Page 55 of Unhinged Kallie

That proved to be a mistake.

When the guy in front of me slipped over the edge, I was shoved from behind. Unable to stop my momentum, I fell forward and landed on the water slide. The water took me over as the guard yelled as loud as I did.

There was a moment of blind shock before utter terror gripped my chest as I faced the vertical plunge. The water was choking me, and I had to close my eyes as the spray hit me in the face. My elbow and knee banged so hard against the side and bottom wall that the pain radiated through my body. But, the ultimate humiliation was when I felt my bikini bottoms get pulled off just before landing in the pool with hundreds of other people.

I didn’t want to come up. I would’ve stayed under the water forever if that had been an option. Surfacing, I looked around for my bottoms but didn’t see them. I gasped and wrapped an arm around my chest as a group of guys looked over and began catcalling. At some point during the ordeal, my top had come undone and was floating in the water, doing nothing.

Frantically, I swam to the shade of one of the other slides and hid out of sight. My hand shook as I covered my mouth, the embarrassment so strong that all I could do was replay the moment in my mind.

Weak was not in my vocabulary, but the reminder that I needed to be aware of my surroundings and know my enemy was so loud that I wanted to tell my dad to shut up, even though he wasn’t there.

Splashing drew my attention, and I prepared myself to go another round with that asshole Chester, but it was Carter, his eyes wide.

“Oh my god, there you are.” He had a towel over his shoulder and gripped my arms, looking me all over. “Are you okay? What the hell happened?”

“Can you do up my top? My hands are shaking,” I answered instead, and he nodded.

Turning around, I held the material as he tied a bow. “Did you see all of it?”

“Yes,” he said, holding my elbow up and looking at the red burn mark. “I know you wouldn’t attempt that, so who pushed you?” He growled, the look on his face intense as he continued his inspection.

I wasn’t going to tell him, I wanted to deal with Chester myself, but I decided a half-truth would work. “I don’t know who he was, just some guys roughhousing behind me, and I got bumped. Didn’t anyone else come down?”

Carter searched my face, and I kept it as straight and sincere as possible. This wasn’t his fight, it was mine, and I intended to finish it.

“Let’s get you out of here. Do you want to go home?” I nodded as he walked with me to the edge and held the towel like a shield so I could walk into it and wrap it around my waist.

Carter hugged me once the towel was in place, and only then did I realize he was shaking. “You looked like you would fly right off the slide. I was so fucking terrified. Don’t ever do that to me again. I can’t lose you, Trouble. I just can’t.”

“You’ll never lose me. I already told you that. You’re mine.”

I expected a speech or for him to push me away, but he just held me tighter.

Chapter Twenty-One

KALLIE

ONE WEEK LATER

Taking a deep breath, I pushed open my dad’s work area door and immediately felt bad for interrupting him. He was sitting on the floor with his eyes closed and his head against the wall. It was rare to see him show emotion, but he was smiling as he hummed, You Are My Sunshine. I hated seeing him like this.

I stepped back out of the room, but he stopped me, “Kallie, what do you need?”

“I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

His eyes opened, and that cold stare—that made anyone else shrink and hide in a corner—found me. “If I didn’t want to be bothered, I wouldn’t have stopped you from leaving.” Fair enough. “Now, what is on your mind,” he asked, pushing himself to his feet.

“You told me when I pulled the prank on the guys from the football team that you would’ve helped if I asked.”

“I did.”

“Did you mean it?”

He smirked. “When have you known me to say something I didn’t mean?”

Again, fair point.

“Spit it out, Angel.” He walked toward me, and I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to be his victim. What did they think when he stalked toward them, or did they see him coming at all?