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“You gave him water?” said Nick.
“Yes.” She wet her lips and glanced between them. “And yes.” She hesitated, then explained what had happened.
When she got to the part where Chris confronted his attackers with the water bottle, she couldn’t make it sound sensible. She must have remembered it wrong.
Freeze. Right there.
Or I’ll mean that literally.
“Why’d you give him water?” Michael was leaning against the doorway molding now, his arms folded across his chest.
The question caught her off guard. “I don’t know—he was unconscious, and my phone was dead—and—”
“But you knew.”
Was she missing something? “I knew what?”
“Don’t play with me. You knew the water would wake him up.”
WTF? She glanced at the twins, but they were no help. “I hoped it would.”
“Of course you did.”
Nick sighed. “Jesus, Michael. Bring it down a notch. She goes to our school. She’s in Chris’s class.”
Gabriel dropped back into his chair and flashed irritated eyes at the doorway. “Yeah, Birkenstock. If you want to get worked up about something, why don’t you take a look in the empty fridge?”
Michael’s eyes didn’t leave hers. “You don’t find this all a little convenient? Tyler’s twice her size. Go take a look at what he did to Chris and tell me you believe he’d let her drive off.”
Gabriel lost the sneer and turned to look at his twin. “He’s that bad?”
Nick glanced at Michael, then nodded. “Pretty bad.”
Now all three of them were looking at her, and she could feel the aggression in the air.
“Look, I was just trying to help Chris.” She glanced at Nick and balled up the towel to set it on the table. “I told you who did this. I didn’t mean to get in the middle of some ... I don’t know, turf war, or gang thing, or whatever you guys are—”
“Save it.” Michael straightened until he filled the doorway, until she became very aware that he blocked the path out of the kitchen. “You expect me to believe you scared off Tyler all by yourself? And he just let you drive Chris home?”
“Tyler grabbed me.” She swallowed, feeling guilty for absolutely no reason whatsoever. “I jabbed him in the eyes and we jumped in the car.”
Gabriel smiled, and it stole some of the fury from his expression. “I like this girl.”
“You jabbed him in the eyes,” said Michael.
“Yeah.”
“Tyler.”
Her mouth was dry, and she had to wet her lips again. “What, you want a demonstration?”
He stepped into the kitchen. Instinct forced her out of the chair, and she backed away, toward the cooking island.
But he stopped, his eyes narrowed. “What are you afraid of?”
She was beginning to wish she’d just left Chris in the driveway. Her key ring was in her pocket, and she felt her fingers curl around the steel, her house key and car key poking through her knuckles. “You.”
“But I thought you were just trying to help.” The sarcasm came through loud and clear. Michael took another step toward her. “Why would you be afraid of me?”
