Fear Me (49 page)

“I’m letting you go,” he said and slammed out of the room.

* * *

I was left standing alone in the dusty classroom.
I’m letting you go.
The reality of his words didn’t hit me until I was left standing alone with the feeling of my heart breaking. Before Keiran I didn’t think a heart was capable of breaking so many times. After everything he’d done do I just let him leave? Before I could stop myself, I stormed out into the hallway.

“So that’s it then?” The hallway was full of people heading to their first class and when I yelled down the hallway at him, they all stopped to watch us.

He turned back to face me. “That’s all I’m willing to give you.”

“You torment me for ten years, fuck me silly for the past two months, and make me fall in love with you. Then, if that’s not enough, you almost get me killed because of your asshat dad, and you think you can just walk away because you think it’s the right thing to do?”

“I don’t give a fuck about what’s right. It’s safer this way.”

“Says who?”

“Says my brother who is lying in the hospital fighting for his life because of me!” he yelled. The hallway erupted with whispers and shocked sounds at his outburst. No one knew yet that Keenan and Keiran were actually brothers.

“So you’re going to walk away from him too?”

“If that’s what it takes. He’s still out there.”

“Because you chose to save your brother’s life!” He didn’t react. I was right and he knew it. I couldn’t see much of anything that night but I knew Mitch was close enough for Keiran to kill him easily. Instead he concentrated on putting down the men who shot Keenan and so Mitch was able to get away. “You love your brother, Keiran…and you love me, or else you wouldn’t care.”

He shook his head and turned away. My breathing escalated at the same time that my temper skyrocketed.
Fuck that.
I looked around and noticed Quentin holding a basketball and watching us with sad eyes. I walked up to him and snatched the ball away before he could stop me. The next second it was flying through the air and hit Keiran’s back. I was on him before he could turn around fully and pushed him with all the strength I could find, and even though I knew my strength didn’t match his, I was too pissed and emotionally wrecked to care. I was willing to make a fool of myself for him. I had been for the last couple of months.

“You don’t just get to walk away,” I cried while beating on his chest. “You don’t get to leave.” My tears blinded me and surprisingly with each push he moved a step back. “You can’t,” I whispered breathlessly. His head lowered until his lips were centered right above mine.

“I…don’t…want…you,” he ground out and then pushed me away from him. I lost my footing and fell to the ground. There were collective sounds of shock and laughter around us. I watched Keiran walk away and didn’t notice when someone had lifted me off the floor. I couldn’t see anything but the sight of Keiran walking away from me. The need to escape and hide came when he was no longer in sight. I willed my feet to carry me down the hall and out the double doors to safety where I could die in peace.

* * *

There was nowhere else I felt safe enough to cry any more than in my grandmother’s arm. I pulled into Whispering Pines, spitting gravel as I slammed to a stop. I don’t remember the drive here. I didn’t remember much after running from school. All I could feel was pain. The weather had become even colder since the last time I was here so the grounds were empty. I rushed through the lobby, not stopping to check in and made my way to her room. When I reached my grandmother’s room I could hear familiar voices drifting through the cracked door.

“Oh, mom. I just don’t know what to do or say.”
Aunt Carissa?
When did she get back? She wasn’t due back until Wednesday.

“Honey, there isn’t an easy way to handle this but she needs to hear it. That child has been lost all these years. She thinks she hates them. Tell her the truth.”

“Mom, how do I just tell her that her parents didn’t abandoned her? They didn’t just die. They were
murdered
.”

Someone once told me that pain didn’t last forever. I remember hearing it after finding out that my parents were missing. Over the years I found that to be complete bullshit. Pain was forever. It was love that didn’t last forever. I looked out the window while listening to the phone conversation.

“Lake, when are you coming home? We miss you and you know who is brooding again.” Willow said. It’d been a week since my fallout with Keiran. I never made it back home after overhearing my aunt’s conversation with my grandmother about my parents.

