“Detective, I’m not asking you to believe me. I know that you won’t. All I’m asking is for you to protect Ronnie.” Edie pleaded. “Get her out of there. I’m begging you. Get her someplace safe, someplace secret, with police protection. She’s not safe with those—”
“Not safe?” Houghtaling snorted. “With her aunt, her cousin and a four-man security team? Ronnie is fine. It’s you we’re worried about.”
“She’s with Des Marr and Ava Cheung,” Edie said again. “They are killers! Cheung tried to kill Kev before he got away! She’s killed before, and so has Des Marr! They killed both my parents! And there’s that cold room full of cadavers at that warehouse in Hillsboro—”
“I’ll have someone check out this alleged room of cadavers,” Houghtaling said. “But so far, I’ve seen no evidence that Ava Cheung or Desmond Marr are anything but law-abiding citizens. Mr. Marr’s lucky to be alive. You’re lucky he’s alive, too, Ms. Parrish.”
Edie shuddered, remembering that empty glow in Des’s eyes. “He was sexually assaulting me. I have a right to defend myself.”
Another snort. “Who put that gun into your hand, Ms. Parrish?”
Edie fought for control of her voice. “Someone who cares about me,” she said. “Someone who gives a shit.”
“Huh. The hole you’re digging for yourself keeps getting deeper. Please, put down the shovel. Before it’s too late to help you.”
Edie hung up. Alex Aaro tapped on his computer, doing something to the signal that made it impossible to trace. He was a big guy, muscular and craggy. Dark hair, pale, grim mouth.
They were hiding out at Alex Aaro’s place, a few miles out of the little town of Sandy. Hidden deep in a huge, hushed evergreen forest.
She stared down at the phone in her hand. It wasn’t the one Ronnie had given her. Kev had taken hers back in the van, pried out the SIM card, and thrown it out into the gutter. This one belonged to one of the McClouds. She didn’t know which. Tired as she was, it was hard to keep multiple big blond guys straight. Sean had arrived an hour or so after they got to Aaro’s place, so there were three new exhausted, grim McCloud guys staring at her with intense curiosity. Plus Bruno. Even Tony was there. He’d arrived shortly after Sean. She glanced at Aaro. “One more call? To see if I can get my sister? I have to try to warn her.”
He nodded. “Go for it.”
She dialed her sister’s old cell phone number, the one she’d promised to keep turned on for Edie’s call, and crossed her fingers.
“Parrish residence,” said a man’s voice. “Who is this?”
Great. Paul Ditillo, of all the luck. He’d taken Ronnie’s phone. “Paul, it’s Edie,” she said, resigned. “Can I talk to Ronnie?”
“Not in this lifetime. Where’s my fucking car?” Paul asked.
“Parked at the Target on Montrose Highway,” she said, heart sinking. This was futile, but she had to try. “Paul, that woman Des brought to the house, Ava Cheung, is a killer. She shouldn’t be around Ronnie. Neither should Des. Please, find a way to get rid of them.”
Paul made derisive sound. “Des is asleep on the couch, zonked out on pain meds from getting shot up by you and your sniper boyfriend. And Cheung, this deadly killer who must weigh, oh, maybe a hundred and ten pounds, tops? She’s sitting on the floor, holding his hand crying into her chamomile tea. Spare me.”
“Paul, I know it seems—”
“Do yourself a favor, Edie. Take your fucking meds.”
She hung up and pressed her knuckles against her mouth. “I struck out,” she whispered. “Bigtime.”
Kev took her hand. “You’ve done everything you can for tonight.”
“But I can’t just leave her there with those horrible people!” she burst out. “That asshole Des is asleep on the couch! And Ava’s with him! Drinking…goddamn chamomile tea! It’s so screwed!”
“That’s good news.” It was Tam, the McCloud brothers’ mysterious, shockingly beautiful female friend, who had also shown up shortly after they arrived at Aaro’s lair. “They’re taking a break from slaughtering and mind-rape. A nap, some tea. Everybody needs a breather.”
Edie rounded on her in outrage. “How can you joke about this?”
The woman’s slender black-clad shoulders lifted in an indifferent shrug. “Coping mechanisms differ.”
“Take your coping mechanisms and shove them up your ass!” Edie snarled. “This is my little sister! You don’t know what it’s like!”
“Yes, I do, actually,” Tam said. “I had a sister once.”
