“Promise me,” I whispered.
“He was…he was…he’s a jerk,” she whispered back, her eyes darting beyond me to where the boy who was on Peyton was standing. “But he didn’t get very far.”
“You weren’t helping her when we came in.”
“’Cause you weren’t letting him close the door on you and I knew they were caught. You’d get in. You’d help her and then the door flew open and I got out of the way.”
I searched the features of a young, high, drunk, terrified girl I did not know to try to ascertain if the worst that could happen happened in my cabin.
She stared up at me, holding my gaze, hers wet and scared, but unwavering.
“I wanna get outta here,” she whispered.
“You got a car?” I asked.
She shook her head again. “We came with them. I was gonna walk Peyton up to the road then call a taxi.”
“Where are you staying?’
“Vista Real Condos, by the slopes.”
I nodded that I knew it, straightened, and turned to Priest. “I’m taking the girls home.”
Priest glowered at me but jerked up his chin. “You deal with them, I’ll deal with this,” he stated.
I didn’t know what “this” was or how he intended to deal with it and I didn’t care.
I only cared about one thing.
So I walked across the cabin and got close to him.
“I want this place cleaned up and I want their asses out of here, Priest. Spic and freaking span and them gone,” I hissed.
“It’ll be done,” he replied tersely.
I looked into his eyes, nodded, and turned.
“I’m gonna get my car. You rouse Peyton. Yeah?” I said to the girl.
She was pushing herself to her feet and wiping her face but she still managed to say, “Yeah.”
I moved to the door, stopped in it, and forced my eyes to the boy standing there.
“One day,” I said, my voice soft, my tone ugly. “You’re gonna have baby girls. One day, you’re gonna have daughters you’ll love more than anything in the world. And then there’ll come the day, the weeks, the months, the fucking years,” I leaned in to him, my voice degenerating, “you’ll lie awake, remembering this night. Remembering what you did to that girl. Scared out of your damned mind that some fucking asshole is doing that to one of your girls. Knowing it could happen because you know, being that kind of asshole, there are tons of assholes out there just like you.”
His face paled and his throat convulsed.
“I pray to God what you did tonight never happens to the babies you’re gonna make,” I stated quietly. “But I’m fucking thrilled you’ll live in terror of it.”
On that, I stomped out to get my SUV.
* * * * *
By the time I got Annabelle (who told me her name in my Rover) and Peyton to Vista Real, got their behinds into their condo (also with no parents, what were these people thinking?) and dealt with Peyton puking for an hour—after which I delivered my lecture to them while Peyton lay sniveling on the couch, curled up against Annabelle, who was cradling and rocking her—and made my way home, it was well past four in the morning.
I drove directly to cabin six.
There was no Navigator. The other SUV was gone too.