“Get your asses down here, and now!” Sheriff Randall demands.

Following Warner to the ladder, my heart begins to beat faster and faster. Will we be arrested? I’ve never had a run-in with the cops before.

“Leave the whiskey,” Warner murmurs, cussing to himself as he begins to climb down. Looking at the whiskey bottle laying on its side, it’s half empty. We drank more than I thought we did.

Climbing down, my dress and hair whip back and forth as the storm continues its fierce dance, I can’t help but think about everything that just happened. Even with a scary sheriff awaiting my arrival, and the unknowing thought of going to jail or not… I can’t help but smile, because I’d do it all over again.

As soon as our feet hit the ground, the Sheriff is in our face with a bright light. I wince and look away. I’m too drunk for this. I’m in so much trouble.

“Well, well, well!” he clicks his tongue.

He shines the light directly in my face, causing me to have to look away, I have no idea what the Sheriff looks like because of how flashlight happy he is.

“Who are you?” Assuming he’s talking to me, I raise my hand to block the light and open my mouth to answer.

“I’m—”

“She’s River Addington,” Warner answers for me. He does that a lot. I can’t tell if it’s a control thing, or if he’s doing it to protect me.

“Ah, the new people that moved into town,” he nods, but the sound of his voice tells me he’s not happy about our arrival. I wonder if he knows what my parents do for money. Thunder booms in the sky so loud the ground vibrates. I can’t help risking a look at Warner, he’s staring at me too. Our eyes silently fucking each other. We would be if it wasn’t for this cock block sheriff.

Suddenly a hand is in my line of sight, breaking my trance.

“Hey!” The sheriff snaps his fingers. “Both of you, get in the back of my car. Now,” he demands, flashing the light on his golden SUV. Now that the light isn’t in my face I can get a good look at him. He’s tall and broad, wearing a sheriff's hat and tan clothes. His face is smooth shaven, and his dark eyes cast a soulless lonely stare. Dropping my gaze, I notice no wedding ring. He’s married to the job, probably.

“What about my truck?” Warner steps up, his arm outstretched and pointing in the direction of his red Ford. Sheriff Randall stops, turning the light back on us.

“From the smell of you two, I don’t think you need to be driving!” Using my hand, I huff in my palm, the smell of stale whiskey pretty strong.

“Why are you even here?” Warner starts to argue, pissed he has to leave his truck. I cross my arms curious to hear how he even knew we were up there.

“You two are in serious shit, I wouldn’t press your luck. I could have you both thrown in the drunk tank tonight and booked for underage drinking!” He points at us. I roll my eyes and nudge Warner.

“Just lock it up, it will be worse if our parents have to pick us up from the station,” I try and defuse the situation.

Warner casts me a glance before shoving his hand down his pocket and clicking the lock button. His truck’s taillights lightening up indicating it’s locked.

“Let’s go.” Randall waves his arm toward his SUV.

Warner follows the Sheriff, and we both get in the back seat. The air conditioning on blast makes me shiver, and I have to cross my arms to keep my hard nipples from ripping through my top. Pushing my wet hair from my face, goosebumps begin to race up my arms as I buckle up. My parents are going to kill me.

“You know this is private property, you can’t be up there, Warner.” Sheriff Randall doesn’t even acknowledge me as he types on his computer in the front seat.

“We weren’t doing anything wrong,” Warner insists, looking out his window.

Randall huffs. “Last time I checked, you ain’t twenty-one.” My stomach drops with that comment.

Sighing loudly, the Sheriff backs out of the gravel drive and heads back to the town. The ride is quiet, the town pitch black as everyone is asleep at this hour.

My shoulder is nudged, and I glance at Warner.

“You cold?” He raises a brow, looking my body over. He shimmies out of his letterman jacket and hands it to me before I answer. Wrapping it around my body the smell of him warms me up instantly.

He grins, his eyes prancing around my body.

