The Girl in the Mist: A Misted Pines Novel

by Ashley, Kristen

  Jace stopped at us, which was good, since the look on his face said he wanted to tear Will’s head off.

  “Mr. Bohannan—” Will began.

  “You don’t talk,” Bohannan warned. “I talk.”

  He stopped several feet away.

  Will tried not to cower while cowering.

  I wanted to watch, but the sleeve of my sweater was being tugged.

  I looked down at it, then to Celeste who was doing it.

  Wordlessly, she showed me her phone.

  A video was playing on it. I wasn’t interested, but at the glance I caught, I did a double take and took it from her.

  What I was watching, I didn’t want to watch.

  But I couldn’t turn away.

  At its end, when the visual stopped on a still that was no less shocking than the rest of it, my eyes drifted up to her.

  “His parents. It’s everywhere,” she whispered. “Like, the whole school has seen it.”

  Dear Lord.

  I knew one of the two people in it was Dale Pulaski. I’d seen him in another video, the one where he was standing by his wife while she was entreating their daughter’s kidnapper to bring her home.

  This one, though, had a different woman in it.

  And apparently, that woman was Sarah.

  I kept hold of her phone and called, “Bohannan.”

  “—listening to me?” he was asking Will.

  I approached him, repeating, “Bohannan.”

  I shot a sympathetic look to Will as I stopped at Bohannan’s side.

  Will watched me lift Celeste’s phone then he turned his face away.

  I hit play and whispered, “It’s made the rounds.”

  Bohannan’s head cocked down, and he watched the video of Sarah Pulaski fucking Dale Pulaski, her fingers in his hair, pulling back his head so there was no mistaking him, or missing a thing as he took it on his elbows and knees. The angle on the action and focus was exceptional. The intent of the video crystal clear.

  But Bohannan didn’t wait for the money shot at the end.

  He reached out and touched the screen to stop it and looked back to Will.

  Before he could say anything, Will said, “I wasn’t shouting at her. I was just shouting.”

  “Take a second and take a breath,” Bohannan demanded.

  “I’d never hurt her. I’m just so sick of their shit,” Will said.

  I did not blame him.

  Not about shouting at Celeste, but if there were extenuating circumstances for anyone, no matter the age, there were here.

  But he was only seventeen.

  So there was that.

  “That’s my mom and dad, Mr. Bohannan,” he spat. “I mean, that’s sick.”

  Before Bohannan could reply, Will’s phone rang, he pulled it out of his front pocket, his face twisted, he took the call and said into it, “Like I said, fuck you! Fuck you now and fuck you forever. I’m never coming home. I never wanna look at you again.”

  He then ended the call, jabbed his screen with his finger repeatedly, and at a guess, blocked his mom and/or dad.

  “Your dad?” Bohannan asked.

  “Mom,” Will clipped. “I already blocked my sickfuck of a dad.” He looked up from his phone. “Who would have thought the only non-fucked-up one would be fucking Audrey?”

  Hmm.

  “Right, Jace is going to take you to his place, and you’re gonna get yourself together,” Bohannan said. “You can stay there tonight. I’m gonna have a conversation with your parents.”

  “I’m not going back to them, Mr. Bohannan. Neither of them,” Will declared.

  “Let’s just get through tonight,” Bohannan returned. “You can have dinner with us, but I don’t want you alone with my daughter when you’re in this state.”

  “She’s the only person that gives a shit about me,” Will replied.

  “That isn’t true, even though I figure you think it is. But if it was, I’d kick you off my land.”

  Will’s body jerked as that hadn’t occurred to him until Bohannan pointed it out.

  Which made it clear that, probably since Alice was taken, and maybe even before that, the adults in his life had been so enmeshed in all their chaos, they hadn’t had a thought about him.

  And frankly, the fact they hadn’t broke my heart.

  Not only for Will.

  But also for Alice.

  Bohannan took a breath and a step toward Will, but he didn’t push it.

