Eyes Like the Night

by Emma Accola

  “I’m the one with the problem? I think you got tricked. Micah Ekstrand is one of the most subversive, underhanded people on the face of this earth.”

  “You don’t even know him.”

  “I checked him out when he came around the winery to see you. He has no boundaries and is known for concocting elaborate schemes to trick lonely, vulnerable women into doing what he wants. Did he tell you he was divorced? That’s one of his favorite tricks. Before his brother died, he used to take women to his brother’s place to seduce them into giving him information.”

  That image jarred in my mind because the first time we met, he had pretended to be someone else. “Micah is divorced. Everyone at Bailey College knows it.”

  “Have you seen the papers or personally checked public records? Talk is cheap. And what about this so-called engagement of yours?” Glen looked at my left hand in disgust. “Is that ring even real? I’ll bet it’s a cubic zirconia he found at a pawn shop.”

  I fought the urge to cover my hand. Micah had told me the ring had been in his family for generations and became his when Caleb died. “You’re talking about the man I will marry.”

  “Am I really? Assuming he actually is divorced, did you take any time at all to discuss your future? Or was he suddenly so overcome with love for you that he couldn’t wait to slip that ring on your finger?”

  “I’m not an idiot,” I snapped.

  “Micah tried to destroy you in order to save Harry Spice. Are you a fool or do you have a bad memory?”

  Wounded, I couldn’t think of a logical retort to his allegations. “Why are you saying these things? I came here for lunch, not to get the third degree.”

  Glen looked at me with open disgust. “Here you are, the smart one in the family, the button-down, tight-assed, never-missed-her-mark sibling that everyone deemed the most likely to succeed. Look at you now.”

  “What about me?”

  “Come on, Gracie! Your life is in the toilet.” Glen’s face reddened. “You’re a hair’s breadth from being fired. Yeah, we know about that. Some reporter named Elina from Bailey College’s newspaper came to see Mom a couple of days ago. She told her all about the trouble you’re in for running down a student in the parking lot, not to mention sexual harassment and plagiarizing your dissertation. You’ve even been kicked out of your townhouse for stealing the identity of its owner and trying to mortgage his home.”

  “I didn’t do any of those things.” My face flushed with hot shame. “The college is investigating and will clear my name. You’ll see.”

  “I hope so. Mom is dying a thousand deaths over what the bad publicity will do to our family’s brand. She took down every single picture of you from the winery and the house and replaced them with prints of kittens.”

  That hurt. “I’ll have my name cleared. Micah’s helping me.”

  “Micah?” Glen sneered. “Don’t count on it. He’s screwed you over with Harry Spice and you rewarded him by falling into his bed.” Flinty-eyed, Glen leaned toward me. “He’s still working for Harry Spice, you idiot. He’s using you so Harry Spice can avenge himself on our family for you standing witness against him. Can’t you see that?”

  I jabbed my finger in Glen’s face. “Micah loves me.”

  “How has he shown his love? Will you be added to his checking account? What about his investment and savings accounts? He inherited a lot of money. Will you be on the title of his house and car? Have you met the family? Did he spend more than fifty bucks on that ring?”

  I wanted to cry, but my pride kept my eyes dry. “You don’t know anything.”

  “I know he got you cheap.”

  With that I’d had enough. I shoved my plate away and started to get up. “You and your hostility make me sick.”

  Glen grabbed my arm, holding it to the table. “You spent years dating a decent man like Leonardo without bothering to set a wedding date, but then you want to marry someone who’s damn near a stranger. That doesn’t sound crazy to you?”

  “Micah’s a good man.”

  “He’s a manipulator who studied you to find your weaknesses so that he could say the very things that you wanted to hear. I guarantee that Micah Ekstrand knows exactly what tune to call so he can watch you dance.”

  I tried to pull my arm away. “That’s what you’ve always done. Now let me go.”

