Blinding Echo

by Tina Saxon

  “Ellie, I wouldn’t have gotten out had I known you were getting in.”

  I gasp. The joking in his voice makes my blood boil.

  “You! I thought you had drowned!” His laugh sends little electric shocks across my skin, zapping me. “Don’t. Laugh. Next time, I won’t care.”

  I kick my legs to swim toward the boat, not stopping when his body flies over me, diving into the water.

  I hope the whale eats you, jackass.

  I squeal as something touches my legs. Even though it’s probably Kase… it might not be. I swim faster to the boat but he grabs my ankle, pulling me under water. I know it’s him now, but I still fight to free my leg. Adrenaline from panic and irritation churns inside me, my body is in fight mode. When we both surface, I smack him across the face.

  “This isn’t funny,” I snap, wiping the water from my eyes. Hot tears flush out the sea water.

  “Hey,” he whispers, pulling me by my lifejacket to him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” He pauses, gazing into my watery eyes, his full of apology. “I didn’t think you’d jump in after me.”

  My tears flow freely now from my erratic emotions, I couldn’t stop them even if I tried. “What d'you think I’d do? I thought I lost you.”

  “You didn’t. I’m right here.”

  Thank god.

  I blow out an uneasy breath and nod. “Can we get out of the shark tank now?” My body shivers, and I scan the water. “Thanks to you and your grabby hands, I keep thinking something is touching my feet.”

  “I can guarantee it’s not a shark,” he says. “But c’mon, I have something for you.”

  We swim together to the edge of the boat where he pulls down a ladder. Holy shit, my body must have absorbed a ton of water as I pull myself up the ladder. Kase gives me a boost with a push on my ass, taking the opportunity to cop a feel, too. I turn my head to the side and give him a smart ass glare.

  He shrugs. “When that fine ass is in my face, you can be damned sure I'll squeeze it. You should be happy that is all I did.”

  He pops up into the boat after me, with ease. Tori and Ben snuggle on the couch. “Oh, my god. You survived the wild ocean,” Tori says, sarcastically.

  I flip her off in between unfastening the three buckles on the life jacket. The sun heats my goose bumped body as I search for a towel. After finding a couple, I throw one at Kase and he towels off, barely wiping off the dripping water. He digs in his shorts pocket and pulls something out.

  “Look, I found an oyster for you.” He holds out an oval shaped oyster. I take the rough shell and turn it over in my hand. I’ve never seen a whole oyster, only half, ready to eat. Not a fan. The texture of slime and taste of seawater, no, thank you.

  “You found this today?” I hold it up. “Is this why you almost drowned?”

  He walks over to his bag, searching for something. “I didn’t almost drown, woman. Let’s open it, maybe there’s a pearl in it.”

  I’ve looked up the statistics on this and it’s like one in twelve thousand. The odds are not on our side.

  “I don’t want to spoil your fun, but there probably isn’t one in here.”

  He narrows his eyes at me, takes a large step so he’s standing right in front of me. “Entertain me,” he rasps. The demand in his voice is sexy. If only we didn’t have an audience. I’d entertain him and it wouldn’t involve opening this oyster. His tongue runs along his bottom lip and he slightly shakes his head. “Such a dirty mind. Later, woman. Now… we’re looking inside the oyster.”

  “Fine,” I smile. He exposes a small knife in the palm of his hand and gives it to me, handle first. “You’re so prepared.” He waggles his eyebrows. Sliding the knife into the already small slit, I’m surprised at how easy it opens. I gasp and do a double take when the shiny object sparkles inside. What? How?

  Kase drops to his knee, taking first the knife out of my frozen fingers and then the oyster. He lifts the ring out and wipes it off on his wet shorts. I would laugh if my heart wasn't squeezing, stealing the air needed to breathe. “Ellie, from the first day I saw you, I knew our worlds were meant to be one. You’re the light that leads me, I'd be lost in the dark without you. You're my resolution. My world starts and ends with you.” He stares up at me, the depths of his blue eyes shine with love and determination. “There isn’t anyone I want to live with except you. Will you marry me?”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Kase

  No?

