Divine Charity (35 page)

“We need to get out of here, Justine,” Noah said, tugging on her hand. “I don’t want you here when the shit hits the fan.”

Justine shook her head. “We have to find Luka and Matthias and put a stop to this. They could go to jail.” She was angry at what they’d allowed to happen but she didn’t want to see them arrested.

She stepped over bodies, did her best to ignore couples necking and groping each other on the living room furniture as she searched the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, where she had to avert her eyes rather than see some guy’s naked ass.

Turning to Noah and Beau, she said, “The only places left to look are the bedrooms and the backyard.”

“And the pool house,” Beau added, rubbing his hand over his face. He looked like he really didn’t want to be there either.

Noah nodded. “Justine, you check the backyard. I’ll take the bedrooms and Beau you take the pool house. Sarah, stay with Beau.”

“O–Okay.”

Anger simmered when Justine saw a teenaged girl she didn’t recognize come running down the hall with one of Isabella’s little knit hats stretched over her head. The hat she’d crocheted herself when Teresa had been pregnant with Isabella. It took restraint not to rip it off of the skank’s head.

“They’re dead meat,” she growled to herself as she marched out to the back porch.
“Luka! Matthias!”

“Hey, babe,” a member of the football team said, from his spot reclining in the hammock. He squinted at her and gave her a grin he probably thought was super sexy. Slurring his words, he said, “Did it hurt?”

Scrunching her nose up in irritation as he distracted her from her purpose, she replied, “What?”

He leered at her. “You know, when you fell from Heaven, did it hurt?”

Oh god, save me from drunken idiots.
“Yes. I was in intensive care for weeks and my wings broke off. Do you know where Luka and Matthias are?”

He squinted for a few seconds like he was processing her response and then said, “I think they’re in the pool, babe.”

Grudgingly thankful, she said, “Thank you.”

She wobbled in her heels as she covered the short expanse of grass until she reached the pool. Sure enough, there were Luka and Matthias laughing their asses off in the water as none other than Maggie Olson stripped her prom dress off and tossed it into the pool with a raucous hoot.

“Take it off, baby!” called another guy who looked way too old to be there. Maggie jumped in the water in her Spanx with a high-pitched shriek.

“Son of a bitch,” Justine growled, turning away a bit to protect her cast from being splashed. “Luka! Matthias!”

She spotted Luka and his brother, with a busty blonde between them who she’d seen them with before. Luka gave Justine a big grin that would’ve made her heart palpitate back when she’d had a crush on him. Now she just wanted to punch him in the nose. He swam over to where she stood at the edge of the pool. “Hey there, little Chiquita! There’s a keg in the kitchen if you want some beer.”

“Yeah, as well as hard liquor, nudity, and probably sex! All in your brothers’ house.
Teresa’s
house! You idiots!”

“Huh?” Matthias said as he swam over. “I’ll go check.”

“Check all you want, dumbass,” she said, her cheeks filling with heat as he came out of the pool, completely nude. She averted her eyes and said, “Oh my God, put on your swim trunks!”

Matthias chuckled, a sexy sound that had always charmed her but now made him seem like a jerk, since he was just letting his junk hang out everywhere. Luka threw him the missing garment and he put them on as he said, “Sorry, Chica.”

“You’re going to be even sorrier if Hank shows up,” she said, trying to rein in her volume a bit. “There were rumors going around about this party at the prom tonight. I’m willing to bet that at least half of the guests you’re serving alcohol to are underage.”

“Prom? We didn’t advertise this party. It was supposed to be just a few friends. What’re they doing inside?” he asked as he squinted through bleary eyes at the back of the house.

“Just about anything they can think up, Matthias. Do you have any idea how hard Teresa and the guys have worked on this place? Wait.” She squinted at a dark object in the pool. “Is that a motorcycle in the pool? Never mind. There must be fifty people inside the house right now. They’re even in the bedrooms.”

“Uh-uh,” Luka said, his attitude instantly changing as he lifted himself from the pool with one smooth, muscular move. The display of his muscles might’ve reduced some women to speechlessness but she still wanted to punch him. “They’d better not be.”

“Well, they
are
. And they’re making enough noise that it’s going to draw attention from Aunt Grace’s house.
She
may kill you before Teresa can even get home. She’s pregnant and still in a brace and you’re going to upset her even more. What were you
thinking
?”

The blonde climbed from the pool and threw her clothes on over her wet transparent underwear and called, “Later, guys! I’m outta here!”

Luka and Matthias were completely serious now as Noah, Beau, and Sarah came running up. Beau said, “You found them. Good.
Guys, you need to get in there and get rid of all those people before—”

A siren sounded and Justine’s eyes were drawn to flashing lights bouncing off of cars parked all over the yard out front. Minors scattered in every direction, some dressed, others not so much.

Walking toward the house, Justine called back to the hosts, “Sounds to me like you’re both screwed.”

Inside the house it was chaos, kids pouring out of the hallway that led to the bedrooms and the den, trampling each other trying to get out and away.

Noah caught her when one big guy she recognized from her biology class knocked her out of the way in his haste to zip up his jeans and beat feet out the back door. Noah maneuvered her into a corner so no one else could possibly injure her as she took in the disaster area that Teresa’s lovely home had been transformed into. Under other circumstances it would’ve been nice to have his chest pressed against her the way it was right then.

She heard the sound of a two-way radio and then saw Noah grimace as he looked over his shoulder. “Your dads are gonna fucking kill me.”

Justine shook her head. “No, they’re not. I didn’t come out here to party and they’ll understand that. They know we’d never willingly participate in something like this.”

“We should’ve called them about this before we came out here.”