  Glen’s face fell and his voice cracked, as if he were suddenly filled with emotion. “Something has happened to you. It started when you broke up Faith and Damien. If you have any love left for our parents, get some help.”

  I jerked my arm, trying to free it. “Let me go.”

  “I’m not done with you.” Glen’s fingers tightened painfully on my wrist. “Come down from your throne, princess. Mom and Dad have a new accountant who showed them everything.”

  My insides turned to water and I went limp. “Showed them what?”

  “Mom and Dad know about every penny you’ve stolen from the winery. Now that you’re not around, you haven’t been able to cover your tracks. Money leaves a trail and the new accountant followed it.”

  Trembling, I put my hand on Glen’s. “I never stole a single cent.”

  Glen recoiled from my hand, slapping it away as if it were red hot. “They also heard about the kickbacks you demanded from the contractors who built the new wine tasting room and cannery. Mom cried for hours.”

  “I never took any kickbacks.”

  “Once that accountant showed us the books, we understood how your thievery and corruption expanded the operation at the expense of decent people. It was quite ingenious. The accountant tried to talk Mom and Dad into pressing charges.”

  My voice was a hoarse whisper. “I used the money I inherited. I never stole anything.”

  Disgust burned in Glen’s eyes. “Inheritance? Don’t you mean extortion? You told our uncle that unless you got his money, you would accuse him of molesting you as a child.”

  “I did no such thing,” I cried.

  “Quit lying,” Glen growled. “That inheritance money is still in certificates of deposit at the bank. It’s all there. You haven’t spent a penny of it. We know because you didn’t change your address and Mom opened up your bank statement by accident. Every cent you extorted from our uncle is in there with interest.”

  “That’s not possible. That inheritance bought the mechanical sorter and the computerized fermentation tank and the new vineyards. I can prove it.”

  “No, you can’t.” Glen barked a laugh. “Will Micah have you sign a pre-nup before rushing you down the aisle? I hope not. Let him get fleeced the same as our uncle. You two deserve each other.”

  “You have a lot of nerve to talk to me about kickbacks and thievery.”

  Glen scoffed. “Yeah, except our family will no longer listen to you. Not now. They haven’t forgotten how you fought with us when Dad didn’t want to expand the operation into canned wine. Everyone remembers the feeling of all the knives you put into our backs. You walked around acting like you were the one who was wounded, yet we were the ones who were bleeding.”

  “All those changes benefited the winery,” I said, but my words sounded weak even to my ears.

  “That’s what you say now. What’s real is how you are behind the family’s back.” Glen leaned toward me. “Mom and Dad aren’t going to ask you to pay back the money. They don’t want the scandal to ruin our label’s reputation. You’ve torn down enough of what this family is.”

  “I had forgiven you,” I said in a voice that had become a whimper.

  Glen’s eyes drilled into mine. “Even an English major like you doesn’t have enough words in her vocabulary to repair all the damage you’ve done to us.” He made a sound like a laugh. “Tell me something, sister dear. What would you do to someone who hurt you this badly?”

  “Probably the same thing we did for you.”

  Glen’s eyes blazed for a moment. “Faith said we loved the person who pretended she would take a bullet for us and the winery. The truth i
s that you’re the one with the gun.”

  My voice developed a note of hysteria. “I know what this looks like, but I’m being framed. Harry Spice is doing this to tear down our lives. I am your sister. You know me. I never touched Damien. Can’t you see what’s happening here?”

  “You’re trying to blame this on Harry Spice after you were seen all wrapped around Micah Ekstrand? I don’t know how Leonardo put up with you as long as he did. How many others were there besides Damien? You almost killed our sister with that.”

  “Glen, listen to me. I never touched Damien,” I began, my words pouring out and crowding each other. “I was in my apartment that whole night working on my thesis. I’m not the woman in the video.”

  “And here we go again, that same old story about how you were sitting in your apartment researching the Bronte sisters and sewing on a button. You expect me to believe that?”