Edie turned to stare into the woman’s fathomless amber eyes. She was afraid to say it, but she’d been neatly maneuvered into it. “Once?”
A tiny nod. Then Tam made her wait. And wait.
“And?” Edie prompted, her voice getting sharper.
“I was not able to protect her.” Tam’s low, smoky voice went crystal hard. “She died.”
Edie closed her eyes. Sick nausea rolled in her belly.
“It happens,” Tam went on mercilessly. “You deal with it.”
“What the fuck is this shit?” Kev demanded. “Is this supposed to help? Is this useful? Shut up, lady! Back off! We don’t need this!”
“Excuse me for being a walking worst case scenario,” she said. “But I survived. “She poked Edie’s shoulder. “You’re a survivor. “Maybe your little sister is a survivor, too. We can only hope.”
“But she’s only thirteen!” Edie wailed.
“Thirteen. That’s old enough. Is she smart? Tough?” Edie swallowed, and nodded, and Tam went on briskly. “Well, good, then. She’s got a shot. A long one, but that’s better than nothing.”
“Jesus!” Kev glared at her. “That’s supposed to comfort her?”
Tam looked blank. “Certainly not. Why on earth would I do that? Stop coddling her. It’s irritating me, and it doesn’t help her.”
Kev turned to his brothers. “Where did you find this crazy bitch?”
Davy and Con looked uncomfortable. “It’s a long sto—”
“Say that once more and I rip out somebody’s throat,” Kev said.
Everyone in the room but Kev and Edie exchanged quick, nervous glances. Tam just chuckled to herself. Her own little private joke.
“Try not to let her bug you,” Sean offered. “She’s just that way. We’re so used to it, we don’t even notice anymore. We just hear blah, blah, blah when she comes out with her spurts of vitriol.”
Con jumped in. “She makes up for her horrible manners and her bitchy remarks and her piss poor attitude—”
“It’s called blunt honesty,” Tam interjected. “Be refreshed by it.”
“…by saving your ass from a horrible fate from time to time,” Con concluded doggedly. “She saved mine once. And Erin’s.”
“Yours, too, indirectly,” Davy said. “Those guys at your apartment were hammering us. If Con hadn’t blown up their armored SUVs with Tam’s jewelry bombs, we’d all be meat.”
“About that.” Tam crossed slender legs and swung a high-heeled foot. “Let’s discuss my lovely diamond bomblets, which you were charged to deliver before you exploded them for your own selfish—”
“Selfish?” Con snapped back, defensive. “They were killing us!”
Tam laughed. “So easy to bait. Be cool, Con. We’ll work out a payment plan. Little Kevvie and Maddie will have to give up their college funds, maybe, but higher education is overrated, you know? I never had any, after all. I had, well…lower education, I guess you might call it.” She lit a cigarette, winking at Edie. “Very, very low.”
“Everybody ignore her,” Davy said. “Tam, shut up and behave.”
Tam made a kissy-face at him, and puffed out a smoke ring.
But Edie kept looking at Tam. Tam gazed back, cool and direct.
She couldn’t stop wondering how it felt to be a walking worst case scenario. And if she was about to find out. She folded herself in half, hugging her knees to her face. The fear made her feel so sick.
“Edie? Won’t you at least try to eat something?” Kev pleaded.
Edie looked at the trestle table, heaped with fruit, deli salads and sandwiches, and shook her head. “System’s down,” she said.
Kev looked exhausted. His eyes looked almost bruised, the shadows were so deep. They were crowded into the big, drafty future basement of the house that Alex Aaro was in the process of building for himself. There was only an outer frame for the upper stories so far, though he was starting to work on the floor of the level above.
Aaro was camped out in what was clearly going to be a huge storage basement and work space, but he’d set it up with the basic essentials of living: a table, one battered recliner facing a flat-screen sixty-inch TV mounted on the wall, a few kitchen essentials, gas range, microwave, sink. A sleeping space and bathroom were out back, in a separate cabin. The fragrance of the trees blew in through the open door. One of Aaro’s cats slid in like a shadow through the open door, and hopped onto Edie’s lap, rubbing its ears against her hands.
“Shouldn’t you close the doors?” she asked, hesitantly.
“The cold helps keep me awake,” Aaro told her. “And a locked door won’t make us any safer.” He pointed at the monitors mounted over the desk where he sat. “I set up thermal imagers, so we’ll see anything warm blooded that gets within a hundred meters of us. There are motion detectors, too. Anything taller than a rabbit or a squirrel will set off the sensors. We’re covered. You can relax.”
