by Alison Paige
“He’s loved her for a long time.”
Joe turned to see Bill Thorndike, Clayton’s father, standing in his path to the steps. “Yeah? It’s my turn.”
The man was tall, like Clayton, with the same bright blue eyes and thick muscled body. Even in his late sixties Bill was a hardcore cowboy in his pale blue and white checkered shirt and worn faded jeans. His hair was shorter than Clayton’s, showing pink scalp beneath soft white stubble that matched his Magnum P.I. mustache and bushy white brows.
“Not like that,” Bill said. “Oh he might argue at first, but he knows what his feelings are really about. Can’t help himself. Just hard for him to admit.”
“What’s that?”
“Amy.” Bill’s gaze drifted to his son. “My daughter. Nine years old when she died. Leukemia. Clay took it hard. We all did. But he was her protector and when she passed…”
“Right.” Joe looked from Clayton to Kate. Clayton felt he’d failed his sister. Yeah. Joe could wrap his brain around that feeling.
“Clay was fourteen. He couldn’t accept there was nothing he could’ve done to save her. Four years later, Kate gave him another chance.”
Bill snorted at his memories. “Lord, she was a sight. Thin as a string bean, with them wide green eyes. All alone in the middle of a big-city bus station. Was fate we were there that day. Been to that station maybe ten times my whole life.”
“That right?” Joe narrowed his eyes on Clayton, shifted the information in his head. He saw it. The way Clayton looked at Kate. Love, for sure, but beneath it—something else. It wasn’t jealousy he’d read in his tone and manners—it was bridled fear.
“If it hadn’t been for Amy, things might’ve been different between them,” Bill said. “But what they needed from each other was deeper than anything physical.”
Joe turned back to Bill, caught the stone-cold look in his eyes. “My boy’s not a threat to you, Garity. But you take that little filly away from us and you’ll kill’im sure as shootin’ him. They’re family. We all are. I’d be obliged if you kept that in mind down the road.”
“I can do that.”
“Hey, Joe. Ya gonna play?” Tony yelled from the center of the arena. He sat atop Coco’s bare back, the bay mare’s party hat protruding from the side of her head.
Joe looked back to Kate and Clayton and the seven or eight friends who were left surrounding her. “What’re you playin’?”
“Dollar bareback first, before the horses get sweaty and the fake dollars stick to them.”
“Go. She’ll be fine,” Bill said, obviously following Joe’s gaze. “My boy won’t let her so much as stub her toe. Besides, she’ll probably be out there in a minute anyway. Where you go, she follows.”
Joe glanced over his shoulder at Bill. “Yeah?”
Bill closed his eyes to nod, then smiled. “Yeah.”
A quick breath of a laugh huffed out of Joe before he could stop it and he returned Bill’s nod with a smiling one of his own. After one last glance to Kate, he turned and started toward Sunshine, the last horse left tied at the far end of the arena. “I’ll play, kid. But I’m takin’ that hat off. Looks like she’s tryin’ too hard.”
Damn, he was happy.
“You know these games drive him crazy?” Kate leaned her shoulder against Ginny’s, squinting against the bright afternoon sun as they watched the activities in the outdoor ring.
“I know. He throws a fit every time he drops the egg.” Ginny lowered her voice to do her best Joe impression. “Not everything’s meant to be done on horseback, people.”
The two women laughed but stopped when the ring rail they sat on wobbled. Kate looked to see Eddy leaning his forearms against it beside her.
“He just doesn’t get it.” Eddy brushed Kate’s knee with his knuckles. His eyes, big and round behind his glasses, swung up to hers. “Not a horse lover like us.”
Kate’s body stiffened despite herself. She didn’t want to hurt Eddy’s feelings. He was fragile that way. But something about him today, about the way he looked at her, spoke to her, touched her, made her flesh squirm.
She caught herself in the reflex action and forced her muscles to relax. “Actually, I think he’s doing amazingly well. Two weeks ago he would’ve never sat bareback on a horse playing egg toss.”
Eddy sneered at Joe. “More like egg drop. He sucks.”
