Boss Next Door

Will. All of a sudden I remember that I have his cell phone number in my phone, and I have the offer from him to give me a ride home. This isn’t exactly that, but I know him well enough to understand that he will help me.

I walk. I can’t stop moving, I am far too anxious to stand still while all of this is going on around me, and I put in the call. It seems to ring for far too long, but that could be my intense anxiety crushing down on me.

“Hello?” He sounds a little sleepy as he picks up, but happy to hear from me as well. “Serena.”

“I need you.” God, I didn’t quite realize how hysterical I had become until I started speaking. “Will, I need you. I am outside…” I glance up to see the name of the club so he can find me. “Erm, the Nightingale, do you know where that is?” He makes an agreeable sound, thank God because I don’t have a damn clue where I am. “Could you meet me? Please? I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t in a desperate situation. I… I need you so badly.”

My body stiffens, I feel like I might explode as I wait for him to answer. For a split second, I fear that he might tell me he was only being polite with the offer of a ride and he isn’t keen on the idea at all. I don’t know what I will do then. There really aren’t any other option and I’m afraid that my mom will end up dead because of me.

I should just tell Will all of that but I’m still processing it. I can’t form the words just yet.

“I’m coming,” he confirms, sounding far more awake this time. “Just wait where you are. Don’t go anywhere. Make sure people can see you, so…” He gulps thickly, I guess assuming that the issue is with me. “Stay safe, okay?”

As I hang up the phone, I feel a little more relieved that at least help is coming. I’m sure that Will is going to take me home to help my mother when he finally hears the mess that I find myself in, and I’m so grateful that he is in my life for that reason. Again, I find myself able to trust myself with him.

But I need him here soon. The anxiety is killing me. I try to call my mom again while I wait but I get straight through to her voicemail. David has broken her phone. I want to call the cops as well, but I know how David always spins that to work for him and it makes things worse. I need to be the one to fix that. I have to help.

Chapter 14 – William

I don’t know what’s going on, the only thing that I could really glean from the phone call with Serena is that it’s bad, really bad. I never truly expected to hear from her tonight. I thought that she would be determined to make it home just to prove herself to me. But clearly, something has happened. The night has gotten wild, and it’s done something damaging to Serena. My poor sweet innocent Serena who doesn’t need this.

As I speed along the road, probably far too quickly to be within the legal limit, my brain keeps coming up with the most awful possibilities for what could be happening here and it’s leaving me in a state of panic. I have spent enough time in nightclubs to know what cesspits they can become, what the guys are like in those clubs, the sorts of things that can happen, and I hate it. I keep thinking now that I shouldn’t have let her go out…

“You couldn’t have stopped her,” I remind myself as I bang my hand angrily against the steering wheel. “She wanted to go out, she wanted to be with friends, she deserves to be in a place having fun… but someone has taken that away from her and I don’t know who. I might be ready to kill whoever did this to her.”

“Fuck, get out the road,” I cry out to the car in front of me. “You don’t know what situation this is.”

I don’t either, if I’m totally honest with myself. But it’s bad, that’s all I care about. It’s bad and I’m needed, I’m going to be the hero for the damsel in distress once more. Only this time, it isn’t just carrying a few boxes up the stairs. This is definitely going to be something that will involve a lot of me.

“Nightingale.” God, I hate this place. Why the hell did Alisha want to come here of all the places? It’s known for being the sort of club where people take drugs as well as drink. I can’t imagine any of my staff members mixing in with that, so I don’t know why they would go to such a place, but it freaks me out more for Serena. “Where is she?”