Relax. As if. The place felt lost, like Kev’s cabin. A narrow, winding dirt road led from the highway through the Cascades to this place. No light penetrated the heavy roof of spreading pine and fir branches. No sounds of civilization, just the enormous rustling of wind in the trees.
She was barricaded with high-tech security, surrounded by guys with guns, but safety was a state of mind. And it was one that Edie could not achieve with Ronnie under the same roof as Des and Ava.
Aaro got up, and cast his eyes over the guys sprawled around the tables and chairs in various attitudes of exhaustion. Bruno’s head was cradled in his arms. Miles was asleep in the recliner, snoring.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Kev said. “They’ll find us here.”
“You’ve got to rest for a couple hours.” Aaro opened a cupboard, and yanked out an armful of sleeping bags and tattered blankets. “You guys go bed down on the tatami mats in the exercise room.” He cast Tam a cautious look. “But I don’t know what to do with you, babe.”
She smiled. “Do nothing. Always the safest policy. I’m not camping out with a bunch of snorting, malodorous men. I’m checked into a charming little B&B in Sandy. Sweet dreams, gentlemen.”
Aaro jerked his chin at Kev and Edie. “Take her to my bedroom. Towels in the cabinet, sheets in the bottom drawer if you’re squeamish.”
“What, Aleksei?” Tam purred. “No rose petals to scatter on the sheets for her? How churlish of you.”
The guys turned, casting hostile glances in Kev’s direction.
“About those rose petals, man,” Con said. “That stunt really fucked us up.”
Kev looked around, utterly bewildered. “What? Fucked who up?”
“All of us,” Sean said darkly.
Kev looked at their frowning faces. “But…who knows about—”
“Liv saw them.” Con sounded aggrieved. “Liv told Margot and Erin on the phone when they called her at the hospital. Margot told Tam and Raine. Erin told Becca and Cindy. And now all of the women are busting our balls about oh, how sweet, and oh, how sensitive, and oh, how fucking romantic. Thanks, man. Thanks. Real helpful.”
“But I—”
“I mean, for Christ’s sake, I’m dealing with diapers and colic, and tantrums, and Kevvie’s screaming night terrors,” Con bitched wearily. “I’ve forgotten what sleep feels like!”
“I’ve got a two-year-old kicking me in the face all night, plus I’m dealing with morning sickness,” Davy butted in, not to be outdone.
“Suck raw ginger root for your morning sickness, Davy,” Tam offered sweetly. “I’m told it does wonders.”
Davy ignored her. “It’s not enough to keep your shit together, deal with your kid, make a living, throw your underwear and socks in the right basket and hang on to your temper. It’s not enough to be willing to take a bullet for her. Oh, no. A guy has to twist his brain into a knot to figure out how to keep the magic alive. It’s hard enough just to keep the bodies alive around this crowd of crazy fools!”
“It’s enough,” Edie put in, quietly.
Davy cut off in midtirade, disoriented. “What’s enough?”
“Being willing to take a bullet. That’s really enough,” Edie said.
Davy looked gratified. “I appreciate that.”
“But the petals were nice,” she added demurely.
Davy rolled his eyes. “Yeah. And so, like I said, Kev. Thanks for raising the bar for all of us. At the worst possible time. What a get-to-know-you-again present. A big, fat, hairy issue with the wife. Long, emotionally charged conversations deep into the night, when we could be sleeping, or even having sex. Hooray.”
“Hey! Don’t pin that on me!” Kev pointed at Bruno without hesitation. “That was him. That was all his idea. He did that!”
Bruno dragged his head up, blinking sleep-reddened eyes. “Like, what’s the big goddamn deal?” he asked crabbily. “You buy some cheap roses. You throw the petals on the sheets. They look pretty. The chicks go wild. It’s not rocket science.”
Edie winced. “Don’t spoil it for me, Bruno.”
“So it’s like we thought!” Davy said triumphantly. “It’s just a cheap carnival trick. It’s all about getting laid, right?”
“Well, yeah. Isn’t everything?” Bruno looked perplexed. “What matters is how the chick reads it. That’s what you got to manipulate.”
Edie covered her ears. “I don’t want to hear this.” She was shaking with laughter, though the frequency was too high, too thin. Laughter only dogs could hear. She covered her face, and fought not to let it become tears. Not in front of Tam, the walking worst case scenario.
