Chapter Six

 

* KELSEY *

 

I whistled while I put away the last few books from the returns bin. Today had been a slow day at the library, which wasn’t that surprising since the weather outside was absolutely gorgeous. Driftwood Island never got truly cold, but the sunshine today had been even warmer than usual for a January day. Of course, I’d seen that for myself earlier today, when I’d made love with Logan out on an open beach. I hadn’t felt cold, even for a second.

I blushed when I thought of our little beach rendezvous. It had been completely irresponsible of both of us. We knew things couldn’t last, and yet neither one of us had bothered with precautions like a condom. We’d been so overcome with passion that we hadn’t cared.

Honestly, I still didn’t care. Whatever the consequences of this morning, it had been worth it. I had never felt so alive in all my life.

And to make everything even better, I got to go see Luke again tonight. He’d insisted on taking me out to dinner, and I had agreed readily. Dinner meant another chance to see him…and possibly a chance to make love again. I felt my cheeks heating up as my blush deepened. I couldn’t believe that I was having a fling with Luke Foster. Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that I would have a chance to even meet Luke, let alone sleep with him.

He insisted that this was something deeper than a quick island romance, but I wasn’t going to hold him to that. I knew he had a life outside of this island, and that I couldn’t join him in that life. But for as long as this lasted, I would enjoy it.

I checked my watch after shelving the last book. It was three minutes until six, which was when we officially closed on Sundays. I figured three minutes was close enough, especially since no one else but me was here right now. I grabbed my purse and keys and then headed to the front door, killing all the lights as I went along. I whistled as I locked the front door and set the alarm. I loved my job, but today I was happier than ever that it was quitting time. I would run home and change, and then head to the restaurant where I was supposed to meet Luke. He’d asked me to choose the restaurant, since I presumably knew the restaurants in town better than he did. I’d decided on the small Italian place that had opened just two months ago. I hadn’t had a chance to try it myself yet, but everyone told me I had to check it out. Supposedly, the breadsticks were to die for.

My smile widened as I double checked the lock. Lately, a lot of new local businesses had been cropping up, and old businesses had been taking off. The local economy had been boosted by the help of our local business experts—Logan, Trent, and Zach. The three of them had recently moved to Driftwood Island and had poured their hearts into helping local business owners.

I wished Luke would move here, too, but he wasn’t a business expert. He was a writer, an artist of sorts, and my guess was he wanted the sorts of cultural amenities that bigger cities offered.

Don’t start thinking sad thoughts and putting yourself in a bad mood. Just enjoy the time you have.

I’d told myself this about two hundred times today already, but I was still having trouble not letting my mind wander to Luke’s eventual departure. I gritted my teeth together as I turned toward the parking lot, determined to be in a good mood for dinner.

To my surprise, I saw that there was one other car besides mine in the parking lot. It was an old rusty coupe that I would have recognized anywhere. It belonged to a guy named Kyle Hall, who I’d dated briefly in high school—and it was the same car he’d had back in high school. Kyle had been a class year ahead of me, and after he graduated he was too cool to hang out with a high schooler, so he broke up with me. That had been years ago of course, but I still didn’t see him around much these days. Occasionally he’d pop in at Joe’s Sandbar, but word around town was that he mostly stayed home and got drunk by himself at the beach house he’d recently inherited from his father. I wasn’t sure if those rumors were true, but if they were it was a shame. Kyle had been a bit bullheaded at times, but he’d been a smart guy with a lot of potential. It would have been nice if he’d done something with his life other than sit at home and get drunk. Not that it was any of my business what he did with his life.

I was quite surprised to see him at the library. I’d been working here for years and I’d never once seen him pop in. Now, I was so glad to see him coming to look for books that I almost wanted to reopen the library just for him. Just for a few minutes, to help him get set up with a library card. Perhaps if he came out here more and got involved with the community, he’d turn his life around in a positive direction.

