by R. T. Wolfe
The sight took her back to when she was the younger one scared stiff in this déjà vu. The memory gave her strength. Strength and clarity. This time, she would make it right.
"What do you want, Molly?"
"Hmm. What do I want? I want a life," she screamed. "One without you in it."
"What can I do for you now?" She held her arms out, palms down, creeping up the first stair.
"Don't take another step or I swear the next thing you'll see is the brat's head in pieces down your hall!" Her hand shuddered. Her eyes were red with rage. "I want you to listen to me. That's what I want."
"Okay. Okay, Molly. I can do that. See? I'm listening."
* * *
After his morning planning meeting with Detective Tanner, Dave organized his office. His intercom buzzed. It was the receptionist from downstairs.
"A Mr. Brian McKinney to see you, sir."
Great way to start the morning, Dave thought sarcastically. "Send him up."
Professionally, he met him at the top of the stairs. He noted that Brian still had on his work clothes and decided he must have gotten off his shift that morning. Holding a hand out, he nodded at Brian. "McKinney. What can I do for you?"
"I think I need to do one of those... " He looked around. "... missing persons reports or something."
"Why don't you come into my office and tell me who you think is missing." Dave turned and led the way. He shut the door behind the two of them and gestured for Brian to sit in one of the chairs opposite his desk.
"It's my friend, Rob. Robert Brusco," Brian said. "He didn't show up for work. He did this once before a couple years ago. I thought he was just sick, but I looked in his locker and it's empty. I talked to my boss and he never called. So, I went by his house and no one answered. I looked in the windows and, and it's empty. No furniture, no nothing."
"All right. Do you know if he has family in town? Anyone we could call to check up on him?"
"Not in town, no. I think one of the guys at the station might know his mom's name and where she lives, though."
"How about you get me what you have, and I'll do some digging. Sounds like he may have just moved on. There are some forms you can fill out, but we'll need to wait forty-eight hours to file since he's over the age of eighteen. I'll have the receptionist at the front desk get those ready for you."
* * *
Molly's face distorted. "Do you know how many years of my life I've had to listen to 'Brianna's so bright, Brianna's going to make something of herself. Brianna's got such a great eye for men.' You were like the daughter she never had." Molly spit at the floor.
Brie willed herself to stay calm. The smoke detectors pulsed their shrill scream. The dogs hit the windows with their heads. Duncan squeezed his eyes shut and shook violently from sobbing.
"Your mom wasn't fair, Molly. I see that now."
"Don't you talk about my mother! You think you're so smart. Always the one who gets the bright boys, the good guys. I get the cheaters and your leftovers. Why can't they see you for the fat girl who fucking teaches two plus two and how to read Dick and Jane?"
Brie looked Molly straight in the eyes and smiled softly. "You're right. It doesn't take much." She tried to shake her head in shame as she placed her foot on the next step. "Tell me what I can do."
"You can go to hell, that's what you can do. That's what you're going to do. Do you know why my ex and I divorced?"
Brianna cringed at the sight of the barrel of the gun digging furiously into Duncan's temple. "I don't know, Molly. I want to know, but can you release Duncan first? Then, you'll have me all to yourself. Just you and me. You can tell me about it. Neither of us liked him."
Her eyes loosened and she slowly smiled. "You're wrong. I loved him. I got tired of hearing him call out your name when we were in bed. That's right. I'm the one he married. I'm the one fucking his brains out, and you'rethe name he calls out time after time after time after time."
Brie shook her head fast and pleading at Duncan. She could tell he was about to snap. The tears poured down his face and his gasps for air came in hitches.
"I worked on Brian for years. He finally gave up on you and once again, I got your leftovers. I'm sure you just happen to miss the fact that he and I had started seeing each other before you finally decided to accept his offer. He could hardly spare me two minutes to explain. He couldn't wait to get in your crotch.
"Now you have two choices. You can either get up here and open this frigging door... " She held Duncan by the hair, gesturing toward the smoldering bedroom door using his head with one hand and the gun to his skull with the other. "... or I can let you watch while I have the brat do it. Either way, today you burn."
"Noooo!" Duncan exploded and pushed backward against Molly, knocking her into the wall behind them. The gun fell down the hall, and they both dropped from the impact.
Brie flew up the stairs.
The gun. The gun, she feared. Duncan scrambled on his hands and knees toward it before claws clamped on his ankle and dragged him back. He kicked furiously as he slid. He used the heel from his free leg to dig into her fingers.
She wailed and let go only to grab hold with her other hand.
"I'll kill you, you little shit. I'll kill the both of you."
Brie landed on Molly's boney body, swinging madly. "Run, Duncan! Go," she screamed as she punched and kicked anything and everything.
He crawled to the gun first and then ran past the two of them. Fists wailed and legs kicked. At the bottom of the stairs, Nathan tore through the front door, tossing his keys aside. He looked to Brie, to Duncan, then yanked the gun and Duncan away to the front yard before plunging back through the open door.
"It's going to blow!" Brie warned as she and Molly tumbled down the long line of stairs.
Nathan caught her near the bottom, shielding her as he carried her outside.
Molly stood up and scrambled for the door, screaming, "No!" when the explosion hit.