“What?” I mouth silently, my cheeks hurt from smiling.

“You look good in my jacket,” he approves. I smile.

“Huh?” Sheriff Randall looks in the rearview mirror thinking Warner is talking to him.

“Nothing,” Warner snaps. His hand is laying between us, I decide to cup it. I wonder if he’s nervous about his dad’s reaction when we pull up. He looks down at our hands, his brows furrowing. Maybe holding his hand was too much? He grasps my hand back and places it right on his hard-on, his mouth cocked open, he gives me that devilish look like he wants me to jerk him off in the back seat. Lips pursed, I tear my hand from his and he silently chuckles, happy with himself.

Asshole. I flip him off and look out my window.

We drive past Warner’s house and pull up to mine first. Butterflies swarm in my stomach, but not like the kind I get when I’m around Warner. These are more like a box of shaken wasps released in my gut.

The front porch light kicks on, and my mother steps out with a blue silk robe on, my father in a red one right behind her. Their drawn faces tell me they’re not happy. Rain falling around them, the storm at its peak, they look like something from a horror movie. They must have been looking for me and called the local sheriff. I bet that’s how Randall found Warner and me.

I give Warner a look telling him I’ll see him later, as the Sheriff opens my door and I climb out. My mother rushes out into the rain and wraps her arms around me.

“Where the hell were you River? We’ve been worried sick!” she hollers in my ear before ushering me toward the house. I don’t answer her, I’m sure Sheriff Ass will tell her all about how he found me.

“I found her and Warner Nine up at the water tower, sir,” Sheriff Randall informs my father. “She’s been drinking.”

“Thank you, sir. We will take care of it from here,” my father insists, pushing on my lower back to go inside.

I can tell Randall wants to say something else, but he thinks better of it and turns around back to his SUV.

Stepping inside, the door clicks behind us and my parents waste no time biting into me.

“Who is this Warner kid?” my mother shouts.

“Who do you think you are staying out like that?” my father right behind her.

“You didn’t call, or tell us where you were?”

“This is not like you!”

“I don’t know if I want you hanging around this kid.”

I keep walking up the stairs to my room, drowning my parents’ nagging voices out with the sound of Warner’s voice in my head, the smell of him on my skin. The way our bodies naturally responded to one another up there in that tower, it was like the night we met. It was so… intimate. Our bodies do the talking, our eyes conveying what we need and want.

My hand is gripped, and I’m suddenly jerked around to face my concerned parents.

“You don’t know these people, River! You could have been raped, or worse!” my mother huffs with worry, her tight grip on my hand making me angry.

Scowling, I jerk myself free.

“I guess we’ll just move again if that happened, won’t we?” I glare at them. Remembering when I told them about almost being raped in our last town. The silent stares, the hushed conversation before they decided we would move to avoid confrontation.

They did nothing to Brick, not even talk to his parents!

“River Addington,” my mother hisses.

“That kind of thing marks you and follows you. We didn’t want you to be known for something like that. We did what we thought was best,” Dad steps in.

I scoff. “We moved so you guys could make more money. Nobody even knew what happened to me because you forbid me to tell a soul about it. Remember!” I shout, my face turning red. Curling my fingers into the palm of my hands, my nails bite into my skin. I used to be sad about this subject, but anymore I’m just angry. I want to scream, I want to do something about it!

Both of my parents just stare at me with pale faces, not knowing what to say. Turning, biting my tongue not to say something I don’t mean to them I open my door to my room, and slam it shut. After a few seconds pass and I know they’re not going to come inside and continue their schooling. I head for my sleigh bed and leave a wake of wet clothes behind me as I climb up on expensive sheets and pillows.

Climbing under the covers, my body hypersensitive. I hope Warner is okay. I swear if his dad lays a finger on him, I’ll kill him.

I rub the empty space on my wrist where Warner took the lava bead bracelet, a void not only on my wrist but my whole body. I miss his touch. I miss him.

