When We Collide (26 page)

I couldn’t remember another time in my life when I’d
felt more anxious—more excited—than I did now. This would be the
last time I’d ever sneak from this house. Tonight marked a new
chapter in my life, one in which Maggie was no longer something of
the night, a secret without shame, although it felt as if our
relationship had somehow been soiled by the way we’d kept it
concealed.

In less than eight hours, we’d be on the road,
fleeing Maggie’s past and running toward our future. We’d never
even shared a meal, but I knew Maggie better than anyone I’d ever
known, and she’d dug in deep and exposed the real man I was. She
made me better. Made me happy.

I smiled at the all-encompassing feeling that danced
in my stomach and spread out over every inch of my being as I ran
through my neighborhood and darted across the road. Maggie’d been
the only one who’d ever come close to creating it, but I’d
understood it the moment I experienced it.

The playground was deserted. A hazy yellow glow
illuminated the area from the solitary parking lamp. I ran through
the playground and hit the trail. I couldn’t wait to wrap my arms
around my girl, couldn’t wait to see the excitement on her
face.

I almost laughed because none of it made sense. When
I’d left to come home for the summer, I never could have imagined
what would take place in three short months. I never could have
imagined my life would be turned upside-down, that I’d fall
head-first. Trip. Love a girl more than I’d ever thought
possible.

I was going to marry Maggie.

My feet quickened at the thought. It didn’t matter
we had no plans and had no place to stay because I sure as hell
couldn’t take her back to stay with the letches I called roommates.
All that mattered was I wanted this, wanted her, forever.

Rushing over the trail, I pushed branches out of the
way as I hurried to our spot faster than I ever had. In my haste, I
almost fell when she first came into view. My feet faltered as they
slid to a stop over the dewy ground. A tight band constricted my
chest, throbbed as pain where my heart accelerated and beat against
my ribs.

“Maggie,” I whispered. I slowly approached, the
sickest feeling slipping through my veins.

She stood in the middle of the small clearing,
facing away, but I knew. She was hiding.

“Maggie, baby, what happened?” Shaking, I reached a
tentative hand out to touch her shoulder.

She flinched away.

Taking a breath, I slipped my hand under her hair to
the back of her neck in a touch of encouragement. “Mag—”

The word died on my tongue when she finally turned
to look up at me. Her expression was like a punch to the gut,
enough to knock the wind from my lungs in an audible gush of
air.

“Maggie.”

I instantly took her face in my urgent hands, my
touch desperate to break her from wherever she had gone. In
everything we’d been through, I’d never once seen her look this
way. Her face was flat, expressionless and pale, though her eyes
were crimson red as if she’d spent days crying. Behind the red, in
the depths of the warm brown where I’d lost myself time and time
again, there was
nothing
. My Maggie was gone.

“Maggie.” I tightened my hold and gently shook her.
Please come back to me.

A flicker of something lashed in her eyes.

“Maggie.” Softly I pressed my mouth to hers and held
her face, coaxing her back. “Maggie, I’m here. I’m here.”

She began to cry.

“Baby…don’t cry…don’t cry…ssh.” Pulling back, I
wiped her tears with my thumbs, my smile soft and my murmurs
tender. “It’s okay, sweetheart, it’s okay. Tell me what
happened.”

She cried harder. I tasted her tears when she
suddenly pulled me down by the neck to kiss me. Her fingers dug
into my skin as if clinging to a life slipping away. Terror hit me
when I realized it was not going to be
okay
. It sunk in that
she had none of her things, and I knew then what she had come here
to say.

“Oh, God, Maggie, don’t do this.” I wasn’t going to
allow this to happen. I tried to wrap her up in my arms to give her
reassurance, maybe to give it to myself, but she pushed me
away.

“Just go, William,” she begged beneath her breath.
She was back to hugging herself, weeping toward the forest
floor.

“No, Maggie. I’m not going anywhere without you.
Tell me what the hell happened between now and last night.” I
stepped toward her and she shook her head and took a step back.

