Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(64)

He pulled a little Dom-tone of his own as he knocked again. “Eva. I need you to wake up.”

Nothing.

Dammit.

He tried the door and found the knob locked.

That’s right. Laurel had mentioned something about that being why she’d awakened him instead of her mom.

Fuck it. He turned and was heading toward his bedroom to get his cell phone and call Eva’s cell when several thoughts finally clicked home at once.

Now wide awake, he slipped back into the kitchen without Laurel noticing him and examined the two cabinet’s contents more carefully.

There was an empty space in the liquor cabinet, and what looked like a missing highball glass from a set of them in the other cabinet.

He left his coffee mug on the counter and ran back down the hall, where he pounded on her bedroom door. “Eva. Open up. Right now.”

Nothing.

Laurel appeared at the end of the hallway. “Is everything okay, Uncle Jesse?”

“Everything’s fine, sweetheart. Go finish your lunch and sit there and watch TV until Mommy and I come back out.”

“Okay.”

Miracle of miracles, she disappeared without having to be told twice.

Trying the knob one more time, he thought fast. It had a little hole in it, on the outside. Hadn’t Leo said something once about Laurel locking herself in the guest bath when she was four?

He looked, then reached up and felt along the top of the door trim. No key, but when he searched the doorframe over the guest bathroom, he found one there and went back to try it, his pulse feeling more like a vibrator set to high than an actual heartbeat in his chest.

He immediately noticed the empty bed and instinctively closed and locked the bedroom door behind him.

The last thing he needed was Laurel walking in on something bad.

“Eva?” He checked around the far side of the bed. Nope.

He found her in the bathroom, on the floor. She wore nothing but an old T-shirt of Leo’s. On the floor next to her, an empty rum bottle, along with a puddle of rum and some broken glass where she’d dropped the highball glass. A little dried blood, but it looked like from her foot, maybe where she’d stepped on a shard.

A puddle of puke had started drying on the floor near her. As he swooped in, he was relieved to see her chest moving. He checked her pulse, found it strong.

Kneeling next to her, he got her sitting up and slapped her cheeks. “Eva!”

She moaned.

It took every last ounce of self-control he had not to punch her. He slapped her cheeks again, a little harder. “Eva! Wake up!”

Her eyelids fluttered open, her gaze everywhere at once before focusing on him. “Jesse?”

He reached in and started the shower, cold water. Hauling her to her feet, he dragged her into the shower with both arms wrapped around her and held her directly under the cold spray.

She shrieked, weakly struggling, then sobbing as she started coming to. He wasn’t sure if she’d aspirated any vomit or not. He hoped that the puking had occurred before the passing out portion of her solo festivities.

He struggled and lost against his anger as he stood there, the cold water making him shiver as well as drawing gooseflesh up all over her arms and legs and plastering the T-shirt to her body.

“Let me make something perfectly f*cking clear to you, Eva,” he said through gritted teeth and trying to keep his voice down. “You do not f*cking get to check out on that little girl. Do you understand me? So grow. The f*ck. Up.”

Her head slumped against the wall, where he was now leaning, forcing her to stand directly under the spray. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I just meant to have one drink, and then…” Her voice deteriorated into ragged sobs.

Once he knew she was alert, he reached over and adjusted the water temp to the cool side of warm and turned her around so she faced him. His hands clenched around her upper arms and he shook her, hard, not even caring if he left bruises behind.

“I forgave you for snooping. That was your one f*cking chance with my good graces. The only reason I’m not walking out of here with Laurel right now is because I know you’re in pain and scared. So you f*cking listen to me. No more chances. I get it, you’re upset and scared. Well, I’m upset and scared, too, but we don’t have the liberty of drinking ourselves into oblivion right now. You want to f*cking do that shit? You wait until we get Leo healed up and home. How long have you been drinking?”

She shook her head. “I don’t. That was Leo’s favorite. I haven’t drank anything since he left. I just…” Jesse couldn’t tell what was tears and what was water flowing down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t think—”

He shook her again, hard. “No f*cking lies, Eva. I catch you lying to me, you will never see that little girl again. I don’t want to be an *, but don’t you dare f*ck with her life. I will do what it takes to protect her. Do you f*cking understand me?”

Did this explain why she’d caved to the outrageous legal demands? Was this why she’d insisted on him being named Laurel’s guardian? Was there a secret she’d been hiding that they hadn’t known about?

“I swear,” she said. “I haven’t.”

Jesse was running on adrenaline and anger and autopilot. “I talk to that counselor you and Leo go to and find out you’ve been drinking, you’re done. Last chance to come completely clean to me. Right now.”