River's Escape (River's End Series, #2) (7 page)

Ian didn’t say a word, and his facial expression didn’t change. He simply lifted his hands off Drew and nodded as if to say,
go.
Drew passed him and her dad with a snarl.

She fell down onto the side of her bed, her legs suddenly trembling. She never experienced an incident like this. Did she come close to being kind of, or almost, assaulted? No. It couldn’t have been that bad. But it was a little bad. A little frightening. She never expected to find her dad coming to her defense. Could he always hear her through the walls?

“I’m sorry, Dad.”

Her dad snorted. “Why the hell are you sorry? You call yourself names?”

“No. I just… I didn’t think you cared if I had my boyfriends in here.”

“I don’t. So long as nothing is going on. I know my daughter. I don’t have to set the rules for these boys, you do. But when he refused to take no for an answer? That’s not okay. Not your fault. Biting him? Now, that’s my girl.”

She glanced up and tried to swallow the lump of tears in her throat that threatened to fall from her eyes. “Please don’t tell Caleb and Jordan. They’d…”

“Beat the shit out of him. Listen, girl, we might not be all hearts and flowers and all, but no one messes with you, got that?”

The tears escaped. Just a few. “Thank you, Dad.”

He teetered on one leg. “Well, that’s more than I’ve done all week. I think I’m going to rest now. Glad you’re okay.” He patted her leg and exited. Ian let him past. Then, to her surprise and shock, Ian didn’t follow him out, but stepped into her room. Her room! Ian never came inside her room before.

“Are you?”

She glanced up. “Am I what?”

“Okay?”

She quickly dropped her gaze and kept it firmly down. “Yes, just a little shaken.”

He didn’t say anything more or ask what happened. He didn’t ask how Drew’s pants came to be undone. She could feel his gaze running over her so she kept her hair over her face and made it cover her breasts. He finally started for the door. What must he think? Of her? And what he witnessed? His total lack of reaction, and presence to still remain there was enough to spark her anger.

“Where are you going?”

He stopped dead and quirked an eyebrow up. “To keep my promise.”

Promise? What? She waited a second after he walked down the hall. Did he mean… the whole warning thing about Drew not bothering her? What did he mean? No way. There was no way that Ian was going after Drew, or was there? That would have been crazy. Nothing really happened. It was over now. Done. But still… that quiet, lethal strangeness of Ian’s. And Drew did call Ian a faggot. She suddenly jumped to her feet and started towards the door.

Drew’s taillights were fishtailing down the road as he sped away. Ian was just stepping into his truck so she ran after him. She grabbed his arm just as he began to sit, and yanked him around until he had to step back on the ground and face her.

“Wait. What does that mean? To keep your promise?”

“I told him to keep his hands to himself.”

Technically, he did keep his hands to himself, he just tried to use her hand to do the work. “You don’t even know what you walked in on.”

“Don’t I?” he asked softly. “It wasn’t a hand job you didn’t want to give? When you either stopped, or refused, he called you a bitch?”

His voice was soft and silky. He had never spoken about anything personal with her before. Hearing him talk about her giving a hand job was so, so wrong. And awful. She dropped her head again in shame.

“Wasn’t it?” he pressed.

“It kind of was. I just didn’t want to right now.”

“And I told you he wouldn’t take no easily. But he should have.”

Ian turned again, set on getting into his truck. She nearly threw her hands up. Was he for real? What was he planning to do?

“You can’t go… do whatever you’re thinking of. That would be assault or something. I mean, stop. This is crazy we’re even talking about this.”

“I don’t tolerate guys who don’t take no for an answer.”

“I don’t either. But this time, it’s over. Nothing happened.”

He held her gaze. “Everything happened.”

She swallowed. “Okay, it wasn’t my favorite evening of all time. He was a little pushy, and things kind of got out of control. But it’s over now. Please, Ian. I just want it to be done. If you do anything, it will soon be all over the valley. That would humiliate me. As it stands now, we can bet Drew will tell no one. I mean, I bit him. How proud of that could he be?”

The side of Ian’s mouth twitched. “Biting was good.”

“Please. Quit talking about him. Just let me forget him.”