“Yeah, dude is seriously out of control this time,” Sheldon added, bringing me back to the present. “I caught him driving by your house yesterday.”

After he played me so brutally in front of the entire school, I did everything I could to forget him.

“And Dash says if you don’t come home soon he’s rounding up a search party.”

“Guys, Keiran must be worried about his brother.”

“Yeah, but even Coach is talking about benching him. It’s the first game of the season. The town is going to be pissed. Dash said there will be scouts out there and he could blow his chances if he doesn’t pull it together.”

“Am I supposed to feel sorry for him? I think he made it pretty clear that he didn’t want anything to do with me.”

“So you’re just going to let him go?” Willow asked.

“Are we really having this conversation right now?”

“It’s fine. You have to come home sometime.”

“No…I don’t. Look, I didn’t want to say anything too soon because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but I think I’m going to finish the rest of senior year up here.”

“What!” they both screeched.

“Lake, no.” Willow sounded as if she was on the verge of crying.

“What are you thinking?” Sheldon asked with hostility.

“I’m thinking I need to get control of my life. I think it will be really good for me if I get away from Six Forks for a while and I can’t miss school. Guys…I already put in the transfer papers.”

The line was silent for a moment before I heard Sheldon growl, “Fuck that” before hanging up.

“Lake, are you sure?”

“Yes, Willow. I’m sure. It’s easier this way,” I admitted. I guess she didn’t have much to say after that because she ended the call. I rested my head against the back of the couch and thought about where the past two months have led me.

“You know running away from your problems never solves anything. They only catch up to you later.” My godmother and my aunt’s best friend, Karen, had come into the living room to sit next to me after I hung up with Willow. “I’m sorry I eavesdropped but I couldn’t help but overhear. It sounds to me as if you have people who care about you back home. Are you sure you want to give that up?”

“I don’t think I’m giving it up Aunt Karen. I’m just giving it a break.”

After hearing the news about my parents, I woke up in a hospital for the third time in my life. Apparently I passed out cold from shock and dehydration. They called it a mental meltdown. My aunt didn’t say any more about what I’d heard and I didn’t ask. I wasn’t ready to know what happened.

After the doctor cleared me to go home I started having a panic attack all over again. All I kept thinking was how I couldn’t go back and so my aunt and I came to an agreement that I needed a vacation. We were able to finagle a doctor’s note excusing me from school for a few days. My aunt called up Karen who agreed to watch over me. It was only supposed to be for a few days but every time I thought about going home my anxiety rose.

Keiran had finally done what I think he was always trying to do. He ran me away from home and everyone I loved. He could have Six Forks and the school but he couldn’t have my sanity.

“Well if you ask me I think this boy deserves the kissing end of my nine up his ass.”

“Aunt Karen!”

“Hmmp! What ever happened to the days when a boy simply bought a girl flowers and if she was really special he’d buy her candy before sex too?”

“I think it died in the seventies,” I laughed.

“Shame.”

I’d told Aunt Karen all about Keiran and me the first night I was here. I felt guilty for confiding in her and not my aunt but it just all came out. I knew sooner or later I would have to tell her. It wasn’t fair for her to not know anymore. She took me in when I wouldn’t have had anybody. I owed her so much and I would start by giving her my honesty.

“Have you talked to Carissa yet?”

“No, not yet. I just need some time.”

“Time doesn’t wait for anyone Lake, remember that.”

We sat and talked for hours and before I knew it, night had fallen. Aunt Karen left to go make dinner and as I was watching TV the door opened and Uncle Ben, my godfather, walked in.

“Hey, Lake. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

I laughed. “No, Uncle Bennie. I’m not eight anymore but I do think it’s past yours.” He chuckled and ruffled my hair before rushing off to find his wife. When he entered the kitchen, I heard her giggle like a schoolgirl with a crush and the unmistakable sound of heavy kissing. I always thought they were the most romantic couple I’d ever known.

