Page 108 of Deviant

“Let me help you, Abbie,” I hear Rowen’s melodic voice say.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. Me and my dad used to camp out all the time. I’ll have your tent up in a jiff.”

“Thank you.”

Goddamn it.

If she’s going to help Abigail with her tent, who the hell is going to put hers up?

Soon it will be too dark to see anything in front of your face, much less put up a tent.

Fuck.

I scan our surroundings and find her discarded bag on the ground with the others. Cursing under my breath, I pick it up from the pile and choose a secluded area way from where the others are starting to put up their tents. For the next twenty minutes, I preoccupy myself with pitching her tent while watching her and Abigail try to put up theirs. Once I’m done, I walk across the campsite to where they are and snatch a tent pole out of Rowen’s hands.

“Hey,” she chastises, as I quickly assemble the pole.

“We don’t have all night. It will be morning by the time you two dimwits have this tent up,” I groan, assembling another pole.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say,” Abigail shyly retorts.

“Get used to it, Abbie. Elias isn’t a very nice man.” Rowen frowns, crossing her arms over her chest in frustration.

“She’s right. I’m not nice. Nor do I pretend to be. But then again, that’s probably what separates me—a grown-ass man—from the boys. I’m sure Rowen can attest to other ways how I differ from them, too. Isn’t that right, Roe?”

Rowen’s cheeks turn bright pink, making my cock twitch.

Damn, how I wish I hated that color on her.

“Let’s go, Abbie. We can help the others with dinner while Elias puts up your tent,” she says, throwing a side-eyed glance my way, thinking that shit hurts me when all it does is amuse me.

I just chuckle as I continue on with my task, but to my chagrin, it takes me a full half hour to figure out how to put Abigail’s tent up.

By the time I’m finished, Andy and Harper have already come back with some dry wood and have managed to make a large enough fire to heat up a pot filled with canned beans and mini sausages. It’s not fine dining, but it will do in a pinch.

Everyone circles around the campfire eager to eat their meal, uncaring that the light rain drizzle soaks through their clothes. When I see that there is an empty spot on the log Rowen is sitting on, I plop my ass beside her just to piss her off and dig into my bowl.

Rowen doesn’t utter a word, but neither does anyone else. Everyone is either too tired or too hungry to talk, because we go through dinner without so much as a sound. It’s only after we’ve cleaned up and sit close to the fire to keep warm, that fear starts to loosen some tongues.

“What do you think it will be like?” Harper asks to no one in particular.

“Do you meanThe Scourge?” the guy, who I think is named Chris, asks her.

“No, knucklehead. She means Disneyland! Of course, she’s talking aboutThe Scourge.” Big Mike says, slapping his friend across the head.

“Maybe we shouldn’t think about it yet,” Lucy, Lucas’s girlfriend, interjects, coaxing Lucas to hold her even tighter under his arm.

“Why not?” Mackenzie counters, making it the first time I’ve heard her speak all night. “It’s a valid question. We should talk about it. The not knowing is killing me.”

“But that’s just it, none of us know what to expect. If we let our imagination run rampant, then all we are doing is suffering before we actually need to,” Ruby exclaims, as if we all should know better than to start throwing out assumptions.

“Well, I would rather know what awaits us than go into it blind,” Mackenzie quips back in annoyance.

“I heard a rumor once,” Andy offers skittishly. “Though I’m not sure you guys want to hear it.”

“We’ll be the judge of that, Scott. Now spill it,” David orders, with that aggravating authoritarian tone of his.

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