  “I get it,” he said. “You’re learning too many lessons about how shit life can be. I hate that for you, but bottom line, Will, life can be shit. Now, you can either boss up and deal, or you can lose yourself in it. You got some time to figure that out, here with us, where you got space to think. But I’ll warn you, I’ll only accept that first choice when it comes to who spends time with my daughter.”

  Will looked to Celeste, back to Bohannan and then to me.

  “I’m sorry I got in your face, Ms. Larue.”

  I didn’t exonerate him verbally, but I nodded.

  “I’m sorry, babe,” he said, quieter to Celeste.

  “It’s okay, Will,” Celeste said sweetly.

  “Jace, show him his space for tonight,” Bohannan ordered then looked to me. “What time’s dinner, baby?”

  I had no idea. We ate when I was done cooking.

  I preferred to eat later, and since I was doing all the cooking, that was when we ate, whether it was just Celeste and me, or all of us.

  But I figured Celeste and Will wouldn’t be able to wait that long, so I said, “Five thirty.”

  Bohannan’s beard moved in an upward motion because he knew my gambit, but he turned to Will.

  “Come on over at five and you can help Larue if she needs anything.”

  Will nodded.

  He and Jace walked off.

  “Thanks, Daddy,” Celeste said.

  I’d never heard her call him that, but it was cute.

  “He’s gonna need you, honey, so get in there and do your homework so you can have your head clear when he comes over,” Bohannan advised.

  She made to take off, but he stopped her by calling her name.

  She turned back.

  “You okay with…what you saw?” he asked.

  What was this I was seeing?

  Bohannan…uncomfortable?

  “I’m grossed out because…gross,” she answered.

  Bohannan’s attention slid to me.

  It shot back to his girl when she went on, “But I’m more worried about Will.”

  “Okay, you got any questions about that kind of thing…uh…you know…”

  Oh my God.

  I was loving this.

  “I won’t, Dad,” she replied very, very promptly.

  “Right,” he muttered.

  I bit my lip.

  “Go on,” he urged.

  She sent a curious look my way before she dashed off, her bookbag bouncing. So desirous of fleeing, she left her phone with me.

  I turned to Bohannan.

  “You’re ridiculously cute.”

  “I wanna kill myself.”

  I started laughing and got close to him.

  He slid an arm around my waist.

  “Have you talked to her about the birds and the bees?”

  He nodded, paling, actually paling, under his tan at the memory.

  “And her periods. And STDs. And condoms and birth control. So also pregnancy and the consequences of an unwanted one. It was not my finest hour. We both hated it. But we also both thought it was over.”

  “Hell hath no fury,” I quoted.

  “You got no idea,” he said, pulled out his phone, let it read his face, then he held it up so we both could see.

  And I learned that a man, who could only be Dwayne, didn’t like pain.

  He liked pain.

  Bohannan thumbed the screen.

  And I saw that Bobby didn’t like dick up his ass.

  He liked big dick, and he didn’t want
just any ole delivery system. The guy he picked wasn’t only hung, he was built and gorgeous.

  Another thumb swipe and there it had to be Jay, his ass very red, his dick very swollen, his teacher with her glasses perched on the tip of her nose very determined to punish her naughty boy.

  “Yikes,” I said.

  “I hadn’t seen Dale and Sarah’s. I didn’t think. With Alice…”

  He didn’t finish that.

  He said something else.

  “Those videos were texted wide throughout the day. This kicks that vengeance club up a few solid notches,” he said. “Wendy left Dwayne this weekend. Word on the street is that Lana’s the ringleader. Apparently, her defecting from Bobby meant the gloves could finally come off.”

  “Seems so.”

  “It’s shit. It’s childish. And it’s piss poor timing,” he bitched.

  “You’re right about all that,” I replied.

  He drew breath into his nose, re-engaged his phone, and didn’t let me go as he made a call.

  He put it to his ear.

