Page 90 of To the Grave

We were alone at the top of the falls, just the house and the surrounding forest and the crash of water to the river below.

Otis looked over his shoulder at me, watching from the sofa. “Fuck.”

“I’ll light the candles.”

Chapter 62

Ruth

This was a bad idea. Rain was coming down sideways, the wind making my new car creak and groan. Through the windshield, the red neon light of the bar glowed, barely visible in the rain.

An hour ago I’d felt like an adult headed to the city for a romantic rendezvous with a gorgeous guy. Now I felt like a kid who just wanted to be in her bedroom at home, knowing her dad was somewhere in the house even if he was emotionally MIA.

Being sixteen was confusing as fuck.

Thunder sounded in the distance a few seconds before lightning tore through the sky.

That was it. I was out. I wanted to go home.

I was reaching for the ignition button on my car when a pair of headlights swung into the parking lot. I recognized the car immediately. There was only one guy who drove a Tesla in Blackwell Falls and it was McSexy.

I dropped my hand back to my lap. I couldn’t just peel out of the parking lot without talking to him. I’d just tell him I’dchanged my mind, that it wasn’t a good night for a trip to the city. I mean, this was not a romantic, let’s-go-to-the-city storm.

This was a movie storm, the kind where boats in the ocean sank and roofs blew off houses.

We’d planned to drive to the city in McSexy’s car and leave mine at Mo’s, so I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t get out. The black Tesla idled, the headlights cutting through the darkness.

I took a deep breath, pulled up my hood, and opened the car door.

I was immediately battered with rain and wind, and I ducked as I ran to the Tesla, glad the door was already unlocked when I opened it and slid into the passenger seat.

“Oh my god,” I said once the door was closed. “What a freaking nightmare.”

He grinned. “Wild, right? Where’s your stuff?”

“I… um… I think I’m going to pass on the trip to the city,” I said. “This storm is insane. I don’t think we should be driving in it.”

He frowned. “It’s just a little rain.”

“I know, but… I don’t know.” I felt like a baby. A pathetic baby. “Maybe we can do it next weekend?”

He clenched his jaw. “You’ve been putting me off for weeks.”

I felt a flash of anger. It felt good compared to the fear I’d been sitting in. “It’s not like you weren’t having fun.”

We’d made out plenty in the weeks we’d been seeing each other, and I’d given him more than one hand job. What an entitled asshole.

His hand shot out lightning fast. He grabbed my arm. “You owe me more than a tit grab and a hand job.”

“Ow!” I tried to pull my arm away but his grip was like iron around my forearm. “I don’toweyou anything. I’m allowed to change my mind.”

He laughed, and the sound of it scared me even more than the grip he still had on my arm, because it wasn’t any version of his laughter that I recognized. Not his lighthearted laugh when I made a joke or his big laugh when I took him by surprise or his sexy laugh when we were flirting.

This was a hard laugh. A cold laugh. A laugh that said I’d been super wrong about Gray Cantwell.

“Too late for that, you spoiled little cunt.” He let go of my arm. There was a mean light in his eyes. “Good thing you won’t need your bags where you’re going.”

He reached for the gear shift and I realized he wasn’t going to let me leave the car.

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