  I glance at a shocked set of eyes. “Did she say no?” Tori nods. “I fucked up.” My body deflates. I didn't plan to be down there that long. We must have drifted farther than I expected. I couldn’t locate the damn thing and when I got onboard, she was already jumping in. It was selfish to be excited she loved me enough to jump into the water, I didn’t think how it would affect her emotionally.

  “Maybe she needs a second to process everything.”

  I should’ve waited. Should have let her calm down instead of jumping right into proposing. I figured she was okay, she was making jokes. How was I supposed to know she was still upset? Or maybe she wasn’t, and she doesn’t want to marry me. I start second guessing everything. It’s too soon. She doesn’t love me. Self doubt is like the devil pissing on me. The evil thoughts burn.

  “Should I go after her?”

  She grimaces. “I don’t know. She was really upset with you.” Her eyes drift behind me for a quick second and her lips twitch up. I spin around, knowing Ellie is there.

  She runs at me, flying into my arms with a smile beaming on her beautiful face. Her legs wrap around me and she says, “Yes, I’ll marry you,” then slams her lips to mine. I’m slow to react because I’m so confused. I break the kiss, pulling back and make sure I’m not dreaming.

  “Are you serious?”

  She nods quickly. “Yes.”

  “But you said no.”

  “That was payback. Thinking you died is not a joke.”

  Neither is telling me no when I ask you to marry me.

  Instead, I keep my mouth shut. I deserved it. The moment of clarity hits me. She said yes.

  She’s mine, again.

  Forever this time.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Ellie

  I stare at the diamond on my ring finger, a little sad Kase hasn’t met my dad. When I was talking with my dad earlier, I failed to mention the engagement. He’d drop everything and come here once he knows so I need to talk to Kase first. I don’t regret saying yes; I regret the secrets I’m keeping. The weight from them, increasing tenfold since Friday. It was easy to forget my past when I was with Kase, but this ring changes everything. Tonight, I’m telling him. I can’t move forward after promising to spend the rest of my life with him until he knows the truth.

  The oven beeps, reaching the temperature I set. I need to get moving if dinner is going to be ready by the time Kase gets home. After sliding the chicken into the oven, I pull out plates and silverware, setting the table. I smile, giddy that I’m surprising him. He’s not the only one who can surprise someone. Cody let me in earlier. There might've been a few threats on his life if he said anything.

  At the sound of my phone in my back pocket, I pull it out, biting my lip when I see who it is.

  Cowboy: What’s my beautiful fiancée doing?

  Sneaking around your apartment. I giggle to myself.

  Me: Thinking about you.

  Cowboy: Are you naked? Are we sexting? I’m sure Stone won’t mind if I jack off.

  My mouth falls open and I shake my head at the picture he painted.

  Me: Kase! No.

  Cowboy: Which part? I asked more than one question. :)

  Me: All of them! Just keep your dick in your pants.

  Cowboy: For now :(

  I need to put the phone down to cook the rice, so I send one last quick text.

  Me: Call me on your way home.

  He should be home in a half an hour. Nerves stir in my belly the closer it gets to him getting home. Will he be
able to look at me the same when I tell him everything? Does he love me enough to keep it in the past and move forward? I know he's not a man to take this lightly, so I hope he understands why I kept it from him.

  Once I receive a text he’s headed this way, I have only fifteen minutes. I take in a deep breath and slowly exhale. Everything looks perfect and smells delicious. One last thing, light the candles. Since I forgot a lighter, I search through his kitchen drawers looking for either a lighter or matches.

  “Seriously,” I say, frustrated that I’ve run out of drawers and found nothing to light a freaking candle. I glance at my watch and then around the room. Shit, I have only five minutes left. Dammit! The candles are important.