  His words hit me like thunderclaps. My bones vibrated. My mouth became dry cotton. My fingers tingled because I couldn’t breathe. That night I had been taking research notes about the Bronte sisters. Then I had logged off my laptop to take a shower. But before going into the bathroom, I had thrown a blouse and a sewing kit over my computer so that I wouldn’t forget to sew the button back on before going to bed. The only way he could have known about the button was by being in my apartment that night or hearing it from someone else who was because I had never told anyone that before.

  Glen got to his feet and strafed me with a look of cold loathing. “It’s totally amazing how quickly you’ve become a stranger. If you have any decency left anywhere inside of you, you’ll stay away from us. Lose my phone number.”

  He threw some money on the table and strode out of the restaurant. Somehow I found my way through the numbing pain back to Micah’s house. The world seemed strange and surreal, like I was working my way around a hazy childhood memory. When Micah got home from work, he found me lying in a tepid bathtub filled with spearmint and eucalyptus-scented Epsom salts. I have no idea whether I was brining myself or simply trying to soften the knot of pain. At first Micah stayed in the doorway, unsure of what to do. Slowly he entered the bathroom, cautious because he realized that this was in no way a seduction. He had taken off his suit jacket and tie and looked unbearably handsome. The sight of him made my eyes burn with unshed tears.

  “What happened?” he asked, his brow knitted in concern.

  “What version do you want? The one where everything is going to work out in the end or the one where my life has spun so out of control that my feet can’t even touch the earth?”

  Micah knelt at the bathtub’s side. “Are those my only two choices?”

  “I’m short on options.” My voice became a high whisper. “You were right about Glen. He betrayed me to Harry Spice. He’s the one who took my phone the night Damien’s sex video was made.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because of a button.” I sighed deeply. “That night I was taking notes on how the Bronte sisters had transformed female characters in British literature. Then I closed my computer and put a blouse with a loose button over it so I wouldn’t forget to fix the button. Only someone who had been in the apartment after Tamra left would have known about the button.” I sank lower in the water. “You were right. Glen is the traitor. Glen gave Tamra and me to Harry Spice.”

  Careless of his shirt, Micah slipped his arms into the water and lifted me out. He carried me to our bed, lay down with me, and pulled the covers over both of us. He held me in his arms, never speaking, not shrinking away when my self-control fled my body and I completely dissolved into an emotional, incoherent mess. We lay together long enough for my hair and his shirt to dry. He didn’t complain about being hungry or ask questions about why I cared so much about an addict brother. He cocooned me in his arms until I could reassemble the broken pieces. I fell asleep and woke in the morning. Micah slumbered nude next to me in our damp bed that now smelled faintly of eucalyptus. He was the same, but I woke a different person. The dark night had filled me with a terrible resolve and a rage so horrible it was a live thing with its eyes trained on Harry Spice.

  *

  I had developed the habit of going to a local coffee shop before work and picking up a large coffee and a vanilla scone. One of my students was a barista there, and the moment he saw me, he would start my order. I only had to wait in line to pay. If this student thought that this made me regard his papers more favorably, I couldn’t deny that he would be right. Fortunately, this young man had a winning personality and an insightful mind. He would have gotten an A on his own. I thought about that while juggling the coffee and scone as I unlocked the car.

  Back on campus, I opened my office door to find Harry Spice sitting at my desk. His eyes clamped on mine, not blinking. His expression carried both curiosity and challenge. Another woman might have been thrilled to have a wealthy, handsome man like this waiting for her in her office. To me he was a rabid dog with a diamond collar, expensive and dangerous. I didn’t bother hiding my fury at seeing him sitting so comfortably at my desk.

  “You slimy bastard.”

  “Aww, what’s the matter, sweet Gracie? Doesn’t seeing me make you happy?”

  “If you want to make me happy, drink poison on live television so that I can watch as you lay dying.”

  Harry Spice gave a short laugh. “Must you always be so dramatic?”

