Painted Lines

by Brei Betzold

I opened my mouth then closed it, not sure what I was supposed to say. I opened my mouth to tell him my name when a deep voice spoke up.

  “Taken,” he said and I rolled my head in his direction. He was not happy for some reason, his arms were crossed over his chest, and he was scowling at me. He looked good in board shorts and nothing else. I noticed his tattoos, tribal band around his upper arm, some sort of Celtic knot on his chest, and one pierced nipple.

  I chewed on my left viper bite unsure what to say in response. He sucked his lip ring in and continued to glare at me and I shivered with the look in his eye.

  “Thayne,” I finally stuttered out unable to breathe with all the bare skin. He wasn’t overly muscular, more of a thin swimmer build, but damn was he hot. And looking around I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

  “Scout,” he said gruffly and sat down beside me, “who’s your friend?”

  “My friend?” I stuttered out confused I looked around and found the guy who had been talking to me walking away and shrugged.

  He smirked at me then leaned over and kissed my forehead. “Kale told me where I could find you. They’re up at camp waiting for me to bring you back.”

  I nodded stupidly just staring at him, his grey eyes twinkling with something I didn’t understand, but I wanted to.

  He leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Like what you see?”

  I finally ripped my eyes away from his body and blushed. He used a finger and made me look at him again. “Look all you want,” he whispered, “because nothing’s going to stop me from looking at you in that.”

  I looked down at my white tank top and blue board shorts then back at him like he was crazy. “Uhm, yeah, not much to look at,” I told him.

  He shook his head. “Part of your appeal is that you don’t see it. You are gorgeous, trust me, I walked up and noticed every guys eyes on you.”

  I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Mmhmm, if you say so.” Then I started gathering my stuff.

  “So what are you doing here?”

  “Matt invited me, a weekend at the lake sounded like a great idea to me.”

  I nodded. “You staying at our campsite?”

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

  “Nope, not at all,” I told him standing up and grabbing my towel giving it a good snap and getting the sand off then shoved it in my bag.

  I looked down at him, “You coming?”

  “Not yet,” he murmured watching me. I blushed and he chuckled, standing up following me back towards camp.

  “So my sister’s here with me,” he said watching me. “Hope you don’t mind.”

  “Nope, the more the merrier.”

  He nodded, “I think you’ll like her.”

  “Why’s that?”

  He shrugged, “Everyone does.” He didn’t sound happy about that.

  I laughed. “Uhm, is that a good thing?”

  He sighed and bit his lip. “Depends on their age and sex.”

  I stopped and looked at him, “If she has your eyes, you are so screwed.”

  He smiled brightly. “You like my eyes, huh?”

  I blushed. “Shut up,” I muttered and started walking again.

  “I like your eyes too, Scout, and your ass, you have a nice ass,” he told me. I glanced back and found him staring unabashedly at said anatomy.

  I turned and blushed harder. “Come on, let’s go.”

  When we made it to the campsite I stopped, there fluttering around was a young girl in a hot pink bikini and super short cut off shorts. I glanced over at Thayne, “Uhm yeah, you might want to try buying her clothes.”

  “Shut up,” he grumbled.

  I giggled then sighed, watching the girl I looked down at my own clothes.

  “I like the way you dress,” he murmured, “it’s sexy.”

  I rolled my eyes then looked over at him. “I can never dress like that. I can never draw that kind of attention to myself.”

  He shrugged, “That’s fine with me, in fact, I prefer it. I like knowing that the only one you will flaunt yourself for is me.”

  I shook my head, “We’re friends.”

  “Is that what you think, Scout? That we’re just friends?”

  I bit my lip and looked away. “I don’t know what we are anymore.”

  “We are getting to know each other, building up trust, so that one day you will be comfortable enough with me to talk to me, and eventually flaunt yourself for me,” he winked at me then headed over to his sister.

  “Nikki, get some fucking clothes on,” he bellowed. She rolled her eyes at him in response and went back to talking to Liam.

