I released her face and put my hand on my hip. “Go.”
“After that day in the gym, I started having dreams.” She started to turn away, but I stopped her.
Pointing to my face. “Eyes here.”
She squared her shoulders and stared into my eyes. “They were nightmares. I dreamed about fires and explosions. Everything was beige and smoky, and I was paralyzed. Hands grabbed my arms and started pulling me away, against my will... away from something I’d sworn to protect.”
With every word my insides clenched and twisted. She continued speaking, but I leaned against the door. I was having trouble breathing.
She sniffed, and I realized she was crying again. “I didn’t understand why I kept seeing those things, but every time I woke up, I saw your face. All I saw was you, and I knew whatever it was, I had to come find you to make it stop.”
It was impossible. What she was saying was Not. Possible.
“Stuart?” Her voice was shaky.
“How do you know those things?”
“I don’t know.”
My eyes went from her slim body to her sunset eyes full of concern. She reached for me, but I pushed her away. There was no way in hell she could know what she just described to me. Was she spying on me? How long had this been going on?
“You’re lying.”
Her cheeks paled. “No...”
She started for me again, but I jerked the door open and left the room, heading for my side of the house. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, how she had gotten that story or from whom, but I needed to get to the cabin. The fucking whiskey clouded my brain. I needed to get away from here and figure this out. Nobody fucked with me.
* * *
Mariska
I couldn’t stop crying. I wasn’t sobbing or curled in the fetal position—outside of my mind—but the tears wouldn’t stop streaming down my cheeks. The last thing I expected was Stuart in my bedroom, but his words, everything he said, destroyed me.
I’d told him everything. I’d told him the truth, and he called me a liar. He pushed me away. Anger burned in his eyes like nothing I’d ever seen, and I knew I couldn’t go after him. My worst-case scenario, the thing I feared most when I came here, that he’d find out and run, had come true. I had to leave.
Throwing all my stuff in my bag, I grabbed my phone and called for cab service to the airport. They promised to be here in twenty minutes. All I could do was wait. Picking up my suitcase, I quietly went to the hall. I didn’t want to wake anyone. I just wanted to go home, crawl in my own bed, and cry.
Everything was silent as I crept through the dim house. Small lights were scattered about illuminating my way through the living room to the door. Finally, I was outside on the porch alone, freezing. Noises came from the barn. Someone was with the horses, but I didn’t want to see anyone or explain what I was doing. I was humiliated enough. Whoever it was didn’t come into the yard. I heard the faint noise of hoof beats headed away across the plain.
Looking after them, I saw two tiny lights far down the lonely road. The cab. I just had to hang on a little longer, get back to Bayville, then I’d break down.
Chapter 13: Aftermath
Stuart
Derek stood over me frowning. “I thought you were getting better when I left.”
Sitting up, I held my hand up to block the blaze of sunlight streaming through the window over the
sink. It was fucking freezing.
“Chinook ended.” My voice still sounded like sandpaper.
“No shit.” My partner went to the fireplace and started loading wood. “I flew in expecting to find you on your feet.” He pushed the empty bottle of Jack with his boot. “I thought Johnnie Walker was your brand.”
“Are you alone?” Squinting around the wrecked cabin, the last thing I wanted to see was...
“Patrick’s with me.”