They had all been out searching the area every day and night while I was missing, it was just a pure coincidence that they had been in the woods that night and found me. Not just the police, including my brother and Greg, but my friends too. It had been Jase who saw me first. He had reluctantly gone back to work a few days later, after refusing to leave my side both during the time I spent in hospital and then once I was home. We hadn’t spoken about the argument or about the problems we had in the months that had led to that night. We had simply fallen back into our routine; we were together, just like we always had been. Not that I was complaining, the old Jase was back- mostly. The one I had known and loved all my life. Apparently my being tortured by a serial killer, almost dying of hypothermia and overdosing on chloroform had brought him to his senses. And even though he was still full of talk about our future and how he was never going to lose me again and how we were going to have our very own happy ever after, the over bearing, possessiveness was gone. He was determined to spend his life making me happy.
Still, the darkness had taken over me and I hadn’t argued, didn’t have it in me. Deep down I knew nothing about our relationship had been resolved. Those Neanderthal ideas he had came sneaking back in bit by bit when I was too wrapped up in my darkness to notice. So I clung to Jase as the cracks formed, desperate for comfort, for something to pull me from the darkness. He had always been there and I wanted that familiarity. I needed him. I knew it was selfish but I couldn’t let go. At least not yet.
Chapter Three
One year later.
I was running again, as fast as my legs would carry me through the freezing January night. You’d have thought a girl would have learned her lesson, but no. Not this girl. I had let him back in. And now, a year later here I was storming along the same street, fuming once more after another argument with Jase. Only this time it was different. This time there was no argument I didn’t stick around long enough for an argument. This time I had come to his place after work, as was our usual routine, and found he wasn’t alone. Oh no, my wonderful boyfriend was naked with one of our best friends and neither of them were holding anything back!
Jason Montgomery. I had wasted another year of my life on him. Conned myself into thinking he had fixed me. Picked up all my pieces and put me back together and sealed all the cracks. But he hadn’t, he’d covered them with tracing paper and masking tape, so they were almost gone, almost unseen, but never really that far from the surface. Deep down I knew only I could seal them, but I had spent the last year fooling myself into thinking he could do it for me. My cracks were still there, my darkness was ever present.
I ignored his shouts as he came after me through the snowstorm. I looked down at my clothes, I wasn’t dressed for the weather and a flash of déjà-vu hit me. I halted and panic flew through me as I turned on the spot. I was in the exact place where it had happened. No, this was not going to happen again. He was gone. Or as good as. He wasn’t here anymore.
Doing my best to calm my breathing, I knocked loudly on Greg and Dana’s front door, knowing that they had to hear through two doors. The house they had bought when they got married was actually an enormous old barn at the edge of the woods. It had been in complete disrepair and needed a lot of work to make it even remotely habitable. Through their own blood, sweat and tears (and a fair amount of mine and Jase’s too) they had turned it into two luxury apartments, one upstairs and one down, with the intention of renting out the upstairs loft type dwelling as a second income. The entrances to both places were in a hallway just inside the main front door. They hadn’t yet gotten around to fixing up separate doorbells as nobody was renting the upstairs apartment. I hammered the heel of my palm against the door and bent to lift the letterbox,
“Dana?” I hollered “Dana, Greg? You guys there? I need you to let me in!”
“CeeCee!” I heard his voice calling me from further down the street. Shit! He’d heard me. I thumped incessantly on the door. Please be home, please be home, please. I thought to myself as Jase’s booted footsteps got closer.
*****
She stops suddenly, gathering her wits about her. She gets her bearings and I know my lady has remembered herself. She will not, much to my disappointment, put herself in further danger this evening. She hammers on a door, calling out and looking around her anxiously. If only she would realise what she is to me. How important she is. Nobody means more to me than her.
My chance is gone for tonight. No matter, I can wait. After all this time it will be special when we are reunited. Not that we were ever parted, not completely. And next time I will reveal my identity to her and she will know it was me all along. She will know my story and the part she has played in my game, for it is essentially our story. She will know how her family has influenced my craft and given my life lessons more meaning than I ever imagined possible.
My attention is diverted when the flame haired typhoon curses loudly as she slams the door behind her and stomps off into the night. Such a dirty mouth. Like the others, this one needs to be taught how a real lady behaves. And it happens that I now have room for another student.
I follow her silently...
*****
Just as I was about to bang on the door again it opened and I fell through, collapsing in a heap at Greg’s bare feet.
“Fuck!” I mumbled getting to my feet and brushing the snow from my drenched jeans. My Dad had despaired at my foul language when he was alive, but my Mum had been as bad so there wasn’t really much he could say. I liked to swear.
“Greg listen, Jase is going to be here any minute, you can’t let him in. Oh...” my words trailed off as I finally looked up at the figure in front of me.
“...you’re not Greg.” I said dumbly, as my eyes met those of possibly the most beautiful man I had ever seen. Hey, I was pissed off with my boyfriend, not blind.
But there was something in those eyes. A darkness that was recognised instantly by my own. I saw it only fleetingly, before the barrier went up, but it couldn’t be mistaken, not when I was so familiar with it. I had noted the flicker of recognition from him too and I knew he had seen my darkness, in that spilt second when my guard was down.
