by Naomi Niles
“Can’t.”
“Two seconds, bro.”
Were they all conspiring to keep me from Taylor? It certainly seemed that way. “What?”
“My parents might go out of town this weekend. Party at my house.”
“We’ll see.”
The weekend was days away and frankly, I didn’t want to be around underage drunk people. That was a recipe for disaster.
“Come on, Dylan.”
“I’ll talk to you later. I have to get somewhere.”
I jogged over to the football field. A few cheerleaders were there, but not Taylor. I approached Bailey.
“Where’s Taylor?”
Bailey gave me a dumb look. “No idea.”
“She runs your practices. Didn’t you notice she wasn’t here?”
“She was here a minute ago.”
“What the fuck, Bailey. Tell me where she is.”
Bailey eyed me as if she was not sure if I was serious. I wanted to shake her, but you didn’t do that to a girl. If she’d been a guy, I’d have had her in a headlock by now.
“Tell me.”
Bailey licked her lips. I’m sure she thought it was sexy and coy, but it was neither. My heart was racing. Taylor should have stayed away from Greg, but she couldn’t think that badly of anyone. In this instance it would be her downfall.
Ignoring Bailey’s non-response, I raced to the locker room. Girls or boys? I had no idea which one. It had to be the boys’ one, except one of the football players was standing outside. I had no reason to be in there. I wasn’t an athlete.
I didn’t care. The man only had an inch on me and maybe twenty pounds now that I’d gained weight. This was Taylor. I had to do this. I tried to brush past him.
He put a beefy hand on my chest. “Where are you going?”
“In there.”
He smiled down at me. “Nope.”
Before he could do anything else, I punched him in the gut and put my knee into his face. He dropped. I strode into the locker room. I had another layer to break through. These guys were organized. Shit. I just ran past him to where the locker room had three rows of lockers.
“Go away, Greg. Why did you bring me in here?” Taylor said.
I heard the fear in her voice. I had to get to her.
“Why do you think I brought you here, Taylor? Barbie is my best friend and you pissed her off. This is payback,” Greg said.
“Okay. You got me back. Let me go, Greg.”
I found them in the supply closet. There were no coaches around. Where were the adults when you needed them?
Taylor looked scared. She looked from me to Greg, then back again.
“Let her go, Greg. It’s over.”
I’d come in here without backup. I hadn’t told anyone there was a problem. I should have asked for help, but that wasn’t in my tool box. Up until Mr. Dean invited me into his house, I had been a loner.
And now, I was going to get us hurt because I didn’t think to ask for help. Damn.
“It isn’t over,” Greg said.
He had Taylor up against the wall, and he’d taped her hands together with athletic tape. He’d thought this out. All for Bailey? It didn’t make sense.
“Yes, it is. The coaches will be here any minute.”
“No, they won’t. So run along and let me do what I want to Taylor,” Greg said.
“No.”
I launched myself at him. He let go of Taylor.
“Run, Taylor.”
She paused, but then ran out of the locker room. I had Greg on the ground, but he outweighed me – and he had a few accomplices. Hopefully, Taylor would send help. Greg managed to get to his knees and slammed me into a locker.
The breath had been knocked out of me, but I didn’t let go of his shirt. He had bulk. I had street. I would fight dirty if I had to, I didn’t care. He was going to hurt Taylor, and I could never forgive him.
I punched him twice in the face. He recovered and jumped to his feet. His fist came at me, but I ducked, and he punched the locker as I gasped to get breath into my lungs.
“You’re a loser. Taylor doesn’t want you,” he said.
I wasn’t going to comment. I wanted to take him out. I realized I should have left when he was on his knees. Damn. Tactical error, but I wasn’t one to run. I wanted Greg to hurt.
He’d scared Taylor. He’d wanted to do awful things to her. I wanted to take him down.
And, I would have if one of his friends hadn’t shown up. I was good. I was dirty, but I didn’t think I could take on two people. Taylor needed to bring me help. Would she think of it?
I didn’t know. Her charmed life coming back to bite me in the butt.
Greg laughed. “Two against one. I like those odds.”
Shit.
I couldn’t even run because they were both between me and the door. To my back was a coach’s office. I didn’t know if it was unlocked or even if there was a way out. I’d gotten myself into jams like this, but that was on the street, not in a locker room with only one way out.
Damn. I had rushed in without thinking this through. At least neither of them had a weapon. I didn’t, either. I hadn’t carried one since I had moved in with the Deans. With a weapon, I could have evened the odds.
Guess not.
I swallowed, my hands up and ready to defend myself. Greg feinted left. I didn’t fall for it and took him out at the legs. He groaned. I thought I heard a snap. I hoped so. The kid was a bastard.
When his friend lunged at me, I sidestepped and gave him an elbow to the back. He landed flat on his face.
Once again, I should have left. I should have run, but that wasn’t what I’d ever done. I did kick the guy on the floor.
Greg was back up. Like a horror movie monster, he wouldn’t stay down.
The door to the locker room opened. “What’s going on here?”