Ian tapped his fingers on his steering wheel for several long moments. How did he do that? So thoroughly prolonging a moment? Finally, he gave a short nod, and she blew out a sigh of relief. Thank God. She just wanted to go to bed and pretend this never happened.

She started to turn away to leave when Ian’s voice stopped her dead.

“Hey, Lynnie?”

Slowly lifting her gaze to him, she waited expectantly. He also rarely, but quite purposely, tried to talk to her after the end of any conversation. “Choose better. Your last few boyfriends have been complete assholes. Pick smarter next time.”

With that, he set the gear shift into reverse and turned around, tearing out of there almost as aggressively fast as Drew. That was so not like Ian. She watched his taillights fade, thinking this had to be the worst night she could remember. Worse even than the homecoming dance, when her date ditched her before dancing with another girl right in front of her.

She shook her head, anxious to burrow under her bed covers and pretend this never happened.

DREW WAS LUCKY. APPARENTLY, it meant a lot to Kailynn that the whole incident remain between them. A few more seconds and Ian would have been after Drew, who might have found himself in the hospital that morning. It kept playing in his mind. Ian heard the rising voices in her room, and knew they were in there.
Didn’t he always know?
But the bitch slur had him instantly striding down the hall, only to be shocked at seeing her dad hobbling out of his door. Senior Hayes rarely showed his face. Ian hung back only out of respect, since he was about a fraction of a second from pounding down the door before pounding Drew’s face.
Stupid prick.
Standing there with his pants down to his knees. Nursing his slightly bitten hand. That was the only part of the entire incident that made Ian think about smiling. The bitten hand. She managed to take care of herself rather well. He didn’t like seeing Drew’s ensuing flaccid dick dangling below his t-shirt either. He really didn’t need to picture what led up to what he was happily spared from witnessing.

Awkward didn’t begin to describe how Kailynn then acted with Ian after that. She was always kind of standoffish to him. Was she just shy? Reserved? Intimidated? Or did she think he was a moron? He really didn’t know the source of her attitude with him; but she definitely had one. Now? She didn’t raise her gaze to meet his, and slunk around the house, working all the more diligently if he encountered her. She refused to even say hello or goodbye to him, which he really hated.

He stayed away from her brothers for a few weeks, but missed seeing her. He had nothing better to do really. Shane and Caleb drove him nuts, but they were better than being alone. Jack spent all of his spare time with Erin nowadays, so he figured he’d already lost his best friend to a girl, in a way.

When he entered their trailer, one random Friday night, she dropped her gaze from his and focused only on cooking dinner. It bugged the crap out of him. She worked the equivalent of fifty hours a week before returning to the trailer and cooking and cleaning for her dad and brothers. Dad, he could understand; the man had all but given up on life. But Jordan and Caleb? He couldn’t figure out why she bothered with them. Why didn’t she just insist they do their own chores? Especially, since their appreciation of her was less than zero.

Shane, too, took advantage of her. For that, Ian was ready to knock his brother on the head. It was enough she took care of their house and cooked their dinners every night, but here, at her own home too? Where Shane was considered a guest? Ian usually refused to eat there despite multiple invitations. He just said he’d already eaten even if he hadn’t. He got so freaking tired of watching her serve everyone else.

Finally, she cleaned it all up and the kitchen sparkled. She was quiet and didn’t add much to her brothers’ and Shane’s constant ribbing. They didn’t know anything about what happened with Drew; and for that small blessing, he was grateful. He could imagine all the dick jokes they’d be telling. It would have humiliated Kailynn, and no doubt, sent her cowering into her room, probably never to reemerge.

“Come on, man, let’s do it.”

Ian tuned back into the conversation, lifting his gaze off Lynnie’s ass. She had a rounded one, which she often hid under too large shirts, probably intended to hide her too large breasts, he suspected. But her butt was every bit as nice as her boobs. Ian was just better than most men at masking his interest.

“Do what?” he asked in reply to Caleb’s statement.

“Go up to Hunter’s Creek. Five days. I really want to go scouting before hunting season. And man, I could use the vacation.”

