“You’re hurt.” It’s a statement of fact; there’s no emotion behind it.
Sofie looks down at her knees, seeing they’re grazed and bloody from where she fell. However, she doesn’t feel any pain; all she feels is fear and confusion.
“What are you going to do to me?” It takes a huge amount of effort to force the words out of her mouth. Her teeth are chattering, and she feels like she’s frozen to her core. The scientific, rational side of her brain knows that she’s exhibiting standard symptoms of shock. However, the side of her brain that seems to be in control of her right now is panicking.
“What did you see?” Ashton’s eyes seem like they’re burning through her, like he can see exactly what she’s thinking, like he can see right through to her very soul. She can’t reconcile the man in front of her with the man that she was flirting with at the bar earlier that night. The person in front of her has been involved in a slaughter. A man had been killed like an animal.
The memory of what she’d seen floods through her mind, and it’s like she’s watching it happen all over again. She backs away from Ashton. She has to get away, whatever it was that she saw, something is very wrong. Before her fear can take over, she gets her legs working again, turning and running away. But the ground is muddy from the torrential rain that fell that day. It only takes one false step and she finds herself falling again. As her head hits the hard ground, everything goes dark.
Through the blackness, Sofie is vaguely aware of movement, like she’s being carried but on something like a blanket. Her arms and bare legs register softness beneath her, like the smoothest fur you could imagine. She feels the wind in her face, but when she tries to open her eyes she can’t quite manage it. The dull ache in the back of her head makes her suddenly nauseous, and she drifts back into oblivion.
CHAPTER NINE
Sofie opens her eyes slowly and then she remembers why she’d been keeping them shut. The light hurts her eyes, and she feels the sudden, urgent desire to be sick. She rolls onto her side and takes a look at the room around her. She doesn’t recognize it at all, not even a little bit. Nothing seems familiar.
She’s lying on a chocolate-colored couch, and her hand dangles over the side, touching a soft, white rug. The feel of it brings back the sensation she had while she was asleep—of being on top of something silky as fur. The rug must be what she was remembering. She tries to think back to how she ended up here in this unknown place, but her head hurts too much to concentrate on anything. She gets flashes of images but nothing clear. She remembers being in the bar, the fight that broke out, and then going into the woods, but it’s like there’s something just beyond her reach, something she can’t quite grasp hold of.
“How’s the head?” The voice comes from behind her, and she turns around gingerly, her head aching in protest. When she sees Ashton’s face, that’s when the events of the night come rushing back to her. She pushes herself up from the sofa and backs up, getting as much distance between them as she can before she hits the wall.
“I made you some tea; it should help with the headache.” Ashton acts as if he hasn’t seen her reaction, setting the steaming mug down on the wooden coffee table and taking a few steps towards her.
“Where have you brought me?” Sofie tries to keep the tremor out of her voice but fails. When she looks down, she sees that her hands are shaking.
“My house. You’re safe here.” Ashton looks at her kindly, and there’s no trace of the man that she’d seen in the wood with the anger in his eyes.
“Safe. Right. Thanks, but I think I’d rather head back to the motel if it’s all the same to you.” Sofie digs her hand in her pocket expecting to find her cell but instead she comes up empty. “What have you done with my cell?”
“It’s late and you’ve had a knock on the head. I’ll take you back to the motel in the morning—once you’ve had some sleep.” Ashton’s voice is gentle, but it doesn’t brook any argument.
But Sofie has never been one for being pushed into a corner. She tended to push back. “And what if I say that I won’t stay here? What are you going to do? Tie me to the couch?”
Ashton’s expression changes, and the way that he looks at her makes her insides do somersaults. She curses herself for letting her body respond to him, especially after what she’s seen. “I was hoping that wouldn’t be necessary.” He sounds amused, almost like he’s enjoying this a little.
“Where is my cell?” Sofie repeats the question, using the wall to support her as she feels her legs start to tremble. This is like every bad horror movie she’s ever seen, and in the back of her mind, she wonders if she’s going to die here. The rational part of her brain tells her that if he wanted her dead, then he wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble. He would have just left her in the woods where he’d found her.
“It’s in a safe place. I’ll make you a deal. We talk, and then you get your cell back If you still want to go back to the motel once we’ve finished, then I’ll take you there myself.” Ashton holds up his hand in an imitation of the scout’s honor.
“I somehow doubt that you were a scout. Besides, after what I saw, I want to be as far away from you and all your creepy friends as possible.” The fear that she had felt in the woods has changed to something else, something more like anger.
“I’m glad you brought that up.” Ashton is calm and collected, looking like nothing could faze him. “What is it that you think you saw in the woods?” He crosses his arms and looks down at her curiously.
“What do I think I saw? I don’t think I saw anything, I know what I saw.” She sweeps the hair that has fallen into her eyes away from her face, and she gets another wave of pain.
