’em to move their cars. But it’s kinda early. I don’t know. I gotta be home by midnight, though.”
“It’s after eleven,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, well…”
Glory and Judd stumbled and fell, not into the water, into the mud. Glory started shrieking for all she was worth and Judd shushed her loudly. “You’ll wake the fucking neighbors!” he yelled.
Dawn ran over to them and motioned them both to be quiet. Glory was good and steamed about ruining her coat. Judd wanted to pick up where they’d left off, but Glory was over it. She came whining and swearing to Dawn, who immediately went into girl-protection mode.
My chance to really talk to Dawn was over. It had been unlikely she would confide her problems to me on first meeting anyway. I’d made contact and that was as far as it was going to go.
They headed for the stairs and I trooped up behind them. As I reentered the main room I saw that Brett had lopped his arm over another girl’s shoulder. She’d leaned her head into his chest. Some of the other kids were coupled up as well. There was a tight group of young women near one wall. To a girl they’d either taken off their sweatshirts or unbuttoned their black coats. Their backs were arched, their breasts projecting like arrows. All they needed was a “Touch me here” sign. Their collective attention rested on Keegan Lendenhal, who tortured them with the way he alternately sent them knowing looks, or ignored them completely. I felt his intense gaze skim over my body as if he were an MRI machine. I was mapped out and catalogued so fast it almost gave me a rush. Wow. This guy knew how to ratchet up the heat.
His teen magnetism was both scary and off-putting, but by God I felt it. I wondered who his parents were. If I were a religious person I might pray for them. This kid was serious trouble in a way I had yet to define, even to myself.
Judd, spurned, walked toward Keegan and said something in an aside. Keegan shot a look at Glory, who was still fighting tears over the ruination of her clothes. He reached inside his pocket and handed something to Judd. A packet? Drugs?
“Hey, you,” Keegan said suddenly.
He was looking right at me. My heart squeezed. Did he know I’d been watching?
I pretended not to know he was addressing me. Instead I smiled at Brett, waved and said, “Gotta go. Thanks.”
Brett gazed from me to Keegan, clearly unsure how to react. The girl he was with was now sprawled across his lap but his attention wasn’t on her.
I headed down the plank that led from the front door to the ground, glanced up at the sweatshirt in the tree, then hurried away. I didn’t look back until I was down the lane, nearly to the power pole. When I did, I saw that Keegan Lendenhal was standing in the open doorway, staring in my direction. Could he see me through the dark, from this distance? Impossible.
But I had the uncomfortable feeling he saw a whole lot more than I wanted to portray.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