  “Yeah, Sarah, lis—” Pause then, “What did you think was gonna happen?” Pause then, “Yeah, I’d hope you didn’t want your son to see it.” Another pause and, “Are you telling me I gotta explain the concept of copy and paste to you?”

  There was a longer pause, but it wasn’t that long before Bohannan spoke again.

  “I gotta interrupt you, ’cause I need you to listen to me. Will’s here. We got him. We’re taking care of him tonight. But he’s not staying here because he’s my daughter’s boyfriend and I’m not okay with that. You need to find somewhere safe for him to be with someone who has a mind to him and doesn’t have their heads up their ass.”

  That was saying it straight.

  “No, see, because I got a visual on one of my cameras of your boy shouting at my girl, lookin’ like he’s gonna beat the shit outta her, so I had to haul ass from what I was doing, which, Sarah, you know is kinda fuckin’ important, to shut that shit down. I show, and he’s got his face in my woman’s, and I mean that literally. He’s messed up.”

  He took a big breath.

  And kept at her.

  “Now I know Dale done you wrong. And I know Bobby, Dwayne and Jay are assholes. And I know you women got a beef. And I’m a guy, so you gotta know I don’t take it lightly when I say there are some men who deserve to feel emasculated. Where I draw the line with that is not when there’s someone killing girls in our town. But I’ll take this opportunity to remind you that Alice Pulaski might not have been your daughter, but she was his sister.”

  I bit back cheering him on.

  “Where I draw the line with it is parents causing damage to kids they might never recover from. You fucked your boy up today, and I know how a lot of messed-up minds work, and the vast majority of that happens when parents don’t think about what their actions might do to their kids. You didn’t think about what you’d do to your son, and I got no idea how you’re gonna fix that. And that is not on Dale. That is on you.”

  And that was straighter.

  “Now figure it out and text me where your kid is gonna go tomorrow after school, and pack him a couple good bags. Because he’s blocked you and Dale, and you got no choice but to give him some time. Time I suggest you take to remember what’s important in this world. So you text me because I’m not gonna talk to you until I’ve lost the shit taste in my mouth I got from having to deal with you.”

  And with that, he was finished.

  “Christ,” he muttered, shoving his phone in his back pocket.

  “Well said,” I praised.

  “I got into this business because bad shit happens to good people, and I wanted to play a part in making it stop or making it right, or just doing something. But I’m running out of good people.”

  I turned and pressed into him.

  “I’m not.”

  He looked down at me and his expression gentled.

  “I think Will really likes her and he’s just caught in a shitty situation he doesn’t know what to do with,” I deduced.

  “Yeah.”

  “I still think Celeste and I need to have a conversation, and today I added a few things.”

  “I would be grateful, baby, but today she also got something else.”

  “I know.” I wrinkled my nose. “We’ll talk about exploring sexually and how it isn’t wrong, even if today it wasn’t right.”

  “That’s not what she got.”

  “What did she get?”

  “She thinks you’re the shit because you’re pretty and you’re famous and you’re rich, and you got great clothes she can borrow, and you put on mascara every day and shovel shit back at Jess and Jace and you make me happy.”

  I made him happy.

  I was holding my breath.

  “But today, she got a woman who’d stand between her and an angry young man who’s six-one and two hundred pounds and can check the fuck outta someone against the boards. He’s up in that woman’s shit, and for Celeste, she doesn’t stand down. You could leave me tomorrow, and I’d hate it like fuck, but you’d leave having given her a taste of that, so I’d be able to live with it.”

  “I might cry,” I whispered.

  “There’s a reason your girls are perfect.”

  I shoved my face in his chest.

  He wrapped a hand around the back of my head.

  And into the hair on top of it, he said, “I got sordid and tawdry all around me, but these days, all I gotta do is think of you and know a cycle can be broken and light can shine out of dark.”

  My shoulders heaved.

  Bohannan wrapped his arm around them.

  And as we stood there, we didn’t notice the temperature had fallen.

  And the mist swallowed the police tape on the pier.

