“Hey!” Jan playfully punched him in the arm and then snuggled up to him.

“There’s my girl.” Adam wrapped an arm around her and hugged her tight. He gave her his one hundred watt smile and dragged her outside to the balcony where it was quiet. One other couple was making out in the corner, so he led her to the opposite end.

“Are you sure you can be here?” he asked. “Nikoli’s here somewhere.”

Lily’s face blanched and her heart twisted. Her flight or fight instincts kicked in, and she wanted to run far, far away.

“I’ll take you home,” Adam said softly.

“No.” She shook her head. As much as she wanted to run, she couldn’t. It was inevitable that she’d see Nikoli, and she’d rather do it here with her friends around her than somewhere else. “Jan will freak out if I leave, and then everyone will think I left because of him. I’m not going to run away like a scared little girl, Adam. That’s not who I am.”

Adam gave her a rueful smile. “I like this new more confident you, but sometimes I wish the old Lily would rear her head up when you’re about to get hurt again for no reason.”

Lily knew what he was referring to. Women loved Nikoli, and she’d heard he’d had women hanging off of him everywhere he went. Tonight would be no different, but she had to suffer through it. Not only for Jan, but for herself. She needed to prove she could get through the pain. That she’d be able to breathe again one day without feeling the burn of the ache scorching her insides.

“You know how much I love you, don’t you?” she asked, giving him another hug. She didn’t know how she’d have gotten through those first days without him. He’d lain with her on Janet’s bathroom floor for two days. They hadn’t said anything, he’d just comforted her. He’d been her best friend, and it had helped more than anything else.

“I love you too, Lily.” He hugged her back, and she made up her mind to talk to him, but she didn’t want him to take it the wrong way.

“Adam, I need to talk to you.” She leaned against the balcony railing. “I’ve wanted to say this for a long time, but I didn’t because I thought you were happy.”

“Have you reconsidered my proposal?” The hope in his eyes hurt. She didn’t want him to hurt like she was hurting.

“No, Adam, it wouldn’t be fair to either of us, and you know it, but I do want to talk to you about Sue.”

He sighed and settled down beside her.

“The only thing I want is for you to be happy, you know that.”

Adam nodded.

“Are you happy, though? The very fact that you were willing to dump her for me says a lot. Are you marrying her because you want to, or because you feel it’s what’s expected of you? Are you going to be happy with her five years from now, ten?”

“I honestly don’t know, Lils,” he said. “The closer the wedding gets, the more nervous and anxious I get. I start to question myself. Sometimes I think she manipulated me into asking her. I felt so pressured.”

“Promise me that before you stand before God and all our family and friends, you’ll think about what you’re doing. Promise me you’ll call this off if it’s not going to make you happy. Please, Adam.”

“I promise.” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Let’s get back inside. Janet wants to show you all her wedding stuff. She has it all over here for some reason. I’m not sure why.”

Janet attacked as soon as they came back into the main room. “I’m so sorry, Lily, I didn’t know until Mike told me. I swear I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, Jan.” I laughed. “It’s fine, really. Now what’s this I hear about wedding stuff? And why is it all at a frat house?”

Jan looked madder than a wet hen. “Mike was trying to fix the sink and ended up flooding the apartment. We’re both staying here until it gets fixed.”

“Oh, my,” Lily murmured. That sure sounded like something Mikey would do.

“Come on, I’ll show you everything I’ve picked out so far. I need help with the flowers and the bridesmaids dresses…”

“It’s a party, Jan!” Mike shouted from across the room. “Let’s party!”

She shot him a death glare, and Lily giggled. Janet started muttering about stupid men on the way up the stairs. The three drunken guys who stumbled down the stairs past her suffered the same look. They didn’t waste time in getting out of her way. Lily laughed as she followed Jan down the hall, listening to her ramble on about colors and flowers.

Nikoli had his lips plastered to the blonde when he heard them. He’d know Lily’s voice anywhere. He tore his mouth from the girl’s and stared in horror as the door slowly opened. Jan looked up, her expression going from shock to outright rage when she saw him with his hands under the girl’s shirt, his knee pressed up against her. It was Lily he saw, though.

Her eyes widened. They went from him to the busty blonde he’d shoved up against a wall. Her eyes, while they had been shuttered, now pooled with pain and hurt. A single tear escaped before she turned around and walked away.

Nikoli cracked. Seeing her again, after all these weeks, all the lies he’d told himself laughed in his face. The pain he’d seen in her eyes, the pain he’d been responsible for putting there not once, but twice, was a the slap upside the head he needed. He loved her. He’d tried so hard to convince himself he didn’t, but she haunted him. He loved her, and dammit, it was time he told her. It was time he put them both out of their misery.

If she’d have him after this.

He started cursing and detached himself from the girl, meaning to follow Lily, but the little bit of fluff in the doorway stopped him.

“How dare you!” she shrieked. “Do you know what you did to her? Do you even care that she laid on my bathroom floor for two days? Do you care that she sobbed so hard she lost her voice? Who the fuck do you think you are, Nikoli Kincaid? You’re nothing but a worthless, no good…”

“First this is my frat house, and I didn’t expect her to show up here. Second, I sure as hell didn’t mean for her to see that. Now get out of my way so I can check on her!”

“Check on her?” Janet yelled. “You stay the hell away from her! She doesn’t need you causing her any more pain.”

Nikoli simply picked up the pixie-like woman and set her aside, ignoring both women shouting at him as he ran down the stairs. He looked and didn’t see her anywhere, but everyone was staring at him.

“Where?” he barked, and several people pointed to the front door. He wasted no time and ripped the door open to bound down the steps. He knew exactly where she’d go. The small gazebo up the street in the center of the outlying buildings. She loved it there, said it was peaceful.

He stopped dead about twenty feet from the gazebo. There was a cell phone on the ground, with a trail of blood leading from it to the street. He took several more steps, and dread and panic froze his heart.

The phone was Lily’s.

***

A wave of nausea woke Lily up. She groaned and rolled over, but found she was in a small, tight place. She opened her eyes to darkness. The first thing she noticed was that she was moving. Calm down, she told herself. Calm down and focus. She listened and heard the sounds of the highway. She was in a trunk and moving. They weren’t going fast, probably under the speed limit.

Her head was killing her. She closed her eyes and tried to remember what happened. She’d been running, running away from Nikoli and the girl he’d been with. She’d run smack into someone. She’d mumbled an apology and tried to go around him, but he’d caught her arm and pulled her around. He’d told her to be quiet and come with him or he’d cut her. Her upper arm started to sting as soon as she remembered him saying that. She’d tried to get away, and he had cut her. That hadn’t quieted her down. Adam’s dad had taught her to scream and fight like hell if she ever got in this kind of situation, and that was exactly what she’d done. The last thing she remembered was the guy’s fist barreling down at her, and then it had been lights out.