Moonlight Masquerade (Edilean 8)

She knew exactly what he was talking about and the thought that he’d show it to her made her stare at him in stunned silence. Everyone in town knew that only people named Treeborne—by birth or marriage—had ever seen the recipe book. But Carter was going to show it to Sophie!

He’d been right and even the thought of such an honor took her mind off everything else. Carter held her hand as he led her into his father’s paneled office, moved aside a portrait, and opened the safe. Reverently, he pulled out a large, thick envelope.

Sophie waited for him to open it and reveal the contents, but that didn’t seem to be part of the deal. He let her hold it in its envelope on her outstretched palms. When Sophie made a move as though she meant to look inside, Carter took it from her and started to put it back in the safe. He never made it because Sophie began kissing him. To her, being allowed so near something so precious was an aphrodisiac—and it seemed to be an indication that what was between them was permanent. In his urgency, Carter dropped the envelope on top of his father’s big desk, then made love to Sophie on the floor.

It was afterward that Carter told her it was over between them and pushed her out the door. But after Sophie heard Carter’s and his father’s dismissal of her, as though she didn’t matter as a human being, she walked down the lushly carpeted hallway, her shoulders back, her stride firm. She picked up the envelope containing the precious recipe book and tucked it under her arm. As she turned, she saw that the door to the safe was still open. Inside w

as a lot of cash, stacks of hundred-dollar bills. It was tempting to reach inside and take a bundle, but she didn’t. With great insouciance, not caring who heard, she shut the heavy little door hard. The resounding bam! made her smile. Still with her shoulders back and the envelope clutched to her, she went down the stairs and back out the front door.

By the time she got home, so much anger was surging through her that she felt strong and sure of herself. She fell onto her bed and slept heavily. She awoke early the next morning, and she knew exactly what she was going to do. It didn’t take her but minutes to throw her every possession into suitcases, plastic bags, and two cardboard boxes.

Her stepfather followed her out the door, already with a drink in his hand. “You don’t think you’re leaving here, do you? Lisa will be back for the holidays so I’d advise you not to go anywhere,” he said with a smirk on his thin face. “So you’d better get back in here and—”

She told him precisely what he could do with his threats. As she opened the car door, her cell rang. The ID said it was Carter. Had he discovered the missing book already? She wasn’t going to answer to find out.

She tossed the phone to her stepfather. He didn’t catch it and it landed in the brown grass in the front of the house. As he fumbled for it, mumbling angrily, it kept ringing. Sophie got in her car and started driving. When she stopped for lunch, she bought a disposable phone and texted Kim. I NEED A PLACE TO HIDE AND A JOB she typed out. She knew her friend well enough to know that the message would intrigue her. And she knew that even though she’d had no contact with her for years, Kim would help.

Instantly Kim wrote back that she was out of town at the moment, but she’d take care of everything. An hour later, Kim called to say that it was all arranged—and it was so good to hear her voice. With her usual efficiency, Kim said Sophie could stay at Mrs. Wingate’s house in Edilean, and she could have a temporary job of working as a personal assistant for her brother. “Reede needs someone to manage his life, but I don’t think he’ll stand for it,” Kim said. “I’ll find you another job soon because I should warn you that my brother’s temper isn’t pretty. Nobody deserves what he shells out. The three women who work in his office all want to quit, but Reede keeps giving them raises to get them to stay. I think they make more money than he does.”

Kim was happy and chatty, and at no time did she pry into Sophie’s problems. In fact, when Sophie started making a weak, hesitant explanation about why she’d been out of contact for so long and why she needed to hide, Kim saved her by interrupting. “I’m just glad you’re back in my life. When I get home we can talk and you can tell me as much or as little as you want to. But for now, I think you just need to feel safe.”

Her words had been so exactly on target that when she hung up, Sophie allowed herself her first quick tears. But she knew she couldn’t indulge herself that way.

She spent the night in a motel, paid for with cash she’d taken from where she’d hidden it from her step-father—she hadn’t even trusted a hometown bank to hold money for her—and was on the road just after the sun was up. By the time she neared Edilean, she’d calmed down some, but not much. She couldn’t help comparing herself to Kim and Jecca. They were the same age as Sophie, but both of them now had fabulous jobs and she’d learned via the Internet that both of them were married. Sometimes Sophie felt that her roommates had been given fairy godmothers while Sophie had been overlooked.

She shook her head at the absurd thought. Years ago when her mother had said she was going to marry Arnie, Sophie had seen the future. By then she was in the third year of college and her mother was ill. “He’s only marrying you to get custody of Lisa when—” Sophie broke off. “When I die?” her mother asked. “Go on and say it. I know it’s happening. As for Lisa, she can take care of herself. It’s you who has the problems.” Sophie resented that statement. Hadn’t she fought like a demon to get herself into college? But when she pointed that out to her mother, she’d only scoffed. “You’re a dreamer, Sophie. I mean, look at the facts. You go to college but what do you study? Art! What use is that? Why didn’t you learn something that could get you a job? Be a doctor or a lawyer, or at least work for one.” Again, Sophie had no reply to give her.

