“You look like a grease-ball. Go hose off.”
Cole kept wrenching under the ’55 Chevy’s hood. The farmer he bought the pickup from said it ran a few years back, but it didn’t matter. Cole had a rebuilt 350 to bolt up under the hood, and a tranny he’d traded for a pair of heads he didn’t have use for.
“I’m always a grease-ball.” He looked up and took in Trey’s T-shirt—looked brand new. “Those are some fancy designer jeans you got on. All that’s missing are the rhinestones.”
Grinning, Trey snubbed out his cigarette in an ashtray on the workbench. “It’s called bedazzling, fucker. I’ll add that shit later.”
Cole laughed and went back to wrenching. “What are you dressed up for? Thought we were working on that metal junker of yours.”
“Not tonight.” Trey popped open the lid of the cooler beside the pickup, then tore open the box of beer. Dumping the cans inside, he said, “We’re crashing a chick party.”
“I’ll stay here, thanks.”
Trey cracked a beer and lifted the can. “I need new friends.”
Cole grunted as he pushed against a stubborn bolt. “Funny. I keep saying the same thing.”
“Guess if you’re not there, I can have all the chicks to myself. That should be fun.” He sat down on the cooler and tipped the can for a drink.
“I’m sure they won’t mind.” He set the wrench down beside the radiator and turned around to the toolbox behind him. “You’ve got the single women in this town beating down your door anyway.”
“That they are.” He flashed a cocky grin and smoothed a hand down the chest of his shirt. “Can’t blame them, I’m a fine piece of meat.”
“Meat-head, you mean.” Cole chuckled, and pulled a ratchet out. “Sorry man, I’m sitting this one out. You can tell me all about it tomorrow if you’re not too hungover. Been a shit day dealing with Kensie’s crap again.”
“What’s she doing now?” Trey shook his head. “I swear that woman lives to make you miserable.”
Cole blew out a frustrated breath, and went back to work on the engine. “Keep telling myself it’ll get better when we’re divorced.” The bolt loosened. “Now she wants to reschedule my weekend with Micky because her boyfriend wants to take him camping or some bullshit.”
“The woman’s a first class rag, man.”
“It’s a rollercoaster with her. She’s fine for a month, then she’s back to making things difficult, complaining about what I do with Micky, what I don’t do with him... I can’t make her happy.” He dropped the bolt into a bucket at his feet.
“And you’re not supposed to. She’s the ex. She’ll never be happy.” Trey nodded to the pickup. “Instead of throwing tools around the shop, you should thumb your nose at the ex by getting laid.”
Cole laughed. “That’s your answer for everything.”
“Works for me.” He stood to get another beer out of the cooler. Handing it to Cole, he said, “Since you’re not coming, does this mean I can hit on Jaden all night?”
Cole’s gaze snapped over to Trey, who grinned back like a dickhead. “Where’s this party?” He looked down at his worn out clothes. “I need to shower.”
“Talk around town is some hot chicks are partying at the Brooks’ cabin tonight.” Trey gazed at him over the top of the beer can, tilted for a drink. “So now you’re interested, eh?”
He ignored the question. “Where’d you hear this?”
“I visited a gorgeous blonde for some rolls and she mentioned something about beer and a bonfire.” He grinned, crushing the can. “She made a point to let me know we weren’t invited.”
Cole shook his head with a laugh. “If we crash their chick party, Hillary might strangle you. And if she doesn’t, the others might.” He pictured Jaden, and his pulse quickened at the idea of getting her alone in the dark.
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take. Hills and I go way back. She loves it when I crash her parties.” Trey’s eyes flashed with pleasure. “Sometimes when she hits me, she leaves a bruise. I think she likes me.”
“Or loathes you. You’ve been driving her crazy since grade school.” He set the ratchet inside the toolbox and headed toward the shop door. “Give me fifteen minutes to clean up.”
“Change your undies just in case you get lucky,” Trey called after him, and Cole didn’t bother answering.
