Dear Ava(46)

My shoulders slump. “I’ll give you everything I have.”

She smiles broadly.

“But I never want to see you again.”

A long sigh comes from her. “Ah, Ava, you’re mean. Guess you get it honest.”

Yeah.

She sends a thumbs-up to the man in the parking lot and I cringe. “We just need to get to Memphis, you know, and we ran out of money a while back, and it will give us a good start. We all need fresh starts, don’t we? Thank you, baby girl.”

“Yeah.” Feeling queasy, I tell her to stay put and dash inside the dorm and up to my room. I lift up my mattress and count out my three thousand dollars. The money doesn’t really matter right now. I can always work more.

“You are not going back out there without me,” Wyatt states when I come back to the lobby.

“Okay.” I exhale.

With Wyatt next to me—thank you God for sending me a friend like him—I walk back outside and press it into her hands.

“I’ll call the cops the next time,” I say, running my eyes back over the man who’s still watching us. “He looks like he might have warrants out. Wouldn’t want him to go to jail, or you to go for harassment.”

Her mouth quirks up. “Just like me, you’re hard and ready to fight.” She laughs harshly. “Don’t blame you a bit.”

“What the fuck just happened?” Wyatt says as we watch their taillights leave a few minutes later.

My chest hitches, feeling lost, like I want to chase her car down, even with that scary man inside, and beg her to stay and just be a mom and be like Knox’s dad, but, no, no—those thoughts are foolish and she chose her path a long time ago.

I swallow down the past. “I was blackmailed by my mom.”

“Dude. You have some weird shit going on.”

“Oh, Wyatt. You have no idea.”

He cocks his head and mulls something over. “Did you know you were mumbling the whole way back from the stadium?”

“What was I saying?”

We approach the doors.

“‘I’m too young. He’s too young.’ I think you meant you and Knox, of course.” He rolls his eyes. “But I want you to know—that look on your face when your mom left… You aren’t young, Ava. You’re ancient. And Knox? He’s there too.”

I don’t know what to say about that.

He tosses an arm around me as we walk back into the lobby. “So, it’s Friday night and it’s just you and me. What do you want to do?”

I shake my head. “I’m just…lost.”

He exhales, holding me tighter. “Let’s get in my car and just drive. How does that sound? We’ll roll the windows down, let the night air in, and blare some rap music. You can tell me what a hot dude I am and that Jagger is going to fall in love with me.”

I can’t help the grin on my face, and I reach up and kiss his cheek. “I love you. Marry me?”

“Same. I insist we register at Pottery Barn. Sheets and towels and candles. Would you mind if Jagger marries me too? Three-way?”

I laugh. “No, you’d never pay any attention to me. Come on, let’s go for that drive.”





22





I wake up with a scream, my body shaking as I wrestle myself out of a nightmare about ghostly trees and coyotes circling me as I lie in the woods. Gulping in air, I try to orient myself in the darkened room and control my rapid breathing. The attack from last week sneaks in.

That’s where you belong, bitch, at my feet—and don’t you forget it.

I close my eyes, my hands clenching the quilt.

Something so familiar about… But it’s gone.

Forget the dream. Get some sleep.

With a glance at my phone, I see it’s seven in the morning, way too soon to get up considering Wyatt and I didn’t get home until midnight. I toss over and beat at my pillow, trying to get comfortable, but an hour later, it’s pointless, my head is still replaying last night.

Why is Knox pushing me away little by little?

Why did his dad offer to send me to New York and take care of Tyler? He’s never even met me before, yet he’d be willing to fork over thousands of dollars just to get me out of Camden? It doesn’t make sense. Obviously, he wants Knox to focus on football and his brother and not me, but—

I pause.

Why does Dane dislike being around me? I can accept that part of it is because of what happened to his mom, but something doesn’t feel right, and a sense of foreboding creeps over me, heavy and thick, crawling down my spine.

I get out of bed, take a quick shower, and throw on some shorts and a Cranberries shirt. After making my bed and going over some homework, I’m still antsy and frustrated. At ten, I call Wyatt, and we make a plan to meet at a coffee shop in town.