  One last thought to where matches could be, I run to the bathroom and rummage through the drawers. The last one I open, takes my breath away, my knees weaken and I have to grip the counter to catch myself. My brows pinch in confusion as my fingers shake picking up a picture. It weighs nothing in my hands, yet it feels like I’m holding a nuclear bomb, seconds from destroying my world.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Kase

  As soon as I open the door, I can feel the change in the air. It’s thick and suffocating. The second I see Ellie on the couch, staring down at a picture, I know the air is filled with my lies. It wraps around my neck like a noose, squeezing the life out of me. The life I thought I’d have with her.

  Her eyes don’t move from the picture of us. When we were younger. Fuck.

  “I can explain,” I say, taking long strides to get to her. She doesn’t look up as she drags her finger over our embraced bodies. I sink to my knees, nestling myself in between her legs. “Ellie, look at me.”

  Her eyes fix on mine and her face twists. One tear escapes. No, don’t cry. It’s a small lie, an insignificant detail. It doesn’t change the love we have for each other. The panic builds each second she doesn’t talk and my mind scrambles for what to say. She holds up the picture and opens her mouth to say something, but snaps it shut. Her eyes flitter over the picture again.

  “I don’t remember this.” Her voice is so soft, I barely hear her. “This is us.”

  I nod. “It is.” My words come out slow.

  “Why can’t I remember you? We had to be around sixteen.”

  I sit back on my heels and blink. “Of course you can’t remember. You can't remember anything from back then because of amnesia.”

  Her bitter laugh fills the heavy air. “Can’t remember? I wish I could forget.” She presses me back so she can stand. Her words send a sharp sting to my heart. How does she remember her past, but not recognize me? I am her past.

  “Ellie, I don’t understand.”

  “Kase.” Her voice breaks as she folds her arms around her waist. “I don’t remember you” —she swallows, looking away— “but I'll never forget my stepfather raping and beating me, then dropping me off on a dirt road to die.”

  My mouth gapes open and I glance around looking for answers. What is happening right now?

  “Ellie, you don’t have a stepfather,” I whisper.

  She jerks her head in my direction and her face reddens. “Do you think I’m making this up?” Her voice rises and her eyes turn stormy grey. “That my nightmares about that sick fuck is all a figment of my imagination?”

  I squeeze the bridge of my nose. “Let’s start over,” I say, trying to diffuse the situation. “That picture is us. You were… I mean are the love of my life and always have been. Since we were ten. When we were eighteen, I went away for boot camp and when I came back you had been in a car accident and couldn’t remember me. You had amnesia.”

  Staring intently at me, she lets this all sink in. Her expression shifts to anger. She rushes to the kitchen and reaches for a butcher knife on the counter. “He hired you, didn’t he? He found me and sent you to get close? Did you work for him back then?” She points the knife at the picture on the couch and then back at me. “Get out!” she screams and I’m taken back that she’s kicking me out of my own place.

  “Ellie, what are you talking about? Nobody sent me. Put the knife down.”

  “No! He won’t hurt me again. Leave Kase, or I swear to god, I’ll stab you.”

  I put my hands in the air in defeat. “Ellie, I won’t hurt you. Let’s calm down and talk–”

  I duck just in time for a glass to go whizzing by my head. The sound of shattered glass echoes behind me. Goddamnit woman!

  “Okay! I’m leaving. Only so you can calm down, but we still need to talk.”

  She shakes her head as tears run down her face. My stomach knots knowing I caused this. I hesitate to leave her like this, but I need to find out what she’s talking about. When I reach the front door, I turn around before I open it. “I’m sorry Ellie, I never meant to lie to you.”

  She stands rigid, holding the knife with a vise grip. She stays silent. I drop my head and turn to leave. The lock slides closed as soon as I shut the door. The noise pounds into my heart, sending a sharp pain. What have I done?

  I fly down the stairs two at a time and call Tori.

  “Hey, Kase, Ell isn’t with me.”

  “I know, I just left her. But she needs you. I can’t explain, because I don’t have a clue what’s going on. I need you to come to my apartment and stay with her. Don’t let her leave.”

