by Eden O'Neill
I shouted everything I saw, tried at least. Even still, I had no idea if what I was doing or saying was falling on deaf ears.
Meanwhile, Sinclair was shooting down the dirt hills of the Grey Woods at top speeds when they maybe allowed for fifteen miles per hour. We’d only seen one car up here, but the way he was moving, he’d have us out of the woods and on the main roads.
God only knew where else after that.
I didn’t know where we’d go then, so scared as I closed my eyes, and Sinclair merely laughed in my direction.
“You’re scared of me?” A dry chuckle. He hit his chest so hard I thought he’d stop his heart. “I’m the victim here. Me. My dad has put me on leave. I’ve lost everything.”
“Why would he do that?” I gripped my chair, trying to sound calm. Trying to sound soothing so he’d keep talking and not do something even crazier than he already was.
“Because of that guy at the party.” Sinclair shook his head, his knuckles white on the wheel. “I ghosted that guy, and he got pissed and put a video up on social media. A video of him and me together.”
My mouth parted.
“The whole fucking office saw it!” Sinclair slammed his hand on the wheel, the sound blasting into my heart. “My dad saw it, and he told me he wanted nothing to do with me. He put me on leave for show, but it’s over. It’s over. I’m dead to him.”
My swallow hard, I sat up. “If your dad is like that, that’s on him, Sinclair. It’s okay—”
“It’s not okay! No!” He shoved his hand into his hair. “I wouldn’t even have met that guy if it wasn’t for you. You and that fucking asshole Lance Johnson.”
He was taking no responsibility for his own actions, things he’d done like cheat on me. I sympathized for him, yes, but I couldn’t give him any more than that. He’d acted on his own. He’d chosen to go behind my back.
Even still, I was dealing with a new Sinclair. One who wasn’t thinking straight at all.
After all, he had snatched me.
I wiggled in my seat, trying to keep the phone from being obstructed. “Your dad’s the problem. Not you.”
“No, you’re the problem.” A dry laugh fell from his lips, his tone so cold. “I loved you, but you threw it all away. You threw me away. I could have made you happy. I loved you!”
“Sinclair—”
“I wanted you, Billie!” He took my hand, placing it on his chest. A shake of his head, and his tears finally fell. “I could have made you happy. Not that piece of shit Johnson. You know he’s a drug dealer? Some of the shit he’s into and who he works for?” He hit his head back against the seat, then snarled. “You know, you were in hiding because he’s a piece of shit, right? He put you in danger.”
I blinked. “How did you know that? How did you even find me?”
“I’m a lawyer, Billie. I have friends at the DA’s office.” He threw my hand, almost disgusted. He faced the road. “People talk over beers. They were going on about this girl in hiding and her association with this Lance Johnson. Lance goddamn Johnson.”
A growl and his foot accelerated on the gas.
I screamed, and he wheeled us off the dirt path and onto the main road. So quick he darted toward a semitruck on the other side.
I grabbed the wheel, jerking us back.
The semi passed us with a honk, and once clear, Sinclair shoved me off the wheel so hard my head hit the window.
Groaning, I dragged my head off the glass and when I faced Sinclair, his eyes were no longer on me.
Wild, they darted toward the floor of the van, my phone there.
In seconds, he reached for me, seeking the device, and I clawed at him, digging my nails into his skin.
A roar and he punched me in the face, my jaw searing. He worked around my legs for the phone, and I forced my head up, seeing the crosswalk. I angled down. “We’re coming up on the intersection of Ivy Lane and Robin Road. Hurry—”
A fist to my jaw again, my teeth lodging into my tongue so hard I tasted blood.
I moaned, and finally getting the phone, Sinclair opened the window. I had just enough time to see the screen flash with LJ’s name before Sinclair threw it outside.
“You’re going to pay for that, you stupid bitch,” he seethed, claw marks on the side of his face. I guessed I’d gotten him a little, the welts deep. He wet his lips. “You’re going to fucking pay for that. You could have had me, and you called him!”
