“Shifting is cheating,” Troy told her.
“Oh, I didn’t know!” She held a hand to her mouth. “No one told me the rules.”
“That’s okay. You can be It this time, then.”
Pauline smiled. “My pleasure.”
***
Pauline
Eventually, the younger children were put to bed, and Pauline, Carlos, and Drew sat down in the living room together.
“Sheriff Dale really did seem like...like she cared a lot more about catching Ryan than about me,” Drew said finally.
“Of course she does,” Carlos said. “Think about it from her perspective. Why should she arrest you? What would she get out of it? Especially when you’ve given valuable evidence against a truly dangerous man, one who could convince a lot more teenagers to break the law in his lifetime if he doesn’t get put away.”
“I guess,” Drew said. He was looking a bit surprised and a bit thoughtful; Pauline wondered if the essential self-centeredness of youth had taken a more responsible turn in him. It seemed like it was hard for him to grasp the idea that his own transgressions weren’t more dire than they seemed.
“We’ll talk to the sheriff ourselves tomorrow,” Carlos was saying. “And we’ll be putting ourselves forward as guardians for all of you.”
“To which end we will be getting married as soon as possible,” Pauline put in.
Carlos kissed her hand. “My fiancée is such a romantic.”
Pauline b
lushed. “I didn’t mean—I mean, it’s to more ends than just that! We want to be married, it’s just—”
Carlos was laughing, and even Drew had the ghost of a smile. “I was kidding,” Carlos told her, and then leaned in and murmured in her ear, almost silently, “I know that you really are a romantic.”
She blushed harder. Because—oh, it was true. She’d tried so hard to be practical, all her life, and she’d succeeded pretty well, but all of this had proven that underneath, she’d contained such a deep well of longing, of the potential for love, of vulnerability...
She’d always thought all of that was a weakness, because it had only given her pain. But now she was learning differently.
A sudden, heavy pounding on the door interrupted her thoughts. Drew startled out of his chair as a deep male voice sounded outside.
“I know you’re in there, kid!”
It was Ryan. Here. At her house.
Carlos was immediately on his feet. He tossed his phone to Drew. “Get in the bedroom with the kids and call the sheriff,” he growled. “You stay with them, you hear me? Make sure they’re safe and that they stay in the room and stay quiet.”
Drew nodded, gone pale as milk, and scooted away, dialing the phone.
Next Carlos looked at Pauline. “Call Nate.”
Pauline nodded and dialed with shaking fingers. They had plenty of people to help them, she told herself.
But what if they didn’t get here in time?
***
Carlos
Carlos hadn’t been in a fight since—well, since the last time he’d been here, in Glacier Park.
And come to think of it, that had been with these exact same guys.