Page 77 of Love Me

Colt and Creed didn’t argue and ran ahead of us, pausing for only a moment to say something to Ethan. Ethan nodded at whatever they said to him and the three of them ran inside.

Isabelle came up to us. “Are you all right?”

I didn’t get to answer her because Knox stormed right past her and went into the house through the garage. The music was off by the time we got inside, and Colt and Creed were telling everyone the party was over.

Knox carried me to his room and laid me on the bed. Kneeling by the bedside, he began looking me over. My once-white costume was now smudged with dirt, blood, and pine needles. My stockings were ripped and bloody.

“The back of her head,” Keelan reminded Knox from where he hovered behind him.

“Roll over, Shiloh,” Knox ordered and gently helped me.

Both hissed. “There’s a first aid kit under the kitchen sink,” Knox said, and I heard Keelan rush out of the room.

“Can I do something to help?” I heard Isabelle say with trembling words.

“You can come hold my hand,” I said, wanting to comfort my friend.

The sound of Isabelle’s dress swishing got louder as she got closer. In her beautiful, elegant mermaid dress, she climbed onto the bed next to me and took my hand.

Her eyes were watery. “When you didn’t come back, I went looking for you. I found the ice on the ground in the garage and drops of blood. I went and got Colt and Creed right away.”

I squeezed her hand. “Thank you.”

Keelan returned with the first aid kit and Knox got to work collecting things and ripping them open. “It’s going to be a little bit before everyone clears out of here. Until then, I’m going to clean this and bandage you up to stop the bleeding,” Knox explained calmly. “Did you lose consciousness when they hit you?”

“Yes, for a moment,” I answered honestly.

“She could have a concussion,” Keelan said with a tight voice.

Gently, Knox began to clean my wound. “From the beginning, can you tell us everything that happened?”

I squeezed Isabelle’s hand again and, in detail, told them everything that had happened.

19

We didn’t get homefrom the hospital until morning, and we spent most of Sunday resting. I hadn’t ended up having a concussion, but I had gotten stitches. Logan had shown up as I’d been getting sewn up. After waiting for the hospital staff to leave the room, I had told him everything that had happened.

To all of our surprise, Logan had been calm and hadn’t done anything untoward the entire time. I didn’t know if it had been because he’d had somewhat good news to share or he’d felt guilty for the things he had said the last time I had seen him. Or it could have been a combination of both.

“Should we call the police?” Knox had asked.

Logan had shaken his head. “It was planned too carefully. By throwing a Halloween party, you created the perfect opportunity for them to slip in without being seen and thus, not having any witnesses to attest that they were even there. Which means they could have killed you in those woods and we’d have no way to prove it.”

“And it also means there’s no point in reporting what happened to the police,” I had said.

“It’d be your word against theirs, and with the sheriff orchestrating this, he’s already planned on you calling the police and will twist everything up to make things look really bad for you.”

“They won’t stop coming after her unless she drops the charges,” Creed had said.

“Which I don’t understand,” Keelan had said. “Shi can say she doesn’t want to proceed, but the case is in the prosecutor’s hands now.”

“That is true. What Ian and I have come up with is that the sheriff has a lot of friends and the prosecution is one of them, and maybe even the judge. Because there’s substantial evidence, the prosecution has no choice but to proceed with the case. But if the sheriff got Shi to back out, he could convince everyone that things were settled amicably and get his daughter and her friends off with a warning or a lesser sentence,” Logan had explained.

Colt, who had been holding my hand the entire time, had asked, “Are you any closer to finding a way to deal with the sheriff?”

Logan had looked at me. “Yeah, we are.”

Logan hadn’t told us much. Just that the sheriff would be taken care of next week and to stay vigilant until then.