by Amber Malloy
“That’s my ride.” Cayden damn near scrambled to get out of her seat.
“I thought you were staying in the cabin,” he threw out, hating for her to leave but knowing he had to let her go.
“Yeah. Well, you know, I have a bunch of … stuff.”
Mom giggled at Cayden’s joke. His blood boiled. Not jealous or hurt, she threw her hair back and smiled. Like always, the Holy Grail played her position well.
“I’ll walk you out.”
“Not necessary,” the beauty told him.
“There’s something I want to talk to you about.” He grabbed her luggage at the door.
Cayden stepped past him into the frigid temperature and ignored the hand he offered to help her on the harsh gravel.
As the driver got out to greet her, she stepped across the rocks and reached for the sedan’s door. Hurrying to block her swift exodus into the car, he dumped her bags near the trunk.
“Move,” she said.
“You don’t want to know how I met Sarah?”
This time, her carefully crafted armor slipped a notch. A mixture of sadness colored her brown eyes while anger changed her pretty features.
“Get out of the way, Levi.”
“It’s cute, actually. I’m considered the old man on campus and they assigned Sarah to be my tour guide.”
“Cool story, bro,” she said with a sigh before she tried to get past him again.
“Hold on, I want to talk to you about the resort. With my signing bonus and the money I saved up, it should give me enough to buy it back. Owning the resort out right will be my wedding present to her.”
“Great.” She held his gaze in a challenging manner he had never been on the receiving end of until this moment. “You’ll just need to come up with the twenty percent interest plus renovation cost then you’ve got yourself a deal. Contact my office and they’ll set up the paperwork for you.”
When she went for the door again, he grabbed her arm tighter than he should have. “Don’t be spiteful,” he hissed.
“This is business, baby. Now move.”
“It’s all you got, isn’t it?” Levi continued to push. “Power gives you money but little else. Certainly not family … or at least mine anyway.” He didn’t know what reaction he wanted, but it must have been one of pain.
“Is everything okay, ma’am?” the driver asked from his seat.
Realizing he still had her arm, he loosened his grip.
“Fine,” Cayden responded as tears shimmered in her eyes. “If you don’t move”—she lowered her voice to a menacing whisper—“Iraq will pale in comparison to me screaming my head off to get Trent out here. Regardless of what you think about me, I’d be a fucking fool to sell the resort back to you for less than its worth. Sorry, Levi, you and Baby Spice will just have to suck it up with me as a partner.”
Cayden peeled his hand away from her arm before she grabbed the car door. The threat of his dad didn’t scare him off, but the quiver in her voice forced him to let he go. Levi had never made her cry before, at least not on purpose, and he figured out too late that he never wanted to again. Letting her go, he went into the house without looking back.
He assumed everyone headed to the kitchen. At the very least, he expected to find his dad or Sarah helping to clean. However, his mom scraped food off the plates by herself as Levi reached for the dish towel.
“Go check on Sarah. She’s getting ready for bed,” she said in that ‘don’t argue with me’ tone that he hated.
“Let me guess, you’re so disgusted with me you don’t need my help.”
“Pretty much.” She snatched the plate out of his hand. “I didn’t raise you to be like this.”
“Thoughtful?” He chuckled. “You’re right, you didn’t.” Overlooking her snub, he picked up another dish and tried to clean it off.
“Cruel.”
“Oh, come on!” He dropped his head back with a sigh. “You always take her side.”
“If her side is right,” she hissed at him in a low tone. She probably didn’t want Sarah to hear about his relationship with Cayden.
“You didn’t even congratulate me,” Levi muttered.
“Fine, congratulations on settling.”
“What the hell, Mom?”
She threw her drying towel on the table and pointed at him. “You’re not making me the bad guy in this. That sweet girl upstairs deserves better.”
“Than me?” he asked, shocked that his mother thought so little of him.
“A life half full.”
“Something’s better than nothing I guess,” he shot back, knowing full well whom she referred to.
“I don’t know what happened over there”—her eyes welled up with tears—“but the son that went to the war isn’t the one I got back.”
Dumbfounded that he managed to make two women cry in one day, he gave up and put the serving bowl down.
“You need help.”
“Why, because I want a simple life?” he growled.
“No, because you’re short on patience, cruel with your words, and you just—”
“What did you tell Cayden?” Levi cut her off, not willing to listen. “At dinner, what did you whisper to her?”
She shook her head and looked him straight in the eye. “If she cried, I would kill her. You simply aren’t worth it.”
They stood in uncomfortable silence while he fought to control the crazy explosion inside of him. “It’s a tough transition back to civilian life,” he admitted through gritted teeth.
“Get help, Levi.” She swiped at her tears with the back of her hand.
Levi hated to see her cry. Not in the least the dramatic type, he knew his mom must have held the stuff in for months. “Come on, I’m not that bad.”
“You just let the love of your life walk out that door. And after what you just did, trust me, she won’t be back.”
“Money over everything, huh, Mom?”
“There it is.” She turned her back on him and pulled a plate off the never-ending mound of dishes. “Get out. Find what’s wrong with you.”