The three of them had been best friends since college. It had been love at first sight and they have been happily married since their senior year. Their only bad time was when Aunt Karen suffered two miscarriages before her body and the couple gave up on trying. It broke Aunt Karen’s heart that she couldn’t give him the children they always talked about but Uncle Ben said she was all he ever needed. It’s been five years since her last miscarriage and now they were talking about adopting.

I guess happily ever after was only meant for a few.

* * *

My vacation was drawn to a halt the next day, when I got a phone call from my aunt telling me there were detectives looking for me. I immediately panicked, thinking they somehow found out about my being kidnapped by Mitch and how much they might have told my aunt. I rushed back to Six Forks and drove straight to the station, reciting the story Keiran told me to give that night if anyone ever asked. I walked into the station with my nerves in my stomach and threatening to come up at any moment.

“Miss Monroe, so nice of you to pay us a visit,” a detective who I believe said his name was Daniels spoke to me. He looked and acted like the typical ass hat detective with thinning hair and a bushy mustache. He also tried too hard to be intimidating. If I weren’t already so nervous, I would have laughed.

“My aunt said you were looking for me?”

“Yes, you missed your scheduled interview.”
Shit, Trevor and Anya!
With Mitch returning from the dead I’d forgotten about their disappearance.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t told…”

“A phone call was placed to your aunt who notified us that you were out of town. Any particular reason why?”

“I’m transferring schools.”

“I see,” he wrote something down before looking back at me. “Tell me about your relationship with Trevor Reynolds and Anya Risdell.

“Nonexistent. We weren’t friends.”

“Why is that?” he asked with suspicion.

“Were you friends with every person you went to high school with?”

“No, but there must be a reason why one of them would allegedly attack you in a bathroom stall and receive a broken arm by Keiran Masters for the trouble.”

“It isn’t alleged because Trevor Reynolds did attack me. Instead of treating me like the criminal you should be searching for him harder. He needs to be put away.”

“We’ve called off the search.” I didn’t bother to hide my surprise as I stared back at him. “I can see this news surprises you.”

“Why did you call off the search?”

“Because there has been a new development in the case. Trevor Reynolds and Anya Risdell were both found this morning.”

“So why am I here?” I stood to leave, not really caring about the answer. I needed to get the hell out of there.

“Because they were both found burned alive in a field just outside of town. They’re dead Miss Monroe and I think you know who did it.”

Dead? He didn’t bring them back?

“Who didn’t bring them back, Miss Monroe?” the detective asked and I realized I must have said it out loud. I slowly sat back down when struggled with the realization of what I had to do. He didn’t just kill them. He tortured them. I could practically smell their burning flesh as guilt ate away at my mind. “Lake?”

I finally met the detective’s gaze when he called my name again. I knew what I had to do. “I have to tell you something.”

* * *

I left the station feeling numb. What I’d done felt like the ultimate betrayal but I also knew it was the right thing to do. I just never knew choosing right over wrong was so damn hard.

He killed them.

He killed so many.

He shouldn’t be allowed to walk away from that. Right?

I didn’t head straight back to my godparent’s place. Instead, I went home because truth be told I had been feeling homesick. I didn’t decide to leave because it was what I wanted. I felt it was necessary because there was no other way I could stay away from Keiran. I was as addicted to him as he was to me.

Is that why you turned him in?

I shook off my thoughts and pulled into my driveway. My aunt’s car was parked outside and I was eager to see her and maybe finally catch up. I never got the chance to ask about her tour or tell her about the break in. I shut off the car to get out but the sound of my ringing phone stopped me. I read the screen and saw Sheldon’s name so I quickly answered. Over the past couple of weeks, Sheldon had not been in the best shape.

“Hey, Sheldon.”

“Lake, oh God. He’s going to die!” she sobbed
brokenly into the phone.

“Sheldon, calm down. Who is going to die?”

“Keenan’s only working lung is failing. The doctors said it doesn’t look good for him and if he doesn’t get a lung soon, he will die.”

Finding an organ donor was like winning the lottery. It could take months and the match had to be near perfect and the perfect candidates were usually the parents.