Page 6 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

“What do you mean?”

“I won’t bother to drug them.”

Caroline shook with fear and anger, picturing Val fighting Kyle, screaming for help. And Ellie . . .

“You wouldn’t hurt Ellie,” Caroline said harshly. “She’s only six.”

“So?”

Disbelief and terror clawed their way through her until she was heaving. Kyle released her as she doubled over, but his hand fisted in her hair before he left. “Remember what I said, sweet Caroline. I mean every single word.”

Caroline had looked up into that icy blue gaze and known he wasn’t bluffing. His father would probably swing bail, and who’s to say he’d be prosecuted anyway? With the Jennerses’ connections, Caroline herself could be the one to disappear. Or he could do exactly what he threatened . . .

Only, what were the chances they would survive the encounter? Kyle would be an idiot to leave behind three witnesses.

In the end, he’d gotten exactly what he wanted; Caroline was scared out of her mind for her sisters and had kept her mouth shut for more than a decade. Even after Kyle had hurt another girl.

Right after Valerie had started at Boise State, she had told Caroline that Kyle had raped her roommate at a party. The girl hadn’t pressed charges either, and Val figured Kyle’s father had paid off the victim and her family. Caroline had been surprised the girl’s parents wouldn’t want the man who had hurt their daughter to pay. If it had been her child, she would have gutted him.

Regardless, the thought that Kyle had gone on to victimize more women made her stomach churn, even now.

But because you never told anyone what he did to you, he was free to do it again.

She had been a kid, barely fifteen, and scared shitless when it had happened. The possibility of reliving the whole thing for the world and nobody believing her had kept her silent. That Kyle might get off anyway and come after her family was enough to give her nightmares for years.

Sometimes she’d wished she was Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth, able to say, “You have no power over me.” But life was never like the movies. The bad guy didn’t always lose, the losers didn’t always win, and the guy and girl didn’t always ride off into the sunset.

And despite all the drunkards and bullies she’d encountered over the years, Kyle’s eyes could still render her catatonic. Just as they were now.

“I’m . . . I’m here to see my dad,” she finally managed to choke out.

He leaned against the door jam and tsked. “He’s resting, actually. Just fell asleep half an hour ago.”

“Then why are you still here?” She was proud; there was hardly a tremor in her voice.

“I’m just answering his phone and helping him. We’ve become quite close, you know, with Valerie causing him so much trouble and Ellie moving out . . . well, he’s been under a tremendous amount of stress.”

The veiled attempt to place the blame on Val and Ellie for Edward’s heart attack wasn’t lost on Caroline, but she had no witty comeback, no biting retort.

Instead, she said, “Just tell him I stopped by and give him these.”

She held out the bag of candy, and Kyle took it, but before she could pull away, his fingers wrapped around her wrist and brought her close enough to whisper, “Wouldn’t you like

to stay and keep me company, sweet Caroline?”

She jerked away from him and snapped, “Touch me again, and I’ll gut you.”

As she walked away, he called, “Oh, how I missed that fire. For a second there, I thought you’d lost it.”

As she climbed into her car, she caught sight of him kissing two of his fingers and waving them at her. She wished for half a second she’d gone with a lifted 4x4 truck instead of her little Corolla, just so she could climb over the rocky, landscaped yard between them and plow into him. If she took the house down too, so be it. It would be worth it to never see his smug, disgusting face again.

Peeling out, she sped down the road, oblivious to speed limit signs. She wanted to put as much distance between her and the bastard as possible. She had planned to spend at least half an hour or more with her father, but that was shot to hell. It was only ten in the morning, and she wasn’t due to pick up the keys to her new apartment until eleven thirty. Maybe Gemma Bowers wouldn’t mind if she stopped by early.

Caroline had decided several days earlier—right after the third night in a row of her sister Ellie coming home at three in the morning, giggling and bumping into things—that she needed to find a place of her own. When Val had offered to let Caroline stay at her place, she’d failed to mention that Ellie was already taking the spare room and the only place available was the living room couch. The first week had been fine, with them taking turns at the hospital, but by the time her father was released, it became business as usual at Casa de Val, which essentially meant sexy noises from Val’s room and Ellie’s midnight stumbling.

So she’d jumped onto Val’s computer and found Gemma Bowers’s ad on Craigslist for a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment with private parking. She’d called Gemma that morning and set up the showing. The place was perfect, and they’d shaken hands on the spot. Gemma had agreed to have a one-year lease drawn up to be signed that morning. Val hadn’t been happy about the news, acting like Caroline was abandoning her again, but Caroline had been living on her own for too long. Plus, all of the “what have you been up to since you left home” talks were grating on her. She was used to having space to breathe, and that was exactly what Gemma Bowers’s two-bedroom apartment was going to give her. Space and an excuse to get away from all the probing questions.

And, of course, seeing Kyle had sent her into a twister of rage and turmoil all its own. Even the shaking in her hands hadn’t subsided.

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