Kev tugged at her arm. “Come on. Let’s go rest.”
He led her out into the night. The soft, rustling chill of the forest surrounded them. Her shoes crunched on the spongy carpet of pine needles, but Kev’s feet made no sound. She didn’t have the strength to wonder how he did it. It was all she could do not to fall on her face.
The cabin was simple and spare. Inside was just a big king-sized bed with a comforter and a few pieces of furniture. Kev locked the door, peered out the windows, threw open cabinets until he found a pile of towels. He tossed one to Edie. “Want a shower?”
She wondered if she could stay on her feet that long, and decided being clean and fresh was worth it. Once under the stream of hot water, she took longer than she’d meant to and when she came out, her hair twisted into a tangled wet rope, Kev was stripping the sheets off the bed.
She was startled. “You have the energy to change sheets?”
“You think I’m going to let my woman sleep on sheets that another naked man has wallowed in? No fucking way.”
She snorted with laughter. “Mr. Rigorous Hard-ass is back. I was wondering when he was going to show up.”
“He’s never far away,” Kev said curtly. “And I’ll warn you. It’s not going to get better. I’ll probably get worse with age. And the more I care, the worse it gets. So brace yourself.”
If we live that long. They both left it unsaid, but it rang in the silence like an iron gong.
“Shouldn’t we be coming up with some sort of plan?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’m done in,” he said. “Maybe you’ll have a psychic vision that’ll give us an idea. We need all the help we can get.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” she said snappishly. “I told you. It’s not a precision instrument. It’s more like a kick in the head.”
“Whatever.” His voice was thick with weariness.
She moved to help with the bed, and they worked together silently. Kev tossed the comforter on top, and grabbed another towel. “I’m as rank as a goat,” he said. “Get into bed, so you don’t get chilled. And be ready to talk, when I get out of the shower.”
“About what?”
His blazing gaze rocked her backwards. “About why you sneaked out of your dad’s house and went to the Parrish Foundation building all by yourself,” he said. “I’m real interested in your motivation for that.”
The bathroom door clicked shut behind him.
Edie sat down on the edge of the bed, chilled to the bone by his tone of voice. She waited, her back very straight.
He finally came out, and carefully did not look at her. She waited, while he dried off. He was covered with scrapes, bruises, scabs. He checked the gun he’d laid on the bedside table. Peered out the window. Sidestepping the can of worms he’d opened.
“Stop stalling. Finish what you started,” she said. “You asked what I was doing at the Parrish Foundation. It’s not obvious?”
“No,” he said. “The rest of the world thinks that I’m a kidnapper, brainwasher, and killer. What I want to know is if you thought that, too.”
She stared at him, incredulous. “But I…no!”
“Then why did you go to the Parrish building? You didn’t know about Des and Ava. We hadn’t even spoken yet. But you knew there was a killer out on the loose. So why run out into the dark by yourself, just to verify what I said? Were you having doubts about me?”
She shook her head frantically. “No! I just wanted to see for myself that the boxes were there, like your text message said!”
“So my word wasn’t enough for you?”
She bristled with outrage. “Well, it certainly isn’t enough for the police! I wanted proof I could show to Detective Houghtaling! I wanted her to see that it was a trap! I sent her fifteen pictures, much good it did me. Now she thinks I set up the scene myself.”
But Kev was not to be sidetracked. “Were you relieved?”
She tightened the towel and stood up. “Yes,” she said flatly. “I was. I was so relieved, I cried. OK? Happy now? Satisfied?”
“So you did doubt me.”
Edie felt lost. The look in his eyes, so faraway and cold, made him seem like a stranger. Hard and closed to her. She shook her head.
He took a step toward her, fists clenched. “You actually thought that I would seek you out, fuck your brains out, lie to you, use you, and then murder your father. Oh, and don’t forget the violent kidnapping attempt I arranged, to terrify you into bonding with me.”
“If I thought that, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere,” she told him crisply. “I certainly wouldn’t be here with you now. I’d have stayed home, and done as I was told. How dare you criticize me?”
He let out a harsh bark of laughter. “Imagine how I felt when Bruno told me he’d left you at your dad’s house. How I felt while I was being mind-fucked by Cheung. While she was telling me what she had planned for you. How much fun it was going to be.”
“I had to go to Ronnie. That was not a bad decision,” she insisted. “That was necessary! You’d have done the same!”
