“I forgot something,” Neal said.
Mistrustfully, Hutch stared at his friend, but he said nothing. The ground beneath the wheels became marshy as they came closer to the water. Neal brought the car to a halt. He turned off the engine but left the headlights on. “Everybody out.”
He opened his door and stepped to the muddy ground. Hutch hesitated before doing the same. Jade heard him ask, “What’re we doing back here, Neal? What’d you forget?”
Lamar nudged her. “Better get out. When Neal gets something in his head, it’s best to just go along. Otherwise, he gets mad.”
“He can get as mad at me as he wants to. I don’t care.”
Neal moved to the rear of the car, unlocked the hatch-back, and raised it. “I said, get out.”
“Go to hell.”
“Lamar, give me a hand.”
Neal grabbed Jade’s arm. She wasn’t expecting the move and cried out in pain as he yanked her forward. Lamar gave her bottom a boost. If she hadn’t placed her foot on the ground, she would have fallen face down into the mud.
She came upright and glared at Neal, wrenching her arm free. “Keep your hands off me.”
“Or what? Your boyfriend will beat me up with two ice cream sundaes again?” He made a derisive sound, then turned his back on her and moved toward an ice chest, partially concealed in the dead grass. “Want a beer?”
“No.”
“Hutch? Lamar?”
Neal opened the chest, took out three beers, and, without waiting for his friends to reply tossed a can to each of them. He popped the top off his and took a long draft. Like mimics, Hutch and Lamar did the same.
Jade leaned against the rear bumper of the car, studiously ignoring them and rubbing her arms against the damp chill. She hadn’t thought to get her coat and books out of Donna Dee’s car.
It was an extremely dark night. The low, moisture-laden clouds blocked out the moon. Nearby, she could hear the slow-moving water, but she couldn’t see anything beyond the small patch of light the headlights gave off. The wind was light, but it was bone-chilling.
Neal finished his beer. Crumpling the can in his fist, he tossed it into the undergrowth on the bank of the narrow channel. The ground was littered with similar cans.
“Can we go now?” Jade tried to sound imperious despite her shivering.
Neal sauntered toward her. “Not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because before we go,” he drawled, “the three of us are going to fuck you.”
Chapter Three
Donna Dee Monroe was in a quandary. It didn’t feel right for her to be safe at home while Jade’s whereabouts remained uncertain. Surely if Jade were home she would have called.
Donna Dee had waited inside her stranded car only five minutes before a farming family in a station wagon had stopped and offered her a lift into town. Her father had met her at the service station, filled a gas can, and returned her to her car. She was back in Palmetto less than twenty minutes after the three boys had disappeared with Jade.
The thought of being left behind still rankled. How dare they go off and leave her stranded like that? And why hadn’t he let Jade out of the car when she made it obvious that she didn’t want to go with them alone? Neal Patchett ought to be stood against a wall and shot right between the eyes.
As usual, Hutch had done Neal’s bidding without a whimper of protest. It irked Donna Dee that Hutch cared so little for her that he would desert her on a lonely stretch of highway, prey to whatever kind of lowlife might have come along. Of course, the notion of being snatched up and carried off into the night by Hutch Jolly was madly romantic, and one fantasy she’d entertained many times. While it wouldn’t be ideal to have Neal and Lamar tagging along when Hutch swept her away, Donna Dee envied Jade the adventure of being “kidnapped.”
Now, alone in her bedroom, Donna Dee wondered what she should do about Jade. Had Neal tried to return Jade to the point where he had picked her up, or had he brought her back to town, or taken her straight to Gary’s house? There was only one way to find out. Donna Dee reached for her telephone and began dialing the Parkers’ number. But what if Jade wasn’t there? In view of his recent fight with Neal at the Dairy Barn, Gary would go into a tailspin when he found out what Neal had done.
Donna Dee didn’t want to get Jade into trouble with her mom or with Gary. She didn’t want anybody mad at her, either. But she couldn’t relax until she knew what was happening. Finally making up her mind, she placed a telephone call.
* * *
“Left?”