  “Hey Thayne,” I said. He stopped and looked at me. “The good news, the only guys here are her brother, an old guy and two gay men, she’s safe.”

  “Yeah, until she goes down to the beach.”

  I shrugged, “Can’t help you with that.”

  He smiled at me then went off towards his sister, once again telling her to put some clothes on. I watched curiously as he interacted with her. I wondered if this would have been the way Cas and my relationship would have turned out. You could see the fondness for her in his face. He ruffled her hair and she huffed off towards one of the newly constructed tents. I shook my head and went towards where everyone had gathered.

  Chapter 27

  That evening after dinner, we sat around the campfire talking, telling funny stories, and keeping an eye on Nikki. She discovered the high school aged guys at the next campsite over, or more like they noticed her. More than once, I had to pull Thayne back down onto the log we were sitting on. She was having fun, and they were in view of all of us, nothing was going to happen.

  I leaned over and whispered in his ear, “I have duct tape and a master lock in my saddle bags if you want to lock her in her tent later.”

  He turned his head from staring in her direction then looked at me, “I may take you up on that offer.”

  I pushed his shoulder and he reached up snagging my hand, interlacing our fingers. I looked down at his large hand eclipsing my own smaller one and smiled.

  “So where is the rest of your entourage?”

  I looked up. “Uhm, Cas went back to San Diego for a few days, Simon and Cam stayed in town, Zadok’s teething.”

  “Hmm,” he said rubbing his thumb over my knuckles softly, “I bet they will be kicking themselves once they find out I crashed.”

  “Probably,” I murmured enjoying what he was doing to my hand.

  He reached over with his other hand and gently pushed the hair that had fallen into my face away, “Beautiful,” he whispered. “So beautiful, and you don’t even realize it, so strong,” he murmured.

  Someone cleared their throat and broke the spell. I looked away, happy that it was dark out so no one could see my blushing.

  “Harper Lee, we’re all going to bed.”

  I nodded then yawned, realizing how tired I was. “Yeah, I think I am too.”

  Thayne reluctantly let go of my head and kissed me on the forehead. “Sweet dreams,” he whispered then he got up to collect his sister and I headed towards my tent.

  After rolling around unable to get comfortable, I once again dragged my sleeping bag out under the stars and fell asleep.

  I slowly woke up, hearing voices around me one particular one peaked my interest.

  “Is that normal?” Thayne asked.

  “Scout sleeping outside?” responded Kale.

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah, that’s normal, she doesn’t like cramped spaces.”

  “Hmm,” he said, “she hasn’t told me much about what happened.”

  “If she’s told you anything at all then that’s a huge thing for her,” Liam said.

  “She had to have told you, right?”

  “Nope,” Liam said, “Harper Lee didn’t tell us, Cas did before we ever met her.”

  “Oh.”

  “The only person I think she talks to about it is her psychiatrist, and I’m not entirely sure she talks to hi
m about it,” replied Kale.

  “Huh,” he grunted, “that can’t be a good thing, can it?”

  “We don’t push,” Liam said. “Cas said not to.”

  “Uh huh,” he muttered.

  “I get it, okay, and I am starting to agree, it’s time to loosen the reins, but I think the only way for that to happen is for Harper Lee to stand her ground against him. Not sure she’s there yet or not, but the house is tense lately with them circling one another.”

  “Huh?”

  “She’s been challenging him and he’s not used to it. She’s always done exactly as he’s told her in the past, but this time she’s not, at least not when it comes to you,” Kale told him.

  I decided it was time to stop eavesdropping and began moving around letting them know I was up. I finally climbed out of the sleeping bag, stretched my hands over my head and heard a gasp. I looked around and found Nikki staring at the skin showing above my sleep pants. I quickly pulled my tank top down and looked down at the ground.

  “What happened to you?” Nikki asked.

  “Nothing,” I mumbled.

  “He did it, didn’t he?” she asked and I jerked my head towards her and stared.