His foot accelerated the van again, toward a tree this time, and I screamed, reaching for him, but he held me back.
He had a full hand around my neck, cutting off my air supply, and I closed my eyes, not sure if it was from his hold or fear.
I braced myself for impact and went flying when it hit.
Sinclair’s hand left my neck with a jolt, and strapped in, I hit the side of the door.
The wind instantly knocked out of me, my right impacted but not my front. The airbag exploded in my face, my screams radiating through the air as the van scraped off the road and came to a stop in a shallow ditch.
No sounds then, my head heavy and weighted. Dragging it up, I glanced over to the left side. Sinclair’s airbag had also gone off, but he was pinned between that and his door. The windshield had exploded and he had a piece of glass shoved so far into his skull blood seeped over his closed eyes.
My stomach rolled, and I clawed at the seat belt until I got it off. I fought around the airbag to get out of the door, and the moment I did, I fell into a hard chest.
“Billie, oh my God!”
Shaking, LJ grappled me to his chest, so hard I thought he’d fuse me to him.
The tears filled my eyes instantly, gasping for him. “You’re here.”
“Yeah. Holy fuck.” He kissed my hair; over and over, he kissed me. Hands framing my face, he studied me. “Are you okay? God, baby. I didn’t know what to do. I saw him going for that tree, and I panicked.”
To the side, Sinclair wasn’t moving, but behind him a familiar car sat on the other side. It’d crashed into us. LJ had crashed into us and managed to stop him.
LJ spoke wildly in front of me, and I missed most of it until he hunkered down, running his fingers through my hair. “Thank God for your dad.”
“My dad?”
He nodded. “He knew these woods. Told me where to go. He was right beside me the whole time. We drove here together.”
Something in my heart stopped just then, something made me look for my dad who wasn’t with him. LJ said he’d been with him, but he wasn’t now.
Until he was.
Right behind LJ, he stood, so much fear and raw terror in his eyes I felt it myself. His bright hair was swept, his fists clenching like he wanted to do something but couldn’t. Like he wanted to come over, but felt he couldn’t. His mouth opened. “Billie…”
That word broke me, my tears overflowing a dam, and LJ let go and allowed me to go to my dad.
I ran to him, literally in his arms, and he gathered me up like I was his little girl. I was his little girl, a familiar home in his arms.
“Billie…” He felt that too, had to have. Emotion lined his voice as he grappled me back and lifted me off the ground. He covered my head. “I was so scared, sweetheart. I was so scared.”
“It’s okay, Daddy. I’m okay.”
I was okay, okay because of him and LJ.
LJ stood off to the side, smiling at us as the streets suddenly filled with flashing lights and sirens. Squad cars came from everywhere, the road a cluster and out of one came, Niko.
“Queenie!” He ran in my direction, ran for me, but LJ held him back. My guy brought his buddy under his arm, staring at me and my dad, and I closed my eyes.
“I’m okay, Dad,” I said, my dad’s tears sounding in my own ears. “We’re okay.”
“We are, Billie,” he gasped. “We are.”
I finally felt we were, at least we would be. He returned me to the ground, but I wouldn’t let him go.
I found LJ’s hand then, an
d he let me have it as I hugged my dad again. I kept them both with me, needed them both in that moment. They’d saved me.
“Everything’s going to be all right now,” Daddy said, over and over in my ear. “You’re okay now.”
I hugged him, squeezing LJ’s hand. Truth be told, I didn’t know what would happen after this moment. I didn’t know where my dad and I would go from here, but I did know I needed him right then. I needed to be my daddy’s little girl for just a second, and it felt so good being in his arms again. I couldn’t let go of that feeling once I had it, I didn’t want to. It mended my soul.
And made me finally feel whole again.
Epilogue
LJ
I stared at my girlfriend from across the dance floor, smiling as I lounged against a high-top table. Her dad took her hand. But even donned in a fancy tuxedo, he couldn’t steal the show away from his daughter.