“Sofie, you look like you’re going to fall down if you don’t sit down. Take a seat, drink the damn tea and just talk to me.” Ashton’s eyes are full of concern, his face is open and still as unbelievably gorgeous as ever. He indicates the couch and takes a seat on one end.
She knows that he’s right. She’s about as stable on her feet as a spinning top. She edges her way around the coffee table and sits at the opposite end of the couch, putting as much space between them as she can. She draws her knees up and hugs them to her chest. She notices that the grazes on her knees have been cleaned and bandaged up. They don’t even hurt anymore; it’s like they weren’t even there. She wonders how long she has been asleep for.
Ashton looks towards the tea he’s set down. “Drink it. It’ll make you feel better. I promise.” There’s so much sincerity in his voice and in his face, like there’s nothing more important to him that her well-being.
Sofie is suddenly doubtful of her own memories. If what she had seen was real, then why would he be sitting here with her like nothing happened. She forces her mind to go back to what she had seen, the black shape that had wreaked such devastation on the prone man lying on the ground.
She can feel her heart beating out of her chest again and to calm herself down she takes a sip of the hot tea. It’s good, sweet and full of spice. Almost instantly, the pain in her head changes from a pounding to just a dull ache. It’s a welcome relief.
“My friends will be worried about me. They’ll think that something has happened to me.” She doesn’t add that they wouldn’t be wrong—she’s trapped in a stranger’s house, without any idea of how to get back to the motel.
“They know you’re safe.” Ashton doesn’t offer any more information, but he doesn’t need to, Sofie’s brain is already whirring with possibilities. Ashton clearly sees what it is that she’s concerned about. “They think you’re carrying on the party with me.”
“Finn wouldn’t believe that I would just stay out all night with a man I barely know when we have more tests to run tomorrow.” Sofie wonders how long it’s going to be before they get in touch with the local police again. That would have to be some kind of a record for a Shale employee, declared missing two days in a row.
“Finn’s had a lot to drink. He’s not going to be worrying too much ab
out what you’re doing.” Ashton’s voice is flat, and the ease with which he seems to be able to manipulate this situation to his advantage sets off alarm bells inside of Sofie’s head.
“Manipulation, another string to your bow, Ashton.” Sofie doesn’t even bother to try to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.
The flash of anger that passes over his eyes is so quick that Sofie wonders if she has imagined it, much like everything else that’s happened tonight.
“This isn’t how I wanted to get a moment alone with you.” Ashton sighs heavily, raking his fingers through his blonde hair and looking for all the world as lost as Sofie is feeling.
“Getting knocked unconscious isn’t exactly my idea of a good time either.” Sofie rubs her temples absently.
“I’m sorry that you got hurt. That’s the last thing that I would have wanted.” Ashton steeples his fingers together, and Sofie sees how white the knuckles are, like he’s trying to hold something in. “I shouldn’t have let it happen to you.”
Sofie is about to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, but she’s still not so sure that’s the case. She has to physically stop herself from reaching out and taking hold of his hand. Whatever the mojo is that surrounds Ashton, it’s seriously hard to resist, even after what she’s seen.
“So are you going to tell me what you were doing in those woods?” Sofie throws the question out, expecting a reaction. But Ashton looks over at her, his expression blank again.
“You first.” The determination in his voice is palpable.
“I was following you.” Sofie tries not to focus on how creepy that sounds. “You seemed to leave the bar in kind of a hurry.” She shrugs, as if to signal that was reason enough.
“You make a habit of following all the guys that buy you drinks? You must spend a long time on the road.” Ashton shakes his head in disbelief.
“I’m a scientist. I’m allowed to be curious,” Sofie smirks, asking herself how they’ve lapsed into the back and forth banter so easily. “So anyway, I followed one of the members of whatever weird cult you’ve got going on here—”
“Sorry, what? Weird cult? What are you talking about?” Ashton looks at her in complete confusion, far too genuine to be faked. “Maybe that bang on the head was harder than I thought.”
“Well, if you’re not a cult, then what the hell do you want to call it? You all stood around in a circle and then sacrificed some guy to...to...” Sofie can’t bring herself to say the rest, it sounds too much like she’s made it all up.
“Sacrificed some guy to what?” Ashton’s voice is tight, like he’s trying to hold onto something.
“I don’t know it was dark.” Sofie squirms in her seat wishing that what she saw didn’t sound crazier every time she thought about it. “It looked like a big black animal...like a wolf. But a big one, a really big one.” Her voice peters out, as she registers the expression of shock on Ashton’s face. “I know what you’re going to say, that I’m crazy.”
“No, I didn’t say crazy. I may have thought crazy, but I definitely didn’t say it. But let me just check we’re on the same page. You saw me and the rest of my ‘cult’ sacrificing some guy to a giant black wolf. Does that about sum it up?” Ashton’s expression tells Sofie that what she’d said really does sound as ridiculous out loud as it did in her head.