“No.” He smirked, “No I’m not Greg.” He looked me up and down as he leant around me to close the door against the blizzard outside. I can only imagine what I must have looked like, all covered in snow. I gave myself a quick once over, jeans and a black t shirt with the “Irish Rover” bar logo on, snow coated my hair and I could feel my clothes, wet from the melting snow, clinging to my body. At least the t shirt wasn’t white. I’d taken my coat off when I arrived at Jase’s, having my own key, and left it in the hallway before going into the living room and seeing them there. In my red haze I’d left without it.
“Erm, is he here? Greg I mean or Dana? Wait, who are you and what are you doing in my friend’s house?” I demanded suddenly realising I ought to question this situation, like the good policeman’s daughter that I was. He could be anyone, gorgeous men could be raving lunatics too you know. Who’s to say he hadn’t got Greg and Dana bound and gagged somewhere, ready to kill them and wear their skin as a memento? Okay, breathe; I knew my own experience plagued my mind so much that I read way too much into every scenario I found myself in. Or maybe I just read too many books. Hmmm, are too many books really a thing? Focus Callie!
“I could ask you the same question.” He replied. He was still smirking. I balled my fists and decided I was about to wipe that smirk off his pretty face, arrogant much. Who did he think he was? Standing there all bare foot and smouldering in his navy blue checked pyjama pants and a faded grey Rolling Stones t shirt with the sleeves cut off, so it showed off his perfectly toned arms and gave a glimpse of his obviously muscled torso. His hair was all messy and sticking up in different directions. Not that I was looking, obviously. Although, I might have complimented him on his awesome taste in aging rock bands if my head had been in the game.
“Are Greg and Dana here? Do you
know?” I sighed, deciding to go with it and assume he actually knew them. I would lull him into a false sense of security and then strike while he wasn’t looking and rescue my friends. Yeah, I’m going with the book thing.
He raked a hand through his dark hair, making it even messier and just a little bit adorable and glanced towards Greg and Dana’s door, “They’re not back yet. Some belated New Years work thing of Dana’s I think. I’m Adam, Greg’s cousin.”
“Shit, that was tonight.” I remembered how excited Dana had been when she had forced Liv and me to go shopping with her for “a most spectacular outfit” for tonight’s celebrations. Dana was a beauty therapist and tonight was a big, posh event hosted by her bosses who owned a chain of beauty parlours across the region. Dana had been especially excited because she had just been promoted to manager at the salon she worked at here in town.
I narrowed my eyes and craned my neck to look up at Adam. Greg’s cousin, I vaguely remembered Greg mentioning his cousin would be moving into their upstairs place. Something about him taking over from the old police sergeant at the station in town, where Greg and my brother both worked. Oh... “Adam...yeah...Greg told me about you. I think...”
“This would be the part where you tell me who you are.” He raised his dark eyebrows at me as someone called my name and knocked on the door.
“CeeCee!" Ugh! The name Jase had called me since we were kids was no longer a comforting sound to my ears, “I know you’re in there. Please baby, we can work this out. It wasn’t what it looked like.”
I cringed as Jase whined his weak, clichéd defence through the door. Wasn’t what it looked like? So you weren’t actually buried balls deep inside my friend, whose legs were not wrapped around you and locked tight at the ankles? Of course not, my mistake.
Adam looked at me, a question in his eyes. I shook my head; silently pleading that Adam would don his police officer head and not let on that I was there. He nodded once and pointed to the door that led up to the loft apartment.
“Go up.” He whispered, “I’ll deal with him.”
I frowned. Could I trust this man? He was my friend’s cousin, and a police officer, that had to count for something. Greg was one of the kindest, most genuine men I knew and I was going with my gut that it ran in the family. Something about Adam put me at ease. I nodded at him as Jase knocked again, obviously not going anywhere. I moved around Adam to go upstairs and he pulled the door closed slightly behind me so Jase couldn’t see up the stairs. When he opened the outer door I paused at the top of the staircase to listen.
“Cee...” Jase began.
“I don’t know who you are mate, but you’ve got the wrong house.” Adam’s deep voice had a serrated edge to it.
“I know she’s here. There’s nowhere else for her to go. Who the fuck are you?” Jase growled angrily, “Where’s Greg? Is she hiding in there with Dana?”
“Watch your tone.” Adam warned, his own tone eerily calm and focused. It was far more threatening than Jase’s angry growls.
“Look, I just want to find my girlfriend. We had a little fight and she ran away from me and I’m worried about her. She’s probably in there right now, tearing me to shreds with that friend of hers, you know what women are like.” I could imagine him standing there, a hand on the back of his neck, the way he did when he was stressed or irritated.
“It’s late to be banging on doors and yelling in the street, don’t you think?”Adam responded, sounding bored.
“I don’t give a shit what time it is. I need to talk to CeeCee. Can you just go and get her?” Jase’s temper flared, I could hear it in his voice.
“I suggest you go home and calm down before you do something you’ll regret.” Adam remained completely calm.