“Nothing happened.” She fumbled over what I knew was
a lie, squeezing herself to force it from her mouth. “I…my mom…my
sister, they need me here.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it.” Hurt sparked a
flash of anger somewhere deep inside of me. I inched closer,
struggling to control it, to hold it in and to understand. “
Tell
me what happened
.” It came out an accusation.

She just hung her head further. “I’m not going with
you, William. You deserve so much better than me. You’ll figure
that out later. You’re better off without me.”

I knew the only person she was trying to convince
was herself.

“You’re wrong. You’re all I want.”

“I’m sorry,” was all she said.

“No, Maggie, please. Don’t do this.”

She backed away. Desperate, I locked her in my arms.
She screamed as if she’d been hit. “Let me go,” she cried, curling
in on herself.

Rejection stuttered my heart and sent me reeling
back.

Six feet away, she heaved through the sobs wracking
her body.

All I wanted to do was comfort her, make her see
whatever had happened didn’t matter, didn’t change how I felt about
her. We could make it through this. But every time I tried to take
a step, Maggie cried louder. I clenched my fists as I forced my
feet to stay in place.

“I love you, Maggie.” My arm flailed out toward her,
helpless. “You’re supposed to be leaving with me tomorrow
morning…you said you’d
marry
me,” I said, touching my chest,
“and you expect me to just
go
?”

“Yes,” she whispered to her feet.

“No.” I raised my head higher and tightened my jaw.
“I’m not leaving here without you. You love me, Maggie. Don’t deny
it.”

She shook her head, the auburn waves a cascading
barrier obstructing her face. “I don’t belong with you, William. I
belong here. With my sister. With my mom.” She sucked in a
stuttering breath. “With Troy.”

“No,” I released on an anguished exhale, my body
slumping forward as her declaration ripped through my
consciousness. “Please, Maggie.” I inched forward. “I won’t let you
do this.”

Maggie took another step back, finally lifting her
head to look at me. Tears soaked her face. “Please...just...go.”
She hugged herself tighter, the words strangled in her throat. “I
don’t want you anymore.”

I flinched and stood up straight. I swallowed down
the heartbreak, and the anger flared.

“Fine.” I brushed past her, hating the way her skin
felt against my shoulder when I did, the way it lit as need and
amplified the loss. The loss only increased with every step I
took.

“William, wait,” Maggie cried out from behind.

I stopped and tried to gather myself before slowly
turning back to face her. She stood with her arms crossed over her
heaving chest, tears streaming down her face.

The anger tempered, though it was still prominent in
the heartbreak that poured from my mouth. “Are you coming or
not?”

A fractured sob broke into the night and Maggie
shook her head.

Stunned, I turned from the girl I should never have
given myself to and let the burning anger bind up my heart as I
forced myself away.

Maggie wept from behind me, torment pelting my back
as she cried my name again and again.

I tried not to hear, to block out the only voice
that had ever accelerated my heartbeat, vowing to never allow
myself to be so
stupid
again. Blake had warned me and I
hadn’t listened. Maggie Krieger was every kind of messed up, and
she’d just torn out my fucking heart.

I rammed my fists into my eyes, refusing to give
into the emotion welling in them.
Fuck
. I was
not
going to cry over this girl.

A voice screamed in my ear that it wasn’t her
fault…she was just scared…she’d been hurt...something happened. I
stumbled, clutching my head in my hands, before I swung around and
punched the side window of an old car parked along the street.
Glass shattered and I cried out in pain, barely loud enough to
drown out the voice inside my head begging me to go back.

Blood ran from the gashes splaying the skin on the
back of my hand and dripped onto the ground as I ran down the
sidewalk and around the house. I burst through the back door. My
heart slammed an erratic beat, my world capsized. Latching onto the
fury, I grabbed a glass from the counter and threw it against the
kitchen wall. As it smashed and splintered in a thousand pieces on
the floor, I roared to break the unbearable still of the house. The
pain ebbed as the fury roiled.

Pounding up the stairs, I tore the door open to my
room, ignoring the fucking ridiculous ideas I’d had earlier of
knocking quietly at my mother’s door, of pulling her out into the
hall and telling her I’d fallen in love with Maggie and we were
running away.

