Finally, we were getting somewhere. I kept my mouth shut hoping I’d get more. And I did.
“She was his sponsor in AA.”
“Yeah,” I said, “I know.”
“But you wanna know the best part? She wasn’t an alcoholic.”
I choked on the piece of ice I’d been twirling around in my mouth. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shook his head. “She only pretended to have a problem so she could get closer to Doug. And she did.”
“Sheesh, sounds like she attended the Candice school of naughty behavior.”
Jesse laughed. “She probably did. They’re friends.”
“Candice lives here?” I said.
“No.” He did air quotes with his fingers. “Beverly Hills.”
“As in 90210?”
“As in an ailing eighty-something-year-old husband who’s ready to kick the bucket and leave his millions to her. She’s been around here a lot more lately and has taken Heather on as a kind of special needs project. At least that’s how it seems to me.”
“I walked down Candice memory lane on the cruise,” I said. “And I have to say, I hadn’t missed her.”
He frowned. “Who would? She’s already been with every guy in town, married and single. You wanna know the truth? I always thought she’d be dead by now. A jealous wife, a husband wanting to make sure she kept her mouth shut—it’s crazy to me that Doug’s dead while Candice lives to see another day.”
Enough talk about Candice for the night. “So…where does Heather work, anyway?”
“She’s a nurse at the hospital.”
“Let me give you a ride,” Jesse said.
I managed a weak smile and tried to keep the I’m-ready-to-get-away-from-you look off my face. “I’ve already called a cab…so, I’ll see you later?”
He pulled out his cell phone, dialed and cancelled the cab, just like that. “Looks like you don’t need it anymore.”
I’d played nice with Jesse since I arrived in town, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I could manage being around him without becoming the cause of California’s next major earthquake. But I didn’t plan on seeing him again if I could help it, so what was another fifteen minutes?
Because of the recent events at the hotel and the sharp object found lodged in my door, the hotel staff was on edge and practically packed my bags for me. I decided I needed something a bit more private and splurged on some five-star digs that backed up against the entrance to Tehachapi Mountain Park. And the best part was all the rooms were detached into free standing one-bedroom cabins—it was my best chance at privacy. All I needed now was to get there.
“So how’s Nate?” I said. “He still lives here, I take it?”
Jesse made a left turn and nodded. “I see him every week at poker night.” He glanced sideways at me. “I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong.”
“What?”
“You said before you weren’t sure it was a coincidence two friends in the same clique died within days of each other, but I’m telling you, it’s the wrong direction to go in. The four of us all lead separate lives now; we have for years.”
“You mean the two of you?” I said.
He frowned.
I continued. “I’m more interested in your lives back then, not the lives you lead now.”
“Why?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure yet—I feel like there’s a connection between the past and the murders. I just need to find it.”
We drove in silence for a time until I couldn’t stand it anymore. “How is Nate?”
“Single.”
“He never got married?”
Jesse laughed. “Yeah, to his cars…he owns Nate’s Automotive in town.”
“He always was a good salesman. I remember him talking Mrs. Webb into turning his F into an A in History class. I always thought he’d move away from here though.”
“Didn’t need to—why move when you have an established fan base?”
“True. When’d you see him last?”
“Couple nights ago. Poker was at his house this week.”
“And where would that be?”
“Stallion Springs.”
He looked over at me. “Nate is fine, Sloane. I’ll call him if you want so you can put this theory of yours to rest.”
I shook my head. “I’m sure you’re right. I’ll stop in and see him for myself.”
Jesse pulled into the parking lot and the car lulled to a stop. I’d already prepared for immediate evacuation by securing my bag over my shoulder and wrapping my fingers through the latch. I tugged on it and the door swung open.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said, hopping out, but before I could plant both feet on terra firma, Jesse grabbed my shirt and yanked me back. Apparently he had a plan of his own, and his blacked-out side windows gave him all the privacy he needed. My shirt ripped in two places, and in the few seconds I spent surveying the damage, Jesse had unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed on top of me.
“I want you,” he groaned in my ear. “Say you want me too. Let’s go back to your room and I’ll show you how much I’ve thought of you over the years.”
His hands forced their way inside my shirt, grappling my breasts. With one foot still out the door, I swung my body to the side, taking him with me. Our bodies fell onto the pavement next to the car. My hands collided with tiny pebbles of gravel, scraping my skin. I reached across, yanked back on his neck, and slapped him across the face.
He turned, enraged. “Really—again with the slapping?”
“Is this why you’re a cop—so you can exert your power over women! Is that who you are now, Jesse?”
I scrambled to get off the ground and was met with resistance as he wrapped his arms around me, trying to hold me down. It was time to teach him a lesson from the Sloane book of what happened to a person who crossed the line.
“Sloane?” a voice shouted behind me.
I whipped my head around and stared up at a wide-eyed Giovanni sprinting in my direction. When he got within five feet, he took one look at my torn shirt and exposed bra and locked eyes with Jesse. Not good.
“What are you doing here?” I said.
