“How long would this process take?”
“Usually a few days, but in a car that old, hours.”
Sheriff Beasley nodded at that. “So the bleach could’ve been added sometime between yesterday morning and, say, lunchtime?”
“Probably,” agreed Jim.
The sheriff turned his attention to me. “Is there anybody you can think of who might want to prank you?”
Before I could respond, Dad interrupted. “Someone deliberately sabotaged my daughter’s car and then nearly ran her down.” He was barely keeping it together. His hands were curled, white knuckled around the edge of the sheriff’s desk and his voice shook with the effort not to shout.
“Now hold on Nate, let’s not jump to conclusions.” Sheriff Beasley looked back at me. “How about it, Elodie? Is there anybody who might want to . . . retaliate against you by sabotaging your car?”
I froze and hoped my eyes weren’t bugging out of my head. The sheriff knew about my run-in with Amber. And judging by the look on his face, he knew I knew he knew.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” said Dad. “My daughter isn’t the type to get into fights or piss people off enough to do something like this.”
Had Amber filed charges? Was this the part where my dad finally found out that I broke protocol and stood up for myself in a totally excessive manner? I looked at the sheriff, begging him with my eyes not to rat me out. His expression seemed to say, Do you want to tell him, or should I?
Shit. I swallowed.
“There’s this girl at school,” I began.
I felt Dad’s gaze swivel toward me and knew I was getting The Look. My hand fisted around the scrap of Sawyer’s t-shirt in my hoodie pocket. I could get through this.
“She’s never liked me. I don’t know why.” Truth. “The guy she likes was hitting on me earlier this summer, and she didn’t like it.” Understatement.
Damn, Dad. Turn down the laser vision, I thought. I could practically feel his eyes searing my face.
“I wasn’t interested, and I blew him off, but she didn’t care much about that. She backed over my bike in the parking lot of Hansen’s.”
“You didn’t report it,” said the sheriff.
“It was a bike,” I shrugged. “I figured she would consider that payback and be done with it.”
“But she wasn’t,” said the sheriff.
“She seems to think that my saving his life means I’m actually interested in him.”
“You mean Rich Phillips.”
Surely I was getting a pattern burned into my cheek as hard as Dad was staring. My nose flared as I caught the scent of his anger. So. Not. Good.
“I’d have gone on the search no matter who was missing. You know that. Rich might be an arrogant jerk, but he didn’t deserve what was done to him.”
“Let me get this straight,” Dad began. “You’re telling me that some girl poured bleach in your gas tank, destroying your car, because of some guy?”
“It’s a possibility,” I admitted. I glanced up at Sheriff Beasley, waiting to see if he was going to make me finish it. He was. Damn it. “I kind of got into a tussle with her yesterday morning.”
“You what?” On no. That low, careful enunciation was never ever good.
“She was provoked according to Bob Hansen. Apparently this young lady has been harassing your daughter for a long time.”
The toes of my shoes were suddenly very interesting.
“Elodie?” demanded Dad. “Is this true?”
I bobbed my head once.
“How long?”
“Since eighth grade,” I mumbled.
“You’ve managed to avoid getting into a fight with her for this long. What did she say to provoke you?” Dad asked.
I shook my head. No way did I want to get into this.
“Elodie.”
Damn it. He had to pull out the Don’t You Dare Refuse To Answer Me Parent tone.
“She insulted Mom,” I said softly.
“What did she say?”
Her filthy words scrolled back through my mind and I wished viciously for Sawyer to be there to wipe them away again. I shook my head again. “It’s not important. Amber is a hateful bitch and she finally found something that would get a rise out of me. I’m sorry.” I looked to the sheriff. Might as well take my medicine. “Is she pressing charges?”
“No. I didn’t hear about it from her or her parents.”
“Then who?”
Before either of us could speak, Dad’s beeper went off.
“Damn it. Barn fire out of hand at MacLellan’s Dairy. I have to go. Is she actually in trouble?”
“Not with me.”
“Okay. Do you need—”
“I’ll finish taking Elodie’s statement about what happened last night. Then we’ll drop her wherever she needs to go.”
“Thank you.” He turned to me, and I dared to actually lift my head to look at him. Oy, not good. “We’ll talk about this at home, young lady.”
“Yes, sir,” I said meekly.
Jim left with him.
“I am so dead.”
“He’ll get over it,” said Sheriff Beasley.
Who knew the sheriff was such a fan of the power of positive thinking? He so didn’t know my dad.
“So who told you?”
“Bob. He figured Miss Cooper probably would press charges and wanted to make sure the real story got told.”
I had a feeling whatever details Mr. Hansen shared probably still had some measure of editing. Silently I blessed him for it.
“So this vehicle last night. Did you recognize it?”
“No. It was dark, and I was blinded by headlights. Then I was kind of too busy running for my life to pay attention.”
“Tell me what happened.”
So I did. Leaving out the part about being rescued by a wolf, of course.
“Your dad said you were injured.”
I shifted in my seat, wincing at the ache in my back. “It looked worse than it was.” In truth, all the abrasions were healed this morning. It’s why I was wearing a hoodie and jeans in freaking July. So Dad wouldn’t see. “Just some bruising mostly.”
