With her eyes fixed on the glowing windows, she didn’t notice three teenagers sitting in lawn chairs in the road until she was only a few feet from them. She stopped short, unsure whether she should warn them about the crazies from the SUV somewhere in the darkness behind her. These kids were only fifteen or so. Maybe they lived in the Meadgate subdivision.
They glanced over at her with bored expressions. One of the girls said, “Hey, Holly.” They turned away from her and gazed off the road, where the shoulder tumbled into a canyon.
“I’ve got one,” a boy said.
Holly heard screeching close by, echoing against the canyon walls.
A second boy opened his hand. A cigarette lighter floated into the air in front of him and flicked into flame of its own accord. It zipped toward the screeching and illuminated the source, a small bat flying erratically as if held in place and struggling to free itself. The flame touched the bat and licked across its skin. The bat screamed.
“Birds are easier,” said the first boy. “Bats aren’t as flammable.” He turned to Holly. “Did you wreck the SUV? Do you think you could gather up some gasoline for us? That would help.”
“I’ve caught another one,” the second boy called over the screams of the bat.
Holly wanted to run. Her whole tired, aching body drew taut with adrenaline and the need to escape, but it didn’t seem like a good idea. As she walked toward the house, the girl’s eyes followed her.
Reaching the yard full of cars, Holly thought again about escape, searching the darkness for what lay beyond the lone house. But as quickly as the idea entered her mind, it left again. A twentyish man lounged in the driver’s seat of a car, watching her pass, as she yanked open the door of the house.
“Holly!” called a woman’s voice. The dark room was crowded with people, but in the red glow from a lava lamp, Holly recognized April’s red hair. She sat on a couch. A man’s hand was between her legs. “We thought you’d never get here,” April said.
Leaving was not a good idea.
“Hello, Holly.” Rob was right behind her in the doorway. He moved even closer to let Nate and Violet in behind him. They were miraculously unhurt. Violet must have protected their bodies in the tumbling SUV, the way Holly had protected her own.
The heat from Rob’s body sank into Holly from her shoulder blades to her butt to her calves. She could feel the hard shapes of his cuffs, his gun, whatever equipment was on his police belt. He set his chin playfully on her shoulder. Close enough to her ear that she could hear him clearly over the thumping music, he whispered, “Welcome to In Medias Res.”
Hitting him was not a good idea.
Talking to him was a good idea. “This is the Res?” she asked. It looked more like a middle school Halloween party.
“Harmless, right?” He chuckled as he walked around her body to face her. “I can only imagine what ridiculous stories Kaylee told you about us. Come into the kitchen. You must be hungry.”
He took her by the hand. Following him was a good idea. They made several attempts at dodging around a couple making out violently in the doorway. Finally they stepped into the spacious marble-tiled kitchen, a suburban dream with stainless steel appliances and vaulted ceilings.
Rob opened the refrigerator. The sudden bright light played across his handsome features and made the remnants of a black eye jump out at Holly from a few steps away. The goons had done that to him. She had ordered that attack on him.
“Don’t feel bad.” He looked up from the refrigerator and poked out his bottom lip at her in sympathy. “I scared you at Glitterati. That was my fault.”
“You did more than scare me,” Holly seethed.
He nodded. “Your parents were still drugging you. You weren’t ready, and I jumped the gun. I’m sorry, Holly. All I ever wanted was for us to be together. To feel good together.” He put his shoulders back in the refrigerator and brought out a large bakery box. “Other parties have a keg. We have a cake.”
“Really?” she asked. “I thought you were more of a keg man.”
“What?” He looked at her blankly. “Oh, the drinking! Yeah, mind readers have to do that sometimes. We’re under this crush of other people’s thoughts all the time, you know? It makes us act a little crazy. Pretending to drink gives us an excuse.” He set the box down on the marble-topped island. “Cake?”
She peered into the box at the white icing sparkling with sugar. “It probably has Mentafixol in it.”
Rob laughed shortly. “We wouldn’t do that to you, Holly. The casino does that. We don’t.” He took plates out of a cabinet and forks out of a drawer and cut them both big slices of cake. “Hey, you’re tired, and you’re wearing heels. Hop up on the counter to eat this.” He made a motion as if to lift her on both sides of her waist.
She used her power to keep his hands off her.
“Why can’t I touch you?” he asked, sounding hurt. “Why are you embarrassed?” Then he threw back his head and laughed. “You’re not wearing underwear? You’re so funny, Holly.”
She smiled up at him. Rob was charming. His delivery was off, though, as if his comedic timing were on a two-second tape delay.
“Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll stand in front of you so nobody else will see.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the shadowy den through the doorway. “And I’m too much of a gentleman to look.”
He put his hands on her waist. A thrill rushed through her at his warm touch. This was a good idea. He lifted her onto the counter, biceps bulging from beneath the short sleeves of his sheriff’s deputy uniform. She sat with her knees together and her ankles crossed. He handed her a slice of cake and took a bite of his own. Hesitantly she took a bite too. Mmmmm.
“So, I realize you might not want to stay long,” he said between bites.
“Want to stay?” she asked. “I thought I didn’t have a choice.”
“Of course you have a choice,” he said, mildly outraged. “You can walk away right now if you want.” He stepped out from in front of her and gestured grandly toward the doorway. “Oh, wait, sorry, I forgot about your underpants.” He edged back in front of her and made the grand gesture again. Then he straightened and took another bite of cake. “We do want to talk to you, because we think we’re right and the casino is wrong. But we know they’ve been very heavy-handed and abusive with you, and we don’t want to drive you away by making you think the same of us.”