Vacation from what?
Did Caleb work even twenty hours this month? Ian didn’t think so. Hunter’s Creek was wilderness land where his family had a private camp. It was located along a forgotten and small creek, about ten miles from the trailhead. He and Jack tried to go there every year; and sometimes, Shane or Joey went, but rarely. Jack skipped it last year after getting together with Erin, and that looked to be the same for this year. They usually loaded the horses with pack gear and went totally off the grid for the week. No cell phones. No internet. No communication at all was possible. They were miles from the nearest human being. Their favorite place was one their father used to take them to. They would set up their wall tent, hoping to spend a few blissful days up in the mountains, away from normal life.

Eventually, Shane decided that Caleb and Jordan should come along. Ian tried to veto it and lost. He didn’t want them there. He feared they would tell the world about it and they had stuff stashed up there that was not totally legal. After all, it was wilderness land and permanent camps were forbidden. Theirs was so off the beaten track, no one could have found it… without help, of course.

But Shane was their brother so he had just as much ownership of the camp as Ian and Jack. And if Shane wanted to invite his friends up there, Ian really had no right to object. But he didn’t trust the Hayes brothers and Shane together up there. He often worried they would kill themselves. Not that it was overly dangerous, but those three together could manage to make it so. They didn’t really know how to handle horses very well, much less, with all the necessary gear. Ian and Jack did, but Shane only rode horses to get up there and back, and that was about the only time Shane rode, actually.

“Ah, all of you?”

“Yeah, man, of course. You coming too?” Shane didn’t glance at him, so he missed Ian’s disapproving expression.

“I’m certainly not sending my horses alone with you three. So yeah, I guess I’m
leading
you in there.”

Shane threw a pillow at his head. “You’re such a dickhead. They’re my horses too.”

He caught the pillow and tucked it behind his head. Unfortunately, the horses technically did belong to Shane. It wasn’t right; and Shane could have cared less about them. Ian looked after the horses, while Jack lived and breathed them. There had to be a better way to divide their legacy. How can you split one ranch into four equal pieces? Ian knew the time was fast approaching for them to do so, before they ended up with nothing more to offer each other.

Kailynn came into the room and primly sat down on the couch next to Shane, since it was the only open spot. How did Shane fail to notice the way she held her body, like she was sort of closing in on herself? Or how primly she tried to behave? Crossing her legs, she always kept her body parts from brushing his. Shane, meanwhile, sprawled unceremoniously beside her without a second thought before scratching his balls. Shane wasn’t a loser like Drew; he just wasn’t what Kailynn wanted. How could she not see that? And how could Shane not see her obvious crush on him?

At least, Ian wasn’t so obvious. It irked him no end that he even had a crush on Kailynn. He never before in his life cared about any person enough to want them in any capacity except how they already were.

“Could I come?”

The four of them turned their attention back to the movie they were half watching. Kailynn’s voice was soft and breathy.
Feminine
. They all glanced at her.

“Come where?” Caleb asked, munching on the pile of chips before him.

“Hunter’s Creek?”

Ian sat up straight.
Why would Kailynn want to go there?
She rarely came out to the barns, and hadn’t ridden a horse in more than five years that he knew of. She never asked about the horses, or the ranch, or what he or Jack did. She only ever asked about Shane. And now she wanted to embark on a ten-mile ride in the middle of the wilderness and set up camp for five days with four guys?

Shane whipped his head down and frowned. Obviously, he wanted to drink and just be with his boys, not dragging a girl along who could only cramp their not-so-attractive, manly ways.

“I’d like to try it. I’ve never done anything like it. Please? You guys talk about it all the time,” Kailynn pleaded.

Yeah, they did. Or at least Shane, Caleb and Jordan did. They were mostly drunk the entire time they spent there. Ian did most of the work that would have, no doubt, made it not so much fun for them.

“Well, hell, Lynnie, I guess so. But this is no hairdryer kind of shit. No girlie crying over spiders. This is peeing in the woods and roughing it. You get the drift.”