  “Has he?”

  She shook her head. “No, but he watches me.”

  “Stay away from him,” I ordered her.

  She nodded, “I try to.”

  “Wait, what’s going on?” asked Thayne.

  I kept my eyes on Nikki. “How’d you know?”

  “I heard him and Ace talking about you being here, they weren’t happy about it.”

  I nodded, “Yeah, I’m sure they’re not.”

  “Will someone tell me what’s going on?” Thayne barked.

  “I think your sister understands more than you do about your friend,” Kale murmured keeping a close eye on me.

  “Thayne, don’t leave her alone,” I told him not taking my eyes off the scared girl in front of me.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Bring her to our place while you’re working, Cam’s there and Cas most of the time, they won’t mind.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind that,” he said sarcastically.

  “For this, he won’t,” I snapped.

  “For what?”

  “To keep from what happened to me, from happening to your sister.”

  “I don’t even know what happened to you!” he yelled.

  “You want to know what happened to me, what your best friend did to me?” I yelled. “Will that get you to keep your sister safe from him?”

  I yanked my tank top up showing my abdomen and the scars that ran down it. “Is that good enough?” I yelled. Then I reached down and pulled my pajama pants down where he could see the scars running horizontal on my thighs. “Or that? How about the scars from the burns?”

  “Jesus,” he whispered paling, “what happened?”

  “Your friend held me hostage for five goddamn days torturing me,” I screamed, “happy now? Is that what you wanted to know?”

  I yanked my tank top down and my pants up and glared at him, “Do not leave her alone,” I bit out.

  I looked over at Nikki who looked sick, there was a question in her eye and I gave a slight nod, she ran to the trees and proceeded to get sick.

  “He wouldn’t…he couldn’t do something like that,” Thayne whispered.

  Matt walked up and put his arms around me hugging me hard. “He did,” he told Thayne “I know for a fact since I was the one who found her and him.”

  “I’m going to kill him,” Thayne growled then took off towards his car. Luckily, he didn’t have his keys on him, so they were able to keep him where he was and out of jail.

  I left him with the guys and went off on my own to process what had just happened. I couldn’t believe I had done that. I would never forget the horror on his face at seeing my scars, and he didn’t even know the worst of it yet.

  After finding a secluded spot, I sat down hard on the ground and put my head between my knees breathing deeply, in and out counting them. I didn’t know why I had done that, then I remembered Nikki’s scared face when talking about him, and I had to get him to understand. I didn’t think I would be able to live with myself if something was to happen to another young girl. My head snapped up and I wiped away the tears at the sound of snapping twigs, I glanced back and saw Thayne bearing down on me.

  “What do you want?” I growled putting my head back down.

  “I wanted to make sure you were okay?”

  “Am I okay?” I asked quietly. “No, I can honestly say I am not okay.”

  He sat down beside me and reached out to touch me but I flinched back and he dropped his hand.

  “I’m sorry for not understanding,” he whispered. “I just never thought he could hurt someone like that.”

  “He’s very good at fooling people,” I told him. “Cas told me I was being silly, that I had no reason to be worried about him.”

  “Yeah, I’ve told Nikki the same things,” he said pained.

  “Are there more?”

  “Scars?”

  He nodded. “Yeah,” I murmured, “there are more.”

  “How did he…I mean, what did he…” he stopped and looked down at the ground.

  “What did he do to cause them?”

  “Yeah,” he whispered, “if you don’t want to tell me that’s okay,” he said quickly.

  “I don’t like to talk about it,” I said equally quiet.

  “I can understand that.”

  I stared off at the trees in front towering over us, blocking the sun from fully reaching us. “My dad had given him a knife for his sixteenth birthday, he, uhm, used that and cut my legs, arms, and chest,” I whispered. I wiped away the tears now streaming down my face. “You can’t see the ones on my upper chest and arms easily so I don’t have to keep them covered anymore.”

  “Any others?”

