Josh’s face drained of color. “Tell me what the hell is going on. Right now.”
Chapter 20
Fat flakes were falling outside, and heavy wind was starting to buffet the old house. Val poured coffee for everyone. They sat around the woodstove, keeping warm as the temperature continued to drop.
“This place is safe during storms,” Josh said. “I come up here at least once a year.”
“I didn’t know that. Why don’t you ever bring the boys?”
Josh shrugged. “It’s kind of my thinking place.”
“You think?”
Josh didn’t look amused. “Ha ha.”
Sully asked, “So what are you thinking about these days?”
He didn’t say anything.
“Something to do with Savannah Anderson?”
He took a deep breath. “Are you sure she’s going to be okay?”
“She’ll be fine as long as she’s in the hospital,” Sully said. “But if you aren’t the one who tampered with her brakes—”
“I would never fucking do that,” he said. “If anyone did anything to hurt her, it was that asshole she’s married to.”
“Why do you think that?” Val agreed with him, but prying information out of Josh was proving to be harder than expected.
“If she’s in danger from her husband, she hasn’t told anyone about it,” Sully said. “She hasn’t accused him. There’s no evidence of domestic abuse.”
“That’s not the way he works,” Josh said. “He just… controls her. Everything about her. What she wears. What she drives. He won’t let her get a job.”
“What is your relationship to Savannah Anderson?” Sully said. “And just to be clear, you’ve been up here for the past ten days?”
“Yeah.” He furrowed his eyebrows and mentally calculated. “Yeah. Ten days. I think. What day is it?”
“And people in town will be able to confirm that you’ve been here the whole time?” Sully asked again.
“Yeah. Uh…” He bit his lip. “Bill’s here. Helen and Rick were here a couple of days ago. I had a beer over at their place.” He rubbed his hands on his pants. “I’ve been doing some work to the place. Trying to make it a little less of a bachelor pad and more… comfortable.”
Val examined the embarrassed, awkward expression on Josh’s face. “If Savannah wanted to come?”
He bent over, rubbing his hands in his hair. “Listen, Val. I know you think I’m a piece of shit—”
“Oh, I don’t think it. I know it.”
“But Savannah—”
“Is married.” Val set her coffee down.
“Told me she loved me.” He cleared his throat and stared at his shoes. “She told me… she loved me. And she wanted to leave Allan.”
Oh, that poor woman. “And you took off?”
“I needed to think.” He rose and paced in front of the fire. “I don’t know… I mean, she’s not in a good place, so I don’t know—”
“She’s married, Josh. I know that doesn’t mean much to you, but try to think what it looks like to your kids. You’re sleeping with this woman who is married, and you still have a girlfriend living in your house and sleeping in your bed. Did you completely forget about Rachel?”
“No!” He looked up. “I’m going to break up with her, but I was waiting for the lease to run out on our place because my name is on it and I don’t want her to take off and leave me stuck with half the rent.”
“You idiot.” Val rubbed a hand over her eyes. “You actually think that’s a reasonable position to take, don’t you?”
“Steve is gonna fire me. You think I can afford—”
“You are lying to one woman so she won’t break up with you and leave you financially screwed,” Val said. “You’re basically stealing from her. And cheating on her with another woman who tells you she loves you, and then you take off to the woods.” She groaned. “I can’t believe you.”
“You know, not all of us come from families with money, Val. You’re so self-righteous, but you never had to—”
“Never had to what? Pay my own way? Pay to raise your kids? Pay for all the school stuff and all the groceries and all the—”
“Just to be clear.” Sully rose and put his hands out, separating Val and Josh, who were nearly nose to nose. He pointed at Josh. “You’ve been here for ten days and you have a solid alibi? You never took any money from Anderson?”
“No.” Josh shrugged. “I mean, you can look at my bank account. I didn’t take anything. I’ve got five hundred bucks in there until I get my last check from Luxury Pro.”
“Good. I’ll do that when we get back.” Sully walked toward the front door.
“Sully, it’s a full out snowstorm out there,” Val said. “You can’t go outside.”
He turned in the narrow entryway. “Then where can I go to get away from you two?”
Josh pointed up. “Loft upstairs. The chimney goes straight through, so it’s warm.”
“Great.” Sully clapped and pointed to both of them. “Feel free to resume this argument you’ve obviously had a dozen times.”
Sully walked up the narrow stairs that came off the kitchen and disappeared onto the second floor.
Val turned to Josh. “Tell me why Savannah Anderson is any different than any of the hundred women you’ve screwed around with over the past eighteen years.”
Josh took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Because I think maybe I’m in love with her too.”
“Like you said you were in love with me? Or Rachel? Or Tracey? Or… Sarah?” She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, do you ever think about not being led around by your dick? Give it a try, just for shits and giggles sometime, okay? Because your oldest son—”
“This isn’t about Jackson and Andy,” Josh said. “This is you being offended because you like being offended.”