Sofie nods wordlessly, as she starts to question her own sanity, but she knows that something happened out there tonight. “Don’t treat me like I’m an idiot. I saw you threatening that guy, and then there was a lot of blood. I think it’s your turn now to tell me exactly what you were doing in the woods.” Sofie takes another sip of her tea. The ache in her head has disappeared, like magic, if she believed in that sort of thing.
“You wanna know who that guy was that you saw me talking to in the woods? Do you want to know why he ended up there?” Ashton leans back on the couch, eyes turned up to the ceiling. He looks about as exhausted as Sofie feels.
Sofie nods slowly, before she has time to ask herself if she really wants to know the answer to the questions spinning around her mind. She watches Ashton’s shoulders sag a little in defeat, and she hopes that he’s not about to tell her what it is that she’s most afraid of. She waits, in silence, giving him time to come up with the words that he needs to tell the story.
“That guy’s name is Bobby. Bobby used to live in Beaumont, seemed like a pretty upstanding citizen, liked to keep himself to himself. Some people thought that he was a little odd, but that’s what happens in a small town; it’s easy to get a reputation.” Ashton takes a deep breath, preparing himself for what he’s about to say. “Bobby used to work over at the school. He was a handy-man, so he’d do all kinds of odd jobs, whatever needed fixing. But it turns out that wasn’t the only reason that Bobby liked to hang around the school.”
Sofie fills in the gaps, and she covers her mouth with her hands. “Oh no,” she says, fear filling her voice. Ashton looks at her, his eyes soft. He reaches his hand out, and, automatically, she responds, letting him hold her small hand in his large one, letting herself be comforted by him. She takes a deep breath and nods for him to continue.
“He liked kids, especially little girls.” Ashton shakes his head in disgust, and Sofie squeezes his hand, like she’s giving him the strength he needs to tell the rest of it. “No one knew anything about it. He was sneaky. He knew exactly how to hide what he was doing, and he would threaten the girls, telling them that if they said anything then he would find them. They were all too terrified to go to their parents or the cops.” Ashton falls silent again.
“But then something happened,” Sofie prompts, pushing him on.
Ashton nods, his mouth set in a grim line, reminding her of the expression that came over his face in the woods. “One night, one of the girls—Daphne—didn’t make it home. This is a small town, not a lot happens except for the occasional bar fight. No one thought the worst; our brains weren’t programmed to go down that road. That was until they found her body.” His voice cracks with emotion over the story he’s telling. His eyes are glazed over, and it’s like he is seeing it all play out in front of him.
“He killed her.” Sofie says the words so that Ashton doesn’t have to.
“The cops couldn’t prove it. There wasn’t enough evidence that pointed towards him. So he walked. He was back at the school, working there as if nothing had happened. Can you imagine being that little girl’s parents and knowing that her killer was just out there? Free to do it again? To destroy some other family?” Ashton shakes his head like it’s too much to think about.
“No, I can’t imagine that,” says Sofie in a quiet voice, but the thoughts raging through her mind are loud. Ashton’s story has put a different spin on the events that she witnessed. Now, she doesn’t know how to feel about what she saw.
“The cops couldn’t get involved so me and some friends took Bobby to one side and told him that if he wanted to keep all of his limbs in one place that he should get out of Beaumont and never come back. We warned him, told him that if he set foot in this town again that he wouldn’t be walking out again. He stayed away for a couple of years, but I guess it was just too tempting to come back here.” Ashton levels a look at Sofie that is both vulnerable and strong, like he’s asking for her understanding but also telling her he can live without it.
“Did he confess? How could you be so sure that he did it?” Sofie tries to pick holes in Ashton’s story, needing to be sure that whatever he did, he did it for the only reason that she could ever understand.
“The first time we ran him out of town, he came clean. He cried about it and apologized, but I think that was just the fear talking. The man that came back to Beaumont and has been hanging around the school where it all happened, he’s not sorry. He was hooked, desperate to do it again. We couldn’t allow that.” Ashton’s face is set in grim determination.
“You killed him?” Sofie tries to keep the judgment out of her tone, but she doesn’t know how. She hasn’t had any pra
ctice at this kind of thing. Her world is scientific, facts and figures. There’s no grey area in science, nothing open to interpretation. It either is something or it isn’t. But this is different, this is a whole new world.
Ashton takes a moment before he replies, and when he does, it’s clear that he’s choosing his words very carefully. “He won’t be able to hurt anyone again.” He doesn’t offer any more information, and Sofie is secretly a little relieved at that; she doesn’t think that she could take any more details.
“What was it that I saw? Whatever attacked him wasn’t a person, it was a thing.” Sofie’s scientific brain keeps trying to piece the night back together, and this is the part that she keeps getting stuck on. It’s as if her eyes and her brain can’t come to an agreement over what had happened.
“Like I said, you took a pretty bad knock on the head—” Ashton starts to say, but Sofie cuts him off.
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