He ignored that. “Then I find you in the Parrish building, alone, with Marr stalking you. Yeah, Edie. I do dare to criticize that decision.”
She flung her arms up. “So sue me! I’m doing the best I can! I wanted evidence to clear you, for the police! I was trying to help, and if that isn’t enough for your hard-ass rigorous high standards, then fuck you, too, Kev! Fuck you too!”
They stared at each other. Both were breathing hard.
“So here it is,” Edie said, her voice tight. “Our first real fight. The moment of truth. I warned you, Kev. I told you from the top that I’m not a shining angel. I’m a normal person. I make bad calls, dumb decisions, but I’m doing my best, and I deserve a goddamn break!”
His mouth twitched. “So I’m not the righteous superhero, either?”
“You certainly are not,” she said sharply. “You’re unfair and suspicious and negative and mean and horrible.”
His face was a hard mask. “Yeah, well. It’s been a tough day.”
“Tough?” She laughed. “That’s your excuse? You want to do a tough day one-up-manship? Go ahead. Shoot the starting gun, Kev. Let’s see who comes out ahead.”
He snorted. “That could get ugly.”
“It’s already ugly,” she replied.
Kev sat down on the bed, and dropped his face into his hands. He stayed there, motionless, until she wanted to pound on him. “Goddamnit, Kev. Stop that,” she begged. “Look at me. Finish this!”
He looked up. The raw pain in his eyes made her chest seize up. “How could you think that about me?” His voice was thick. “I thought you knew me. It was the first time I ever…ah, fuck it. Never mind.”
Manipulative bastard, wringing her heart like a dishrag. “Don’t you dare make me feel guilty, on top of everything else!” she yelled.
But he kept looking at her as if she’d just driven a knife into his chest. “Stop it, Kev!” she yelled. “Just…stop looking at me like that!”
He broke eye contact, looked at the floor. Which was no better.
“I will say this much,” she finally offered, her voice wobbling. “I do know you, Kev. All except for that part of you that nobody knew. The part you didn’t know yourself. I wondered if that hidden part might…” She dragged in air and forced herself to finish. “…might have another agenda. I thought it for, oh, a minute and a half. Then I got over it.”
“What, like a split personality?”
“It occurred to me,” she admitted. “Briefly. That’s all.”
“I’m not a killer,” he announced. “I remember everything, after what happened with Ava. I broke that wall down.”
“I believe you,” she said. “Do you think I’d be here if I didn’t?”
He lifted his head, and stared past her, like he was bracing himself. “My father was a paranoid schizophrenic,” he said.
She was taken aback. She struggled with it, her mind blank. “Ah. Wow. I’m, ah, sorry about that,” she faltered.
“I’m not asking you to be sorry. I just thought you should know. In case it’s a problem for you. There’s a genetic component, you know. I was raised by him, with my brothers. In complete isolation. Homeschooled. He died when I was twelve. It was a bizarre upbringing.”
“It can’t be much more bizarre than my own,” she said quietly.
His chest jerked. “That’s a generous way of looking at it.”
“We’re not to blame for our parents’ insanity,” she said. “It’s hard enough to take responsibility for our own.”
“I’ve been trying to do that for eighteen years,” he said.
She let out a careful breath. “You did a fine job,” she ventured.
“You think so?” He raised his eyes to hers, bright with challenge. “Then draw me again. Draw me right now.”
Her legs gave out. She sat down, heavily. “Kev. Please. I don’t know what you’re trying to prove, but you don’t have to—”
“Do it, Edie.” His voice had that metallic edge it got sometimes, when things were dangerous.
“I don’t even have paper or pencil,” she hedged.
“There’s paper on the dresser,” he said. “There’s a ballpoint pen next to the phone. Make do with those. Just do it.”
She stared at his masklike face. “What do you want from me?”
He held out the paper and pen, with a clipboard that lay beside the printer. “Trust,” he said.
The anger in his voice made her shiver. She took the clipboard and the pen, and sank down onto the cold floor, cross-legged. The towel fell from her body. Icy water dripped from her hair. She was careful to position the paper so it wouldn’t get wet. Wet paper sucked.
“Get dressed first, if you’re cold,” he said.
“Oh, how generous,” she muttered. “Let’s just get this over with.”
She gazed at his face, and began to draw. The image took form swiftly, the stark bones of his face, the shadowy intensity of his eyes.