“Warner,” I whisper into the darkness before closing my eyes and falling asleep to the storm knocking on my window.

“You should stay away from that girl, Warner,” Sheriff Randall informs with a low voice, pulling out of the driveway.

“Why is that?” My tone bored. If anyone should stay away, it’s the other way around. River makes me a different person, and not a good one. I become animalistic around her, wanting to hurt and soothe her all at the same time. I become reckless and free.

He shakes his head, ignoring my question and pulls up to my house. His hat scraping the top of the headliner as the car rocks back and forth from my cracked driveway.

My dad isn’t waiting for me outside like River’s. Instead, when I get out, the Sheriff just follows me up to the front door. I open it and step inside, my dad is drinking beer watching TV in the dark in his sweatpants. He looks almost like me, except the wear of working outside and drinking all day. He’s aged faster than someone his age should at thirty-five from all his drinking. Once he sees the Sheriff behind me, he stands, trying to look sober and alert.

“What’s this about?” Dad asks, slurring.

Sheriff Randall takes his hat off in respect for my dad. They went to school together, and he thinks my dad is still the football god he was back then. Not a worthless drunk that he really is today. “Sorry for the late hour, Mr. Nine, but Warner was on the water tower with a young girl,” he explains.

Dad shoots me a look that could compare to looking down a rifle. Clenching my fists shut, I lift my chin, not daring to show a lick of fear. Fuck him.

“Is that right?” Dad’s voice eerily calm. His eyes conveying I’m going to get it when we’re alone.

“I don’t want to spread gossip, but this girl's family has had its run-ins with the law… and I’m not so sure Warner should be hanging out with her for the sake of what lays in his future, you know?” Sheriff Randall wrinkles his nose, acting as if he’s doing me a favor whispering this information to my father.

Sheriff Randall gives me an off look before glancing back at my dad.

“Will do, sir. I’ll take care of it from here. Thank you for bringing him home and not the station.” Dad runs his hand through his hair, his gaze dropping to the floor.

Sheriff Randall gives a curt nod, silence taking over the room he gets the hint we’re done here.

“Alright, I better be getting. Nighttime, never know who is out there,” Sheriff Randall smirks, and my dad just glares at me.

As soon as Randall leaves I don’t give my dad a chance to holler at me. “He doesn’t know anything about Riv—”

Knuckles slam against the side of my face, and I fall into the wall. Pain blooms up my cheek and eye socket, my cheekbone smarting. The urge inside of me to fight back has my body shaking with anger, but I know it will only end with me having more bruises to cover up the next day, and broken furniture I’d have to fix this weekend. My dad is a drunk, he feels no pain so he can fight with me all night if he wants to. It’s best if I just get away from him.

“You need to stay away from that girl!” His body heaves with anger. Clenching my jaw, I stand and head to my room. River is not like her parents, but it would do no good telling him that.

“You’re pissing it away, Warner!” he booms down the hallway after me. Going emotionally numb, I shut my door behind me and lock it. My dad bangs and yells behind it causing it to rattle. He’s broke it down before, but I’ve reinforced it with stronger wood this time.

Stepping up to my window I don’t see a light on in River’s house, maybe that means her parents weren’t hard on her. I hope so.

I think about Sheriff Randall’s comment to my dad about her family having its run-ins with the law. I wonder if it’s worse than River knows.

Sighing, I shut my curtains. Even though she’s with her parents, I don’t feel like she’s safe enough over there by herself.

Falling on my bed, I pull a pillow over my sore face, and something wet presses against my forehead. Pushing the pillow away, I spot the rock bracelet I took from River. It looks like magma rock or something. It smells like her. Running my fingers along it, I think about her and how beautiful she was tonight. The storm behind her, the way her body rocked against me.

Fuck, it was something I’ve never seen before.

“River,” I whisper before flipping on my side and closing my eyes.