  I nodded and sniffed. “Yeah, burn scars on the soles of my feet, calves, and thighs. I was handcuffed to the bed so there are scars there from where they bit into my wrist while I fought, though they’ve also lightened.”

  “You,” he cleared his throat, “you said he had you for five days?”

  “Mmhmm,” I muttered, “Ace and my step mom Lace went to a bike week leaving me home with him since we had school. I woke up chained to my bed the morning they left. Uncle Matt got a phone call from my school the third day I had missed and he came to check on me and found me.”

  “How did you survive that?” he asked sounding astonished.

  I shrugged. “I almost didn’t, by the time I was brought to the hospital I had almost bled to death. I had broken and cracked ribs and was covered in bruises. I had to have two surgeries on my vocal cords to repair the damage from screaming, though not that I was willing to talk even when I could. Then when I was released I tried to kill myself by overdosing on sleeping pills but Saul found me, and I was put into the hospital again for a while.”

  I wouldn’t look at him, I didn’t want to see his face, so instead I stared at my hands picking at my nails. “Cas took care of me as much as he could, Simon was there when Cas couldn’t be, and Matt and Saul. They all took care of me, still do.”

  “How did Cas not kill him, because sitting here I want to go find his ass and beat him,” he growled.

  “He did want to, but Saul and Matt held him down, and finally talked reason into him,” I smiled. “They explained to him he wouldn’t be much good to me in prison. Though from what I’ve been told he did beat the shit out of Ace at one point.”

  “Ace?” he said confused. “Why did he do that?”

  I cleared my throat and looked over at him, “Because from what I was told, Ace said that I had to have brought it on myself, that he wouldn’t have done what they were saying he did without a reason. That set Cas off, though it was only time before something did. Nineteen year old Cas had a short temper.”

  “You’re his daughter, right?”

  I no
dded.

  “And he said you brought it on yourself?”

  I nodded again.

  “I would have done what Cas did as well. How can you say that about any girl? Something like that happens to, let alone your own daughter, if it were to happen to one of my kids, I would have killed the son of a bitch.”

  I shrugged and looked away. “Because he blamed me, still blames me for my mother’s death. I was nothing but a burden to him that reminded him of what I took.”

  “That almost sounds like you’re reciting it.”

  “That’s because I am,” I told him, “I heard those words enough.”

  I wiped my face once more and looked over giving him a watery smile I didn’t feel. “So that’s my sad story.”

  “That’s not all of it, I can tell, but I won’t push for more,” he murmured. “I’m glad you trusted me this much, even if it was only to save my sister.”

  “I don’t want him to hurt someone else,” I whispered.

  “How is he not in prison?”

  “He was a juvenile, same as me, so it stayed in juvenile court. He was sent to juvie until he turned eighteen and all records were sealed.”

  “Yeah, but with what he did, he should have been—”

  “Come on,” I interrupted, “let’s head back before they start worrying.” I hopped up and headed back towards camp, I didn’t want to tell him that my dad had paid for the best lawyers to make sure he got off easy. I didn’t want him to fully realize how unwanted I was by the person who was supposed to love me, protect me above all else, that there was something inherently wrong with me. He’d figure that out for himself, eventually.

  Chapter 28

  “You forgot your meds,” Kale said quietly when we walked back in camp. I sighed and went into my tent and grabbed my meds then headed back.

  I showed them to him and Liam popped them in my mouth. I accepted the cup of coffee from Liam and swallowed them. “Want to check to make sure I took them?” I snapped.

  “Hey calm down, Scout,” Matt mumbled looking up at me.

  Liam just shrugged it off, “Welcome to Scout without caffeine and late on her meds, we're used to it,” he said giving me a smile. I mouthed sorry at him and he nodded.

  Nikki came and sat down beside me, and I could feel her eyes on me. I slid over adding a little more room between us. I liked Nikki but she was too close to me. I drank my coffee and stared down at the empty cup debating the merits of moving to get more when Liam snatched my cup from my hand and refilled it.