Her face exploded in pink. They were always embarrassing her, and not one of them ever knew, or cared, they were. She was kind of prim and proper and reserved. There was a certain way she liked people to talk around her. She didn’t like their constant crude statements about sex and bodily functions, which they seemed to think were so funny. She didn’t comment when they did that, although none of them ever picked up on it. And yet, Shane remained the one she was so freaking captivated by.

“Yes, I understand we’ll be roughing it.”

“Yeah, roughing it. There’s no bathing, no toilets, no creature comforts. It’s awesome.” Jordan interjected.

Ian watched her eyes growing bigger. He shifted forward, leaning on his elbows, which he rested on his knees. “It’s not that bad. We haul in cots, and there are plenty of creature comforts. It won’t be a total culture shock for you.”

She lifted her gaze finally and searched out his face, glancing at him, then at Shane, and back to him. Directing her plea to Ian, she seemed to finally comprehend that he was the brains and leader behind the whole adventure. He seemed to have no other options, at least, in his book. “Can I come?”

She hadn’t spoken to him directly since the night Drew tore out of the driveway. She was timid and embarrassed to say anything to him after that. He didn’t let on that his heart increased a few beats at hearing her question. Yeah, she could come. Maybe he’d find a way to show her that his idiot brother was not the one she wanted, even if she couldn’t seem to see that on her own.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, I can come?” she inquired almost incredulously.

Ian always annoyed her, although he didn’t mean to. He didn’t explain his thoughts enough for her to understand. He knew it was why she clenched her teeth and sometimes, snapped at him. He didn’t mean to frustrate her; it’s just the way he was. He wasn’t one to articulate what he felt, either. He answered whatever was asked of him, but didn’t generally start or create conversations. He didn’t mean to annoy her, but managed to anyway.

Shane, however, could embarrass her and make her turn red, but that never annoyed her.
Go figure
.

“Yes, you can come.”

That set off the next discussion regarding what day, what time, and what to bring. Ian interjected only once or twice when the other men were being complete idiots. He often felt like he was their babysitter. Weird how Kailynn was younger than all three of them and he never felt that way toward her. She didn’t add much more to the topic, but he saw her stealing a few glances at Shane with her eyes bright in anticipation.
What did she think? She might get her chance with Shane if they got away from real life?

He clenched his fist. If she did, it wasn’t his damn business then, was it? He’d bow out, and she’d never know he harbored any feelings for her. He’d never again annoy her.

As for the trip, he knew he’d end up repacking most of the other guys’ stuff and leaving half of it behind. They didn’t seem to grasp the whole concept of horses having to carry in all their equipment. The packing had to be done with absolutely perfect precision, or they would never make it to the campsite.

But despite all the extra work, there was a strange flutter in Ian’s stomach.
Excitement?
When did he ever get excited? He didn’t. Never. He was always kind of calm and slow to react to things. Few things could manage to excite him, but apparently, this did.

****

Kailynn glanced out as she heard the truck downshifting before it came to a halt. She jumped up off the sofa and grabbed her duffel bag, her excitement turning her cheeks pink and widening her smile. She managed to get invited! Well, more or less after some gentle persuasion. The days of contemplating the whole Drew episode were over, and she decided it was time to go after Shane. Time to make Shane realize she was right there all along, just waiting for him. She was it for him. And he for her. This trip would provide her with the
how
of making her dream happen. No more loser guys to fill in the gap. No more waiting for Shane to take the first step. She intended to do it.

Now. On this trip.

Her heart tipped and felt like it shrunk.
Damn. It was Ian’s truck
. He had the large horse trailer in tow. Why didn’t Shane drive up to get her? Her brothers took all their stuff down an hour ago while she finished cleaning up the trailer. It was early, not even six-thirty in the morning. They promised to come get her. Not Ian, whom she saw alone in the cab of his truck. In a few minutes, the giant rig was flipped around before he turned it off. Ian stretched his long legs as he exited from the cab, and her shoulders sagged with disappointment.

She had to clench her teeth together just to keep in the growl of dismay. She stomped to the door when he knocked and flung it open. She was even more uncomfortable with him now since the whole Drew episode. Now he knew she’d been in the room doing something with Drew’s penis, which still embarrassed her no end.

“Hi,” she said in a cold, curt tone.