Inside he rushed to shower, then changed into jeans and a T-shirt. He swiped a clean ball cap from the rack by the back door and hurried outside. The sun dipped low on the horizon, turning the clouds orange and gold, the blue of the sky darkening to shades of gray. There was nothing like a Nebraska sunset.
Trey sat on the edge of the open tailgate of Cole’s pickup, the shop behind him closed up and the lights off. The red cooler was already in the bed of the truck. “What’d you do, shave your legs? Took you long enough.”
Cole glanced down at his watch. “I wasn’t even fifteen minutes. Thanks for shutting up the shop.”
“Do you think we need to pick up a gift for the ladies so they don’t kick us out?” Trey shoved the tailgate up and it latched with a thump. “Maybe some girly drinks?”
“Maybe.” Cole pulled the driver’s door to his pickup open and realized he didn’t have a clue what Jaden liked to drink. “Let’s get a bottle of that chocolate stuff girls are always taking shots of at the bar.”
“And that’s why I keep you around,” Trey said, shutting the passenger door and settling into the seat. “This is great. Feels like old times. Me, you, a party with hot chicks.”
“You drag me to the bar almost every weekend.” Cole eased the shifter into reverse.”
“Not the same.” Trey flipped on the radio. He tuned in a rock station, then leaned back into his seat. “Now, let’s go convince your lady love to give you a second chance.”
He swung the pickup around in the driveway. “I’m getting a date out of that woman before she leaves.”
“’Bout time you man up, bro.”
Cole flipped him off. Trey laughed, then turned up the volume to flood the pickup with Ozzy.
CHAPTER SIX
“Did you hear that?” Hillary’s head cocked. Her eyes darted to the trees bathed in shadow on the lake’s shore.
The sun had set an hour ago, and the night sky was alit with stars. The Brooks’ cabin sat nearby in a freshly mowed clearing, the kitchen light inside shining through the open screen door. Across the lake, a neighbor’s cabin sat empty. “I didn’t hear anything,” Jaden responded. Nothing but the leaves rustling in the breeze.
“There’s something out there.” Hillary scooted closer to her on the weathered dock. They sat on the edge, their legs hanging over so their toes grazed the lake’s surface.
Jaden set the half-eaten bag of cheddar popcorn behind her and propped it against the cooler full of beer. “I don’t think—”
“Did you see that?” Hillary’s voice raised several notches, verging on shrill.
Jaden froze, her hands clutched along the edge of the dock. She squinted into the dark. “See what?”
“Something moved over there.” She pointed at the grove of trees near a little shed. The old gray weathered wood looked yellow under the glow of the pale yard lamp.
“It’s probably just a ’coon.”
“You think?”
“Yeah. Or a rabbit.” Something crashed in the brush, and they both jumped to their feet. The snap of branches sent a chill up Jaden’s spine.
Hillary clung to Jaden’s arm in a vise-like grip. “What the hell was that?”
Jaden’s heart raced. “I have no freakin’ clue.”
She yanked at the hem of Jaden’s tank top. “I told you there’s something out there!”
“Maybe we should get to the house.” The cicadas muffled Jaden’s whisper. Was it her imagination or had they gotten louder, like a crescendo to a tragic opera? Her skin prickled, and the feeling of being watched sent goose-bumps over her arms.
“Yeah, the house sounds good.” But her eyes were on her car, even further away than the cabin, and much too close to whatever was out there in the trees.
“It’s probably just an animal.” The solitude of the lake had never bothered her. She’d spent most of her summers out here with Mia’s family, but Hillary’s creative imagination for all things lurking in the dark scraped at Jaden’s calm.
“A couple of weeks ago some farmers came in for breakfast, and one of them mentioned something’s been killing his cattle in a pasture near here.”
Jaden whipped her head to shoot Hillary an accusatory stare. “You’re kidding.”
Hillary gave her head a quick shake, her eyes wide.
“Don’t you think you should have mentioned this before we came out here? Alone?” She raised her beer to her lips with a shaky hand. Maybe another drink would calm her nerves. After she swallowed, she said, “So what did he think the something was?”
