Page 21 of Squatch Out!

You didn’t forget. You were distracted , I think as everything from last night comes rushing back: Sean finding me on the park bench. Fucking me against the tree and then coming back here to rock my world for the rest of the night.

I’m half on my stomach, half on my side, with Sean’s warmth covering my back. We couldn’t have fallen asleep that long ago. Why am I awake now?

As if to answer, the phone beside my bed rings.

I don’t remember asking for a wakeup call…

Stretching my arm across the bed, I pick up the handset. “Hhh’lo?” Shit, my voice sounds like I was screaming all night. Ooops! Because I was.

“Miss Andersen? This is the front desk. I'm sorry to wake you at such an early hour, but there is a Mr. Darren Jordan here, and he is insisting that he must speak with you. He says it’s an emergency.”

It takes a minute for my brain to catch up. Darren Jordan? Like… Darren from our group? Is that his last name? Focus, Liv.

“An emergency?” I ask—actually it’s more of a mumble.

“Yes, miss. He’s quite adamant that he speak with you.”

“Ummm.” I rub at my eyes as I roll out from under Sean. He lets out a groan and then burrows into the warm spot I left as I drag myself so I’m sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Miss Andersen?” the woman on the other end asks.

Suddenly, her message clicks. Darren is here to talk to me about an emergency. Oh, no! What if something happened to Tony or Brian?! “Right. Let me—tell him I’ll be right down and to wait in the lobby.”

“Thank you, miss. Sorry to disturb you.”

I mumble a distracted ‘it’s fine’ and then hang up the phone. By then, Sean is sitting with his back to the headboard, running a hand through his thoroughly disheveled bedhead. Naw, that’s fuck-me hair, and it’s sexy as hell!

“Is everything okay?”

“I’m not sure,” I admit with a frown. “Darren is here to talk to me. He says it’s an emergency.”

Without any hesitation, Sean rolls off the bed and starts gathering up his clothes. So, I do the same, running to the bathroom for a quick shower before pulling on some jeans and a blue t-shirt. This one says MOIST in bright yellow bubble letters across my boobs.

I watch with jealousy as Sean runs his fingers through his hair, and the strands magically fall into place. When I do the same, it doesn’t have quite the same effect, but this is an emergency, not an interview.

I shove my feet into my shoes and then glance over to see Sean is following me toward the door. “You don’t have to?—”

He shakes his head. “I don’t think you should be alone with him.”

“I mean, it’s the lobby, so it’s technically a public place…”

Sean steps up to me and cups the side of my face with his large palm. “Baby, I’m not letting you go down there by yourself. I’m not going to be nosy about it, but I’m going to be standing where he can see me.”

My heart swells in my chest that Sean would have my back like that. Even Tony and Brian, my friends that I’ve known for years , never made me feel protected the way he does.

I think I love this guy. It’s on the tip of my tongue to admit out loud, but I bite it back because… I still hardly know him. You can’t love a person after just a day… or even a couple of days. Right?

As we leave my room, Sean slips his hand into mine, and I tighten my fingers around his as we take the elevator down to the lobby. I recall the lust-filled tension that filled the small box the last time we were in it together and how today’s tension is much different.

This time, my stomach is roiling with nerves.

Something about Darren has always felt a little off to me.

I thought maybe I just needed to get to know him, but now I think my inner voice was trying to warn me about him.

The closer we get to the lobby, the more nervous I become, and the more relieved I am that Sean insisted on coming.

Just before the elevator doors open, I look up at him, nervously.

“I’ll be right here,” he promises, pulling me against his chest. I take a deep breath and let his comforting woodsy smell soothe some of my worry, while his warmth melts away my anxiety. For a moment, at least. Then the doors slide open, and my nervousness comes rushing back.

“I’ll be right behind you,” he whispers against my temple as we step out. “If, at any time, you need an out, just make a fist behind your back, and I’ll be right there.”

Letting out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding, I let go and walk past him into the lobby, where Darren is standing in front of the fireplace.

His arms are folded across his chest, and his golden hair is a mess.

I clear my throat, and he spins around to face me, with blue eyes that are red-rimmed and wild.

