In Harmony(111)

“I can’t,” I said. “It’s been too long. I don’t want her to feel pressured.”

“Maybe it’s as simple as watching her from across a crowded room,” Brenda said. “Go inside, let her see you, and take it from there.”

“Yeah, okay.” I nodded. “That sounds good.”

I threw the car door open. The time for talk was over. It was time to get my ass in there and find my girl.

My nerves disappeared the second I reached the ballroom and found Willow. She sat in a group—her parents, another older couple, Angie McKenzie with a woman who must’ve been her mother. Willow sat while they all stood around her chatting, looking pale and stiff, hardly moving at all.

Something’s wrong.

The urge to run to her was strong but my heart was pounding in my chest, my nerves jumpy. I needed to calm the fuck down, take a breath, and get this right.

“She’s surrounded,” I told Marty. “I’m going to restroom. Splash some cold water on my face.”

Or dunk my head in the goddamn sink.

I took a long, circuitous route to the men’s room at one end of the ballroom. The restroom was grey and chrome, and smelled like Old Spice. A dark-haired guy in a suit was at a urinal taking a piss, and whistling.

I went to one of the basins at the sink and ran cold water. The guy turned around, zipping up, and moved to the sink to wash his hands. He had a narrow, weasel-like face, and dark eyes. He glanced at me once, then twice.

“Hey,” he said, wagging a finger at me. “I know you, right? You were in that movie? All the Way Down?”

“Long Way Down,” I said, dabbing my face dry.

“Yeah, that’s right. Great movie. You kicked ass in that.”

“Thanks.”

“Isaac…something, right? I’m bad with names.”

“Pearce,” I said, balling up the paper and wishing this guy would shut up already and let me have a minute to myself.

“Isaac Pearce, right,” he said, frowning. “I feel like I know you from somewhere else. Your name is familiar… Wait, you’re from around here, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

His eyes widened and he smiled with dawning realization. “Oh, shit, I remember! You’re the guy my dad told me about a few years ago. The actor. But your family had one of our stations in Harmony, right? The one that exploded?” He shook his head, laughing. “Crazy.”

Every muscle in my body tightened and my head creaked on my neck to look at him. “One of your stations?”

“Wexx Oil & Gas? My father is Ross Wilkinson, CEO.” he said, and offered his hand. “I’m Xavier.”

I stared.

Xavier. X. Him. The rapist. Standing right in front of me. Smiling. Whistling. Walking around free as if nothing had happened while Willow suffered for years…

He dropped his hand. “Hey, no hard feelings,” he said. “It’s not like losing one station is going to break us—”

I flew at him, gripped him by the lapels of his jacket, yanked him to me.

“You…” I seethed between clenched teeth, the blood pounding in my temples. “It was you…”

Xavier’s eyes were wide with fear, inches from mine. “What the fuck…?”

I fought for calm, remembering what Willow had said. That hurting him wouldn’t help her, though every sinew in my body screamed to fight, to make him hurt, to make him pay for what he did…

I released him with a rough shove. He fell back against the sink and I turned a small circle, raking my hands through my hair, breathing hard.

“What the fuck is your problem, man?” Xavier said, jerking his jacket back into place.

“I know you,” I said, jabbing my finger at him. “I fucking know you…I know what you did. To her.”

“To who? I don’t know what you’re—”

“To Willow,” I snarled. “What you did to Willow Holloway.”

Xavier’s eyes widened and his glanced darted to the door behind me. “Look, man,” he said, holding his hands up. “I don’t know what she told you but—”

“Everything. She told me everything.”

Xavier’s fake, smile vanished, but his voice was tinged with nervousness. “She told you everything? Did she tell you she sent me a picture of her tits? I still have it on my phone. I haven’t uploaded it online for the entire fucking world to jerk off to, but I will. I fucking will, so why don’t you get the fuck out of my way.”

He started to push past me. I calmly put my hand on his chest and shoved him back. I didn’t have a plan; my thoughts were in a tangle of raw emotion. But letting him out of this bathroom to stand in the same room as Willow was out of the fucking question.

“You belong in jail.”

“Fuck you,” he spat, his voice rough at the edges with fear now. “You better watch yourself, man. I’ll sue you for every penny you have.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

Xavier scoffed casually and then struck with a sudden right fist to my jaw. I took the hit, my head whipping to the side, and the pain was like a fire under a fuse. Control fled. All I could see was this fucker on her, choking her, his mouth and body on hers…

Willow…