Ginny leaned forward, peering around Kate. “Least he looks good doing it.”
“Looks like an idiot to me.”
“Hey, Eddy, you’ve got something right there…” Ginny pointed to the corner of her mouth with her middle finger. “Oh, wait. That’s jealousy. Never mind.”
“Go bleach your mustache.”
“Shut up, ya bug-eyed freak.”
“Stuck up—”
“Enough.” Kate threw up her hands, palms out like walls on either side of her. “Geez, you two are worse than the kids.”
Eddy pursed his lips so tight the skin turned white around the edges. He swung his gaze back to the riders at the center of the ring, his angry breaths hissing through his nose. Ginny giggled.
Kate closed her mind to it. She wouldn’t waste a second of her birthday on Eddy and Ginny’s daily feud. Both were convinced the other was stuck in old high school stereotypes, the geek and the cheerleader. Kate couldn’t care less. Not today. Not on her best birthday ever.
“Throw it underhand, kid. I’ll catch it,” Joe said.
Nisha swung her head back and forth, her stiff black braids brushing her shoulders. “Nu-uh. You’re gonna miss, then start talkin’ all crazy ’bout glue factories and dog food. Your face will turn red and that icky vein ’long side your neck’ll swell up n’start thumpin’.”
The little girl’s detailed description had Joe rolling his head on his neck, relieving the growing tension knots no doubt. Kate didn’t worry for a second.
“Throw. The egg.” Joe was a storm cloud of passion and a mountain of control. Definitely no Mr. Rogers, but he had a heart as big as the moon and the hidden soul of a child.
Nisha tossed the egg. Joe caught it. Everyone exhaled.
A warm shudder tickled across Kate’s shoulders. He was hers. He’d told everyone. And she was his. Gawd, could this day get any better? She’d remember it forever.
Kate’s cheeks ached from her wide grin and she couldn’t stop her thumb flicking the big academy ring around and around her finger. It was really there. Life was good.
“Kate?”
She dropped her gaze to Eddy, still feeling lost in a dreamy fog. “Huh?”
“I, ah, wanna give you your birthday gift.”
“Oh, Eddy, you didn’t have to—”
“Yes, I did.”
His abruptness snapped her mouth shut. “Oh. Well. Okay.”
He looked around. Besides Ginny next to her and the twelve campers, including Joe, playing egg toss in the ring, the grounds were alive with people. Clayton and Bill stood at the far end of the ring, closer to the main house side, deep in conversation.
Counselors and campers gathered in small groups talking and more mulled around in and out of the indoor arena and barns.
Eddy tossed his head to gesture toward the stables behind them. “C’mon. I can’t give it to you out here.”
The hair at the back of Kate’s neck bristled. “Why not?”
“It’s personal.”
“No one’s paying any attention,” Kate said. “Here’s fine.”
Eddy glowered at Ginny beside her then looked back to Kate, barely tempering his noxious expression. “You afraid to be alone with me or something?”
Goose bumps washed over her body, icy fingers scraped down her spine. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings but something wasn’t right. “Of course not. I just… I told Joe I’d watch him play egg toss.”
Eddy looked to the center of the ring, shoved his finger into the bridge of his glasses. “’Cause he’s your boyfriend.”
“That’s right.”
Eddy�
��s eyes narrowed to slits. His jaw clenched so tight she could see the muscles working beneath his scarred cheeks. He snorted without an ounce of humor. “He won’t even notice you’re gone.”
“I’m sure he will. Besides, it would be rude not to tell him.”
His gaze flicked to hers, a calculating sharpness glinting in their depths the likes of which she’d never seen in Eddy before. He tipped his chin toward Ginny. “She can tell him.”
“I don’t—”
He took her hand and Kate’s stomach lurched, stopping her protest. “C’mon, Kate. It’ll only take a minute. I left it in your office.”
“You’re a pain in the ass, Eddy.” Ginny sighed and looked to Kate. “Don’t worry. If Joe asks I’ll tell him your charity case needed some private hand holding.”
“See?” Eddy said. The vacant smile he gave Kate made her skin tingle like ice crystals forming, but she wasn’t sure why. She knew Eddy, trusted him, but something wasn’t right. He tugged her hand.