I glanced at my watch. It was now six o’clock on the dot. If I hurried I could get Kyle a library card and still make it to the restaurant on time. Or perhaps just a few minutes late. I was sure Luke would understand. Luke was like me—he thought nothing in the world was more important than reading and a love of books.

Kyle was just opening the door to his car as I made this decision. I waved at him with a broad smile on my face.

“Hey, Kyle! I was just closing up, but if you wanted a library card I could get one for you real quick. If you know what sort of book you want to check out I could even help you find one today. I can find almost anything you want in just a few minutes.”

The smile froze on my face when I saw Kyle’s face coming into view. He definitely wasn’t smiling. Quite the opposite, in fact. He had a huge scowl on his face, and his eyes had a wild, angry look to them. Fear gripped my heart, and I reached in my pocket for my cell phone.

Was Kyle drunk? And if so, why had he come here in a drunken rage, of all places? I pulled my cell phone out and quickly unlocked the screen, trying to look casual, like I was checking the time or something innocent like that.

“I’m not looking for a library card,” he said in a slow, drawling voice. He was definitely drunk. “I’m looking for you.”

“Um, ok. Well, here I am,” I said brightly. “What can I do for you?”

“First you can put down that phone and pay attention.”

I tried to smile nonchalantly, despite the dread growing in my stomach. “Don’t be ridiculous, Kyle, I can hold my phone and pay attention at the same time.”

I was trying to quickly swipe to the call screen and enter the digits 9-1-1. But Kyle started charging toward me then, and all I could do was hit a button to call back my most recently called number. I wasn’t sure who it would be, but odds were good it was either Abby or Ruby. Hopefully, whoever it was would pick up the call and be able to tell that I was in trouble. Because I was pretty sure I was in trouble.

Kyle reached me then and knocked the phone violently out of my hands. It went hurtling backwards and landed on top of a bush behind me. I crossed my fingers that the call had gone through and hadn’t been lost from the impact with the bushes.

“Kyle, really. What is the problem here?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know,” he said, getting right in my face. His eyes were bloodshot and there was liquor on his breath, not that I was surprised by that. I did my best not to cower. I didn’t want to appear weak or afraid, even though I was terrified at that moment.

“I’m sorry, Kyle,” I said, trying to use as calm of a tone as possible. “I really don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”

His scowl deepened. “Well, then, Miss Innocent, let me enlighten you. Word on the street is that you’ve been getting a little too cozy with an outsider.”

My eyes widened in surprise. “Luke? This is about Luke?”

“Yeah. One of my buddies saw you leaving the beach together. And he says you two were laughing and looking a little too flushed, if you know what I mean.”

Now I was angry. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised that rumors were already flying about Luke and I. That’s what happens in a small town, and Driftwood Island was essentially a small town. But why in the world Kyle would care enough to seek me out about this was beyond me.

“What I do with Luke, or with anyone else for that matter, is none of your business.” I crossed my arms and put a firm expression on my face, hoping to show Kyle that I wasn’t going to be easily intimidated.

“It is my business,” Kyle yelled. “You’re mine. Everyone in town knows that. No one touches you but me.”

For a moment, I was so stunned by this statement that I didn’t reply. What in the world was that supposed to mean?

“Kyle, we dated in high school. That was over a decade ago. I’m not yours. I haven’t been for a long, long time. And may I remind you: you broke up with me. So where do you get off acting like you have any say in what I do with a man?”

“Doesn’t matter how long ago we dated. I decided a few years back you were mine, and no one else could touch you. That means you’re mine. No one else can have you, especially not some outsider.”

I stared at Kyle, dumbfounded, as the pieces slowly began to fall into place.

“Wait a minute,” I said, staring at him in shock. “Are you saying that no one has been willing to date me all these years because you told everyone in town they weren’t allowed to?”