But he didn’t seem to hear me. His eyes were riveted on the palm of my left hand which was now bleeding. He hoisted Jesse into the air with a clenched hand to Jesse’s neck and thrust him forward. Jesse’s head smashed into the passenger-side window and it shattered, spilling pieces of glass all over the pavement.
In his shocked stupor, Jesse managed a weak, “I’m a cop—I’ll have you arrested for assaulting a police officer.”
It was a line I’d always remember as one of the stupidest comments to be uttered from a person’s mouth. Jesse had no idea what it meant to cross Giovanni, but he was about to find out. For a cop in such good shape, I was surprised how easily Jesse was subdued. I bent over Giovanni and stared into Jesse’s eyes.
Again he shouted, “I’ll have him arrested, Sloane.”
“No you won’t, or I’ll press charges for that little parlor trick you just pulled on me in the car.”
He looked at Giovanni whose tight grip got even tighter. “I thought she wanted it, I swear.”
I shook my head. “No you didn’t.”
I tugged on Giovanni’s shoulder. “I just want him out of here. Preferably alive.”
He eased up on the grip he had on Jesse and then tightened again. “Get in your car and leave—now,” he said.
Jesse looked at me like he was waiting for me to speak as a witness for the defense.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said. “I feel like I don’t know you anymore. I remember when I considered you a friend—but now…”
He averted his eyes and said nothing so I ended the conversation. “I never want to see you again, Jesse.”
When we got inside the hotel room, Giovanni excused himself and made a call. I showered, and when I stepped out, he was back in the room hovering over a laptop sitting on a knotty pine desk
.
I walked over and leaned over him. “Why are you here?”
He stared up at me and his eyes hardened. “Who was the man you were with tonight?”
“No one important. He’s someone I used to know. I thought he might be able to give me some answers about what’s been going on around here—I was wrong.” I smiled. “Your turn.”
He shrugged. “Madison thought you needed some company.”
“Maddie called you one time and you decided to fly out here?”
He inserted his hand inside the tie that fastened my robe and pulled me close. “I missed you.”
I closed my eyes for a moment and absorbed those three little words. When I opened them again, he’d stood up, held out his hand and glanced toward the bedroom with all the passion of a kiss between two lovers that hadn’t seen each other for years. My thoughts drifted away until nothing was left except his hand in mine and a bed that never looked so inviting.
The view from my new hotel room offered a significant upgrade from my previous three-and-a-half star digs. The landscape outside was breathtaking. I paused a moment and took it in. Fall had always been my favorite time of year. Leaves shook with confidence inviting the world to view their magnificent color-changing act. It was their last hurrah before they expired, fluttered to the ground and were swept away and crushed by a cold, unforgiving wind. I watched one such leaf detach from a branch and get whisked away until I couldn’t see it any longer. It reminded me of my own life and how I’d drifted away, abandoning my roots. I’d never even stopped and looked back. Until now.
Giovanni caressed my shoulders from behind. “You’re freezing,” he said. “I’ll make you something hot to warm you up.”
I spun around. “You didn’t need to come out here, you know. I mean, I’m glad you did. But if you’re worried about me, I’m fine, no matter what Maddie says.”
He glanced out the window. “This town—it’s where you grew up?”
I nodded.
“When was the last time you were here?”
“Several years, but even then, I was only here for the day. Once I graduated high school, I left this place and never had the urge to come back.”
“And how do you feel now that you’ve returned?”
I sighed. “Have you ever felt everyone around you was keeping a secret or multiple secrets and you were the only one who wasn’t in on it?”
The look on his face indicated he didn’t understand where I was coming from. “No one has ever been any good at keeping secrets from me.”
I was afraid to ask why or what measures he took to convince people to reveal the most private parts of their lives.
“There’s something going on around here,” I said. “Something big. I just need to figure out what.”
He tapped my nose with his finger. “You will, I’m sure of it.”
I shook my head. “You have so much confidence in me.”
“And yet I know so little about your life before I came to be a part of it.”
I felt the same way about him. Both of us wanted to be honest and open with each other, but when it came to a life confessional, we both held back.
He continued. “We’re here, in the town where you spent your childhood, and yet, in the time I’ve known you, you’ve never talked about this place. I’m a patient man, Sloane. I’ve never pushed or asked anything from you I didn’t think you were ready to give. But I want to know everything about you. Don’t be afraid to let me in.”
No one had ever managed that level of closeness with me, and I wondered if he’d agree to the same. I’d always been good at giving small pieces of my life as long as I didn’t have to release every little facet. I’d offer up a snack here and there, but never a full-course meal. Standing in front of me was the first guy to ever make me burn with the desire to break free from the shackled locks I’d placed on myself. I didn’t want to live like that anymore—it wasn’t fair. Not to me, not to him.
I brushed by Giovanni, grabbed my bag and shot him a wink. “Let’s go for a drive.”
I wound Giovanni’s rented Ferrari 599 GTB through the various back roads of Bear Valley Springs until I came to the sign I was looking for: Black Forest Drive. It amazed me how I could be away for so long but still cruise the streets without the need to jog my memory. The scenery had changed, but it was like no time had passed at all.