“Is that a threat?” Jase fumed.
“No, it’s a warning. Police Sergeant Adam Butler. Just taken a position at the local station. I don’t think we’ve met.” Adam introduced himself confidently.
“Fuck!” Jase groaned, “Look, I don’t want any trouble. I just really need to see my girlfriend, right now.”
“Not going to happen.” Adam told him with finality.
Silence and what I assumed, not being able to see them, was a stand-off ensued before I heard the front door close and the sound of bare feet padding up the wooden staircase. I wrapped my arms around my waist and moved towards the huge floor to ceiling windows at one end of the loft that over looked the woods beyond. I loved those woods. Jase and I had spent hours walking in them with his family dog when we were teenagers, desperately trying to grab alone time.
We had officially been together since we were sixteen. For seven years I had believed there would never be anyone else for me. We were meant to be. Jase and I had known each other all our lives, grown up as neighbours when his family moved in next door to mine when were just toddlers. When were five he held my hand when I got upset on our first day of school. When we were eight Jase had given me a plastic ring from a Christmas cracker and told me he was going to marry me one day. When we were ten he went on holiday with his family and brought me back a necklace he had made from string and shells he found on the beach. When we were twelve he started to sneak in my bedroom window at night and we watched movies and talked in hushed voices about our future. When we were fourteen he started to hold my hand at every opportunity he got. When we were sixteen he officially asked me out and called me his girlfriend. When were seventeen we gave our virginity to each other and promised to love each other forever. Seven years we had been together as a couple, as friends three times that. Seven years of my life just gone.
“So can I assume you’re CeeCee?” Adam’s gravelly voice sounded behind me.
“Callie actually.” I sighed, turning towards him. Adam cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow at me, looking confused, so I explained. “My name is Callindra, everyone calls me Callie or Cal, well mostly. Everyone except Jase. When we were like, three years old he couldn’t pronounce Callie and it came out Cowie and it would make me cry, so our parents taught him to call me CeeCee because my middle name begins with a C too. He never stopped.”
“Hot chocolate?” Adam nodded at my words and flicked the kettle on, taking a mug from the draining board beside the sink and washing it out. He set the mug on the side and then disappeared through the floor to ceiling Union Jack curtain covering the hallway that I knew led to the bedroom, coming back out with a navy sweatshirt and a pair of grey jogging bottoms.
“Here, feel free to use the shower, warm up and put these on. Your clothes are soaked, bring them back out and I’ll throw them in the dryer.” He held out the clothes towards me.
“I should go.” I said hurriedly, “I appreciate your help, really I do, but I should leave you in peace.”
“Nope.” He said, shoving the clothes at me, forcing me to take them as he towered over me.
“Nope?” I raised my eyebrows in question, grasping at the clothing and hugging them to my chest before they fell to the floor.
“Nope. I can’t let you go anywhere in that weather, it’s not safe.” He was still in police mode, acting like Greg and my brother, all serve and protect. Seriously, between the two of them, my boss Mick and my best friend Nick, not to mention Jase I had enough bossy males in my life to last me a lifetime. One more was not going to fly. He might out rank my brother at work, but I wasn’t part of his police force.
“I’m not staying here!” I snapped and he grinned like he found my attitude cute and looked down at the mug he was heaping hot chocolate into.
“Change your clothes, drink some hot chocolate, warm up and when Greg and Dana get back you can go downstairs and spend the night with them if it makes you feel better.” He said simply, not looking up from what he was doing. What he said was how it was going to be, he was confident of that.
I huffed and took the clothes, locking myself in the bathroom. He was right, I knew he was. Plus my only route home took me past Jase’s place and I wasn’t ready for that. Relinquishi
ng control, I quickly peeled off my wet jeans (realising my mobile wasn’t in the back pocket where I normally stashed it) and t shirt and pulled on Adam’s clothes. They smelled clean and fresh, like they had just come out of the washing machine. They were huge on me obviously, the bottoms were way too long in the leg for my 5’2 frame, but thankfully they had a drawstring waist so I could tighten them and they wouldn’t fall around my knees when I walked, I rolled the cuffs up at the ankle for good measure. The vintage Nike sweatshirt practically hit my knees but it was warm and soft and it smelled good.
Suddenly an over whelming sense of comfort and security washed over me and I instinctively knew I was safe with Adam. The way he had got rid of Jase, coolly and calmly without even needing to know what was going on made me feel at ease. He had put me first, without any explanation, he had protected me. I was a naturally strong person, especially after what I had been through in the past. I fought my own battles and stood on my own two feet, but after the night I’d had I figured I was entitled to a little bit of damsel in distress syndrome.
“So Callie? Callie what?” He said, doing a quick double take as I stepped back into the living room, he liked seeing a woman wearing his clothes, the way his eyes raked up and down my body told me as much. Working in a pub for the last few years had given me quite an insight into human behaviour. Although the whole “she’s wearing my clothes” thing was one of those male fetishes that I would never understand, I looked like a toddler playing dress up in her Dad’s tracksuit.
Educating Callie Page 3