"I'm not. I'm asking you to let the police handle this. That's what they're there for."
"He kidnapped you, Britt. Do you hear me? What he did was illegal and dangerous. It shows a complete lack of respect for human life. He thought he could get away with it. He used you, and he'll keep on using people like you unless somebody stops him."
"People like me?" I echoed incredulously.
Calvin flapped his arms impatiently. "Helpless. Naive. You're just the kind of girl guys like him prey on. And he is a predator. He detects weakness and incompetence the same way a shark smells a single drop of blood from a mile away."
Heat surged into my face. Shaun and Jude hadn't abducted me because of my incompetence. In fact, the whole reason Shaun had picked me over Korbie was because he believed I was a strong, capable backpacker. Because I was clever enough to convince him that Korbie had diabetes, and should be left behind.
"I leaped to my feet. You are so stupid, Calvin. You think you know everything, but you don't. Maybe you should ask why Shaun and Mason took me with them but left Korbie in the cabin."
"Because Korbie isn't half as submissive or helpless as you,” Calvin said decidedly. "You've floated through life expecting your dad, Ian, even me, and probably a lot of other guys I don't know about, to come to your rescue. You can't do one thing for yourself, and you know it. Mason and Shaun looked at you and saw an easy target. A gullible girl with low self-esteem. Korbie never would have stayed with them as long as you did. She would have fought.She would have run.”
”I ran!" I protested.
"I'll tell you why they picked you,” Calvin informed me calmly, which only made my temper burn hotter. I couldn't stand his cool composure, or the patronizing look in his eyes. In that moment, I wondered what I'd ever seen in him. He was so wrong for me. I'd spent eight months of my life mourning a self-important, egotistical jerk. The irony of it was, Calvin had spent the past eight months trying to escape his dad, but he couldn't see what I could. He was transforming into his dad. It was hard to tell if I was talking to Calvin right now or Mr. Versteeg. "Because they wanted to exploit you. Some guys-guys like Mason-get off exercising power over girls. It makes them feel invincible. He needed you so he would feel in control."
I made a furious sound of disagreement. Calvin wasn't describing Jude. He'd never tried to control me. Shaun, yes. But not Jude. Calvin would never believe me, but out there on the mountainside, I hadn't relied entirely on Jude. He hadn't let me. I'd survived because he'd trusted me to stand on my own two feet. I'd grown up more in the past few days than I had in four years of high school.
"And I'm the stupid one?" Calvin finished simply.
"Shut up,” I said, my voice shaking with anger.
"No one's blaming you, Britt. He brainwashed you. If you could see outside yourself and look at this from a legitimate perspective, you'd stop trying to make excuses for a criminal. You've stood up for him at every turn. If I didn't know better, I'd think you have a secret crush on him."
Whatever I'd expected, it wasn't that. I opened my mouth to argue, but I had no defense. I felt my face growing hot. The blush worked its way above my collar, tingling the tips of my ears. Calvin saw it, his superior expression slipping. His brows tugged together in puzzlement, and then a shadow darkened his face. For one moment, I feared he'd guessed my secret, but he shook himself, clearing away any disgust or betrayal I might have imagined seeing brew behind his eyes.
"I want ten minutes alone with him,” he said flatly, and climbed the stairs.
I dropped onto the couch, hugging my knees and rocking back and forth, suddenly cold, despite the fire burning a few feet away. A strange fog hung in my head. If only I could think. I had to stop Calvin from going too far. But how? Korbie might be able to convince her brother. But she was drugged and sleeping, and Calvin would lose the last of his temper if I woke her. Even if I did manage to wake her, I doubted she would feel like going to the trouble of helping Jude. She knew him as Ace, one of two men who'd left her to die.
Feeling restless, I jumped to my feet again and paced the kitchen. If I couldn't take my mind off what was happening in the room at the top of the stairs, at least I could keep my hands busy. I tidied the kitchen and took the trash out, throwing it in the bin outside the kitchen's back door. When I lifted the lid, I was surprised to find several other bags of trash at the bottom. By the smell of the garbage, the bags had been there for weeks. As far as I knew, the Versteegs hadn't stayed at Idlewilde this winter. It seemed impossible that Calvin could have produced this much trash in the couple days he'd been here. Had the Versteegs forgotten to carry their trash out with them the last time they were here, at the end of summer? It was very uncharacteristic of Mr. Versteeg. He hired a cleaning service after every trip, leaving the cabin spotless.
Frowning, I went back inside and opened the kitchen cabinets. They were fully stocked. Mostly with junk food, mostly with Calvin's favorite foods. Lucky Charms cereal, beef jerky, donuts, Ritz crackers, and crunchy peanut butter. I knew Mrs. Versteeg had sent her assistant up the previous weekend to drop off boxes of food for Korbie and me, but I could plainly see those boxes from where I stood. They were still in the entryway hall where they'd been deposited, untouched.
It didn't make sense. Why would the Versteegs leave the cabin fully stocked during the winter when they hadn't intended to make any trips up? If I didn't know better, I'd think someone had been living here all these months.
A strange chill crept up my spine. There were more things that didn't make sense. Things that had been bothering me under the surface for a while now. Right before Calvin had killed Shaun, he'd said, "I've seen you around,” but how could that be? Jude had said that Shaun moved to Wyoming about a year ago, and Calvin had spent most of the past year at Stanford. When would he have seen Shaun?
An impossible suspicion fluttered in my mind, but I swatted it away. I could not doubt Calvin. I would not doubt him. What was wrong with me, that I was thinking the worst of him? I didn't have any reason not to trust him.
But that's exactly what I found myself looking for next-reasons. Explanations. Proof that this alarming idea brewing in my head was completely illogical.
In the living room, I shuffled through the papers on the desk for signs that someone had been living at Idlewilde recently utility bills, recent mail, magazines, newspapers. I found nothing.
The bathroom was a different story. There was a pinkish ring in the toilet bowl, indicating it had been used but not cleaned. The counter and sink were dirty with dried toothpaste. Water had splashed onto the mirror above the sink and never been wiped away. I knew Mr. Versteeg would have paid to have the cabin cleaned before the family closed up Idlewilde at the end of last summer. Someone had been here after Labor Day. Someone had been here over the winter. I swallowed thickly. I didn't want to think who.