Her mother died two days before Sophie graduated from college, and she ran home for the funeral. When she got there, she saw her stepfather leering at her pretty little sister. Sophie decided to stay for the summer, but she never left. Until now.

She walked to the other side of the car and opened the door, but paused before even touching the big envelope. Did she really have it in her possession? The book? The one the whole Treeborne empire was based on? Were there police after her? She had her laptop with her, but she hadn’t checked the Internet. Her cheap phone had no Web connection, so she didn’t know what was going on. Would federal agents be brought in? If so, how far back would they look to find out where Sophie was? There’d been no contact between her and Kim since college graduation, so they wouldn’t find calls to Edilean.

Sophie shut the car door and told herself that she had to return the book. She’d go to Edilean and send the package back to Carter. Maybe if they got the book back he’d drop the pursuit. If there was one.

She got into the driver’s side and turned the key, but nothing happened. Dead. “Like my life,” Sophie muttered. Whereas before she’d thought the surrounding countryside was lovely, now it looked scary. She was down a gravel road that stopped just a few feet ahead, blocked from view of the main highway. It would soon be dark, and if she stayed in the car she’d never be found.

She looked at her cell phone. No signal. She went outside, walked around, holding her phone aloft, but there wasn’t even a hint of a signal.

There was only one thing to do: walk. She opened the trunk and rummaged through bags and boxes until she found her running shoes. Not that she ever ran. She was not very athletic. In the last few years, the most she did was walk from her desk to the water-cooler.

She removed her pretty gold sandals, put on some ankle socks, and tied on her big shoes. She pulled out a pink cardigan to wear over her summer dress. It was going to get cool before she reached Edilean. She went to the front, got her handbag, and at last picked up the big envelope. She’d left her tote bag hanging on a kitchen chair, so she didn’t have anything to carry it in.

She tried starting the car again, but nothing happened, so she locked it and walked back on the gravel road to the highway. The shade of the trees had become deeper so that it was almost dark. A burst of wind rustled the leaves, and Sophie pulled her sweater closer. When she heard a car coming down the road, she instinctively stepped back into the shadows and waited for it to pass. Every horror story of hitchhikers and the mass murderers who picked them up went through her head.

After the car passed, she started walking again and telling herself she was being ridiculous. According to Kim, Edilean was the safest place on earth. Nothing bad ever happened there. Well, except for some major robberies in the last few years that Sophie had read about online, but it was better not to think about those.

Two more cars went by, and each time Sophie stayed under the trees and waited. “At this rate I’ll never get there,” she said aloud and shuddered as she had a vision of walking along the road at midnight. Every few minutes she stepped onto the pavement and checked her phone, but there was still no signal. But then, she hadn’t gone even a mile from her car.

She was so absorbed in maneuvering her phone around that she didn’t hear the approaching car. It had come around a curve, headlights glaring, and for a second Sophie felt like a deer mesmerized by the lights. The car was coming straight at her! She could clearly see the BMW symbol just a few feet away. Survival was the only thing on her mind. She threw up her arms and like a diver heading into the water, she dove straight for the side of the road. She landed, facedown, in the sharp branches of a clump of scrub oak, her mouth full of dirt. Quickly, she turned to look back toward the road. She was just in time to see a sleek little silver blue BMW drive over both her phone and the book. Thankfully, she’d been wearing her handbag crosswise, so it was still with her. The car kept going; it didn’t stop.

All of Sophie hurt as she got up, hobbled onto the road to retrieve the remains of the phone, and picked up the envelope. There were tire tracks across it and one edge had been torn open. There was little light but she could see that the book inside was frayed, the pages bent. She didn’t know if it had been that way or if it had been done by the reckless driver in the BMW.

Sophie carried everything to the side of the road and for a moment she fought back tears. Maybe she wouldn’t have been prosecuted if she’d returned the book in pristine condition, but now it looked to be nearly destroyed. She was going to prison because of some jerk in a Bimmer.

As she pulled leaves out of her hair, raked dirt out of her mouth, and brushed at bloody scrapes on her arms and legs, she knew her logic was flawed, but if she didn’t give her anger an outlet she’d fall down into a ditch and never get out.

She started walking. This time she didn’t step aside for the cars, but kept going. Three cars, each with a single male driver, asked if she wanted a ride. The anger in her was increasing with every step and she had glared at the men as she said no.

Her legs ached, the cuts and scrapes on her arms and legs hurt, her feet were blistering. In fact, it seemed that every inch of her was in pain. But the image of the expensive car driving over the book kept her going. In her mind, it was just like Carter driving over her. He’d never looked back either. She put one foot in front of the other, each step so hard it jarred her body. But she kept going, never slowing down—just as the driver had done.