Val felt like screaming. “This is me being pissed off because I am trying to raise two men to not be like you!” She wanted to take the log by the woodstove and bash his head in with it. “It’s not fun and games anymore. You’re forty-four years old! Grow the hell up! Just try to think about someone other than yourself for once in your life and—”
“I am! I’m thinking about Savannah!” He sat on the couch. “If it wasn’t snowing out there, I would be on a snowmobile, heading back to town and then driving to the hospital right now. Do you understand me? I am in love with her. She is trapped in that marriage and she wants out. She told me she did.”
Val took a deep breath. “When?”
“What?”
“When did she tell you she wanted out?” She held out her hand. “What were you wearing? Were you holding anything? A wallet? A phone?”
“What are you talking about?” Josh reached for something in his back pocket. “You want my wallet?”
“Is there anything from Savannah in here?”
“I guess…” Josh took out a slip of folded paper that looked well-worn and handed it to her.
Val grabbed it and took off her right glove, letting the feel of the pink paper sink into her skin. She closed her eyes and felt the memories rising through the cloud from her antianxiety meds.
“…my phone number.”
“You’re giving me your phone number?” He slipped a small piece of paper into his wallet. “Is that safe?”
“He won’t know. I won’t program your number in. It’ll just be random. Or you can block it so he can’t see.” Her voice was worried. “Call me so I have your number though.”
“If you want to leave, you should just—”
“It’s not that easy,” she said. “He tied up all the money I had access to in the ski resort. He said it was because my credit is so good, but now all he’ll do is give me an allowance, and it’s never enough.”
“If you got a divorce—”
“He’d find a way to screw me,” Savannah said. “I’m working on a way to get a good lawyer, but until I have enough cash…”
Val dropped the paper
on the storage chest and blinked. She closed her eyes and put a hand out. “Get me some water. No ice.”
“What were you doing?”
“Just get me some water, will you?”
She kept her eyes closed, but she heard him walking to the kitchen and filling a glass from the jug of purified water on the stove. He walked back and put the cool glass in her hand.
“What was that?”
“That was me making sure you’re telling the truth.” She opened her eyes and sipped the water. “You are.”
Josh still looked confused. “But what—”
“Don’t ask,” Val said quietly. “In recognition of all the favors you have never done for me, I am asking for this one thing. Don’t. Ask.”
Josh nodded silently. “Yes, we were having an affair. But she wasn’t just a fuck.”
“I can see that.”
“I’m really worried about her.”
Val nodded. “Then as soon as this storm lets up, we’re going to head down the mountain and you and Sully are going to the police in Bridger and you are going to tell them everything. And you’re not going to worry about Rachel breaking up with you if you tell the truth. Because she deserves to not be lied to.”
Josh nodded. “Okay.”
“And then you’re going to man up and figure out how to support Savannah as she tries to get out of a marriage to a certified asshole who maybe tried to kill her.”
“Do you really think he was trying to kill her?”
“I don’t know, but either way, tampering with anyone’s brakes ought to land you in jail.”
“Agreed.” He frowned. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I want to lie down,” she said. “Can we turn off the lights in here so I can chill for a little?”
“Sure.” Josh walked around, lowering the oil lamps in the corners of the room. “I’ll let Sully know you’re taking a break.”
“Sure. Whatever.”
“You guys are together, right?”
“No. We’re not… Never mind. It’s none of your business.”
“Okay.” Josh closed the shutters over the windows, shutting out the swirling snow coming down. “I think he’s a pretty good guy though.”
“Josh, just shut up. Never speak of this again.”
* * *
Val woke some time later to a soft brush of fingers over her forehead. She opened her eyes, and Sully was crouching next to her.
“You should sit.” She cleared the roughness from her throat. “You don’t want to put pressure on that ankle.”
“It’s okay. Just stiff.”
“Is it still snowing?”
Sully nodded. “I think we’re stuck here for the night.”
Val groaned. “Of all the things I wanted, this was not it.”
“Same.” Sully sat on the edge of the storage chest, playing with the edge of his beard. “You sure you’re not still hung up on your ex?”
Her eyebrows went up. “That argument before? What did it sound like to you?”
“You were both bitching at each other. I don’t know—”
“No, I was nagging him. Like a mother. That’s basically what Josh is at this point. That’s what he’d turned himself into by the end of our marriage. He’s like a giant, irresponsible child. I constantly want him to do better for our boys’ sake, and he constantly manages to fuck things up.”
“You know you can’t make yourself responsible for your boys’ relationship with their dad, right? It’s going to be… whatever it is, but it’s not on you. It’s on him.”
“I know that. I do. But they have one father. I love my parents so much, and when life went to shit, they were the only ones there for me. I just don’t want them to regret things later, you know? And I tell myself that it’s Josh’s responsibility to plan things with them, but he never takes responsibility for anything. Nothing is ever his fault. And I don’t want them to ever feel like they’re to blame for his… lack.”
Sully narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think they would. They have a really great mom. I’m just saying that you can probably relax a little. I think your boys are gonna be okay.”