The shimmering black of Billie’s evening gown glistened across the dance floor as Mr. Coventry tugged his daughter over to him. The material flared off those full hips, hugged her perfect breasts, but the kicker was what she wore around her neck.
My Court ring sat right there between the swell of her breasts, reflecting in the light of the ballroom, and I think it really all hit me then. Not that I’d given it to her, a symbol of my past, but that she was with me. That I’d managed to keep her.
That’s what got me.
I released her for this dance with her father, the father-daughter dance. It’d been her dad’s idea to do this at his wedding tonight instead of the mother-son dance. He’d run it past Billie, of course, before he added it to the list of the reception dances, and Billie, she’d been more than willing to oblige.
My girl had been connecting so much with her dad lately, letting him in. She’d actually been a part of the wedding a bit when Mr. Coventry exchanged vows with his new spouse, Clarise, who also stood across the dance floor.
The woman in a cream-colored ballgown, she stared on, nothing but pride and smiles upon watching her new husband and stepdaughter. I wasn’t too much in the knowledge of how Billie was dealing with that, a woman half her dad’s age marrying her dad. Especially considering the circumstances in which the union had happened, but I did know my girlfriend was at peace with her dad’s decisions. Billie had even flown down early with me for the wedding, the reception and ceremony in a beach house off the shores of Miami. The whole thing had been lit, and Billie’d had the time of her life. She’d enjoyed herself and let herself be a part of all this.
Currently, she beamed up at her father, the two of them in their own conversation as they danced in front of everyone.
I couldn’t seem to steal her away from her dad these days back home in the Midwest. She spent a lot of time with him this summer. I think something about that day when her douche ex snatched her triggered something within her. Things weren’t so simple for her anymore, her priorities changing, and I think everyone saw it that day. She’d burst into tears upon seeing her dad, like she needed him.
I think she really had.
I set my drink down as I thought about that day. It’d been a day of ruin, and it’d taken me basically all goddamn summer not to be leaping for joy that her asswipe of an ex was behind bars and couldn’t darken my girl’s life anymore.
Yeah, he’d made it out of the crash and he must have had angels on his side. He’d suffered some pretty good trauma to the head, but he’d made it out okay. He’d been swiftly arrested after his recovery for kidnapping and attempted murder and if I never saw that guy again, it’d be too soon. Billie’s dad had taken care of that part, put Sinclair behind bars himself.
It was better that than what I’d do to him if he was out in the streets.
It took Billie to ease me back from relishing in her ex’s lock up, not to celebrate the fact but empathize. The guy’d seemed plagued with some heavy shit, and in the end, I accepted that was what his madness had been about. I was still grateful he wasn’t around to hurt Billie anymore, behind bars and unable to hurt anyone else, but I no longer celebrated what ended up happening to him.
I guessed I was at peace too.
A lot of that was going around these days, Billie and her dad. Billie and her mom. The dress Billie wore tonight ended up being made by her, something I guessed the woman used to do on the side before she’d gotten married to Billie’s dad. These days, Genevieve was taking it up again, and Billie said her mom was actually designing a gown now for a princess in Greece to wear at her wedding.
It seemed a lot of good things were happening for Billie and her family, and for Billie, I knew her therapy had been helping. After all that shit with Sinclair, she’d started seeing someone again. Even had a few sessions with her mom. I think that had been helping the both of them tremendously, and from what I gathered, Billie and her dad were considering some sessions as well after school started back up. What’s crazy was he’d been pushing for it. At least, that was what she told me.
It made me tremendously happy her family was coming together. I was proof it didn’t always work out that way, and though I wished I’d had my perfect family unit, I wouldn’t change what my mom, my sisters and I had. We were our own family unit, our own slice of chaos and love, and I couldn’t get enough.
It’d been all I could do to convince my mom to even let me finish school after I did break down and tell her what happened with the Marvellis. Not to mention, how fucking livid she’d been when I told her how I’d earned the cash I’d sent her and my sisters.