“He didn’t know. But I guess someone else who farms near the ravine—”
“Wait, you mean Pike’s Ridge, that area? Because that’s only a couple of miles from here.” Close enough to make Jaden’s elbows numb.
“Yeah. But no one’s seen anything. Well, except that other farmer, who said he saw something shoot out of a cornfield, right in front of him on the dirt road, so fast it was just a blur.” Hilary’s voice had grown strangled, as if she hadn’t taken a breath once while talking.
“How big?”
“Like, huge. And black.”
Jaden pinched her eyelids together. “We could be on Mia’s patio right now in town where it’s safe.”
“This was your idea, remember? And I thought it would be more fun out here.” Hillary gazed around them to the blackness stretching on and on and on.
“You thought it would be fun to get drunk and eaten by the chupacabra?” She wasn’t sure why the word popped into her head. They were only about five miles from town, which seemed light years with something creepy lurking in the bushes.
“It’s not a chupacabra.”
Jaden cocked her head at the certainty in her voice. “How do you know?”
“Because a chupacabra isn’t big enough.”
“Great. That’s wonderful news.” Jaden chewed on her lip. “Why don’t we have a cellphone right now?” The question was more a lecture for herself. Jaden’s cell phone was on the nightstand, where she left it to get away from checking work emails.
“Because mine died, and we were too lazy to go plug it in.”
Jaden broke into song, “Isn’t it ironic, don’t ‘ya think?”
Hillary’s brows knitted together. “This is not the time.”
“It’s not the time to freak out, either.” She sounded a lot calmer than she felt, what with her stomach wedged into her throat and all. “Okay, on the count of three we’re going to make a run for the cabin.”
“You better not leave me behind.”
Jaden glanced at her. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“I’ve seen enough scary movies to know the chubby friend always gets whacked first.”
Jaden tilted her head skyward and blew out a breath. “No one is getting whacked.” At least I hope not.
Hillary poked her in the side. “I mean it. I will haunt your ass forever if I die.”
Jaden swatted her finger away. “I’m not going to leave you to die. I swear.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t know why I let you talk me into drinking so much. We’re too old for drinking games.” She glanced to the trees again. “You know I’m a lightweight.”
“I can’t help it if you suck at beer pong,” Hillary said. “We should run now, right?”
“Right. And then we’ll call someone when we get inside. Just in case.” Cole popped into her mind. She glanced over at Hillary, who still had a handful of Jaden’s tank top. “But it’s probably nothing. Just a deer.”
Hillary’s eye glimmered with hope. “A deer. Yeah, I bet that’s what it is.”
“Exactly.” The noises, whatever they were, had stopped, but the silence was more eerie than comforting. “But let’s run to the cabin anyway. Just to be safe.”
“Right.” Hillary slowly crouched down, a wary eye on the trees.
“What are you doing?” Jaden pursed her lips—it was hard to split her attention between Hillary and the trees in the opposite direction.
“I’m grabbing us a couple of beers.”
Jaden cocked her head. “Um?”
“If we’re going to be stuck in there until someone comes to rescue us, we should have beer.” She flipped the lid of the cooler open and dug into the ice.
Jaden let her logic roll around in her head for a moment. “Yeah, okay, good idea.” Though she doubted if they were trapped inside with some kind of menacing creature scratching at the door, that they’d have much interest in beer, or anything at all.
Hillary stood and shoved a cold beer into Jaden’s hand. Now she had two beers—one half empty, the other freezing cold. How would she run with an open beer?
Jaden set the open can on top of the cooler. “I think if we—”
A blood curdling shriek pierced the night, and Hillary slammed against Jaden.
She didn’t have time to process, it all happened too fast.
The heel of her foot teetered on the edge of the dock, and her arms flailed out in an attempt to catch her balance. She grabbed for Hillary, hoping to stop her fall, but it was too late. Hillary’s scream came out strangled, and they both went down, falling backward into the lake.