She smiled. “I will worry about them until they’re old men. Maybe longer. But to answer your question, no. I am really not hung up on my ex. He’s like a third child. Try to imagine how unsexy it would be to be married to a person like that.”
“Yeah.” He frowned. “Pretty unsexy.”
“Exactly.” She tugged on his beard. “I like grown men.”
His eyebrows went up. “Any grown men?”
“One in particular right now.”
Sully leaned over slowly and then ran his lips, whisper-soft, over her temple, tracing the arch of her cheekbone until his mouth met hers. His lips were warm, and the tickle of his beard against her skin made goose bumps rise all over her body.
His mouth moved over hers with slow, deliberate thoroughness, reminding Val of how he’d made love to her. Every inch, he’d explored. Every curve and every angle. It had been the first time she’d had sex in ages, and Sully had been very, very thorough.
He drew his mouth away. “Tell me what changed after the accident last year.”
She kept her fingers on the warm skin of his neck, languid and unguarded in the shadows thrown by the fire. He was using his kissing skills to interrogate her, and dammit if she didn’t admire that a little.
Well, fuck it. Josh practically knew, and she trusted Sully a lot more than Josh.
“I touch things.”
“Like what?”
She sighed. “Things. Not people. Objects. Hats. Clothes. Wallets. Phones. Anything people are attached to.”
“And what happens?” His fingers brushed along her temple, playing with the soft hair.
“I see things.” Val arched her back and felt Sully’s hand run from her knee up to her hip. “Hear things. Like little bits of a movie scene. Or a conversation in another room.”
“Have you ever done it to me?”
Val froze and forced her eyes to his. “Not much.”
His eyebrows went up. “But some?”
“Just about this case. I honestly try to avoid seeing anything. It’s really not a pleasant ability.”
His hand curled around her knee. “What did you read of mine?”
“Your hat.”
He frowned. “My hat?”
“That’s how I knew they weren’t looking for Josh. That they thought he was gambling in Vegas and had just taken off.”
“Huh.” He cocked his head. “And that’s it?”
“Yeah. I really…” She sat up. “I know this probably kills anything we might have possibly have relationship-wise.” She sighed. “Not that we were in a relationship, but we were kinda—”
“I know what you mean, Val.”
“I’m just saying who wants to be with someone who can know things like that? I mean, it’s weird enough being naked in front of someone, but knowing that I can kind of look into your head—”
“Do you?” Sully sat up straight and put his hands on his knees. “Do you look into my head? Other than the time you just mentioned?”
“No. And it’s not your head. Not really. It’s more like memories and images… I really don’t like seeing all this stuff.” She raised her hands, which were still encased in her thin black gloves. “Why do you think I wear these? All the time.”
“Is it just your hands?”
“No, but they seem to be the most sensitive.”
“Does it come and go or is it always—”
“I take, um…” She shifted on the couch. “I take antianxiety meds. It kind of… dulls it. A little. The pills create kind of a buffer. Without them, even the tiniest brush can trigger something. With them, I have to sit with an object for a little bit.”
“Okay.” He didn’t appear to think she was crazy. So far. “Who knows about this besides me and your friends?”
“Robin’s husband Mark knows. My boys do not. I kind of told Josh, but I can a
lmost guarantee that he’s going to find a way to forget I ever said anything like that. He’s not a man who enjoys the mysterious.”
Sully sat and looked at her for a long time.
Val stared back. “Do you believe me?”
He shrugged. “It’s you. If you told me a three-headed donkey built this cabin, I’d believe you.”
Val didn’t try to stop her smile. “Thanks.”
Chapter 21
Halfway down the mountain, Monica woke with a gasp. She saw the snow swirling in giant gusts outside her window and reached for the dream journal she kept by the bed.
Blood on the snow. She scribbled her thoughts as fast as she could scratch them down.
Blood. Bright red…
Bright red meant daytime. The sun was out, but it was cloudy. The snow wasn’t hurting her eyes. It happened during the daytime on an overcast day.
She glanced outside. It was still dark, but would the storm pass completely? Would the sun break through the clouds?
Blood on the snow.
Wait, there was a foot. Footprints. And ski tracks.
Ski tracks? No, the snow was too churned up.
Snowmobile tracks.
A spatter of blood across the snow.
Fine spatter.
It wasn’t a gush.
High impact. Spray. A gun?
She could hear the whoosh in the air now. A shot cracking through ice-laden air. Cold and clear.
Crack!
Hot breaths huffing out.
Have to get back.
Back to the cabin.
“Have to get back.” Monica’s eyes went wide when the scene in her mind’s eye pulled back and she saw it all. She reached for the phone and called Robin’s mobile number.
“Monica, what’s wrong?”
“The cabin.” She tried to keep her words steady, but they tumbled over each other like water rushing down a stream. “The blood is at the cabin. In the snow. Shots. Someone is firing. Shooting. That kind of firing. They’re firing on Josh and it hits him and it’s at the cabin and it’s happening today.”
Semi-Psychic Life: Glimmer Lake Book Two Page 17