  I fought the urge to throw my coffee on him. “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s your office hour. Don’t people come to see you during your office hours?”

  “Only students. Get the hell out or I will call campus security and have you removed.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  “Won’t I?” I asked as I reached for my office phone.

  Harry Spice leaned back in my chair and entwined his fingers over his flat stomach. “Sweet Gracie, kindly remember who programmed the controls on your winery’s fermentation tanks. Ah, you hesitate. Smart girl. I should add that I found a way through the firewall your new programmer set up. He’s good, very, very good, but I’m better, and better is better.”

  My heart sank. My hand fell away from the phone. “You don’t have to hurt my family.”

  “You’ve already done that, haven’t you?” Harry Spice smiled. “By now they must know about the embezzlement you tried so hard to cover up. And then there’s how mean you were to your late uncle, smearing his name like that after he died. That was contemptible.”

  I started blinking rapidly at the tears that stung my eyes. “Shut up.”

  “Pretty, smart little Gracie, always in charge, not missing anything, but you missed Glen’s embezzlement. When you found it, you didn’t want to admit that your dear brother had tricked you. It’s hard to be you and be wrong, isn’t it?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Not many sisters would have put up with their brother as long as you did. It stretched the family’s finances to keep sending him to rehab over and over again. I suppose it’s a pity how that didn’t change the balance sheet with him.” Harry Spice gave me a look of mock sympathy. “Glen stole from the winery, you covered it up, and now he’s turned it around to make it look like you’re the embezzler. He displays a sad lack of appreciation. But then you’ve made yourself such an easy target.”

  My voice weakened. “Shut up.”

  “You’re me, you know.” His twined fingertips tapped on the backs of his hands. “Except that I understand human nature better than you do. Have you figured out what’s next?”

  My heart hammered. “Ruining the wine. Ruining my parents’ label.”

  Harry Spice chuckled. “You could stop this.”

  “I will stop it. I’m going to the winery to cut every single internet cable that I can find. That will keep you away from the tanks.”

  The idea seemed to delight Harry Spice. “Go ahead, but that won’t do anything to turn off the Wi-Fi that I’ve hidden in the building. You see, I put that there as a backup. One can’t be
too careful when dealing with a smart girl like you.”

  “I will cut every wire I see,” I said in a voice low with threat.

  “Do that. Tear up the walls and ceilings of the new buildings and cut every wire and cable. Your family already thinks you’re a saboteur. They can’t think any less of you than they do now. Do it and see how well your fermentation tanks run.”

  I fumed because I couldn’t. Nor did I doubt that Harry Spice had some kind of backup plan to keep control of the winery. The two of us were getting close to the end, and he would have covered every contingency.

  Harry Spice started to rock in my chair. “You think you’re being loyal. You think blood is reason enough for loyalty. Blood only makes you related.”

  “It’s loyalty that makes us a family.”

  Harry Spice laughed. “And look how your family has repaid your loyalty. You’re an idiot to stand by them. Their loyalty to you didn’t even withstand the first test.”

  My anger flared. I wanted to take him by the throat. “You made sure of that. You did everything you could think of to make them doubt me.”

  “And you wear your loyalty like an armor, but it didn’t protect you. It didn’t make you any stronger. It didn’t keep them from jumping right to mistrust. Look at your family now. Their silence speaks volumes. That’s going to be what you remember about them.”

  “What I’ll remember is your manipulation,” I said, my voice snapping like a lash.

  “If I could have thought of any other way to make you understand what weak and unworthy people they are, I’d have done it.”

  My knees trembled with pain and wrath. “You randomly tore the hearts out of people to play your stupid games.”

  “That wasn’t random. I taught you that they weren’t worthy.”

  “When this is all over, you’ll see.”

  Harry Spice laughed. “When this is all over, you won’t care what they think. We’re the same, you and I. And they aren’t worthy of either of us.”

  I leaned over him. “If I thought for one second that I was the same as you, I would never see my family again to protect them from me.”