At the end of the cul-de-sac was a cement driveway leading to a two-story home tucked between a myriad of pine trees that surrounded the house on all sides. The stone exterior was in disrepair, but intact. Not a single piece of rock had dislodged.
I parked the car, got out and turned to Giovanni. “This is where I grew up.”
“It’s…”
“Small and rundown, I know.”
He smiled. “I was going to say charming.”
I turned away from him and stared back at the house. It was vacant and had been for some time, but looking through the framed window in front was like a doorway into the past.
Two people stood in the center of the living room, arguing—a man and a woman. The man yelled, no, screamed something at the woman. “What did you say to me?” he said. And then he raised his hand. She knew what it meant and tried to back away. But she wasn’t fast enough. His hand flew through the air, the backside catching the woman’s cheek. She yelped in pain. Her hand rushed to the inflamed area, and she rubbed it up and down until the man snatched it away. “Don’t be a sissy, take what’s coming to you,” he shouted, and he hit her again—this time, harder.
A soft voice from the back of the house squeaked out, “No!” The man squinted and glared down the hallway, but saw nothing. He could have let it go, pretended he didn’t hear it, but he wasn’t in the business of learning lessons—he was in the business of teaching them. He whipped his belt through the loops of his pants, folded it in half and snapped it for dramatic effect. The sound echoed through the house. The woman screamed, “Don’t touch them! Don’t hurt my babies!” The man answered by striking her on the back with the belt. She crumbled to the floor, and in a last ditch effort to stop him, she reached out, grabbing his ankle with her hand. He shrugged it off, smashed his boot into it and then stepped over her and proceeded down the hallway.
I wanted to shout out to the little girl: Run and hide Gabby, run and hide, hurry! But, she stood there, frozen, like her feet were welded to the floor. When the man reached her he cracked the belt over her head like he was whipping a horse. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she held her hand out as a shield to protect her. “No, Daddy! Stop!” He looked at her, his face filled with rage. “You want me to stop? You’re telling me what to do now—is that it? You girls are all the same, just like your bitch of a mother.” And then he brought the belt down on her again.
Out of the shadows another girl appeared, a wooden baseball bat gripped in her tiny hand. The man was taller than she was by at least two feet, but he was too busy stooped over the other girl to feel the thick weight of the wood when it embraced the back of his head. The man went down, and the girl with the bat dropped it on the ground and reached her hand out to her sister. “Come with me, Gabby. I’ll protect you.” The two girls ran hand-in-hand through the living room until they reached their mother. She shooed them out the door with her hand. “Sloane,” the woman said, “get your sister out of here—go to the neighbor. Call the police. Hurry!”
I blinked my eyes a few times and was back in the front yard staring into the window of the house, but this time, the images in my head were gone, and the room was empty.
“My mom said she was leaving,” I said, “and taking us with her. But then he saw the bags on the edge of the bed. They were packed. Hers and ours, but not his. It was the first time she’d ever stood up to him.”
Giovanni had a puzzled look on his face. “Are you all right?”
I shook my head back and forth, aware of the revelation I’d given. “Reliving an old memory from my childhood,” I said. “It’s nothing. I shouldn’t have c
ome here.”
He took my hands in his. “It’s okay to face your fears. They make you strong.”
I shrugged. “I hate to admit it, but being here makes me feel weaker than I have in a long time. I don’t know what I was thinking—that maybe if I faced it after all these years I’d somehow feel empowered. But, I don’t. I just want to run and never stop.”
“What the lion cannot manage to do, the fox can.”
I squinted my eyes at him.
He smiled down at me. “German proverb.”
“I’m not sure I grasp its meaning,” I said.
“You are stronger than you realize.”
We got back into the car, but this time, Giovanni drove.
“I haven’t been back to my house since I was eighteen,” I said.
“Why today?”
I leaned back into the warmth of the heated leather seat. “Sometimes I feel like I can face my demons now because I’m older, wiser, healthier. But the truth is, it’s probably better to stay away than to force myself to relive a nightmare I’ve tried so hard to forget.”
He smiled like he understood. “Is that what the house represents to you?”
“I felt like I was twelve years old again. I felt trapped and like it was up to me to save my sister and my mom from my…my monster of a father.”
“Then you don’t ever need to return to the house again. Closure comes in many different ways.”
“Believe me,” I said, “I’d strike a match and burn the house to the ground if I could, and I’d watch until every last sliver of wood was gone forever. It’s been vacant for years. My mother left the house to me in her will, but I couldn’t ever bring myself to move anyone into it. It’s like I thought they would feel the negative energy and it would ruin their lives just like it ruined mine—like a stupid house is to blame for my father’s actions.”
“Back there you said your mother tried to leave. What happened?”
“My grandfather happened, and my dad never saw us again.”
“Why didn’t he get you out of there sooner?”
I Have a Secret (A Sloane Monroe Novel, Book Three) Page 7