But her inner eye did not open. The mysterious harmonics did not swell and come into focus. She kept drawing, waiting. It didn’t happen.
Her pen paused, as a flash of insight suddenly revealed what the problem was. She almost laughed, but it just wasn’t funny. “You’re too angry,” she told him. “You’re jamming the airwaves.”
He didn’t reply. His throat bobbed, as he swallowed hard.
“You want trust from me, but you don’t trust me back,” she said.
She got up, laying the drawing down on the dresser. The cold space between them felt vast. This was stupid, and she was having none of it. She walked over to him. Touched his face, tenderly.
He turned away, avoiding her touch. “Try fucking me, then.”
She jerked her hand back like she’d been stung. “Excuse me?”
“You said once that your psychic communion thing happened when we had sex,” he said. “So let’s try it. I’m all for that.”
He was. It was impossible for him to hide, being stark naked. His cock had swelled out, long and reddened. His eyes were hot with lust.
She took another step back, oddly unnerved. “I don’t think so.”
He gazed at her body. The heat of his hunger licked across her skin, like tender flames. She could feel its buzzing, ticklish electric pressure against her skin. His energy was so powerful, even when he slammed his doors shut. And in spite of the violence and death and danger, she wanted him, too. Angry as he was, he was real and warm and solid. He was Kev, behind that thick wall, and she ached for him.
But she’d be damned if she’d make it easy for him. Arrogant dog. How dare he. She turned her back on him, walked around to the side of the bed, and slid under the coverlet, turning her back to him.
Silence stretched for several minutes. She lay there, eyes frozen wide. The weight of his gaze was like a hot hand on her body.
“Freezing me out?” he asked softly.
“No, Kev. That’s what you did to me. This is the result.”
The bed shifted as he got into it. He slid across the mattress, and grabbed her, pulling her back against his body. “I’ll melt you, then.”
She stifled a moan of delight at the contact of his body. So warm. Her skin shimmered with pleasure, everywhere that his skin touched hers. She shook in his arms, racking spasms, as if she were coming.
Kev nuzzled his face in her damp hair. His cock pressed against her thigh, hot and insistent. “This is a switch,” he said. “Usually I’m trying to resist, and you’re coaxing me. Against my better judgment.”
“It’s time I stopped acting like an eager little puppy,” she said. “Those days are over. No more begging and pleading.”
He parted the hair on her neck, pressed his warm lips to the back of her neck. “I can beg and plead, too.”
“Beg away. See how much I care.”
His lips were so soft, moving over her nape. His hand stole around to cup her breast, and the other slid underneath her, in the curve of her waist, sliding over her thigh to cup her mound. His fingers stroked the seam of her vulva, delicately seeking out her clit.
She shivered, trying not to whimper. Not fair. He came at her from every direction. Overwhelming her with his hot, urgent embrace, his soft kisses, fingertips caressing and circling, teasing her open.
She was racked with unreleased tension, thighs locked, but the hot liquid rush of arousal betrayed her. Kev slid his finger into her slick well of lube, thrusting, petting. A growl of triumph vibrating his chest.
He dragged her closer, so his glans touched her labia from behind, an urgent, pleading caress against her softness. Sweet, coaxing kisses to her nape made her shiver and squirm, softening even more.
She didn’t mean to let him do it, but a little pushing and wiggling, and his cockhead nudged just inside her slick folds, rubbing and caressing, bathing in her liquid warmth while his fingers worked her from the front. She was wound so tight, like wires about to break, but he was tender, relentless. Insisting.
When she finally snapped, the strength of the orgasm wrenched her into a blinding red oblivion that she had not asked for but could not resist. It stampeded over her, practically knocking her unconscious.
When she oriented herself in time and space once again, he’d thrust two of his fingers deeper. They made wet, silky sounds as he petted and stroked. “You’re melting,” he whispered. “You’re ready.”
She reached out for him with her mind, but he wasn’t letting her in. He was still jamming the frequency.
“You’re not,” she replied. “You’re still as hard as ice.”
He nudged his cockhead deeper, rocking, pressing. “I’m supposed to be hard,” he said. “Just like you’re supposed to melt. Biology.”
“Don’t play word games. You know damn well what I mean.”
He caught her clit between his fingers, squeezing tenderly, and swirled his cock against her sweet spots, making her light up, squirming and shimmering for him. “Let me in.” His voice was rough, like a command, but she could feel the rigid control of his body. He wouldn’t move until she opened for him. And she was dying to give in.
