“They think you’re beautiful.”
“Ugh. Stop.”
“It’s true, Nat.” He pulled me closer for a kiss. “You’re beautiful all the time, of course. But right now? Drop dead fucking gorgeous.”
I rolled my eyes at him. He grinned and kissed me again.
There may have been a few drinks in between there, too. Not that perfect Natalie Harlow would agree to a little shot of the vodka her stepbrother had smuggled in in a water bottle.
No, definitely not.
It was approaching midnight again, and the party had begun to draw down. By now, Cal was covered in sweat. My Converse had been kicked off and were sitting in a chair at the other end of the gym, ready to be stolen by one of the many drunks around us. Jess had been flitting from boy to boy, seeking out her next victim for the night.
She had invited me once or twice, but the idea of being with anyone but Cal just made me laugh.
I was his, I realized.
I was always his.
“Are you ready to go, sweetheart?” he asked, kissing my forehead. I was swaying in his arms, my cheek pressed against his warm chest, basking in his scent as he led me across the floor. A slow song. One of the last of the night.
“Mm hmm,” I mumbled. The thrill of sneaking out, wild dancing with the man I was desperately in love with, and booze that I most definitely did not accept from said man had finally gotten to me. Cal’s fingers laced their way into my hair again.
“Alright, come on. I’ll carry you.”
“Don’t,” I mumbled into his chest. “People will see.”
“Good. I want them to know who’s protecting you.”
Gently, he lifted me up, carrying me in his arms like a princess. We stopped by the door to grab my shoes and give a goodbye to Jess, who was as definitely not drunk as I was.
“Nat—” she slurred.
“Do you have a ride?” Cal asked, frowning at her. Jess was a sloppy drunk, and she wasn’t good at hiding it.
“Chill,” she said with an over dramatic eye roll. “This one is driving me home.” She jabbed a thumb at a junior girl who was watching her with a distinct air of hero worship. “But I’ve got to—gotta tell you—crap, what was it?”
“Nate,” said the junior softly.
Ugh.
“Oh yeah. Your psycho ex saw you.”
“And where is he?” asked Cal tightly.
“Gone. He left.”
The tension in Cal’s shoulders relaxed. Well, that was … odd. Things were finally working out for Cal and Nat.
“Are you sure?” Cal said.
“Yeah. We watched him drive away. Looked pretty disgusted,” Jess said, shaking her head. “Stomped around a lot, made a phone call, left. I guess he figured out he lost. Had to call a ride to get his sorry ass out of here.”
“Lost?” I asked.
“Yeah. Lost you. To tall, dark, and murderous over here.” Jess slapped him lightly on the bicep. “Have you seen the way you dance?”
“That doesn’t mean we’re in a relationship.”
“Yeah, but those do,” she said, pointing at the exposed flesh of Cal’s arm under his tight t-shirt. Scratches. Even more were apparent through the stretched-thin cloth over his back. I had really done a number on him last night. “Not hard to figure out you fucked each other’s brains out.”
The junior girl looked scandalized.
Cal just smiled.
“Thank you, Jessica. Come on sweetheart.”
“We didn’t—” I stammered.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Jess said, rolling her eyes again. “You’re perfect and chaste and pure as driven snow because that’s what good girl Natalie Harlow is supposed to be like.” She burped. “Now go home and fuck each other again. You’re so much more chill now that you’re getting laid.”
I buried my red face in Cal’s chest as he laughed.
I leaned on Cal as he walked me out to the parking lot. Memories of last night and this night melded together. Cal telling me he loved me. Cal making love to me. Dancing. Fucking. Drinking. Watching others stare at us and realizing I didn’t care, that I wanted to be seen with him. Realizing that this night was the happiest I had been in a long time.
It was perfect.
Or so I thought until we got to the parking lot.
“There he is!”
The blinding light of a flashlight hit my eyes. My stomach turned, and I had to suppress my gag reflex as my tipsy self was sent stumbling backwards. Cal’s grip on my tightened, keeping me upright. I could sense the tension in his body.
Something was wrong.
“Oh God, Natalie!”
Mom’s voice. My bleary eyes blinked themselves open.
A crowd of people was gathering at the front of the school. Mom was in front, and next to her was … oh shit. James. Looking furious. And my old friend, Officer Furst. A crowd of onlookers surrounded them. Another wave of nausea hit me as I realized the cars next to them were from the county police department.
My woozy brain went into panic mode. This could not be good. Cal’s hand tightened on me—he knew it too.
“How did they know?” Cal said under his breath.
“Nate,” I realized, drunk me having a fleeting moment of clarity. “Jess said he called someone. I knew he wasn’t just going to give up. He must have known you weren’t supposed to be here—must have known you were sent away … must have called … oh God.”