Dread tightens my stomach, and I almost curl my arm behind my back and close my fist, signaling to Sean to come intervene, but I hold off.

“Hi, Darren.” I hope my smile doesn’t look as forced as it feels when I stop, making sure to put a wingback chair between us. “What’s going on?”

He drags his bloodshot eyes over me, and I have to fight the urge to brush away the slimy feel of it. Then his face melts into a frightening sneer. “You think you’re so smart?”

I reel back. “What are you talking about?” My heart starts to pound and I curl my fingers around the back of the chair.

“Your whole ‘bigfoot is just a guy in a suit’ story. You might have fooled the others, but not me. I saw right through your bullshit.”

My blood turns to ice as he mocks me. “I—no, that’s not?—”

“I knew something wasn’t right when he came out of your tent.

So I followed you. After he left you at that house, I got this…

” He holds out his phone, practically shoving it in my face, and I have to squint in order to make out what’s playing on the small screen.

It’s a short vid with a bigfoot walking through some trees.

Except when he passes behind a thicker trunk, a naked man comes out the other side.

Oh, no.

“Where do they live?” He demands as he pulls the phone back and swipes across the screen. “Where can I find them?”

I’m still trying to process the clip he just showed me as he switches subjects. “What? How should I know?”

“Wrong answer!” he sneers at me. “Tell me where they are, or I will drag your name through every tabloid and social media site. I’ll turn you into a laughingstock so massive, there will be memes around for your kids to see.”

I’m trying to keep up while my mind reels. Can he do that? Would he really? “That clip proves nothing,” I reply curtly.

“Oh?” He swipes across the screen again and then shows me a grainy photo. This shows Sean’s squatch carrying me through the forest . My fingers are tangled in his long fur as I gaze up at him with soft eyes.

Well, shit.

I reach over the chair and swipe at his phone, but Darren holds it up and out of my reach before I can grab it.

“Ah-ah-ah,” he taunts me. But then a longer arm reaches over him and plucks his phone out of his hand. “Hey!”

Sean dances back when Darren comes at him, but he’s able to easily hold it out of his reach as he starts going through the clips.

“What are you doing! Give that back!” Darren howls.

“I will as soon as I delete these,” he says

Darren folds his arms across his chest and taunts him, “Go ahead, I’ve got them all saved in the cloud.”

Without looking up from the screen, Sean smiles. “That’s cool. I’m marking them all as AI first, so no one will believe this is an actual clip.” When he finishes, he gives Darren a smug look. “So, who’s going to be the laughingstock of the internet now?”

With a strangled cry, Darren throws himself at Sean. I barely jump out of the way before they crash together. Sean’s back hardly hits the ground before he flips the leaner man over with some kind of MMA move that puts him on his back and in a chokehold.

“What is going on here?” an elderly man wearing the lodge uniform shouts as he jogs over to us.

Sean seems to have things well under control, with his legs and an arm wrapped around Darren, holding him immobile.

“I’m going to have to ask the both of you to leave,” the gentleman says pointedly at Darren. “And to kindly not come back.”

“I have a reservation—” Darren’s argument is cut off—along with his air—when Sean tightens his hold.

“Not anymore, you don’t,” the older man announces. “Out! Both of you, or I’ll call the police.”

Sean doesn’t seem worried about the threat, but Darren’s face is turning redder by the minute. Although that might be from Sean choking him.

Sean finally releases his hold and easily bounces back to his feet. Reaching down, he offers Darren a hand, which he slaps away with a string of curses. Then he snatches his phone that Sean holds out for him.

“You’re not going to get away with this,” Darren shouts before stalking out the front doors.

“I think we should probably go too,” Sean says as he offers the hotel host a charming grin. “We need to warn Owen about him.”

“Oh, yeah. You should probably—” I start automatically and then pause when I realize he didn’t say I but we .

“I mean, I’m pretty sure that guy kicked you out too.

” I glance behind him where the older gentleman is back at his desk.

He lifts up the phone’s handset and points it at us, reminding us of his threat to call the police.

With a big grin, Sean waves at him and then grabs my hand and pulls me out of the lobby.