A hard ball of pain dropped straight to his stomach. “Mom?” he nearly begged.
She waved him off with a sniffle. “We’ll be fine without you.”
Panic ate away at the thin line of sanity he had left. Levi knew the flashbacks would crush him if he didn’t have a distraction. The resort kept him too busy to fall apart.
“All of this because I’m marrying someone you don’t approve of?” He started toward his mom, determined to make her face him.
“Son.” His father’s gruff voice stopped him short. Dad came down the last couple of steps that led into the kitchen. “You heard your mother.” He nodded at the front door. “Don’t make this harder.”
“What’s going on?” Sarah’s sweet voice barely registered over the thundering hate in his brain. He looked down at his balled-up fists. He didn’t realize how tense he had become.
“Go get your stuff.” He swallowed. “We’re leaving.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Present Day
Wet splats of snow hit the windshield. Rare for this time of the season, an epic storm descended upon St. Geneva.
“Do you know why I didn’t want to take Cayden’s initial offer on the resort thirteen years ago?” Dad asked.
“’Cause it sucked.” He snorted. Sulking in his seat, Levi reached for the radio, but his dad slapped his hand away. “I want to hear the weather report.”
“It’s fricking snowing!” Dad grumbled. “The contract Cayden offered us was the best we would ever get.”
Levi blew out a breath. The fifteen-minute drive suddenly seemed much longer. “Before you wax poetic about Saint Cayden, I want you to know she just sold her half of the resort to interest unknown. So give me a break, okay?”
“The minute you set eyes on her, I knew we would be in a world of trouble.”
“No clue what you are talking about.”
“Honestly, it w
as the saddest thing I’d ever seen. Within a fraction of second, you became that hound in the cartoons. You know, the one where his eyes grow ten times bigger and his tongue falls out of his head.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“Not by a mile,” the old man admitted. “We tried to keep you two apart, but we knew it would be futile. Cut to thirteen years later…”
“Oil and water. Rich girl, poor boy … got it.” Levi sighed, feeling worse than he already did.
Dad drove into the downtown area where the snow didn’t seem to slow anyone down. Packed with shoppers for miles around, Levi wondered what force of nature could keep them from the sales. “That’s the thing, son, you don’t get it.” He parked the car in front of McGregory’s Bar and turned it off. “Now go grab your mother.” He got out of the car. “I refuse to look at those screaming ninnies more than I have to.”
Levi leaned over the driver side to roll the window down. “Where are you going?”
“To get a drink. Your mother’s miles ahead and this is going to be a long night.” Patting his pockets, he started to walk away, but turned around. “Hey, you got five bucks?”
“Argh.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a bill. “That’s not going to be enough to get you drunk.”
“No, but it’s how much I paid Cayden for the resort,” Dad said as he took the bill and folded it up. “You’re now the sole owner of Goosebay Lake. Congratulations.” He chuckled on his way into the bar.
Chapter Thirty-Six
A full-on storm battered the resort. Levi pulled up to the family side and let his parents out.
“Is anyone going to tell me why it took the both of you to pick me up?”
He glanced at his dad and opened his eyes wide, silently pleading with him not to tell.
“No,” they both said at the same time.
“Fine, keep your secrets.” She laughed as the blue and red security lights cut through the dense snow. “What is that boy doing now?” Mom asked. They stopped on the porch and waited for security to park his car.
“Hey, Dickie, what’s going on?”
“You told me to get you if anything weird happens, and after the last time—”
Levi gave him the wrap-it-up sign. “Get to it, Dickie,” he said with a chuckle.
“Well, Ms. Young’s door is off its hinge, and—”
Everything in his body fell to the ground. “What do you mean off?” Not waiting for his answer, he jumped over the porch railing.
“It’s open and the cabin is a mess. Mr. Scott!”
Already on the path to the hill, Levi slid down the side closest to her cabin. Heavy wet slush caused him to fall a few times until he could gain his footing and run the rest of the way. The house lights shone brightly through the busted front door. Out of breath, he walked into the empty house wrecked with chaos.
As his mind raced with facts of the case, Levi grabbed the side of his head and thought about what he had missed. He couldn’t let panic sink in. PTSD would first overwhelm him then shut everything down.
“What the hell?” Dad said at the broken door. He stepped over the flimsy wood. “There’s no way you guys did this.”
“Oh, my goodness.” His mother climbed into the carnage. “Levi?”
All of the air had been used up. He couldn’t get enough oxygen into his lungs. He bent over in pain, unable to think.
“You guys didn’t do this, did you?” Dad repeated.
Dickie’s red and blue lights swirled around the room, along with everything else.
“Baby, stick with me.” Mom’s voice sounded heavy and far away. “Levi!” she screamed before she slapped him. Hard enough to bring everything him back from black. “What do we do?”
“Should I call the sheriff?” Dickie asked from inside the doorway as Levi’s eyes watered with fresh hatred he couldn’t control.
“Belle,” he choked.
“I found her up at the barn, she’s in my car.”
“Shit, shit, shit.” He hit his forehead with his fist. Cayden had been alone. If he hadn’t let the dog out, she would still be here.
“Levi!”
