Page 50 of Liar
“That’s all you have to say?” I questioned, glaring. This girl…oh, this girl. I did love her, but she drove me nuts.
“If you think I’m going to say the same…I guess you’re just going to have to wait.” Her eyes moved to the back part of my car, where I’d had her pinned mere moments ago. “Hot make-out session or not, I’m not throwing it all to the wind tonight. I owe it to myself to take things slow, and so do you.”
I stared at her, knowing, deep down, she was right. There was no point in rushing things, but still, felt like I had to make up for all of the time I’d missed while she was here, with her boyfriends, getting to know them and growing to need each and every one of them.
It wasn’t fair, but I supposed I should be used to the unfairness by now. I was a Salvatore. An unfair life was in my blood.
She sat in the passenger seat, leaning her head on the headrest as she stared up at me. “Don’t worry, Sawyer. I’m not going anywhere, and if I have a say in it, neither are you.” And then she smiled at me—really, truly smiled. Not the typical smug Ash smile, but a soft, gentle, caring smile that I felt in each bone in my body.
That wasn’t a smile you gave to someone you hated, under the moonlight, after making out like your life depended on it.
It was a smile a girl could only give to a man she loved.
Me.
Chapter Seventeen – Will
All this time…all this time I thought I knew her. I thought I knew Ashley Bonds as well as I knew myself. Granted, sometimes I lied, sometimes I hid the truth from other people, but it didn’t matter. I did what I did to keep those I loved safe.
Ash and Declan. I loved them both, in different ways of course.
But now…now I was forced to see the truth. Ash was too blinded by Sawyer to realize just how bad he was for her.
And he was. Bad, I meant. Someone like Sawyer Salvatore was toxic through and through, and he’d only end up dragging her down. I thought she’d deny him on her own. I gave her time, told her to do what she wanted—but I thought she’d tell him to screw off, not make out with him in a parking lot after spending two hours with him in a dark room.
Watching a movie.
Yeah, I knew what that meant these days.
I couldn’t go in without risking them seeing me, but I was there. Watching from the background, doing everything I could to blend in. Hell, I’d even left Sawyer a present earlier, hoping he’d choose to fuck up and relapse, maybe go to this date high. I thought, surely if Ash saw him high again, she’d realize he was no good for her.
But watching them tonight, he wasn’t high, which meant he didn’t take the pills. Which meant, maybe, I’d underestimated him.
Was it possible Sawyer had gotten better? I knew addiction was a constant battle—not personally, but I’d read the stories. I’d seen the news. I knew how hard it was for someone to stay clean after spending so long living their life high and free.
No. There was no way Sawyer had gotten better. Maybe right now he was, but sooner or later he would crack. His perfect facade would crumble, and I would be there when it happened, watch it all fall away. I would be beside Ash as she realized how shitty of a person Sawyer was, and then she’d leave him in the dust.
I stood near the movie theater’s glass doors, the lights from the neon sign on the building’s front bright overhead, but I stuck to the shadows. My hands were shoved in my jacket pockets, a baseball cap on my head to hide my face. Nobody really looked at me twice. I didn’t radiate suspicion, I didn’t have one of those auras that put people on high alert. No, I blended in. That was my strength. It always had been.
My weakness? Besides Declan and Ash? Hmm. I’d probably have to go with my lies. My secrets. My mind. I knew, without a doubt, if Declan or Ash ever found out what I did, they’d disown me. Call the cops. They’d want nothing to do with me, and that hurt, because really, I did all of this for them, to make them happy.
Did they think I enjoyed doing what I did? Would they assume that I took pleasure in killing Corey, killing my own parents, and Sabrina? I did what I had to do. I did what I did to protect Declan, and I’d spent so long trying to stay under everyone’s radar after what happened to Sabrina, fearing what would happen if someone brought my name up, I made a mistake. I let the bullying go on too long.
Sawyer Salvatore turned Hillcrest against Declan. Things had gotten better since I’d transferred, since Sawyer lowered his guns, so to speak, but that didn’t necessarily mean all was forgiven or forgotten. I would make sure Sawyer knew that I hadn’t done either.
I would make him regret ever setting his eyes on Ash, make him realize that he’d made a huge mistake when he set the campus on my brother. Hell, maybe after Sawyer was out of the picture, I’d make everyone else at Hillcrest pay, too. I was not above making a list and checking people off it one by one.
Ash and Sawyer were in each other’s arms for a while. He had her pinned against the car. I was pretty far away, but I saw enough. It was enough that I had to turn away for a while, enough to make my blood boil in my veins and my heart beat with a loud, steady thumping. I didn’t like seeing her with him.
Really, I didn’t like seeing Ash with anyone other than Declan. Travis…
Oh, there was a lot Travis had to pay for, but right now my focus was Sawyer. After Sawyer, after I thinned this little herd of boyfriends by one, I’d go after him. I knew what Travis did. I knew he and Sabrina were fucking around behind my little brother’s back, just like she did with our father. Sabrina was a loose girl, and there was nothing inherently wrong with it, but when you were involved with my family, you had to devote your all to it. You had to give every ounce of yourself you could to loving Declan. Declan deserved the world. Why didn’t anyone else see that?
Travis had secrets, but I knew better than to toss a lit match over a trail of gasoline. First, I had to make sure it would go according to plan. And if you knew me, you knew I spent a lot of my time planning.
When I looked back at Ash and Sawyer across the parking lot, they’d gotten in the car. Would he drive her home, or would he take her back to his house? I didn’t want to think about them together, but I knew I couldn’t put anything past Sawyer. As their car started up and he backed out of his parking space, I headed to my own vehicle, getting in and starting her up. I was a good ways behind them, but I was able to follow.
Sawyer was too lost in himself to realize someone was following him, and Ash…Ash trusted me. I hated breaking that trust, but I had to help her. Had to save her. She was under Sawyer’s spell, and I was going to do my damnedest to snap her out of it.
