Page 173 of Secret Obsession
And then I see waving arms across the rink, and I narrow my eyes at Knox.
I’d ignore him—in fact, I do. But a moment later, I hear him shouting my name, and I raise my head again.
“Meet me at the exit,” he yells. “Right now.”
I scowl at him, but whatever. I toss my notebook on top of my bag and shove my phone in my pocket, murmuring an, “I’ll be right back,” to the girls.
Five minutes later, I’m outside.
Knox is pacing. He grabs my upper arm and drags me toward his car, so fast I stumble.
“What the fuck?” I shove at him. “What are you doing?”
“You got Miles into this mess,” he seethes. “If anything happens to my baby brother—”
“Knox.” I dig my heels in. “Where are we going?”
“Get in the car, Reed.” He gets up in my face, his hand wrapping around the back of my neck. Holding me nose to nose with him. “My brother would sacrifice everything to save you. We’re going to do the exact same fucking thing.”
I search his frantic gaze.
Something happened. That wild, out-of-control feeling doubles in my chest, and I nod. He’s right: Miles would do anything for me, and it’s about time I learned to do the same.
He releases me when he sees my acceptance, and I get into the passenger seat of his car. He pulls out of the lot with a squeal of tires, turning toward their house. It isn’t long before we come up on the rental Miles’ insurance gave him. At least, it seems like it…
It’s upside down, the driver’s door open and blocking our view into the car. Smoke pours from the hood—and a second later, the whole car goes up in flames.
I gasp and slam my palm over my mouth. I scramble for the door handle, getting halfway to the burning car before Knox catches up with me. He yanks me back, ignoring the keening noise coming out of me. I can’t stop it any more than I can stop trying to get to the car.
“Look,” he orders, directing my face to the marks in the snow. Drag marks, not unlike the ones we’re leaving in the snow now. “Someone pulled him out.”
“Someone?”
Daniel Freeman’s brother, I’d bet.
Sirens scream in the distance. Knox shoves me into the car and hurries around to the driver’s side, hopping in and throwing it in reverse. We speed backward fast enough to make me sick. I hold on to the door handle, my stomach all but in my throat, until he swings the back end around and smoothly tucks us into a driveway.
A second later, police cruisers pass us at high speed, their lights bouncing through the interior of the car. A firetruck follows. And then an ambulance.
He wasn’t in it, I tell myself.
“This is a situation for the police,” I tell Knox. “He took your brother. They can help—”
“No.” He glares at me. “No, they can’t help. We’re going to fix this.”
I swallow past the lump in my throat. Gone is any trace of the man I dated for a whole fucking year. Who I convinced myself I loved. The months apart, the eye-opening experience given to me by Miles, has proven that Knox never actually gave a shit. He was pretending, and so was I. It just took my heart a little time to be convinced of that.
Oh my God.
Do I love Miles?
Stop it. I sink into the seat as Knox speeds away from the car crash.
But Jesus, I thought I was going to lose it when I saw his car upside down.
“Willow.”
“Yeah.”