“You mean he called your mother?”
“And … and the cops,” I said with a sickening realization. Behind Mom wasn’t just her car. There were also a group of cops. And one of them had the flashing red and blue lights of a siren on, reflecting in the puddles over the pavement.
“We haven’t done anything illegal.”
“Besides supplying alcohol to a minor?”
His jaw locked. “We’ll get through this, Nat.”
“Natalie, God, are you okay?” Mom was running to me now, her hand clutched over her chest and her purse swinging wildly as she jogged. The crowd followed her. Furst had a death glare fixed on Cal. Cops surrounded him.
No, no, no.
This wasn’t happening.
“I’m fine, Mom,” I said in a small voice.
She hit me with almost enough force to send me stumbling backwards, her outstretched arms wrapping around me as she started sobbing. Cal’s arm instinctively reached forward to steady me, but Mom’s furious voice shrieked at him.
“Don’t touch my daughter!”
Cal pulled his arm back. His gaze stayed fixed on me, but it wasn’t long before his own arm was jerked back by James.
“Cal!”
I reached for him. Mom forced me to stay put.
“Oh God, honey, did he hurt you?”
“Mom, I’m fine. Cal—”
I was desperate to reach him. I could already see the cops surrounding him, and I knew what would happen next. James was stalking forward too, and I couldn’t let him hurt Cal. I knew how bad this looked. I knew there was nothing I could do to save him. But, God, I had to try, didn’t I?
“I knew it, I knew I shouldn’t have brought that boy into the house,” she sobbed. “He kidnapped you, didn’t he?”
“Mom, no! He didn’t hurt me.” I turned to the police that were surrounding him. “Please, I chose to go with him. I wasn’t kidnapped if I chose to go. You can’t—”
“Doesn’t matter,” said one of the cops. “You’re a minor. Gatlin is eighteen. You were taken from your home without your guardian’s permission. Legally in this state? Kidnapping.”
“No.”
“We’re taking you home,” she said flatly.
“Mom!” I tried to fight against her, but a few of the cops turned to me. I knew I was acting out of character. I knew I was slurring my words. And I knew my head was getting dizzier. I froze as soon as it dawned on me that the police could see that too.
If they were arresting Cal for helping me sneak out, there was no telling what the
y’d do to him for plying the kidnapped minor with vodka. I couldn’t keep drawing attention to myself. Not if it meant hurting Cal even more than I already had.
I stopped fighting. Mom grabbed my arm again and began leading me away. I glanced back at the crowd of police.
“Evening, Gatlin,” Furst said, his voice weary. His arms were crossed, his expression grim. “Knew I’d be seeing you again.”
Cal grimaced.
For what was probably the billionth time in his life, Cal had a pair of handcuffs slapped on his wrists. I tripped over my own feet as Mom led be away, desperately trying to stay with Cal was long as possible. He tried to glance over his shoulder at me, but one cop forced his head forward.
For a moment, I saw Cal clench his fists and the muscles in his arms tighten.
“Don’t,” I said.
His shoulders drooped.
“Come on, Natalie,” Mom said, dragging me out by the cloth of my dress. “God, honey, what did he do to you?”
“Nothing, Mom.” I tried to look back to Cal, to see where they were taking him. I only captured a glimpse of his head being pushed into a police car before Mom forced me forward.
Once again, they had taken Cal from me.
Once again, he was gone.
Mom can keep me locked up in my room. She can take my phone, she can take my laptop, she can order me to keep my bedroom door open at all times. She can order me to check up with her in the morning, at lunch, at dinner, and when I go to sleep. Honestly? I don’t blame her. I’ve already proven that I’m a sneak when I want to be, that I can escape out my window to run off with my possibly criminal stepbrother.
What she can’t stop me from doing is thinking about him.
God, Cal.
I hope you’re okay.
My footsteps dragged along the floor as I got ready for school the next Monday. I ignored Mom where she sat at the kitchen table, watching me through slitted eyes and a frown. She still hadn’t told me what had happened to Cal. And he hadn’t invaded my front bushes and scaled my wall to whisk me away on his motorcycle again, so I was assuming he was being held somewhere.
Possibly a jail cell.
What Mom also couldn’t stop me from doing was going to school, especially not now that graduation was only a month or so away. I wished she could. I wasn’t looking forward to facing school as “Nat Harlow, the girl who was brought police to prom,” even if I had much bigger problems facing me.
And, even worse, I hated knowing what they would be saying about Cal.
I trudged into the school, forcing my gaze to stay forward as I walked to homeroom. I could feel a hallway of eyes on me once again. I hated being the local freakshow. I could stand it when I was with Cal—I loved it when I was with Cal. Even if it was stupid and dangerous, I wanted to be seen with him. I wanted people to know he was mine.