We’ve just settled in at a table next to the window when a black Mercedes SUV drives past the shop and parks across the street. Taking a sip of my coffee, I watch as Knox, Dane, and his dad exit the vehicle and walk toward the police station.

“What are they doing?” Wyatt murmurs, following my gaze. “Trouble with the Graysons on a Saturday?”

“No clue,” I reply, frowning.

The three of them stop at the entrance where three other well-dressed men are waiting. One of them is clearly Chance’s dad, a slick-looking older man with sandy hair and a trim frame. Although I’ve never met him, I used to follow Chance’s social posts when we were together, plus I’ve seen him at school a few times to drop off or pick up his son. He’s a lawyer. A lawyer.

My eyes land on a policeman who’s walking down the sidewalk toward them, and I suck in a breath, recognizing his face as the man who interviewed me last fall.

“What’s going on?” Wyatt calls out as I jump up, almost knocking over my coffee. He takes a napkin and dabs at the small spill that sloshed on the table.

“I don’t know.” I breathe quickly as my heart pounds. “But whatever it is, it’s… Something feels off.” I stop, grabbing my purse and dashing for the door.

By the time I push through the exit, they’ve disappeared into the precinct.

“Ava?” It’s Wyatt and he’s followed me.

What…what the hell is going on?

Why are they meeting with the police, armed with lawyers?

“…do you want to go back inside and wait for Knox?” he’s saying, and I realize he’s been talking to me for a while.

“I’m going in there to find them,” I push out, my chest rising and falling quickly, so quickly.

He hesitates for a moment then nods. “Ride or die.”

We cross the street, enter the station, and walk up to the front desk. The place is mostly quiet, a few officers milling around, and I search their faces, not seeing the one who just walked in. Knox and Dane and Mr. Grayson are nowhere in sight.

The lady at the desk gives me a small smile and checks out Wyatt’s tattoos. She’s older with gray hair and little glasses. “May I help you?”

I lick my lips. “My name is Ava Harris.” I pause, taking a breath. “May I see one of the detectives who worked on my case last fall?”

If she remembers me, she doesn’t show it, and I suppose she sees tons of people coming through here. She sits down at her computer and gives me an expectant look. “Detective’s name?”

Panic brushes at me. God, I can’t even recall. I haven’t wanted to think about him and those hours spent here, and I…

“He just walked in with the Grayson family,” I say.

She nods. “Bryant Thomas. He’s busy. Would you like to give me your number and I’ll have him call you?” She reaches over and hands me a form. “Just fill this out with the specifics of the case, and he’ll get back to you.”

The paper shakes in my hand. Would he? Would he really call me? He never has before. They dismissed me. They never even told me Knox drove me to Piper’s! They forgot about me as soon as I walked out!

“Ava?” Wyatt asks as he leads me over to some chairs in a waiting area. “Want me to fill it out for you?”

No, no, no, it isn’t even about the detective at this point; it’s about Knox meeting with him, that entourage of lawyers.

Fumbling in my purse, I pull out my phone and fire off a text to Knox.

I know where you are, Shark. I saw you walk in.

It takes him three minutes to walk out from a hallway to the right. Standing with my fists clenched, I watch as he jogs over to me in jeans and a Camden shirt. I dismiss how…beautiful he is.

I don’t know him, I don’t, and he isn’t who I thought he was, because if he—if he’s known what happened, how could he do this, how could he not tell me, how could he—

“Ava,” he starts, his face white. “What—”

“Stop. Don’t. Time to breathe? Really?”

His chest expands and he looks around the room before coming back to me. “I can explain—”

“No. You tell me right now what’s going on with you and your dad and your brother meeting with lawyers at a police station on a Saturday with the detective who interviewed me, and don’t lie to me. This can’t just be a coincidence!” My voice rises and a few people send us glances, but I don’t care, not now, not in this place with all those memories in my head.

I recall Knox’s words to me after the game. How his dad looked at me so warily.