Kyle rolled his eyes at me. He was so drunk that the movement was super exaggerated and quite comical, but I wasn’t laughing. “Of course,” Kyle said, his tone full of disdain. “All the local boys know better than to make a move on you. I told them all that I’d beat up anyone who did, and they all know I don’t joke about that. Kyle slammed a fist against the open palm of his other hand for emphasis, and I shuddered. I’d heard that he had a reputation for violence, but this was ridiculous. Was he the reason no one had been interested in dating me all these years? Had it not been my mousy librarian looks after all? Had it really been threats from a crazy drunken has-been?

“What the hell, Kyle!” I was shouting just as loudly as he was now. “You don’t own me. You can’t call dibs on me. And if you were going to decide that I was yours, maybe you should have asked me about it first. I have a say in who I belong to, you know!”

He sneered at me and took a step closer. “No you don’t. I get what I want. And I want you reserved for me.”

He reached out and grabbed one of my wrists, holding it in a vice-like grip. I should have been scared at that point. I was all alone outside the library, and I had no idea if my desperate little cell phone call had gone through. Kyle was drunk and angry—and several times stronger than me. But in that moment, none of that mattered. All that mattered was that he had been keeping me from having a dating life for the last several years, all because of some crazy notion that he owned me.

A rage unlike anything I had ever known filled me. “You bastard!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. And then I rammed my knee up into his crotch as hard as I could. He yelped and jumped backward reflexively, letting go of my hand in the process. Before he could fully process what had just happened. I punched him in the side of the face as hard as I could. Admittedly, this wasn’t very hard. But in his momentarily disabled state, the blow seemed to have a bit of an effect anyway. He howled in pain, and then lunged toward me, eyes blazing with anger.

That’s when I took off running. I made a beeline for my car, holding my keys out in front of me and pushing the unlock button on my key fob an absurd number of times, just to make sure that it was unlocked when I got there. I could hear Kyle behind me, yelling at me to stop and threatening to tear off my arms if I didn’t.

Jeez. How romantic.

I didn’t look back. I just kept running, and when I reached my car I hopped in and shut the door behind me, locking it immediately. A split second later, Kyle reached the door and started pounding on it.

“Open up!” he yelled, his slurred voice distorted even more by the glass between us. I put the key in the ignition and fired up the engine, intending to drive away as fast as I could. But for someone as drunk as he was, Kyle was surprisingly quick at realizing what I was doing and reacting. He jumped on the hood of the car, and plastered his face against the windshield.

“Ha! What are you gonna do now? Drive away and just let me fall off the car into the road? I know you better than that. You’ll never do it.”

I sighed, and put the car in park. He was right. I didn’t have the stomach to drive off while a man was riding on my hood. Even though Kyle had been threatening to tear my arms off a moment ago, I could never forgive myself if anything happened to him. I didn’t want to be responsible for throwing a man off a moving vehicle and causing mortal harm.

Even if Kyle deserved mortal harm.

I glared at him through the windshield and honked my horn for good measure. He just laughed at me. I wished more than anything that I still had my phone on me, but my phone was back in the bushes. If my call hadn’t gone through to someone, then my only option was to sit here and wait until someone noticed I was missing. Luckily, since I had actual plans tonight, that hopefully wouldn’t take too long. I would sit here and wait out Kyle as long as it took.

That’s when I heard the police sirens in the distance—sirens that sounded like they were getting closer. I breathed a sigh of relief. It sounded like help was coming after all.

Kyle heard the sirens, too. “You bitch!” he yelled. “Did you call the cops?”

I shook my head no. Technically, it was true. I hadn’t called the cops. But I was damn sure hoping that someone had called the cops on my behalf.

Kyle wasn’t impressed with my denial. He started banging on my windshield so hard that I was afraid it might actually break. I winced and backed my seat up as far away from the windshield as I could. All I could do was hope and pray that Kyle didn’t break the thing into a million pieces before help arrived.

Right now, I wasn’t so sure how much hope I should have. I’d never seen anyone beating so angrily against a pane of glass. I closed my eyes and tried to shut out the horrible scene in front of me. I hoped that by the time I opened my eyes again, this nightmare would all be over.