A bitter laugh bounced off the walls of my room.

Stupid, naïve fool
. Did I really think I
could have her? That I could whisk her away and make everything
better, change her life, love her and she’d love me back?

In the light from the hall, I stuffed the rest of my
things into the duffle bag, cursing beneath my breath.

The light flicked on overhead.

“What is going on in here?” My mother’s scratchy
voice cracked in panic.

I continued to shove the few things I had left to
pack into the bag. My tone was vicious, the words bleeding out in
rush of hatred. “I’m done with this fucking hick town. I’m getting
the hell out of here.”

“William...” She took two steps before she gasped.
“William! Oh my goodness, what happened to your hand?” She was at
my side, trying to tug my arm to her. Blood splattered across the
bed and onto the carpet.

I yanked it back.

“Nothing.” I zipped the bag closed, slung it over my
shoulder, and pushed past my mom, the bag knocking into her side
when I did.

She reached out with a desperate cry, “William,
please, you’re scaring me. Tell me what happened.”

Guilt hit me hard before Maggie’s face flashed, my
words,
tell me what happened
.

I almost sneered. “I just learned exactly why I
wanted to get out of here in the first place.”

I hit the hall, my feet thundering on the wooden
floor. Disoriented, Blake stood in his doorway, blinking as he
tried to make sense of what was happening. Grace was in his bed,
gripping the blanket to her chest as if she were trying to hide
herself.

I felt sick with envy and hurt, my broken heart
blotting out what these people meant to me. I plunged forward and
ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time.

“Will...what the fuck, man? Wait!”

I had my car in reverse before Blake had time to
make it out the back door. I gunned the engine, tires spinning and
kicking up gravel as I tore out of the driveway.

“William,” I barely heard Blake shout, my brother’s
face contorting in pain as he tried to chase me down the graveled
drive in bare feet. My mom just stared in wide-eyed shock in the
halo of my headlights.

Jerking the gear into drive, I floored the
accelerator. Sickness clawed its way up as I sped up the street,
turned left, and flew down Main.

I fought recognizing the look on my mother’s
face—tried to ignore what I’d done to the people I loved. I refused
to acknowledge the shattered expression on Maggie’s face when she’d
said the words that had shattered my heart.

Five minutes later, the town I had grown up in
disappeared behind me.

I swore I was never going back.

William ~ Present Day

That afternoon, I dialed my phone, pacing the floor
as I roughed a hand incessantly through my hair.

God, what was I doing?

“This is Bergstrom.”

“Tom.” I cleared my throat. “It’s William Marsch.” I
struggled to keep my voice steady, to slip back into the persona
I’d projected for the last six years.

“Will?” On the other end of the receiver, papers
rustled and a door clicked shut. Tom’s voice dropped to just above
a whisper. “What the hell happened to you? Kristina is smearing
your ass all over the place around here. She said she fired
you.”

Of course she’d spread some bullshit like that. It
was no surprise her pride wouldn’t allow her to admit it I was the
one who’d left her. I didn’t care to correct it. Let Tom believe
whatever Kristina needed him to.

He was one of the few people I had considered a
friend in Los Angeles. We’d worked side-by-side, doing the bidding
of Kristina and her father. For the most part, he was a good guy,
but he was a shrewd attorney who could find a loophole in about any
situation, and he wasn’t afraid to cut a few corners to get a job
done. Exactly the type of guy I needed.

Jonathan’s face flashed in my mind and the façade
broke. “Listen, I need your help.”

I sensed the shift in the air as Tom was hit with
the realization I wasn’t calling to chit-chat or get the news about
things happening in L.A. that I cared nothing about. “You in
trouble?”

“Yeah.” I ran my hand through my hair again, paced
the other direction on the hardwood floor. I didn’t know where to
start or what to say.

“Come on, Will, you’re making me nervous here.”

Nervous.
I laughed humorlessly. Tom had no
idea the severity of what was happening, how I felt my life ripping
apart and my sanity slipping.