Thinking the cavalry had arrived, I turned my attention from my attackers. I never should have. Before the person could come around to where we were, Greg punched the side of my head.
The world slowed down. He had managed to knock me off my feet, and I fell sideways in what seemed liked slow motion. I put my left hand out to stop myself, but there wasn’t anything there.
Hitting the ground was the last thing I remembered.
Chapter Fifteen
Taylor
I paced in the waiting room. Cole had driven me, but he went to get me soup or something. I didn’t really want anything. My parents had shown up a few minutes ago. My father had hugged me, but my mother wanted to argue.
“What were you doing in a locker room?” she said. “The boy’s locker room?”
I hated living in a small town – news travelled fast. I put my hand up to stop her words. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
My wrists still hurt from where Greg had tied them. My mother didn’t ask about them or how Dylan was doing. All about appearances. Had I been this shallow, too? Damn. I had to think about that. Was that why I wasn’t willing to get any closer to Dylan? Because of how it would appear?
What a crock. He was a good guy.
“Pumpkin, come sit with me.”
Two police officers appeared in the doorway of the waiting room. “Taylor Dean?”
“That’s me.”
“Cops? Really.” Mom turned to my father. “That boy is done if our daughter has to talk to the cops because of him.”
“That isn’t the case, Mother,” I said.
Dylan had saved me. He’d known how much of a threat that Greg was and had faced the odds to save me. I wouldn’t let my mother talk badly about him.
“I’m Officer Redmond and this is Officer Clarke. We need to speak to you about the incident earlier today.”
He glanced at my parents. My mother was dabbing her eyes. I rolled mine. “They can stay. I’m eighteen, but they are my parents.”
The cops sat and indicated the chair across from them. I sat next to my dad, who put a hand on my shoulder.
“We need to know what happened.”
I took a deep breath. Too much was going to get revealed, but I was tired of lying. “Greg lured me into the locker room. He said he had something to show me.”
“This is Mr. Grand?”
“Yes, Greg Grand.”
“Okay. What happened next?”
The officer had kind eyes, so it wasn’t hard talking to him. “He taped my hands together. He made some threats.”
“We need you to be specific.”
I gulped. I hadn’t really been thinking about what he’d said. I’d been concentrating on Dylan. Now that I had to say the words out loud, I suddenly realized what I had escaped. Or what Dylan had saved me from.
“Uh, he said he was going to have sex with me.”
“Would you have consented?”
“No, sir. I didn’t want to have sex with Greg.”
The officer looked down at his notepad then at me. “I have to ask this, I’m sorry. Have you ever had sex with Greg Grand?”
“No. I haven’t.” My mother let out a noisy breath. My father squeezed my shoulder.
“Did you know him?”
“I’d been on a date with him this past weekend. It didn’t go well, and I told him that I didn’t want to see him again.”
“Verbally?”
“And in text messages.”
Officer Clarke nodded. “We’ll need a screen shot emailed to us. We might have to take your phone in as evidence, so don’t delete the text stream.”
Dylan had told me to keep it. He was so much smarter about these things than I was. “I won’t.”
“What happened next?”
“Greg had me up against the wall when Dylan came in.”
“Dylan Cabot?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go ahead,” prompted Officer Redmond when I didn’t pick up the story right away.
I swallowed, then began again. I could see my mother staring at me in disbelief. “Dylan tackled Greg and told me to run. I ran out of the locker room and found a teacher. We went back in. When I saw Dylan, he was on the ground, unconscious.”
“So, you didn’t see who hit him?”
“No, but no one else was in the locker as far as I could tell. I was herded out after that.”
“Is there anything you want to add?”
“No, sir.”
Officer Redmond closed his notebook. “Okay.” He sifted a card out of his pocket. “Send me that text stream and if there is anything you can think of, please let me know.”
“Okay, sir.”
The officers left, leaving a vacuum in the room. I looked at my father who had a grim frown on his face.
“Are you sure you weren’t misunderstanding Greg?” my mother said.
“Mallory, for God’s sake. He taped her wrists together. Greg is the bad guy in all of this. Not Dylan,” my father said.
My mother pressed her lips together. Why was she this judgmental? Even given the facts, she still thought Dylan was bad news.
“I still think we wouldn’t be in this spot if it weren’t for Dylan.”
“Mallory, be quiet. You just don’t want to see the good in him.”
I sighed. My father was right. “If Dylan hadn’t intervened, I don’t know what would have happened.”
“Why did you go into that locker room?” my mother asked.
“It’s my fault?” I shouted.
My father gave me a hug. “It’s okay, kitten. Everything’s fine.”
A nurse came into the waiting room. “Are you the Deans?”
“Yes.”
“Since Dylan is eighteen, he is considered an adult, but he has given permission for you to be told about his medical condition.”
I took my father’s hand as the nurse sat down.
“He’s had a slight concussion and will probably have a headache for a few days. He needs rest and to stay calm. You’ll take him home with you?”
“Of course,” my father said and I couldn’t love the man any more than I did at that moment.
He wasn’t going to throw Dylan out onto the street.