Yeah, I’d had to spill all that too. Mom told me I never had to do such things to help them, and though I let her think that, I’d do whatever I had to again. They were my family. They were my everything.
An extension of that out there on the dance floor now, I braced myself to move in and relieve Billie from her dad once the father-daughter song stopped. Her dad had his time, and now, it was mine.
My gaze cut away from the floor to the exit doors when they opened, and seeing who arrived, my smile rerouted for a second. The fucker actually made it, my buddy Jax.
Better late than never.
His ass had been invited to attend since he told me the wedding coincided with his arrival to the state. He was moving down here for school. Fresh off the plane actually. I told him he could get himself settled. I’d only be here for a weekend, but since he was coming down anyway, he’d said he wanted to catch me. Because he had, I’d made sure he got an invitation.
After all, I knew the daughter of the groom.
His gait heavy, Jax traveled across the room in a dark suit, his head full of hair, which was different for him. In high school, he used to buzz it, but no more. With some length, his brown hair feathered with a wave. In fact, if he grew that shit out the way mine had been in high school, I bet it’d be curly. Currently, he had his styled back a little, and catching me, he lifted a hand.
I returned, waving him to join me by my high-top. I wore a gray suit tonight, easy to find because I had started growing out my hair again. I wore it over my shoulders, slapping my buddy’s hand when he joined me at the high top.
“Took you long enough. Shit,” I jostled, bringing him into a hug. I slapped his back. “Your flight okay?”
I pegged him crazy for transferring from the Midwest for college his senior year, but from how it sounded, the whole thing had been his dad’s idea. The guy had been bugging him to hell, I guess, to reconnect with him, something he’d managed to convince him of now.
Upon sliding away, Jax pounded my fist, then snapped his fingers with me. “All good. And I’m fucking here. Ain’t that good enough?”
Bumping laughter, I smirked. I started to give him hell for missing the entire ceremony, but the music changed.
The dance floor opened up, the tempo changing. The father-daughter dance concluded, everyone else gathered on the floor. I looked for Billie in the shuffle, and catching her, I smiled.
She’d moved into another dance with her father, the pair shimmying, a
nd I laughed, making Jax smile in that direction.
“I see your girl’s out there,” he stated, having met her already. I’d brought Billie home a few times this summer, mostly to officially meet my mom and the rest of my sisters. She’d, of course, met my boys too, but her wearing my ring around her neck was a new development. Jax’s lips parted. “And she’s wearing your ring.”
Not surprised he noticed that, I waggled my eyebrows. Our buddy Royal had actually started the tradition. He’d given his fiance December his ring. She wore it around her neck, and Knight’s girlfriend, Greer, the same when he gave it to her last semester. It was just something I guess our little circle did.
Nodding, I tapped Jax’s arm. “Wanna get a drink? Looks like my girl’ll be a little bit.”
And that was completely fine with me, totally happy for her and this openness she was experiencing. I wanted nothing but the best for her and would give her anything she wanted if she’d only ask.
How I’d become this person I didn’t know, but I had to say, I liked this side of myself. It felt more free, more complete.
Jax and I got a couple beers at the open bar, and after, we stood at another high-top table. This was still well within view of the dance floor, well within view of my girl and that shimmering gown hugging her full ass. Upon basically seeing me drooling in her direction, my buddy nudged me.
He chuckled. “Never thought it’d happen to you.”
“What?”
“Being in love,” he jostled, his elbow in my side. “Hope that shit’s not catching. I really don’t have time for that lovey-dovey bullshit.”
“Well, I got news for you, bro. It’s not really a choice once it happens.” I clinked our bottles. “Just kinda does.”
He rolled his eyes, the first to lay into me when I’d first texted I had a girlfriend.
I’d gotten reamed in that entire group text, and a whole lot of “I told you sos” from Knight and Royal, the fuckers. Jax had given his fair bit of jostling too, and I couldn’t wait for the day he’d be eating his fucking words. That shit just happened, and once it did, good luck getting away from it.