  Forty-Three

  Perfect

  “I, honest to God, don’t know whether to spew or go out and buy an apron.”

  “Oh my God, please, don’t go out and buy an apron.”

  “I’m buying one…for you. I know it’s my mom, but this June Cleaver deal is hot.”

  “I will never forgive you for this.”

  “Don’t get any ideas. I burn water when I’m boiling it.”

  In succession:

  Fenn, to me.

  Joan, to Fenn.

  Camille, to Joan.

  Joan, to me.

  Fenn, to James.

  Important note: if James felt the need, the need for speed, he didn’t let on. He was quiet and very laid back. I liked him within seconds of meeting him. It wasn’t that his puzzle was simple or uncomplicated. It was just that he was perfect for Fenn.

  Though, it was clear, even if so far I’d only seen him in jeans and a Henley, he’d be very fun to watch playing beach volleyball.

  I was making dinner for my brood and Bohannan’s brood in Bohannan’s kitchen.

  Will was staying with his maternal grandmother who, as of yesterday, stopped talking to her daughter, except to tell her to get her grandson to her house.

  However, he was over now because Celeste was becoming his touchstone, and, according to Annette, his grandmother, “I don’t think any of us can argue that boy needs the example of some decent men in his life.”

  And truly, no one could argue that.

  This next concerned me, however, I felt they could use the mental break; but rather than being on the hunt, Bohannan, Jason and Jesse were home with us.

  My kids were settled in at my house, which all of them, including James, gave a stamp of approval, and Camille had even stood staring out the back windows, muttering a disgruntled, “Okay. I get it.”

  And at that time, she hadn’t seen Bohannan’s view.

  Or met Bohannan.

  Or his brood.

  Now, the gang was all together.

  And I was slipping.

  Because I hadn’t even noticed I’d fallen into the role of the little woman.

  Or realized how much I was enjoying it.
r />   Jace approached me (eating a cookie…and yes, he was eating said cookie while I was cooking, and yes again, I had baked that cookie) and he slung an arm around my shoulders.

  “Why is everything about you suddenly explained?” he asked.

  “Takes a wiseass to make a wiseass,” Jess stated sagely, his face in the fridge.

  “We’re going to eat in ten minutes, Jess,” I admonished (you will note, I didn’t say a word to Jace, I’d already given up on this kind of thing with him).

  Jess came out of the refrigerator chewing on a stick of string cheese. “Yeah, it smells awesome.”

  “I have wanted a brother all my life,” Fenn declared, gazing between them approvingly. “And look, now there are two.”

  “Hey, gee, thanks,” Camille said.

  Fenn looked at Camille. “When I was seven, you asked Mom to give me a penis.”

  That did happen, Camille so badly wanted a big brother.

  “I was four, I probably didn’t know what a penis was,” Camille shot back.

  “She still doesn’t know,” Joan whispered to James.

  James grinned.

  “Can you not embarrass me?” I requested of my girls.

  “How are we embarrassing you?” Fenn asked, seeming genuinely perplexed.

  “I don’t know, maybe carrying on a conversation about penises is a topic for discussion pre-seventh or eighth dinner we share with my new man and his family,” I suggested. “I know!” I suddenly exclaimed. “Let’s save it for Thanksgiving.”

  “No, please go on,” Jess said, leaning into one elbow on the counter of the bar, his other hand held another stick of string cheese. He bit some off and said through chewing, “I want to hear more about penises.”

  “I have bragged outrageously about how perfect you are,” I declared to the girls. “Sadly, I forgot to warn you to pretend that’s what you were.”

  “Aw, Mom, really?” Camille asked. “That’s so sweet.”

  “I am truly perfect.” Fenn draped herself on a barstool in a manner James, Jess, Jace and Will watched very closely in one way, Celeste watched it closely in another, and I lamented for the first time how strikingly beautiful and lithe my daughter was.

  She was addressing this to Bohannan, who was silently regarding all of this from his place, leaning with his ass against the sink and the apples of his palms resting on the counter behind him.