“Can I see him?”
“He’s getting his discharge orders. He’ll be out in a few minutes.”
I nodded and my father stood. “Let me make sure we get sent the bill.”
Okay. I could love the man more.
***
Dylan hobbled in before my mother could say anything. I went to hug him, but stopped, not knowing what hurt on him.
“Did you break anything?” I said.
“No. I just have a killer headache,” he said. “Is your dad here?”
“He’s off paying the bill,” my mother said. I could hear the bitterness in her voice. I wanted to scream.
Dylan was hurt and he’d saved me from an assault, and she still couldn’t see the good in him. Dylan grimaced. He’s heard the negative tones in her voice also. I sighed.
“As soon as he’s done, we’ll go home.”
My mother held out her hand. “Can I read your discharge orders? What will I be doing for the next few days?”
“You don’t need to take care of me, Mrs. Dean.”
Her face softened. “Yes, I do, Dylan. Thank you for helping my daughter.”
That probably almost killed her. I gave her a big smile, but she didn’t return it. Dylan handed her the paper he had in his hand. She read it while he stared at her, looking hopeful. Maybe she was softening, but I wasn’t so easily convinced.
My father returned. “We’re all set. Let’s get this boy home.”
Dylan rose carefully. I wanted to help him, but I had no idea how. “Can I see his discharge papers?” I looked at him. “Is that okay?”
“Sure.”
My mother handed them to me. “He has to rest. I think we should set him up in the basement so he had movies or television to watch.”
“You don’t have to go to any trouble, Mrs. Dean. I can stay in my room.”
“No, Dylan. It’s fine.”
My mother could buck up when necessary. Dylan nodded. My father smiled and kissed my mother on the cheek. “It’s a good thing you’re doing, Mallory.”
“I wish my heart was as big as yours some days, Rob.”
I guess my heart was bigger than my mother’s.
When we arrived home, I went downstairs with Dylan. I brought my homework to do. “I talked to the cops before you were released,” I said.
“I did, too.”
My phone dinged. “That’s Helena. They charged Greg with assault, but his parents’ lawyer got him out on bail.”
“Of course.”
“His dad is a lawyer, so he knows other lawyers.”
“Right.”
Dylan had his head on the back of the couch. His shoeless feet were resting on the coffee table. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“I’m okay, Taylor.”
“Is it just your head that hurts?”
“No. My whole body hurts. Greg did slam me against the locker once. It’s not like on television. I didn’t walk away from the fight unscathed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
I looked down at the pencil in my hand. “If I would have believed you that he was dangerous, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“It was going to happen at some point. He’s pissed at you, and Bailey used him to get back at you. Does anyone know that part of this?”
“No, I was able to keep that out of my story.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re safe.”
“I am. Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there.” I shuddered. “You’re a hero.”
“I’m not a hero, Taylor. Please don’t call me that.”
“You’re my hero, for sure.”
He shook his head then grimaced.
“You want me to leave you alone?”
“No, Taylor. Stay. Just, maybe, talk a little less.”
“I’ll get you a soda, t
hen I’ll be quiet.”
I retrieved two sodas from the small refrigerator. I handed one to Dylan. “Thanks.”
I nodded and went back to my homework. He sat there, not watching television. “You can turn on the TV. It won’t bother me.”
“I’m not sure I want to watch television, but thanks.”
I did my history homework, then looked up at him. His breathing was regular. He must have fallen asleep. He had the soda resting on his flat stomach. Should I put it on the table so he didn’t drop it?
I rose and tried to edge the can out of his hand. He startled awake, his eyes flying open.
“I’m sorry. I was just putting your can on the table so it wouldn’t spill.”
We were close. His eyes looked darker than usual, like molten chocolate ready to be poured onto a cake. Now, I was hungry.
“It’s okay.”
He didn’t move. He just stared at me. My mouth went dry. He was really cute. Even injured, he had a certain appeal.
I stepped away, afraid for what might happen. I could see the disappointment in his eyes. He put the can on the table. “Now, I won’t spill it.”
“No, you won’t.” I went back to my homework, but I found him staring at me. “What?”
“You stick your tongue out slightly when you’re concentrating,” he said.
I laughed a little embarrassed. “I thought I stopped doing that ages ago.”
“No, you didn’t. It’s cute.”
Cute? I was cute? I blinked, not sure how to react. I didn’t want to sound like a complete doofus to the guy who had saved me. The guy who was looking cuter and cuter.
“Why a snake tattoo?”
“I thought it was cool.”
“Will you get it filled in?”
“No, I like it this way.”
“How far up your arm does it go?”
“To my shoulder,” he said.
“How long did it take?”
“I don’t remember. It was over a couple of days. You want to see it?”
My mouthy went dry. “Uh, sure.”
He took off his shirt then turned to show me his side. His abs were flat, but he had some muscle to him.
“Cool.”
My fingers itched to touch it, but I thought that was asking too much. Too personal. I suddenly needed to put some distance between us. “I wonder if my mother is making dinner soon.”
“I don’t smell anything yet.”