“Oh shit, that’s no good. Thanks, bro.”
THE PHONE ringing jolts me out of a dead sleep, and I almost break Rafe’s nose with my head as I jerk upright.
“Fuck, sorry!”
“Hello?” Rafe says, instantly alert. I look over at the clock. It’s two thirty in the morning.
“Uncle Rafe?” says the tinny voice on the other end of the call. “Can you come get me?”
“Calm down, Cam. Tell me what’s going on.”
Her explanation is garbled, but I hear something about a party and her mom being mad and something about a boy that makes Rafe’s whole body go rigid.
“Where are you, sweetheart? … Can you ask someone? … Okay, listen. It’s going to take me a little while to get there because I’m not at home. I want you to go back inside, okay? Then use the GPS on your phone and text me exactly where you are.” Rafe’s voice seems to relax Camille the same way it relaxes me.
“Stand by the front door so you can see out the window when I get there. Don’t take anything from anyone. Not even water. Not gum. Not a damn ChapStick, Camille, do you understand me? I’ll call you when I’m a minute away and then you come outside. Not before that. If someone tries to get you to move away from the front door, you tell them your uncle is coming and you’re scared of making him mad, okay?” Rafe is already up and searching around for his clothes in the dark as he hangs up the phone.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s stupid and dead, that’s what she is,” Rafe growls. “Sorry to wake you. I’ll call you tomorrow.” He leans in to kiss me briefly.
“Wait,” I say, climbing out of bed and pulling some jeans on. “I’ll drive. That way you can call Cam when we’re close and you can just jump out of the car.”
“I—okay. Thanks, Colin.”
I smile even though I know he can’t see in the dark. It feels good to be able to do something for Rafe for a change.
He gives me directions from his phone between muttering about how much trouble Camille’s going to be in. “She went to some damn rave with a bunch of college kids. Little idiots with credit cards, I swear. And then went back to a house party with them. I know she took fucking E at that damn rave. And now some boy—”
He breaks off, furious, shaking his head at the idea.
“Has this happened before?”
He nods. “She only calls me when she and Luz have been fighting. Luz isn’t off work yet.” Luz bartends at some club in her neighborhood.
After a few minutes of silence, he reaches over and runs a hand down my arm. “Hey, how was hanging out with your dad and Brian?”
“It was… okay, I guess. But, I don’t know, I didn’t feel totally comfortable there… which is strange, because I always used to.”
“Did you?”
“What? Yeah. Why?”
“Well, I just mean, are you sure you used to feel comfortable as opposed to just being used to feeling uncomfortable?”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means, maybe spending more time not lying about who you are has made you aware of the ways you had gotten used to lying about it.” Rafe says this gently, hand on my arm, but it still packs a punch I can’t process right now. He squeezes my forearm and lets go, fumbling with his phone.
“Okay, Cam, come outside.” He points to a three-story brick house on the corner. At least the neighborhood doesn’t look as bad as Rafe seemed worried it would be when he told Camille to stay inside.
The door opens and a pretty girl comes out, walking unsteadily, clutching her phone. As Rafe opens his door and gets out, a guy runs out after Cam.
“Come on, Karen,” he calls, laughing, clearly wasted. “We were having fun, right?”
She whirls around to face him and screams, “It’s Cam, not Karen, you asshole!”
Rafe catches her upper arms and moves her behind him, nudging her toward the car.
“You.” Rafe stabs a finger at the guy, and I can tell the moment that he notices how huge Rafe is through the haze of intoxication. Rafe stalks up to him, radiating murderous fury.
“That girl is fifteen years old, you piece of shit,” he snarls. “You fucking touch her, that’s statutory rape. You know what they do to rapists in prison, you little prep school fuck?”
The guy is curled up in a ball in the face of Rafe’s fury. It looks like Rafe’s about to beat the crap out of him. Totally deserved, too. But he smiles instead and it’s chilling.
“The next time you see a pretty girl, I want you to remember me. Remember this moment and think about what happens when you mess with shit you shouldn’t.” He gets right in the guy’s face. “Got it?”