“I’m fine.” He held up his hand to stop his mom from hitting him again.
“Dickie, give me Belle, then take my mom back to the family house.”
The kid nodded his head and took off.
“What do you want us to do?” Dad asked.
“Mom”—he stood up—“when they come, act like you don’t know what’s going on, none of it.”
Tears slipping down her cheeks, she grabbed the side of his face and squeezed. “Bring her back, okay?” She kissed him on the head before she shakily stepped over Shana’s boxes, lamps, and a knocked-over end table.
Once he felt he wouldn’t lose his shit, he grabbed his phone and cleared his throat. “Hey, Shawn. … Yeah, it’s Levi. The weirdest thing, Cayden went on the trail and hasn’t come back. The storm is getting worse. Could you do me a solid and check near Chesterfield? … Great.”
While his dad stared at him opened-mouth and confused, Levi made a second call. “Hey, man, the storm is crazy and Cayden’s missing. Do you mind coming over so we can take a look up the trail? … No, I’m sure it’s nothing. … Yep, thanks!”
He leaned against the wall and gulped for air. Close to the surface, he needed to destroy something. “If you can’t handle what I’m about to do, then I’ll need you to go back to the house and follow Mom’s lead.”
“No, I’m fine,” Dad said.
“Good, then that makes one us.”
****
Cold. She opened her eyes, with a groan. “Ms. Young?”
Cayden blinked but couldn’t bring anything into focus. Fuzzy images swum around her head.
“Ms. Young?”
She tried to see where the voice came from.
“Over here.”
She swung her head to the left with effort. Tied to the chair next to her sat Shana Waters.
“Are you okay?”
It couldn’t be Shana. Cayden tried to make sense of it.
“Do you remember me?”
“Sure.” Mouth thick with the feel of cotton, her head throbbed. She couldn’t recall what happened less than five minutes ago. “We had college-prep algebra together.”
“Huh? No, I went to Camp Goose growing up and now I’m a counselor. Britney James.”
Cayden vaguely remembered the girl, but she couldn’t be sure. “What happened?”
“That guy from the camp brought us here. Do you remember anything?”
She tried to shake away the foggy haze. When she thought back, her head pulsated in pain.
“I was walking home and he said he wanted to talk to me about camp. He dropped your name.”
Cayden tried to concentrate on the girl sitting in the chair next to her. Tears tracks streaked through the dirt on Britney’s Homecoming Queen face. Shana won the year she attended Chesterfield, right?
“He was so nice at the resort, I just thought it was okay. Once I got into his truck, he put this cloth over my face.” She struggled against her binds before she started to cry. “The next thing I knew, he brought me here.”
Cayden made a move to comfort her, but found that her own restraints held her back.
“What’s going to happen to us? I just got into a good home. It’s not fair.”
She took in the room. A stark cabin probably used for fishing. A small fire to keep them quasi-warm burned in the fireplace in front of them. The window at the front of the door was frosted over. Maybe the fishing cabin, she thought, but it didn’t look the same from the time Levi brought her years before.
“He’s going to kill us, isn’t he?” The girl cried harder.
Cayden wanted to tell her “no”, but she had no idea.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Levi straightened the house the best he could.
“Are you sure about this?” Dad asked.
Since he couldn’t fix the door in enough time, he
dumped the remains out back. “If you don’t want any part of it, I’ll understand.”
“That’s not what I’m saying, son. It’s just that you tampered with a crime scene, and—” For the first time ever, his dad seemed scared.
Levi wondered if it had anything to do with his manic behavior, but quickly discarded the thought. Stress under lesser circumstances would have made a Buddhist monk lose his shit.
As headlights swept the house from the gravel path, he realized that sometimes the good guy had to become a monster. He nodded at his dad before he heard the car door shut.
“Hey, man, what happened here?” Bud asked when he stepped into the cabin.
“Freakin’ Belle, she couldn’t wait to get out,” Levi said about the busted door frame. “You ready?” He gave his old friend a half-smile.
“Sure, whatever I can do to help.”
“Did you bring Petal?”
“Of course! I wouldn’t leave home without her. She’s in the truck. Want me to go get her?”
“Sure, sure. But wait, first I want to apologize about the other day.” Levi grabbed his plaid jacket and slipped it on.
“No prob, bro, what are friends for?”
“But I’m not sorry about this.” He pulled back and slammed his fist into Bud’s face.
“Levi!”
He barely heard his dad call his name while he continued to pound the evil shit’s mug. After a few well-placed punches, the idiot passed out. Bud was never the handsome twin, and Levi didn’t feel too bad about screwing up his face.
“Holy shit, son!”
“Go get his dog.” He went through Bud’s pockets. Once he found his keys, he pulled them out and tossed them to his father, who didn’t move.
“Dad!” Startling the old man out of his haze, his tone forced him into gear. Levi waited for him to leave before he took out the rope and tied Bud’s hands behind his back and then his neck. He worked quickly to twist it around the ceiling fan.
In the military, he learned how to make knots pretty fast. Considering he needed time on his side, it helped.
“Strap her to the table,” he told his dad. “Then let Belle out of Cayden’s bedroom.”