CHAPTER SIXTEEN
AND THEN THERE was Will.
The class clown. The star athlete. Stellar student. The good ol’ boy everyone wanted to hang around. Get close to. Be friends with. Date.
Paige Robinson didn’t want anything to do with him. Even at fourteen, she understood that nobody was that good in life. It wasn’t a chance she intended to take. She already had Rafe Elliot—a kid new to the area—asking her to hang out.
It wasn’t going to happen.
“What’s it like having a bodyguard?” Will’s squeaky voice hummed across Paige’s nerves as she walked across campus—past where the football team was beginning practice—after school. Will was suited up, his pads in place and cleats on his feet.
She’d stayed late to talk to Ms. Harwood about an extracurricular activity—an opportunity she’d love to have—and had ended up missing her bus. Will had found her in the hallway and followed her out the school’s front doors.
His gaze shot to the bodyguard twenty feet behind them. The distance had come at her request and with Amanda and Robbie’s approval, because who wanted a bodyguard following their every move? She didn’t want one at all. It was an eyesore. A reminder. A sign that shouted how abnormal she was.
It was hard enough being fourteen without the stigma of being that girl who survived captivity.
“He has a name. Kevin Gates. We don’t go around calling him Hey Bodyguard.”
A snicker erupted from Will. “Bet it’s weird when he has to watch you go to the bathroom.” A grin—the one all the girls gushed about in study hall—shot across Will’s face. “You probably like it.”
A hot lick of rage weaved its way into her bloodstream. She refused to make eye contact with this slicked-back hair and braces-wearing classmate. She didn’t care if he had a million dollars and someday might be the president. “Stimulating as this conversation is, William, I’m a little busy.”
“Aw, come on.” He nudged her with his elbow—a gesture easily perceived as lighthearted from the distance of everyone around them.
It made her want to grab one of the pens in her backpack and stab it through his neck. But she wouldn’t. Because she wasn’t her birth mother. She wasn’t the evil Bethany Markel had embodied with every hateful plot she’d carried out, even if half of her DNA came from that now-deceased source. Someday she was going to save lives.
This kid was not worth the end of it all.
“Everyone knows about your ordeal. So it wouldn’t be unheard of for a girl in your position to be into some interesting stuff.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
Paige stopped. Just because she’d been kidnapped, held hostage for six months and lived to tell the tale didn’t mean anything. “A girl in my position? That means, what, exactly?”
“Don’t hide, beautiful. Everyone knows you’re a dirty slu—”
A rage-filled cry erupted as a blur of brown hair, jeans, and a gray sweatshirt slammed into Will. Paige froze. The teen staggered backward before righting himself and grappling with ten-year-old Ricky Knight. His face was redder than she’d ever seen it, his deep blue eyes centered on the older boy as if he didn’t fear anything. Didn’t feel anything.
A string of curses came from Will as he landed a punch to Ricky’s stomach. The kid crumpled to the ground. His cheek landed on the concrete at the edge of the grass. Will wound up for another jab.
“Will! Stop.” Paige moved toward Ricky.
The teen glanced at Paige, his body hovering over the boy as if he were about to pummel him into the ground. His eyes were dark, as if he’d enjoy nothing more.
Screw saving lives. She’d seen a lot of crap in thirteen years. And she was done taking it. Done watching other people take it.
She moved forward, her only thought the boy on the ground now holding his gut. Taking small gasps of air. The one above him poised to deliver more punishment.
The bodyguard—Kevin—beat her to Will, grabbed the pads beneath his jersey, and pulled him back. He towered well above Will, his face a mask of anger. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Will rubbed at his mouth. He jerked out of Kevin’s hold. “The kid rushed me. Ask him what he’s doing?”
Paige crouched in front of the kid. “Ricky? Are you okay?”
He didn’t open his eyes. “I can taste my intestines. Other than that, I’m swell.” His lips barely moved. “I might as well be dead. Mom and Vi are going to kill me when they hear about this.”
Paige’s heart started a frantic pound. Her gaze scanned the area. Lit on how Kevin was in Will’s face, but not touching him. As if he knew every disgusting word Will had said to her. Ms. Harwood headed in their direction, her dark hair in a ponytail, determination across her face. Ricky still hadn’t moved. “W-why’d you do it?”
Deep blue eyes popped open then. “He’s a creep. Don’t believe anything he said, Paige.”
She straightened. He couldn’t have heard anything. No one had been close enough. Not even Kevin. And Kevin would report this whole thing to Amanda and Robbie, but as long as they didn’t find out about the rest…
They’d freak out, their sole object in life protecting her and the twins. Offering stability and family. Amanda would quit her job. Robbie would stress about every school event. Every walk to the mailbox or stroll with the twins.
Paige would never get rid of the bodyguard. Instead of sitting in the hallway during class, he’d be back in class right next to her. Like it had been in the beginning. She could kiss any opportunity goodbye. “I was never here, okay? I’m not asking you to lie. Just leave my name—whatever you think you heard—out of it.”