He had a point, but she’d been too worried to think of it. “Yeah, well…that’s a really good idea. Unfortunately we didn’t have it earlier.”

“Yeah, and here we are anyway.”

“Yeah,” Hank said from the front door, looking ready to string someone up. “Here you are anyway.”

Jack Warner came in the front door behind him, and his eyes widened. “What the
hell
happened in here? Honey, what are you doing here?” he asked when he spotted her across the room.

Without hesitation, Justine went to him and Hank, “Same thing as you. I knew this wasn’t right when we heard about it at the prom.”

Hank’s raised eyebrows said it all as he surveyed the damage and then said a few words into his radio. It sounded like the deputies were rounding up those partygoers who weren’t able to run off fast enough.

Jack said, “Luka and Matthias were supposed to be house-sitting while Angel, Joaquin, and Teresa took the kids to see their grandparents this weekend. Have you seen them?”

“We’re here, sir.” They turned at the sound of Luka’s voice as they both stood in the archway between the kitchen and the living room, shock on their faces as they gaped at the scene.

Hank turned a stony face on both young men. “You’ve both got some explaining to do.”

Justine headed toward the hallway and Noah stopped her and shook his head. “You don’t want to go back there.”

Justine said, “I have to.”

She was seeing red when she returned to them a few seconds later. “Come look.”

They followed her down the hall to baby Isabella’s nursery. The carpet was soaked with what she assumed was beer, someone had climbed in the crib and flattened it, and the rocker the Garners had made for Teresa was on its side, broken. She pointed across the hall at Michael and Eleazar’s bedroom, which was just as bad. Both of their beds were broken and the covers were torn from them. The door to the den was hanging half off of its hinges and the toilet had overflowed in the bathroom. The odor of sex still filled the air.

Luka and Matthias looked like they’d seen a ghost as they backed away, but Justine grabbed Luka by the wrist and said, “Oh no you don’t. You don’t get to run away. Go look what they did to your brothers’ bedroom.
Teresa’s
bedroom.”

They had to brace themselves against the doorway of the master bedroom. It was in the same condition as the boys’ bedroom and the den.

The anger suddenly drained out of her as she crossed her arms in front of her and watched them react to what they saw. “I heard you two were players but I always saw you as grown-ups—before tonight.”

Matthias looked stricken. “Teresa’s never going to forgive us.”

Luka frowned. “It was supposed to be a little party. We were out in the back and didn’t realize what was going on in here.”

A deputy approached Hank and whispered to him and Jack. Hank said, “Luka and Matthias, you’re coming with me. Jack?” he added, casting a glance to Justine, Beau, and their dates.

Jack nodded. “The four of you come with me,” he said and led the way out of the house. Police cars were parked, lights flashing, blocking in numerous vehicles, and from the sound of it, some parents were starting to arrive. Angry parents.

“Sir,” Noah said, maneuvering so he stood half in front of her. “We didn’t intend to come out here to party. Justine was worried. So was Beau.”

Hank nodded. “I know, son. I’m releasing the four of you to their Uncle Jack to deal with, while I figure out what to do with the rest of these. Go straight home.”

“Yes, sir,” Noah said, looking relieved.

Hank and the deputies turned to the rest of the motley assemblage and he began giving orders as the four of them retreated with Jack.

When they reached the vehicles, Justine turned to Jack. “We heard about the party at the prom, Uncle Jack, I swear we only came because I was worried.”

Jack stopped her and said, “The two of you have always had good heads on your shoulders and you don’t reek of alcohol so don’t worry about it. I’m sure that Angel would appreciate that you were concerned enough to come out and check.”

Beau looked back at the house, which resembled a crime scene with the blue and red lights flashing around and said, “They’re going to need a hazmat crew to clean that mess up.”

Jack nodded. “I knew Luka and Matthias had gotten a little wild lately but this time…it’s gonna bite them in the ass.” He looked disgusted as they watched Luka and Matthias being handcuffed and led to a patrol car. “If any of those parents press charges, the two of them are screwed.”

“I’d better get you home,” Noah said as he stroked her upper arm, which made her shiver. “You cold?”

Nodding, she said, “I’m chilled all of a sudden.”

Noah immediately removed his coat and put it around her shoulders as Jack conversed with Beau.

“I’ll call your dad and let him know what happened and that the four of you weren’t in any trouble.”

Justine looked back at the kids that had been caught by the deputies, Maggie Olson among them. They were all grouped together, sitting on the front deck. Maggie glared daggers at Justine and Noah before looking away.

In the truck on the way home, Noah turned the heat up a little and Justine said, “I look at it this way. This night will always be a vivid memory.”

“Same here. I can’t believe they allowed that to happen to that nice house. But when I look back on tonight, this part isn’t what’s going to stand out.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked softly as they pulled up in front of the house with five minutes to spare on her curfew. “What will you remember?”

“The fact that you wore my college colors and how beautiful you looked,” he said as he turned to her in the dim truck interior. “I imagine that your parents are going to meet us at the door so I thought I’d ask you for a kiss now.” His hand was warm as it clasped hers before sliding up to gently cradle her forearm. He’d never mentioned her awkward cast all night.

She smiled up at him and nodded. His lips were warm and soft as he brushed them against hers. Cupping her jaw, he held her steady as he deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue against hers in a satiny, experimental stroke. His masculine fragrance invaded her senses and she melted against him and curled her hand around his forearm, holding on to him. An involuntary tremor rippled through her as he sucked her lower lip and gradually drew away. His breath was warm against her damp lips and she looked up at him and whispered, “I had a wonderful time, Noah. Thank you for asking me, and for not letting me chicken out.”

Noah grinned. “Except for that last part, it was a perfect date, as far as I’m concerned. And I learned something new about you.”