She swiveled her legs to the other side of the railing and climbed down. She glanced at Joe, tossing the egg back to Nisha, then to Clayton talking to Bill. She turned and noticed the familiar faces talking and laughing at the opening to the indoor arena as Eddy led her to the stables. No one stopped them. No one raised an eye. She was the only one who felt it.
Inside the stables the long aisle seemed dark despite the run of fluorescent lights down the center of the ceiling. It was such a bright sunny day, warm and happy, but Kate’s blood ran cold.
“You okay?” Eddy said. “You look pale.”
He asked with the same innocent sweetness he always did and Kate questioned her gut reaction. This stalker business combined with the riot of emotions Joe sent running rampant through her head had her whirling on the razor edge of sanity and paranoid madness.
She laughed at herself and shook off the frost of apprehension still chilling over her nerves.
“I’m fine. There’s just been some, stuff, going on.” Kate stepped into her office, Eddy close behind.
He closed the door. “The stalker?”
She turned to face him, her desk beside her. “How’d you know about that?”
Bill and Clayton had informed the farm’s regular staff about her secret admirer, but the counselors were left purposely uninformed since most were new and potential suspects. But naturally, Kate figured, people talked.
Eddy shrugged, fingering his backpack he’d left on the guest chair in front of her desk. “Didn’t know much for sure ’til after the fire. Heard the firemen and Joe talking to the cops. Why are you calling him a stalker?”
“Well…”
Eddy’s magnified eyes swung up to hers, expectant. Kate’s nerves shuddered like ants marching cold little feet all over her body.
She swallowed. “It’s kind of complicated.”
“No it’s not. He’s been nothing but nice to you, hasn’t he?”
“Nice?”
“Yeah.” Some of Eddy’s sweet innocence melted away with his rising agitation. “He sent you roses, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but—”
“And he writes you poems. He’s taken beautiful photographs of you. Like works of art.”
“Art?” she said. “Eddy, they weren’t works of art. They were—”
“Yes, they were. All the greats painted nudes. Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, their stuff is art. Just ’cause these were photos instead of paintings—”
“Eddy.” Kate’s fingers gripped the edge of the desk. “How did you know I was naked in some of the photos?”
Eddy’s mouth snapped shut. He stiffened. “I…I changed my mind. I don’t want to give you your present here. Let’s go somewhere else. Somewhere special, more private.”
“No, Eddy. Answer my question.”
“It has to be right,” he said as though he hadn’t heard her. “It has to perfect. C’mon.”
He grabbed his backpack and swung it over one shoulder, then turned for the door. When she didn’t follow he looked back to her.
Kate’s stomach clogged her throat. She couldn’t swallow, could hardly breath. Her chest was tight and her palms were cold and clammy. Gawd, how could she have been so stupid?
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said.
Eddy sighed and walked back to the desk. He set his backpack next to her hand white-knuckling the edge. His attention dropped to the finger on which Joe had placed his ring.
“That thing’s fuckin’ ugly.” His voice was so cold and heartless she barely recognized it as Eddy’s. “Who gives a woman a man’s ring? Doesn’t even have a diamond. Everybody knows women love diamonds.”
“What do you want?” She fought to keep her voice from shaking.
It didn’t seem like he’d heard. “If he really loved you, really knew you, he’d have gotten you a ring that fit. One with a diamond.”
“Joe will be looking for me. I have to get back out to the ring.”
“No he won’t.” Eddy locked gazes with her, radiating confidence. “Ginny’s gonna tell him you’re with me. The bitch thinks I’m a sniveling, four-eyed dweeb. She won’t let Joe worry.”
Kate’s heart hammered in her ears. “Should he worry?”
He shrugged, smiling devilishly. “Depends. He thinks you’re his. Are you?”
She didn’t want to answer that. Wasn’t sure it’d be wise. “Eddy, are you the one who’s been leaving those letters and photos for me?”
His smile broadened, his attention dropping to his backpack as though hearing only what he wanted, responding as he chose. He unzipped the largest section. “Okay, okay. I’ll give you half your present now, but you’ll have to wait ’til we get to our special place for the rest.”
