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“Great,” he exclaims. “I’ll see you tonight around eight?”
“I’ll be there.” There’s only one bar in town so I don’t need to ask where we’re going.
* * *
“You’re not going anywhere with him tonight.” West walks into my cabin like he belongs there, looming in the bathroom door frame.
“Do you knock?” I ask him around my toothbrush.
“He put his hands on you.”
“I might let him put his hands on me again,” I say after spitting the toothpaste out. “Maybe I’ll let him put other things on me.”
I shoulder check him as I walk toward the stairs leading up to the loft. He follows behind me, but I spin and put my hand on his chest, stopping him. There is no way I’m letting him into my bedroom.
“You arenotcoming into my bedroom.”
“Fine,” he huffs as I walk up the stairs. “But what if he roofies you or something? Has he always been so persistent?”
His audacity leaves me momentarily speechless as I put on a clean pair of jeans. I walk to the edge of the loft and look down at him, incredulous.
“You literally drugged me, undressed me, and left me unconscious on a mountain.” I walk away and pull my shirt off, searching through my tiny closet for a different one. “But now you’re concerned about me?”
“We were always there to make sure you were okay. I redressed you.” His voice comes from the top of the stairs. “We never would have let anything bad happen to you.”
I turn around, stunned to see Blue sitting on his shoulder. Blue doesn’t sit on anyone’s shoulder but mine, even after years of being around Lars. Little traitor.
“It doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, what you guys did was fucked up. I don’t care about your intentions. And I don’t even know why you’re here,” my voice breaks. “What are you even doing here? I was happy.”
“Happy in the woods alone? Cut off from everyone you ever knew?” He steps toward me, invading my space. “I think you’re running. I don’t think you ever stopped.”
“Get out.”
“Don’t go.”
“Get. Out.” I clench my teeth and look away from him.
“I hit a nerve, didn’t I?” He moves toward the stairs. “Just so you know, we’re not going anywhere.”
ChapterTwenty-Six
“Hey, Storm,” I sit down on Violet’s porch as her tail lights disappear around the bend. “That Mitch guy is a fucking douchebag.”
I run my fingers through the fur on top of his head and Ghost lays down beside me, resting her head on my thigh. You would think earning the trust of her dogs and bird would mean something. But she walked out of her cabin in those tight jeans and that sexy shirt like she couldn’t get away fast enough. Maybe I shouldn’t have given her such a hard time driving home today.
No, fuck that. She deserves it. Just like we probably deserve everything she’s doing to us. We made mistakes but so has she. She won’t even give us the time to sit down and talk. She blew off Cody for this stupid fucking date.
I sigh and look up at the sky, a thick layer of clouds covering the stars. So far it’s rained everyday here with near constant overcast skies. I wonder what the stars are like. The town we grew up in is in a valley surrounded by the Rockies, so there was less light pollution than Denver or Colorado Springs, but there have to be so many more visible here.
Footsteps approach from around the side of the cabin causing both dogs to stand. They relax when they see Cody, although Ghost tucks in closer to my side.
“It’s gorgeous out here, isn’t it?” he asks as he comes to stop beside me. “Blake has dinner finished. That Kimchi fried rice that his grandma taught him how to make.”
I stand up and put the dogs inside her cabin, locking the door from the inside. She might feel safe but she’s definitely not.
* * *
By the time I go back out to wait for Vi, the sky has cleared. Brilliant purple and green ribbons move across the dark sky littered by thousands of stars. I tip back the bottle of beer I grabbed from the fridge, swallowing down a gulp of the bitter hops. I’ve never seen the aurora borealis before and it’s breathtaking.
