Chapter Seven

What do you think you’re doing?” The newcomer shrieked. “I showed up at your cabin, and no one answered at the gate. I went to Syber’s, guess what, no one was home. Little did I know, every single person in our clan was out here? No one even bothered to invite me? What’s that about, Kalvyn? You’re such as asshole. We get into one little fight, then I’m out like your garbage?”

“We went camping.” Kalvyn walked past her and spotted us. He stilled. Didn’t even blink. “And you weren’t invited.”

“Didn’t I just say that?” She crossed her arms over her chest, mashing her breasts together, tapping her pointed toe on a rock. “I want an explanation, a good one. Right now.”

“I don’t owe you anything, Bianca.” He said each word as if they were their own sentences. “I didn’t yesterday, not today, and won’t tomorrow. I will not answer to you. Or haven’t I made that perfectly clear?”

I backed up a step. Quinn whirled, drawing Kalvyn’s attention.

“They’re old news, Katrina. Swear. Bianca just doesn’t choose to acknowledge that. She needs to be put down, really bad.”

I fumbled. “No, no. It’s cool. I’m just going to go back to my tent now.”

“Kat, it’s really fine,” Lexi whispered. “You don’t need to leave. She does.”

Kalvyn left Bianca hanging mid-sentence and slipped past her. She grabbed his arm.

“Who is that?” She jerked her head at me with a death glare.

“Lola?” My voice shook as I backed up faster.

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

I turned away, so I didn’t have to look at the simmering anger in everyone’s eyes.

“Go home, Bianca,” Kalvyn said calmly. “We’re here for a drama free week, which is why we didn’t invite you. If you’ll excuse me, I’m a little busy.” I glanced back in time to see him yank his arm free. He skirted her mustang and headed straight for us without so much as a glance in her direction. I kept walking.

“I’m not going anywhere. Where the hell is Sadie?”

Quinn barreled for her. “At her campsite. Why don’t you go there, preferably rot once you're there.”

Kalvyn jogged, intercepting me. “I’m sorry.”

“Ahh, hi. Bad time?” I said.

“It’s the perfect time. Ignore her. The rest of us manage to. Most of the time.” He leaned down and sniffed. “You smell like pie.”

“Does everyone around here have an obsession with pie?”

“Oh! She really does bake everything really good,” Lexi said.

“You’re not thinking of ditching me, are you?” Kalvyn slipped his hand into mine, tugging me in the other direction. “A misstep, nothing important, or worth worrying about.”

“I don’t want to get into the middle of that,” I replied.

“There isn’t anything to get into the middle of,” he raised his voice. “That woman can think whatever she wants. I’m done with her. We had plans, you and me. Please, don’t let her temper tantrum ruin that. Okay?”

Before she spoke, I sensed Lola switch sides. “Come on, Kat.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Let’s get this party started!”

Caught between two very different needs, I warred within myself. What did I want? A night to get to know these people, or to sit at my campsite alone? The decision was easier than you’d think.

“Yeah, all right.”

“Woohoo!” Lola pranced alongside Quinn and Lexi past a fuming Bianca, followed by Kalvyn and me.

“Did you have a good evening?” Kalvyn said.

“Yeah, mainly relaxed. Made dinner. You?”

“We went for a run in the woods and found something to eat.” He jerked as Bianca cut ahead of us, knocking him in the shoulder, though he didn’t budge. She sauntered ahead of us, an exaggerated swing to her lush swell of hips. She was built in all the right places, slim where she needed to be.

She tossed her hair, and a come hither look straight at Kalvyn. Wow, mood swings much? He put his arm around my waist. Judging by his relaxed expression as he gazed down at me, the move wasn’t to piss her off, but to set me at ease. Bianca growled, and picked up her pace, veering into a spot that was no doubt’s Sadie’s.

“This is going to be a bad night,” I muttered.

“Only if you let it,” he replied. “I’m sorry she came. She’s been troublesome all summer. She visits my house every other day, though Lexi turns her away most of the time.”

Sounded like an understatement to me. That woman was pure, unadulterated trouble, through and through. “Are you sure this is a good idea, me being here and all?”

His fingers caressed my bare skin.

I shivered. “Bianca is definitely on Carmen’s hate list, and you are not.” The relish in which he said this worried me.

Lola spun like a ballet dancer. “Don’t worry about that bag-o-bones. She ain’t nothing but a pile of too much makeup and slutty clothes.”

“Thank you!” Lexi walked backward. “I told my brother that for months, before he finally kicked her to the curb. You wouldn’t believe the stuff she does. It’s insane.”

“Enough,” Kalvyn whispered, a soft word for a sibling, underlined with steel.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

People milled around Carmen’s tent. Quinn walked to her side. He murmured something to her, I couldn’t hear.

“She isn’t coming here, and if Sadie doesn’t watch it, she won’t be either,” Carmen replied with conviction. “For the next week, I own this chunk of land.” She cracked her knuckles. “Bianca steps a prissy foot on my site, I’ll break it.” I had no doubt she could and would. She met my gaze, hers steady and confident. I don’t know what she saw there, but she frowned. “Young one, do not worry. She will not bother you.” She glared in Kalvyn’s general direction. “Correct, o lord and master?”

Kalvyn growled softly. “You know better than to question me.”

“Yeah, well you haven’t exactly done enough about the problem, now, have you?”

A wealth of information presented itself to me during their now silent conversation. Much the same as Kalvyn had with Syber earlier.