Page 86 of Find Me

“What?” I asked. He had been quietly staring out the side window the entire drive.

He turned in his seat to face me. “You paid to get Creed’s suspension brought down to lunch detention.”

I looked away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The door was open. I heard everything,” Knox said.

Keelan shifted his Jeep into park and looked at Knox. “How much?”

“Twenty thousand,” Knox answered.

“Holy fuck.” Keelan gaped.

“Where are you getting that kind of money?” Knox asked me.

“I told you my family left me money,” I said.

Knox shook his head. “You said you bought your house with your parents’ life insurance money.”

“I did. That’s what I choose to live off of because I have to, not because I want to. I don’t like to touch my family’s money,” I explained.

“Why?” Keelan asked.

I chewed on my lip as I debated how honest I wanted to be. “The only reason I have it is because they’re dead and the reason they’re dead is because of me.”

Keelan reached out to touch my hand. “Shiloh, no—”

I moved out of his reach. “It’s true. Today was my fault, too, and I did what I could to fix it.”

Knox made a frustrated noise and climbed out of the car. Keelan and I watched him as he rounded the vehicle, coming to our side.

“I’m tempted to lock my door,” I joked.

“Please don’t. My car will suffer for it,” Keelan said as my door was ripped open.

“You’re a royal pain in the ass, you know that?” Knox raged at me. “You need to stop being so hard on yourself. Mr. X is a psychotic bastard who developed an obsession with a young girl he had no business even looking at. You are not responsible for what he did to you and your family. He is. You did nothing wrong then and you’ve done nothing wrong today.”

He was quite literally chastising me for doing the same thing I had talked to the twins about earlier today regarding Cassy.

“Creed had accepted his suspension because at the end of the day it was his choice to pummel that little fucker. If I had been there, that punk would have gone home in a wheelchair because he should have never put his hands on you.”

My mouth opened but I had no words.

“Did you only offer the money to Mr. Morgan because you felt guilty?” Knox asked. “If so, don’t you dare pay it.”

“No, that’s not the only reason I did it,” I said.

“Then why?”

“You know why,” I shot back.

“Tell me anyway.”

“Why must you be a pushy jerk?” I snapped.

“I’m only pushy when it comes to you,” he snapped back.

“That makes me feel so special,” I said caustically.