Chapter 10

“Absolutely not,” Janice said with her arms crossed.

Alex could tell Grace was in a no-win situation, but he gave her credit for pressing on.

“He’ll be perfectly safe. I’ll be there to make sure of it.”

“She promised I’d get a gun, so I can take care of myself,” Alex said.

He could not help himself from throwing gasoline on this smoldering dumpster fire.

“Nice try,” Janice said, not taking the bait and turning on Grace again. “You’re probably facing drug dealers or worse.”

This little drama all started when Alex came home and announced he’d be camping out at the Aldrich pot farm to do some security work. When Janice dug deeper as to why, she discovered that Carl Cooper was the one casing the farm. He was the man the Aldriches used to sell their drugs to and whose son Dave had been dosed with an experimental batch of Moondust.

Now that the Aldriches had gone legit, they were no longer selling to Carl, and it looked like the Coopers hadn’t found a replacement for the Aldriches’ pot.

Sheriff Conly pulled Carl over for a traffic stop and had a quiet word with him. Alex would bet his imaginary beach house that this simple act had put an end to it. So he wasn’t excited about sleeping outside over the weekend.

There was that, plus Caleb Hiatt was having a party at his family’s cabin that night.

So, weighing his options of spending the night alone with Grace or partying with a group of teens in the woods ... it was no contest. Hence the gun comment.

Lyric walked into the kitchen and noticed the tension.

“You told them about the party, didn’t you?”

“What party?” Grace and Janice asked in unison.

Suddenly all eyes were on Alex. Welp, he would have to kill Lyric later.

“Caleb is having a few friends over at his cabin. I think the plan is to Netflix and chill. So, it’ll be casual,” Alex said.

Janice turned to Grace and asked, “Isn’t that code for something?”

“Yeah, something Alex and Lyric should have no idea about. It sounds like you need to have the talk with them.”

“Sheriff Conly already had one with me. We both agree that bras are confusing,” Alex said, causing Janice to turn bright red and Grace to burst out laughing. Lyric simply froze, to show any reaction.

“Is it a couples party?” Janice asked.

“You know me. I can’t be tied down to any one woman,” Alex said and instantly regretted it.

Decker had set up a lean-to at the far end of the pot field and given Grace and Alex sleeping bags. They were next to the woods, and being city folk, they both were on edge thanks to all the weird noises coming from the forest.

“Next time, I’m hiring an off-duty cop to do this shit,” Grace said.

Suddenly the lights came on, and an alarm began to blare at the other end of the field, the section closest to the road. The two of them looked at each other and heard Maddie yell, “Stop right there!”

Boom!

“Oh, shit!” Alex said and sprinted off down the outside of the field.

Grace had pulled her gun and went down the other side at a trot.

“You crazy bitch,” a man’s voice said, then Alex heard a thump, followed by a cry from Maddie.

“I’m going to shoot you in the face so no man will ever want you,” the man said.

Alex rounded the edge of the hoop greenhouse and saw Carl holding Maddie’s shotgun. She’d obviously peppered his leg with bird shot because there were tiny bloody holes in his jeans. A close-up blast would mess up her face, if not blind her.

Carl registered that Alex was coming his way and swung the shotgun around. As Alex tackled the man, the gun went off again, somehow missing everyone. The front door of one of the greenhouses wasn’t so lucky.

“Get off me, you little—!”

“Freeze!” Grace shouted.

Carl did just that when he saw the .38 that Grace pointed at his head. Alex stood up and was promptly taken off his feet as Maddie tackled him and pinned him to the ground so she could kiss him.

“I thought he shot you,” she said with tears running down her face. Then she got mad and slugged him in the chest. “You idiot! What did you think you were doing?”

“He said he was going to shoot you in the face. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Alex found himself being soundly kissed again. Girls really were confusing.

“Janice is going to kill me when I tell her you got more action in the middle of a field than you would’ve gotten at the party,” Grace said. She was trying to get Maddie to stop, but it didn’t work.

The Aldrich girl came to her senses when she heard Decker running from the house, followed by her mom and dad. In the distance, sirens signaled that the sheriff’s department was responding.

Carl Cooper was arrested, and Maddie’s shotgun was confiscated as evidence. Alex considered both a win.

Thankfully, Grace made the executive decision that they didn’t need to spend the night under the stars. Alex convinced Maddie and Decker to go to Caleb’s party—mainly because he needed a ride.

On the ride over, he had a question for Maddie.

“Why didn’t you shoot him again?”

“Alex is right. You would have shot me twice,” Decker said.

“That’s because you’re a pain in my rear,” Maddie said to her brother, then leaned back in the driver’s seat to gather her thoughts. “He scared me. I shot him in the leg, and Mr. Cooper got this look like if I tried it again, he might kill me. Hindsight being what it is, I should’ve.”

“Let’s stop talking about this for now,” Decker said. “I need a beer.”

Alex had to admit that the adrenaline rush had faded. He felt flat, like he could use a good nap. When they pulled up at the cabin, it was obvious this wasn’t a ‘Netflix and chill’ kind of party. It looked as if half the teens in the county were there.

One of the first things they saw was Ivy holding Nell’s hair back as she leaned against a tree and threw up. Decker didn’t want any part of that and glided across the lawn to find the keg. Maddie and Alex stopped to make sure the girls were okay.

“Too much punch,” Nell groaned.

“Go find Dawn, Natasha, and Lyric. They’re in a bad way, too, and Caleb was perving on them,” Ivy said.

Of the remnants of the wolf pack, Caleb was the one who worried Alex in a situation like this. Caleb was all about Caleb and his personal gratification. While Ethan was somewhat like that, he at least was a good guy at heart. Maddie and Alex both knew that.

“Where are they?” Alex asked.

“Check the bedroom on the ground floor,” Ivy said.

That got them moving.

Alex didn’t bother to knock but just burst into the room. What he found was unexpected. Caleb was passed out, face down on the floor, while Dawn, Lyric, and Natasha sat cross-legged in a circle on the bed.

Maddie glanced in and mumbled that she was getting a beer.

The other three girls simply stared at him.

“I uh ... I uhm ... well, I’ll just say it. The three of you looking at me like that makes me feel awkward.”

“Maybe you can help us out,” Lyric said.

“Uhm, I will if I can,” Alex said cautiously.

“Caleb wanted to find out who the best kisser was, but you can see he decided to take a little nap before passing judgment,” Natasha said.

“Oh.”

“Maybe you could let us kiss you, and we could settle this,” Dawn said.

“You all let Caleb kiss you?” Alex asked.

“How else would he know?” Lyric asked.

“Uhm...”

“I bet Zac or Ethan would help us,” Dawn said with a glint in her eye.

“No! No. I can probably help,” Alex decided.

“Lyric, you go first,” Dawn said.

The way Lyric’s eyes darted to the other girls, Alex suddenly suspected they were putting him on.

“Let me use the little boy’s room for a second, and then we’ll get started,” Alex said.

When he closed the door, he could hear furious whispering coming from the bedroom. Alex saw some mouthwash on the counter, so he made his mouth minty fresh. When he opened the door, Lyric looked pissed, while the other two suddenly had their little-angel faces on.