But now I hated it.
And I hated the whispers I kept hearing.
“Did you hear Cal Gatlin kidnapped Nat?”
“I swear to God, he’s crazy.”
“I heard she’s the crazy one now.”
“I heard he’s still in jail.”
I flinched at that last one.
I wish I knew if it was true or not. But Mom wasn’t even acknowledging Cal’s existence, so I couldn’t get much news from that end of the line. And I had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting James to let me see his son.
I made through the day before meeting up with Jess at the final student council meeting. Nate was there, unfortunately. But he didn’t look at me. He didn’t even acknowledge my existence. It was like I was completely dead to him.
Thank God.
“Does everybody … does everybody know? About what happened at prom?” I asked Jess as I slipped into my chair. The meeting had begun and all eyes were on Nate as he rambled on about awards, giving me some privacy for the first time. Even so, a teacher in the corner of the classroom was still tilting her head towards us to eavesdrop while pretending to the adjust the projector.
Ugh. Crashing prom was a bad idea, but I didn’t expect it to turn into an infamous one too.
“Well, yeah,” Jess said sheepishly. She sat idly scribbled on a small pamphlet on her desk, the order form for our graduation caps and gowns. Three weeks until my high school graduation, and my life was already imploding. Wasn’t that supposed to wait until college?
Mom had confiscated my pamphlet as part of her panicked lockdown on my life. I’m not sure what she thought I was going to do with it. Turn it into a pipe bomb, probably. New kidnapper-loving prom-crashing Nat seemed like the pipe bombing type to her.
“Have you ordered your graduation dress?” said Jess, glancing up from her pamphlet.
“No.”
“So you’re wearing Maneater?” She grinned while glancing at Nate. He droned on, still ignoring me.
“No.”
“Because…?”
“Not going.”
“For God’s sake, Nat. You don’t have to be so overdramatic. You’re allowed to live a little, even if your incest husband is in prison.”
“He’s not—”
“Look,” she said, grabbing my hand. The student council meeting continued on behind us, Nate still ignoring us as we snuck out of the room. I grabbed my bag and followed her, frowning at the carefree way she flipped her hair. “I’m just saying. He would want you to be happy, wouldn’t he?”
“Actually, I think Nate wants me dead.”
“You know I meant Cal,” she said, cutting her eyes at me.
“Jess, I can’t be happy. Not if I don’t know he’s okay.”
“It isn’t your responsibility to take care of everybody, Nat.” She leaned against her locker. “I can see you tearing yourself down again. You’re allowed to feel sad. You don’t have to be strong all the time. You’re not a bad person for not being perfect.”
“That’s not what this is about. This is about Cal.”
“And he can take care of himself. Have you seen those muscles? The boy could beat a bear. And then the bear would apologize.”
“Jess.” I could feel a smile creeping onto my lips. I couldn’t help but feel better when she was around.
“Besides,” she said, perking up at my grin. “He’s probably having a great time in jail. Making friends with his own kind and becoming a toilet wine connoisseur? He’s Cal Gatlin, the tattooed bad boy with a motorcycle and a reserved place on the FBI’s Most Wanted. Jail is his Disneyworld.”
“Jess,” I groaned.
“You know I’m only trying to cheer you up, Nat.”
“I know.” I rested my head on her shoulder. It felt good to have someone to lean on for once instead of carrying it all myself. “And I appreciate it. But, God, Jess. I don’t know what’s happened to him. I don’t know where he is. No one will tell me. It’s … it’s killing me.”
Jess pulled me into a hug.
“This sounds like a job for Ben and Jerry,” she said, patting my hair. It reminded me of the feel of Cal’s fingers pulling through my blonde locks. My heart warmed.
“With sprinkles?”
“All of the sprinkles. And gummi bears.” She gave me another squeeze and pulled out her car keys. “Meet me at my house in twenty minutes?”
“Mom will kill me if I sneak out.”
“I’ll call her from the school’s office phone. I’ll tell her it’s a graduation practice or something. Very mandatory.” She put on her serious business face, and I laughed.
“Thanks, Jess.”
“Go get your bike,” she said, pushing me away. “You’re so slow, I swear!”
I smiled until the ghost of Cal’s voice rolled over me.
Come on, Pink. You’re so slow.
I shook the memory out of my mind and raced to the parking lot to collect my bike. No more Cal, at least as long as I could do nothing about it. And no more moping. Moping wasn’t going to save either of us. Focus on the gummi bears, Nat. Jess, ice cream, sprinkles. No more crying.
By the time I found my bike and had wheeled it out to the parking lot, I had almost forgotten about Nate.
Almost.
“Hey there, Nat.”
I froze in the parking lot, my hand clenched on my bike.
Save Me: a Stepbrother Romance Page 15