Page 37 of Squatch Out!
Oh, no.
“Where do they live?” He demands as he pulls the phone back and swipes across the screen. “Where can I find them?”
I’m still trying to process the clip he just showed me as he switches subjects. “What? How should I know?”
“Wrong answer!” he sneers at me. “Tell me where they are, or I will drag your name through every tabloid and social media site. I’ll turn you into a laughingstock so massive, there will be memes around for your kids to see.”
I’m trying to keep up while my mind reels. Can he do that? Would he really? “That clip proves nothing,” I reply curtly.
“Oh?” He swipes across the screen again and then shows me a grainy photo. This shows Sean’s squatch carrying me through the forest . My fingers are tangled in his long fur as I gaze up at him with soft eyes.
Well, shit.
I reach over the chair and swipe at his phone, but Darren holds it up and out of my reach before I can grab it.
“Ah-ah-ah,” he taunts me. But then a longer arm reaches over him and plucks his phone out of his hand. “Hey!”
Sean dances back when Darren comes at him, but he’s able to easily hold it out of his reach as he starts going through the clips.
“What are you doing! Give that back!” Darren howls.
“I will as soon as I delete these,” he says
Darren folds his arms across his chest and taunts him, “Go ahead, I’ve got them all saved in the cloud.”
Without looking up from the screen, Sean smiles. “That’s cool. I’m marking them all as AI first, so no one will believe this is an actual clip.” When he finishes, he gives Darren a smug look. “So, who’s going to be the laughingstock of the internet now?”
With a strangled cry, Darren throws himself at Sean. I barely jump out of the way before they crash together. Sean’s back hardly hits the ground before he flips the leaner man over with some kind of MMA move that puts him on his back and in a chokehold.
“What is going on here?” an elderly man wearing the lodge uniform shouts as he jogs over to us.
Sean seems to have things well under control, with his legs and an arm wrapped around Darren, holding him immobile.
“I’m going to have to ask the both of you to leave,” the gentleman says pointedly at Darren. “And to kindly not come back.”
“I have a reservation—” Darren’s argument is cut off—along with his air—when Sean tightens his hold.
“Not anymore, you don’t,” the older man announces. “Out! Both of you, or I’ll call the police.”
Sean doesn’t seem worried about the threat, but Darren’s face is turning redder by the minute. Although that might be from Sean choking him.
Sean finally releases his hold and easily bounces back to his feet. Reaching down, he offers Darren a hand, which he slaps away with a string of curses. Then he snatches his phone that Sean holds out for him.
“You’re not going to get away with this,” Darren shouts before stalking out the front doors.
“I think we should probably go too,” Sean says as he offers the hotel host a charming grin. “We need to warn Owen about him.”
“Oh, yeah. You should probably—” I start automatically and then pause when I realize he didn’t sayIbutwe. “I mean, I’m pretty sure that guy kicked you out too.” I glance behind him where the older gentleman is back at his desk. He lifts up the phone’s handset and points it at us, reminding us of his threat to call the police.
With a big grin, Sean waves at him and then grabs my hand and pulls me out of the lobby.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
OLIVIA
Owen is waiting for us when we pull up to his house. Leaning his forearms on the banister of the porch, he slowly shakes his head when Sean climbs out of the truck.
“Thanks for finally bringing my truck back, asshole!” he calls out as Sean comes around to help me down from the passenger side.