He knew it. He was counting on it. Arrogant, complacent bastard.
She turned, looked over her shoulder. “Let me in, too.”
His eyes narrowed. The air hummed with tension.
“You, first,” he whispered. “Then we’ll see.”
A final instant of resistance, and hell with it. They didn’t have a chance in hell of a future together, and she wanted this. Pride and dignity be damned. They wouldn’t do her much good in the grave.
But he had to look her in the face. “Let me turn around.”
He let her flip onto her back, and settled himself between her legs. He paused, as he ran his hand down her body, from throat to thigh. His face was grim and tense. He reached out, switched off the lamp.
“Hey!” Edie jerked up in protest. “That’s a dirty trick! I wanted to see your eyes! Turn that back on, right now!”
“No.” He folded her legs up, high and wide. “I can’t look at your bruises while I fuck you. It bothers me.”
She propped herself onto her elbows. “They’re not your fault!”
He nudged himself against her tender folds, easing inside. “No? The day I met you, you didn’t have a single bruise. I know, because I inspected every last goddamn square inch of your body myself. You hang out with me for four days, and now you’re covered with them. Conclusion?”
“But I—”
Her voice cut off as he surged inside her, in one hard thrust.
She forgot what she was going to say, clutching at his chest, wiggling to find the perfect angle that let him slide deeper.
He began to move, arching over her. He started slow, but not for long. They were both too desperate for that. They picked up speed, force. Heaving and rocking. It wan’t their usual shining fusion of souls. He was so far from her, but his desire and hunger were no less because of that. If anything, he was more desperate.
They fought to get closer, clawing for each other on every level. Thunder and lightning. Pounding and gasping. He drove deep and hard. Her nails dug into him, lifting herself. Slamming thrusts, frenzied kisses, clutching hands, whimpering and gasping.
Both earned more bruises. Neither cared. She turned herself inside out for him as the blinding orgasm blasted through them—
He cracked open. His guard fell, and she saw everything.
This time it really was a kick in the head, like the early, bad old days, when the unwanted visions would blindside her. Images, impressions, shocking and horrible. Merely the echoes of what he’d been through that day, but they jolted her to the bedrock of her being.
Fear, horror, grief. A dead girl, staring out of a plastic bag. A live one cuffed to a wheelchair, weeping. A hideous, bulbous black widow spider with a woman’s gloating face and long black hair, laughing as she wrapped sticky fibers around her prey, strangling it to immobility.
Then, the breaking of that ancient inner fortress. Memories flooding in. Faces, places, feelings. So vivid, the tears flooded her eyes.
Brothers, bullets, bombs. It had all exploded in his face. He’d been broken to pieces, again and again that day. And still, amazingly, he was whole. Shining and whole. And so beautiful. God, she loved him.
She wound her arms around his shaking, sweaty shoulders. Holding him as close as she could. Tears flooding down her face.
She tried to make him turn his face, but he resisted, pulling out of her. He fished around on the floor for his clothes, pulled on his jeans. She shivered in the wall of cold air that rushed between them.
“Kev?” She reached for the bedside lamp.
He batted her hand away so violently, the lamp fell off the table. It broke against the floor. “Don’t,” he said savagely.
She sat up startled. “Kev? What’s wrong?”
“If you have to ask. I’m finally getting it.”
“Getting what?”
“The disadvantages of having a psychic girlfriend.”
She was bewildered. “But…but I thought you wanted—”
“I changed my mind,” he said. “Or came to my senses, more like.”
She shrank in on herself. “You mean, you’re ashamed?” she whispered. “At what I saw? What you let me see?”
“I just mean I want some space.” He picked up the gun, shoved it into the back of his pants. “You stay here. I’ll go out, keep watch—”
“That’s not fair!” she yelled. “You asked me to! You bullied me!”
“Life’s not fair. Haven’t you noticed that? Look, Edie. I’m sorry about this crazy shit. I’m sorry about…what just happened.” He gestured toward the bed. “I shouldn’t have done that to you. I won’t do it again. You and Liv and Tony and Zia Rosa will go up to that island in the San Juans with my brothers’ friend Seth today. I’ll get the fuck out of your face. And who knows, maybe you’ll have a chance at survival.”
She launched herself at him, and swatted at his shoulder. “I don’t want you out of my face! You bastard!”
“Too bad. I’m going out,” he repeated, stonily. “Stay here.”