“You were pretty lucky. Do any of Miss Cooper’s friends have a vehicle that could fit the description of the one from last night?”
“Sheriff, it’s small town Tennessee. Everybody and their brother has a truck or an SUV here. Half the high school parking lot could fit the limited description of what nearly ran me down. Maybe a quarter if you limit it to those with V8 engines.”
It suddenly seemed completely ridiculous to think that last night’s encounter had been a hunter. Amber was beyond pissed. She’d have found some lackey or other to give me a good scare. And the bleach thing, well we could blame our chem teacher for showing that episode of Mythbusters last semester.
“I’m sorry I don’t remember more.”
“That’s all right. Something might come to you. I’ll have a chat with Miss Cooper and let her know that further hostilities on her part won’t be tolerated.”
I wasn’t sure whether that was a good idea or not, but I thanked him anyway, wanting nothing more than to get the hell out of here and find Sawyer.
“I’ll have a deputy drive you home.”
“Work,” I corrected. “I’m very late.”
I finished signing whatever paperwork they had for me, and got into one of the cruisers with a fresh faced deputy I remembered as being a senior when I was a freshman. Geez, they recruited them young.
“Where to?” he asked.
I gave him directions to the research station.
He pulled out of the parking lot. “You’re Elodie, right? Fixin’ to be a senior this year?”
I nodded.
“I remember you.”
Well whoopty doo. I didn’t remember his name, just his face. He’d never bothered me, so I’d had no real reason to notice him. For purposes of polite conversation, since he obviously wasn’t going to let the ride go in silence,
I wracked my brain for something I remembered about him.
“You played baseball, didn’t you?” I asked.
“Short stop. Yeah.”
I thought he smiled. I wasn’t sure because I wasn’t actually looking.
“You look . . . different.”
Something in the tone of his voice had me turning from the window, looking at him with one brow lifted. “Different how?”
Color stained his cheeks. “Oh I just mean . . . I don’t know . . . older. More mature. More confident. It’s really . . . attractive.” He cut himself off with a kind of choking noise and looked firmly back at the road. “Sorry. That was inappropriate.”
What was it with everybody thinking I looked different? Rich had acted like he suddenly thought I was sexy. Amber said something about my look being different, as if I was trying to look like a girl. And now this deputy thinks I’m attractive? What was up? All I saw when I looked in the mirror was the same old me. Maybe part of the change nobody wrote about was some kind of spike in pheromones or something.
The remainder of the drive was the epitome of awkward silence. At least he didn’t try to actually hit on me or something like Rich had. Given everything that had happened, I definitely was no longer the girl who could stay submissive and suffer through unwanted attentions, and I really didn’t want to find out how far I might go to stop them without someone to stop me.
Sawyer was out the door of the lab before the cruiser was fully parked, his face a thundercloud. Because I’d learned to read him, I knew his anger wasn’t at me, but at any potential threat, so I shot out of the car to intercept him.
“What happened?” he asked, shifting to put himself between me and the car. He hadn’t actually looked at me yet, his attention still fastened in a narrow-eyed gaze on the poor deputy, whose name I still didn’t remember.
I curled my hand in his, tugging to get his attention. “I’m fine.” I looked back at the deputy. “I’m good. Thanks for the ride, deputy.”
He gave me a salute and avoided Sawyer’s eyes as he got back in the car and drove off.
Sawyer swung around and pulled until I bumped solidly into his chest.
“Where were you?” he demanded. “I was worried.”
It took me a bit to work up actual words for an answer because my brain was too busy short circuiting at his nearness and urging me to press closer. “Um, I emailed your dad that I’d be late.” The chest beneath my hand was broad, the muscles toned and taut. My mouth seemed to be at war over whether it wanted to drool or go bone dry.
“I saw your car last night. What happened?”
Car. Explanation. Right. This was really going to go better if he wasn’t touching me, so I stepped back until there were at least a few inches between us. I didn’t matter. I could still feel the heat of him pulling at me. Jesus.
“Broke down.” I herded my remaining brain cells together. “Someone poured bleach in my gas tank.”
“What?” The word rolled out in a growl, and I found myself stroking his arm.
“Probably Amber, as payback for yesterday morning.”
“There’s more.” It wasn’t a question. I guessed he was learning to read me too.
“Yeah. I kinda sorta nearly got run over on my walk home.”
No what? to that one. Just a glower. He lifted a hand to my cheek, “Are you okay?”
Yes, I’m great, as long as you never, ever stop touching me.
“I’m okay,” I breathed. “Look, Sawyer, there’s something I need to—”
“Elodie! Good to see you made it.”
Sawyer stepped back as Patrick circled around, his pack in one hand, keys in another.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Sure. Fine. Just had some car trouble. Prank gone wrong. Dad wanted me to report it this morning.”
“Kids these days. No respect for personal property.” Patrick shook his head, then shoved his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “Well, c’mon you two, load up! Big doings today!”
“Later,” I mouthed.
Sawyer nodded, and I pasted on a smile. “Great! Let’s go.”
