Page 517 of Not Over You

We both know, once we try to do right by her, he might come around looking for a payday of his own. He’ll come crawling back for any money he can smell.

“What do we do about him?” Shane’s voice is a whisper and we both pause to listen to Willow’s even breathing, punctuated by the softest snore.

“We’ll deal with that when and if it comes back.” My words are an unspoken promise.

We run this company and our lives above board, but that doesn’t mean I won’t drop below the table to protect what is ours.

And Willow is ours.

SHANE

An unwelcome sliver of sunlight breaks through my slumber, and I open my eyes before attempting to lift my very sore neck from the awkward position I fell asleep in last night.

After we moved Willow into our room at the back of the club, and settled her sleeping body into bed, we did one final round to make sure everything was okay, then left the closing responsibilities to Ginger before returning to our sleeping beauty.

She didn’t move from the position we left her in.

We should have bought a bigger bed for the back room. There is only enough space for our little Willow and half of one of us to sleep comfortably, and since we couldn’t decide which one of us would squeeze in beside her, we both ended up sleeping in a chair on either side of the bed.

But that isn’t what has me waking up in a bad mood this morning.

It’s that the bed between us is empty.

In hindsight, we should have tied our weeping Willow to the damn bed.

“Where is she?” Alex’s groggy voice snaps me out of my worry as he drops his feet from the bed to the floor, rubbing his own neck as he groans.

“I don’t know.” The chair tips back as I stand, and I waste no time leaving the room to look for movement in the bar.

The lights in the main area are off, and since the only windows are at the front of the building, the room is dark. Willow would have made too much noise stumbling through the place.

I make my way back down the hall when the back door catches my eye. The lock has been opened, and the hair at the back of my neck stands on end.

Anger floods my veins, and I return to the room to tell Alex she’s run off.

“No, she didn’t.” Alex waves a piece of paper in his hand before holding it in front of his face to read. ‘Shane and Alex. I want to get to the hospital before Annie wakes up. I know we will talk about this. I’m not running away. W.’ As he finishes reading, he meets my glare. “Man, she still knows you.” Tossing the paper on the desk, he chuckles.

“What are you talking about?” I ask incredulously.

“Are you serious right now?”—He throws his hands up in air quotes as he repeats part of Willow’s letter—”I’m not running away. Did you, or did you not, think she ran away from us this morning because the look on your face when you barged in the room just now tells me you were ready to go and drag her back here.” He outright laughs now and I flip him off.

“It’s just—this is Willow.” Something in the way my voice cracks or the look on my face sobers Alex and he turns his face away from mine, nodding at the wall.

Yeah, we both know what we did. We both remember taking her for ourselves, and using her together.

Is it so far-fetched that she would panic and take off?

When I ran out of the room after her, fear seeped into me like a poison. I’ve never felt insecurity tear at my sanity like it did five minutes ago.

I always told myself Alex was the one who missed her every day since we let her go. I told myself it was his heart that would break if she ever refused us. But it’s not just his, it’s mine too.

Alex might have been the one sitting at the window, watching Willow go by every morning, but I was standing in the room just behind him, observing from the shadows.

Every—damn—time.

The only difference is, Alex talked about his feelings. He wore his heart on his sleeve when we talked about Willow. Emotions are something I rarely entertain.

A sound from deep in the club catches our attention and we both look at the opened door before returning to each other.

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