Cold air swirled and gusted in as he jerked the door open. It swung shut behind him, shutting out air, noise, the night. And him.
Edie sat down on the bed, her hands pressed to her face. She wanted to find him. Start slapping and screaming like a fishwife, but it would be childish and embarrassing. He was counting on her natural horror of making a scene in front of his newfound family. She was Charles and Linda Parrish’s daughter, after all.
Let him have his precious space, then. Let him choke on it.
It occurred to her, as she washed herself up again, that neither of them had thought about contraception. That edge-of-doom vibe. Neither of them expected to live long enough to deal with consequences.
She dressed, and fished the cell phone out of her pocket. The sky was getting lighter. She stared at the phone that one of Kev’s brothers had lent her, thumbing it on just to see if Ronnie had managed to steal her phone back and send a message. She should go see if Aaro would help her call Ronnie again with his magic signal bouncer.
It rang the instant she turned it on. She stared at the display, heart leaping into her throat. It sank back down immediately, when she saw the number. Not Ronnie’s. And so? There was no one else on earth she wanted to hear from. Not on this telephone.
But the ringtone jabbed, like a needle in her brain. Who?
She answered. “Yes?” she whispered.
“Good morning, Edie.” Des’s voice. There was an oily smile in it that made her stomach flop horribly. “Do you want to live?”
She sank down onto the bed again. “Yes,” she said.
“How lucky for you that you answered this call,” he said. “Do you want your lover and his band of merry men to live, too?”
“Yes,” she said again.
“We know where you are. We’re looking at you, out there in the forest. There’s a clear vantage point for our thermal imaging. You and Larsen were fucking in the cabin about, oh, twenty minutes ago. The rest of them are in the big house. My finger is resting on a button that will blow you all instantly into fine, vaporous particles. Unless you do exactly…and I mean, exactly…what I say. Understand?”
She swallowed over a knot of terror. “Tell me what you want.”
“I’m going to give you simple, clear instructions, Edie. If you disobey any one of them, I will push the button. Is that clear?”
“Yes. Listen, Des—”
“The first instruction is to say only ‘yes.’ Say it in a low, obedient tone of voice. If you say anything else, I push the button. Got that?”
She swallowed. “Yes.”
“The second direction is that you keep this phone connection open at all times. If you should drop the phone, push the wrong button with your cheek, if we should suddenly lose coverage…I cut my losses, and push the button. Bye-bye. Ka-boom.”
“But Des, I don’t know if—”
“Remember the first instruction, you stupid bitch,” he snarled.
She bit her lip, forced it out. “Yes.”
“The third instruction is to make no unneccesary movements. I’m looking at your cabin wall through a powerful thermal imaging device. You’re sitting at the foot of the bed. You need to work on your posture.”
Pride and anger stiffened her spine, involuntarily.
“Ah, that’s better! And watching you screw Larsen, whew! I had no idea you were so passionate! It was like watching a forest fire.” He chuckled. “Did you come? You can tell me.” He hesitated. “Say it, Edie.”
Her gorge rose. She steeled herself and whispered. “Yes.”
“That’s good! So. Do anything I didn’t tell you to do, and I will see you do it. And I will push that button. Understand?”
“Yes.” Tears flashed out of her squeezed shut eyes. She reached up to brush them away.
“Get that fucking hand down until I tell you to raise it!”
Edie stood, hand in midair, and slowly lowered it. “Yes,” she said.
“Get up. Come out the door,” Des said. “Act natural. Walk directly in front of the house.”
She stared down at the ballpoint pen that lay on the floor. The crumpled piece of paper that had wafted to the carpet when Kev left the room. “Can I put on my shoes?” she whispered.
Des hesitated. “Be quick,” he said. “And no more questions.”
Edie slid to her knees. She scooped up the pen with one shoe, the paper as she grabbed the other, and sat down on the bed again, the paper spread out on the floor between her feet. She held the pen as she did up the laces of the high-tops, and scrawled in huge letters,
BOMB
“You’re done tying your shoes,” Des said.
“Yes.” Edie stood, and stepped outside the cabin door, leaving it gaping wide. The icy wind whipped at her wet eyes, her still-damp hair. She let the piece of paper flutter out of her hands, to the frosty ground.
Des said nothing. He had not seen it. Tears of relief trickled out of her eyes. Please, Kev. Or someone. Anyone. See it. Find it.
“Now what?” she asked.