“Just keep driving. I walked about a mile.”
“Natalie! You shouldn’t be walking alone in Oakland!” She said something to Luke. “We’ll be there soon.”
“Okay,” I said numbly. It was hard to believe that anything worse could happen to me.
Luke’s car rolled up next to me and he honked to get my attention. Jessica popped her blonde head out of the rolled down window and beckoned. I got into the car and stared ahead as they both turned their heads to look at me.
It was like swimming through water. Every sight and sound was distorted into confusing messages that I couldn’t understand. I asked Luke to repeat what he said three times before I understood.
“Did Ben hurt you?”
“No, but he hit Will.” A horrible image of Ben’s fist slamming against Will’s head replayed over and over in my mind. “It’s all my fault. Will was just defending himself.” I looked into Luke’s blue eyes. “I’m sorry for all this.”
“Natalie, you’ve nothing to be sorry about. You did nothing wrong.”
“Yeah, but…” my voice cracked and I bent my head to the ground.
“What happened?”
I told them everything that happened in Ben’s apartment in a robotic voice; the severity of his actions hadn’t hit me yet. From the backseat, I watched Luke’s face tighten as I finished the story.
“Someone needs to contact Will’s father…and his publicist, if he hasn’t already. This is really bad.”
My throat squeezed. “But he didn’t do anything wrong!”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s between the word of a criminal defense lawyer and a man, who has had trouble in the past with the law.”
Shit. He was right.
“Once this gets out, it’ll be a circus. Uncle Dominic will be livid.”
“Shouldn’t you call him?” Jessica asked.
He shook his head. “I’m in a lawsuit with the man. Can’t.”
She held out her hand. “Give me the phone. I’ll call him.”
“I’m sure Will already has.”
The rest of the car ride passed as silently as it could with me trying to stifle my crying. Would he hate me for getting him into this mess?
When Luke parked the car, he turned around in his seat. “Just stay here. I’ll get him.”
I nodded, my eyes still full of tears. Jessica and I waited in silence, both of us yawning in exhaustion. What time is it? Three or four in the morning?
At last, two tall figures walked out of jail and my pulse raced as I made out Will’s outline. Was he angry? Was he relieved? Not being able to take it anymore, I got out of the car and walked towards him, trying to see his face in the darkness.
Luke kept glancing at his cousin, as if wondering the same thing. Was he going to blow up? Luke walked away from his side when he saw me standing there, waiting for Will.
He looked fine, really. The side of his face was red, but his eyes were bright with the manic energy that always drew me towards him. Will looked more alive than ever. Blinded by tears, I stopped in front of him and stared at his tan shoes. I heard Luke’s low voice talking to Jessica in the car.
“Will, I’m so sorry,” I mumbled. “I’ve gotten you into so much trouble.”
The scrape of his shoe against the concrete brought him closer to me and then he pulled me into his chest. I wrapped my arms around him immediately, dissolving into tears. Will stroked my head and the gentleness in his hands made me cry harder. I didn’t deserve it.
“I don’t know why you’re crying,” he said with a bit of humor in his voice. “I’m the one who was arrested.”
I felt the bump of his lips on the top of my head.
“Natalie, it’s not your fault.” He stroked my neck with his thumbs. “I hated leaving you there at his apartment.”
My face burned against his chest. “I kneed him in the balls after you left.”
The vibrations of his laughter shook through my body. I felt a little lighter.
“You crazy girl. You shouldn’t have done that, he could have hurt you.”
“He wouldn’t.” My mouth went dry. How would I even know? Ben had done things I never thought he was capable of.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Will was smiling as if it would be all right, but I wasn’t sure if anything would be all right ever again.
* * *
Billionaire Will Pardini arrested for battery, B&E in Oakland - Pardini sons out of control?
Another article included a picture of Will waving cheekily to camera as he was escorted in handcuffs to jail.
I closed the lid of Will’s laptop, fear gnawing at my insides. He slept in the bedroom, but I didn’t think I’d ever be able to sleep.
When we reached his apartment in the city, William made a few phone calls to his father, to his lawyer, and had promptly collapsed into bed.
I checked my LinkedIn profile as soon as I got home, but all of the nude photos mysteriously disappeared. Slimy bastard. I was able to login and I changed my password immediately. What was Ben playing at? It was becoming more and more apparent that the photos were just used to draw us to his apartment, so that he could get Will arrested. Plus, they had the bonus effect of humiliating me.
The insecure voice in my head, the one that sounded like my mother, uttered a small thought: Did I do something wrong? Did I deserve this?
I kept remembering Ben’s blue eyes, devoid of all the warmth I’d grown accustomed to seeing. Ben was never the type to rejoice in other people’s pain, but yesterday he looked at me and smiled through his bloody lips, gloating as Will was dragged off to jail. How could he become a completely different person?
Fuck. The news teams will be flocking to Ben’s door.
I paced Will’s spacious, San Francisco apartment. It was nowhere near the level of Luke’s mansion, but it had wonderful views of the Bay. I returned to Will’s bedroom and impatiently watched him sleep. He needs to get up, dammit.
My head pounded with a massive headache. I’d been up the whole night and the orange sky was beginning to recede into blue. Will was on his stomach, dead to the world. I peeled back the comforter and his back muscles twitched.
The phone rang and still Will didn’t move. It blared through the entire apartment, blasting in my ears. He moaned slightly and his head jerked, but the call went to voicemail.
“William, this is your father. Your lawyer has contacted me and he says that Ben Osland has filed a lawsuit against you. Several media outlets have already contacted him. We need to begin damage control immediately. This Ben character is on a warpath. I have no idea what the hell you did to piss him off so badly, but I just wanted to thank you for once again making my life difficult. Call me back.”