need to get ahead of this sheriff and we need to do it quickly, because it won't be long before he comes after you again.”

Fighting back my worry, all I could do was nod.

“Because you refused to talk to me, I spent most of yesterday evening watching the footage from the cameras outside,” he said.

I hung my bag on one shoulder. “I went to bed early.” Which was kind of true. I’d come home and shut myself in my room for the rest of the evening. I gestured to the hall. “We better get going.”

He moved to the side for me to walk ahead of him and I did. “I’d like to start over and properly meet your boyfriends. I was thinking we could all have dinner tonight,” he said as he followed me.

I stopped in my tracks in the center of the living room and turned to face him. “Really?”

“I know they’re important to you. They were here for you when I wasn’t. I would like to make an effort to get to know them.”

It was nice that he was trying to make an effort and I supposed it was his way of trying to make things right. “Alright. I’ll invite them.”

The two of us locked up and headed to my school. Just as I pulled out of the neighborhood, red and blue lights flashed behind me.

“What did I do?” I asked Logan as I pulled over.

“You didn’t do anything,” Logan said as he opened my glove compartment to retrieve my registration. “Just cooperate.”