And Skyler hissing my name.
“Lola.” She hooks the back of my sundress, and I twist to face her.
“What? I’m allowed to be happy!”
Skyler’s loose braid catches on her oversized tee as she shakes her head and points farther down the road ahead of us. “Is that the pickup truck you were talking about?”
I follow her finger, my face flushing hot then cold when I see the same rusted brown pickup that sped away from my shop after the fire.
It slows down before turning into the parking lot for the Heart Home care leavers apartments.
“Come on.” Skyler snags my hand and drags me after the truck.
“What are you doing?” I hiss.
A young gangly man still in his teens hops out of the pickup. He slips on a Viper MC cut and glances around before taking out a backpack.
Skyler’s brows peak. “Paint me a picture of someone up to some shady shit,” she says. “Wanna find out what he’s doing?”
I cut her a look, like the very same thought hadn’t just crossed my mind. “That would be stupid. I don’t do stupid things anymore.”
Skyler’s blue eyes sparkle. “Good thing you have me then.” She makes it halfway towards the parking lot before I curse under my breath and follow.
Skyler smirks as I come up beside her, behind a tree. “Welcome to the walking tour of bad decisions. First stop, the world-renowned Pine Rock parking lot where, if I’m not mistaken, you’ll get to witness a real live… drug deal.” The humor drains out of her voice as we watch the guy from the pickup approach a man in a leather biker vest and hand over a wad of cash in exchange for a small plastic bag. My skin goes cold.
“Fuck,” Skyler hisses. She tugs on my hand, dragging me down behind a red Fiat. “I don’t think they saw us.”
I don’t answer her. I can’t. All I can do is stare at the reflection in the driver’s window of the car in front of us. At the man talking to the teenager. At the viper tattoo on his hand.
The distorted silhouettes of the two men stretch like they’re in a fun house mirror and the hot air compresses around me.
“Lola. Lola!” Skyler’s panicked whisper hovers just out of reach.
My breathing shallows, dry air cracking my lips. I’m locked in my body, stuck staring at the car window until the figures disappear and all it reflects is the tall pines surrounding the parking lot.
“Hey.” Skyler’s hand slips into mine and I manage to curl my cold fingers around her warm ones. “They’re gone. You’re alright.”
I swallow sand. Let out a shaky breath. And then anger fires inside of me, pissed the fuck off that I just panicked like that.Fuck him.Fuck him for making me feel like this.
“What happened, Lo?”
I brush tears I didn’t realize had fallen off my cheeks and turn to look at Skyler. “That man, the one with the snake tattoo. It’s the Viper MC tat.”
“Oh fuck.” Skyler’s mouth rounds. “That’s the guy?”
I nod. Rob Carson. The man who drugged me. Who touched me.
“I thought he was in prison,” Skyler says, her voice still hushed.
“He got out a couple of months back.” My mind whirls. I know Max warned me he was released from prison, but I haven’t seen Rob since the night of my eighteenth birthday and now he’s here, in Pine Rock, only one street down from my coffee shop.Fucker.He doesn’t get to do this. He doesn’t get to be here.
My chest hitches and my breaths start coming fast again. Too fast.
Skyler’s shape blurs in front of me. “Hey, you’re okay. He can’t hurt you. Not here.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and nod.
Skyler tugs me up to standing. “Come on, let’s go back. Forget the Lagoon, we can order a pizza for lunch.”
