Chapter 335

“Sherry, do you want some help?” I asked.

I’d walked up to within about six feet of her and she hadn’t opened her eyes, and when I spoke she practically jumped out of her shoes as her eyes flew open and she looked at me in a panic. “Um!” she said loudly.

“It’s OK,” I said, holding up my hands to try and show I didn’t mean any harm. “You just look like you could really use a hand.”

Sherry swallowed, looking at me, then glanced farther into the parking lot after Heather. Then back to me. Then at her bag laying on the ground. Then back to me.

To be honest, her process to think things through almost made me want to walk away, it took her so long. “OK,” she finally said quietly, her lower lip sticking out a little and trembling.

Dear God, don’t do it, I thought, groaning internally as I stepped forward and righted her suitcase before pushing in the retractable pull bar and then lifting it by the hand straps. It was a big suitcase, and it felt like she had a couple of bricks in it, but I managed.

“I just really hurt all over,” Sherry said, looking at me.

“OK,” I grunted. “That really sucks. Let’s get you packed away so that you can get back into the car with some AC.”

I felt bad for her, but not bad enough to really offer her sympathy after what she’d done to her own sister. Then again, I also didn’t want to see her enthralled to Heather either. I had about twenty seconds of walking with her to say something, and started trying to formulate the right combination of words that would suggest, gently, that Heather was a fucking predator and Sherry had the naieveté of a teenager and she was pretty much being groomed to be a sex slave and she could say No whenever she wanted.

That combination of words was slowly clicking into place, but not fast enough because my train of thought got interrupted by a commotion up ahead.

“What the fuck is this?!” Heather yelled.

She was standing at their rental car, the trunk popped open but she hadn’t lifted her luggage in yet. Cattie, meanwhile, was a lane over and a couple spots further up, organising things a bit in the bed of my truck. My girlfriend clearly heard the Bitch Hollar though, and turned to see Heather glaring at her with her arms wide.

“What?” Cattie asked loudly.

I could feel the eyes of everyone on the trip looking at the two of them past me, plus at least one or two employees of the rental place since Becca had been talking to them near the dock.

“Why the fuck aren’t you putting your bags in the car?” Heather asked. “We need to go to the airport.”

“You’re going to the airport,” Cattie said. “I’m not going anywhere with you ever again. I don’t associate with raging cunts.”

“What the fuck do you mean?” Heather snarled, stamping her way between two cars and heading for Cattie. “You booked the fucking tickets.”

“And they’re in your names,” Cattie said stonily. “I also made sure to pull my credit card details off of them, so don’t think you can just order up an upgrade or something. And you signed and paid for the rental car, so you’re the one on the hook if you don’t return it.”