Eddy pulled out an eight-by-ten frame, stared at it for a second, smiling, then handed it to Kate. When she reached for it, she noticed her hands were shaking. She couldn’t make them stop. She grabbed the picture.
“Wrote the poem myself,” he said.
Kate stared at the image of her standing on the shore of the river near the bum slide and waterfall. Joe was far off to her right, watching her. At least she assumed he was watching her. It was hard to tell after Eddy had scratched a hole through the photo where his face should’ve been.
All the faces were scratched out, the children sliding through the fast current, the counselors wading in the swimming hole below. Even the smaller faces of people on the opposite shore had been picked away leaving an ugly jagged hole at the top of their necks.
“Well? What’d you think?”
Bile shot up the back of her throat. Kate’s body lurched. Her hand flew to her lips. She caught the edge of throw-up in her mouth and swallowed. “Oh, God.”
“Read it,” Eddy said, oblivious to her sickened response.
Kate’s gaze dropped to the lined paper pressed behind glass under the photo. “My love for you will never die, lest for another your heart does cry. From this world into the next, my soul is yours until we rest. Should the world turn you ’round, and your heart become unbound. ’Til our dying breaths I’ll fight, to steal you back and make things right.”
Kate looked to Eddy. His proud grin pinched his shiny cheeks, his long mop-water bangs twitching behind his glasses with his blinks. “Pretty good, huh? And I mean every word. We’re gonna be so great together.”
“Eddy, I—”
“No. Wait.” He held out a hand to stop her. “I know. I’m getting ahead of myself. I want everything to be perfect. It has to be perfect.”
He grabbed the strap of his backpack and tipped his head toward the door. “C’mon. Let’s get out of here before that idiot cop comes and interrupts us.”
Kate dropped the framed photo on the desk, shaking her head, though she didn’t connect the motions with conscious thought. “No. I can’t leave with you. I won’t.”
Everything she’d ever heard about kidnappings and murders started with the victim allowing the attacker to lead her away. She would not make that mi
stake. If he was going to hurt her, he’d have to do it here where someone would find her quickly or happen by to help her. No. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“Aw, Kate. C’mon,” Eddy whined. “It’s gonna be really great. Promise. I have a gift for you. But I can’t give it to you unless we’re at our special place.” His voice was straining, growing louder. “Everything has to be perfect. Just like I planned it. You have to come, Kate. You have to.”
“No.”
Eddy’s exhale huffed out of him. His shoulders slouched. “Fine. I didn’t want to do this, but sometimes tough love’s the only way. All the songs say it. Love hurts. Right?”
He reached into his backpack and pulled out a gun. “And I do love you, Kate.”
The weapon was silver, thick metal and utterly indistinguishable from any she’d seen on hundreds of TV shows. The only thing Kate knew about guns was they could kill people. That’s all she’d ever wanted to know.
She sucked a breath, shored her courage and prayed to God he was bluffing. “If you’re going to kill me, you’ll have to do it here. I’m not leaving with you.”
“Wha? No. This isn’t for you…yet.” He looked at the gun in his hand. He wasn’t pointing it at anything, but she felt the threat just the same. “You have no idea how much I get you, Kate. How well I understand you. I knew I couldn’t wave a gun and force you to come with me.”
“Then what’re you going to do?” Her voice cracked at the end. Kate cleared her throat though she doubted it did any good.
Eddy shook his head staring at the gun. “It has to be perfect. It has to be at our special place. I’m sorry, Kate, I know how much you care about these kids. So do I. We have so much in common. But if you won’t come with me… It has to be at our special place.”
He looked at her, eyes big as quarters behind his glasses. He shrugged, then turned and went to open the door. When he stuck his head out Kate couldn’t tell what or who he saw down the aisle.
“Hey, Lucy,” he said. “Lucy. Lucy. Hey, c’mere. I wanna show you something.”
Kate shot to his side, grabbed his arm trying to pull him back into the office. “Eddy, no. You wouldn’t. You’re not going to hurt a child.”