~*~
Elodie
I collapsed onto the top of one of the picnic tables across from the research station, my feet perched on the seat. “I’ll move again sometime next year,” I promised as Sawyer collapsed beside me.
“I think Patrick secretly found a way to bottle a little kid’s energy and he mainlined it,” observed Sawyer, watching the man in question drive away. David and Abby drove out after him. Dr. McGrath was up in Knoxville for the day, doing something with a colleague at UT, so we were, at last, alone.
Carefully, because my back was aching again, I eased back on the tabletop.
“Good idea,” said Sawyer.
He lay back himself. He was too tall to fit as I did, so he had to readjust diagonally, angling so his head fit sort of between my head and shoulder. I didn’t mind. It was comforting to just close my eyes and be surrounded by the scent of him. If I’d had more energy, I might have rolled a little to snuggle him or brushed my fingers through his hair. Which would embarrass us both, so it was a good thing I couldn’t actually move.
It was strange, really. I wasn’t a touchy feely kind of person. Dad and I were not what you’d call demonstrative with affection. At least not since the letter. So this perpetual need I seemed to have to touch Sawyer was weird. I mean, it worked out. He was a touchy kind of guy. Not in a gross, gropy kind of way, but he was just one of those people who communicated through touch. The brush of his arm. His hand on the small of my back or shoulder. The easy way he curled his fingers in mine.
God, I was going to miss that.
With that thought, any vestiges of relaxation disappeared. I was supposed to leave. Say my goodbyes and disappear. Because even if Amber was behind the car and last night’s hit and run attempt, I still couldn’t shake off the idea that Rich had been bait.
“Whatever just popped into your head, forget it,” said Sawyer.
When I tipped my head to look at him, his eyes were closed.
“Your tension is practically vibrating the table,” he said.
“Sorry,” I said.
He snaked a hand up and tangled his fingers with mine. “Did your dad give you shit about the car?”
“About the car, no. But he’s probably going to murder me over my fight with Amber.”
One eye cracked open. “He found out?”
“It was either I tell him or the sheriff would. He got called in to work before he could finish flaying me alive with a lecture. Don’t expect to see me tomorrow.” I swallowed back the knot in my throat. Christ, I was not going to cry in front of him again.
Sawyer’s hand tightened. “You think he’ll make you quit?”
“I don’t know what he’s going to do. I currently have no means of transportation, and he would so not be okay with the idea of one of my male co-workers picking me up for work. For the job I totally lied about having.”
“Maybe if we steal the club he uses to bash you over the head before dragging you back into his cave by your hair, we could knock some sense into him.”
I snorted a bit of a laugh at the heavy sarcasm. “It’s moronic, yes, but he has his reasons. I’ll probably be grounded the rest of the summer as it is. Breaking that Rule in front of him will get me under total house arrest.”
“Don’t tell me he’s pulling that old jewel of ‘I know how teenage boys think. I used to be one.’”
“Well considering that’s exactly how I came about . . . ”
“I think it just means your parents were too stupid to use protection.”
“Oh, thank you so much for that mental image. I need to go bleach my brain.”
“Not that I’m complaining since I’m glad you’re here. Still, it’s not fair for him to punish you for their mistakes or treat you like you’re too stupid to learn from them.”
“I think it’s less about punishing me and more an attempt to pro
tect me. Then, of course, there’s the ‘It’s not you, I’m worried about. It’s them I don’t trust.’ Which also, conveniently translates to driving, as it happens.”
“A multipurpose parental smackdown. Right up there with ‘Because I said so.’”
“I’m guessing that stopped working on you a long time ago.”
“Oh yeah.”
He shifted, actually tucking his head against my shoulder. After a moment’s hesitation, I leaned my head against his, reveling in the feel of his soft hair against my cheek. We lapsed back into a comfortable silence in which he played with my fingers.
“Do you think your parents really loved each other? I mean like, the really it kind of love. Or were they just a couple of crazy teenagers?” he asked. “Do you think you can find it that young?”
I thought of how, when Dad had to change our name, he’d chosen Rose, after her. Rosalind. “Yeah, I think they were it,” I said softly. “He’s never so much as looked at anybody else. And she went through absolute hell for him. I don’t know what-all my grandfather threatened to make her reveal who my father was, but she never breathed a word. She would have done anything to keep him safe. I never understood that before.”
For the first time, I began to consider the possibility that she’d left to protect us. That maybe she was beginning to give in to the madness and feared she’d hurt Dad or me. Maybe her suicide hadn’t been an act of cowardice as I’d always thought, but of strength, as I believed my own might have to be.
Sawyer paused in the midst of drawing his thumb down the length of mine. “You get it now?”
“Yeah. Now I get it exactly.” Because I’d do anything to keep you safe. From a hunter. From me.
I knew then that my decision was made. No matter how much I wanted to stay, I wasn’t willing to risk Sawyer getting hurt. So I would take these next few minutes for the gift that they were, even though my heart was bleeding with every brush of his fingers. Then I’d be gone.
Sawyer sat up, tugging to bring me with him, so we were swiveled toward each other, knees touching. Not until he reached out to brush his thumb over my cheek did I realize I was crying. Damn it.