  “What the hell Kase? What did you do?”

  “I don’t have time to explain. Please, Tori. Just know, I love her more than anything and I’d never hurt her.” I hang up the phone and slide into my Jeep.

  “I need your help,” I say, storming into the frigid room. Stone rolls his head my direction, from his relaxed, feet propped up on the desk, position.

  “What’s up?”

  I pace the office behind him. “Ellie flipped out. She found a picture of us from when we were younger.”

  “Oh, shit.” He pulls his feet down and sits forward.

  “I knew when she found out, I'd have a lot to explain, but fuck, Stone. This didn’t go at all like I thought it would. She pulled a knife on me, threatening to stab me.”

  He belts out a laugh and I glare at him. “Sorry. That’s just… that’s funny.”

  “The hell it is. She told me she remembers her past. But the past she recalls isn’t real, and she didn’t remember me.” He tilts his head in confusion. “Can you look up her parents? She told me her stepfather abused her, but she doesn't have a stepfather.”

  “Maybe her mom got remarried after you left.”

  “That’s why I want you to look them up.” I run my hand through my hair, trying to rein my agitation in. “But that doesn't make sense because that would’ve happened after she had amnesia. When I mentioned amnesia to her, she thought I was crazy.”

  Stone pounds on the keys, I pull up a chair next to him. I tell him her mom’s name and the information is in front of us instantaneously. We both look it over. She never remarried. What was Ellie talking about? He continues to run different searches and we look over each site that pops up, giving me nothing I already didn’t know.

  The last site that pops up are court records. We both stare at the screen, reading the typed documents.

  “Did you…” Stone asks me.

  I shake my head, surprised by what we're reading. “No.”

  He types again, digging into parts of the web I wouldn’t be able to find my way out of. My head hurts trying to keep up with his lighting fast keystrokes.

  Then he gets there. It flashes, clear as day on the screen.

  My stomach drops, and my words knot in my throat.

  They say love is blind.

  I was blinded by an echo and the lights just turned on.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Ellie

  My heart is heavy with so many emotions my chest aches. The picture. That was us. Why can’t I remember him? Remember us? We looked happy. Has my mind shut out all the happiness, leaving behind the heartache and pain? Yet, Kase never talked about our past. Did he work for Ray? I fal
l on my bed, covering my tear-filled eyes with my arms. I’m so confused. What’s real? My love for Kase is real and that stings the most. It was all a lie. He has to work for Ray. If he was part of my past, he knows about Ray and that means only one thing.

  If he’s here now… Ray found me.

  Fear trembles through my body, seeping into my bones. Bones that remember breaking and the pain that followed. He can’t find me. I push myself off the bed, determined that I have no other choice. I have to leave town.

  I snatch clothes out of my closet, yanking them off the hangers, and stuff them into my duffle bag. The same duffle I had when I arrived in Gilley Cove six years ago. I thought I had found a place far enough away and small enough he’d never find me. The shrill of my phone ringing makes me jump. My hand shakes when I pick it up and I blow out a relieved breath when I see Tori's name.

  “Hi,” my voice trembles.

  “Ell, where are you?” she screams into the phone. “Kase called me and told me to get to his apartment, but you’re not there.”

  “I’m at my apartment. Oh Tori, everything was a lie.” I swallow my cries. I hate myself for letting my guard down with him. There was something different about him from the beginning. The first night we met, he didn’t look at me like he knew me, he did.

  “Stay there, I’m on my way.” She hangs up before I can tell her not to come.

  Minutes later a knock on the door stops me mid zip from closing my bag. Holding the pepper spray, I grabbed out of my bag earlier, I creep to the front door as if the person on the other side can hear me walk. I hesitate looking through the peephole because if it's not Tori I don't want the person on the other side to see the light from the tiny hole disappear. It has to be Tori. My fingers hover over the metal dead bolt when another knock and Tori’s familiar voice comes telling me to open the door.