* * *
They stood outside watching the firemen douse the flames. Nathan rested a hand on Brie's back as she felt a sense of closure she didn't know was missing. Her hand sat on the back of Duncan's head as he wrapped his arms and legs around her, clinging like a small child. He was silent as he fisted the back of her shirt with both of his hands and laid his head on her shoulder. She rocked and swayed with him and rubbed the back of his head, whispering reassurances in his ear.
"You saved us, honey. You saved our lives."
Andy wrapped an arm around Nathan's leg with Rose on the other side of him. She reached for him and they stood holding hands together, watching the fire with Amanda on the other side of them.
Memories flipped through Brie's mind. She never knew. Molly was right, she was dumb. They watched as the EMTs finished prepping the burn across the side of Molly's head and then wheeled her into the ambulance. It passed Dave's unmarked car on the way down the cul-de-sac.
Lucy was with Dave. She stepped out slowly as Dave hustled to Amanda and Rose. Duncan slipped from Brie's embrace and locked his arms around her waist. Lucy's eyes met Brie's as she walked toward her. She was overcome with emotion for her favorite lifelong neighbor and had no idea what her reaction to this could possibly be.
Lucy stood with her arms straight at her sides in front of her. "I'm so very sorry."
Brie felt her heart sink out of her chest. "Me, too." They hugged there on the sidewalk. "The ambulance just left. She's going to be all right, Lucy. You could catch up to her."
Clifford stepped next to Lucy.
"I will, honey. Thank you." And they walked numbly to Clifford's car.
Brie felt like a pro at the routine. She, Nathan and Duncan answered the same questions over and over again as they watched the flames burn out, then smolder. Next came the black shine from the moisture. Nathan convinced the authorities to let them have peace for the rest of the day and finish the paperwork the next afternoon. They walked to Nathan's house, to home and tucked in for the evening
. As a family.
Andy slept in Duncan's bed for the first time in weeks. It was Duncan's idea. Nathan knew it would be a long time before Duncan could get past this and was already planning options in his head as how to help him through it.
"Are you seriously going to sleep in here?" Nathan stood in the doorway of the guestroom.
"I thought I was done in here, but tonight it's for a good reason."
"You seem okay with this. You've already rebuilt that house once."
"I'm actually more okay than I can ever remember. I have some ideas for the house, and I'm not sleeping with you in the same house as the boys until we're married."
He sat next to her and pulled her on his lap. "Married. I like the sound of that."
This time, she welcomed the dream. She crossed her legs up on the seat in the back of the yellow cab. When she passed Molly, the blonde had that same unhinged look she had at the top of her stairs. So sad, she remembered. She felt a pang that she couldn't see the man she was with, but turned her head quickly to her parents' home.
It was sunny and the dianthus were blooming. She ran in without paying the imaginary cab driver. As soon as she walked through the unlocked door, the sound of the smoke detectors stopped. The house looked the same, but different. She could see the back of her sage couch from this angle and the kitchen table where Liz and Nathan sat. Macey came from around the mudroom wagging her tail in her happy dance.
Her parents stood at the top of the stairs with their arms around each other. Tears of joy fell freely around Brie's cheeks as they nodded their heads warmly to her in silent understanding. She watched comfortably as they became translucent and then vanished altogether.
Brie woke in Nathan's guestroom. Their guestroom. She closed her eyes and smiled before whispering goodbye into her pillow.
Epilogue
The house was lit to match the thousands of tiny white lights that twined the trees along the freshly plowed asphalt drive. Each massive beam on the enormous wraparound porch was circled with dozens of lights. The low-lying junipers in front also were covered making them look like dazzling icebergs floating in a sea of freshly fallen white. Greenery tastefully wrapped around the horizontal rails with a spotlight on the eight-foot wreath adorning the angle of the roof over the garage.
Cars lined the drive and formed a makeshift parking lot along the west side of the Reed home. They'd hired a temporary valet service and limousines dropped off and parked down the street. The garage was closed off to the public, but heated for the evening's help and used as both a coat-check room and an area to prepare food and drink.
Brie had wanted to limit the holiday décor to the outside, leaving Nathan's work exposed for viewing. He talked her into a few tasteful arrangements and thin greenery wrapping the stairs. Red candles were scattered throughout, and she had a glimpse of what he meant when he said he wanted to avoid turning their house into a museum. Just for tonight, she thought, although she could still imagine the dogs tearing through the foyer with the boys on their heels by midmorning the next day.
They were across the creek for the night. Her older nieces and nephews had agreed to make the drive just to babysit, even though they would be back in a few weeks for the annual New Year's Eve gathering.
Her brothers were like kids in a candy store. They stood under the beamed, wooden arched entranceway to the dining room. The two of them walked through the house with their wives like they were walking through that museum.
To the other side of the foyer were spectacular wall-to-wall, built-in bookcases in what was finally a library off the bottom of the stairs. Visitors drank champagne from rented crystal flutes as they browsed that room, commenting on Nathan's mahogany desk and the copper sconces at the entrance.
Liz, Tim, Amanda and Dave stood at the landing up the stairs. Liz wore flats under her tea-length dress, which was smart since she looked like she was about to give birth at any moment. Brie watched her flirt with her husband as she inadvertently placed her hand under her enormous belly.
As aimlessly as she may have appeared to her guests, Brie was itching to find Nathan as she mingled her way to the back of the house. She wanted so badly for him to feel the evening was successful.
She glanced out the back kitchen window. The dogs were playing in Liz's backyard. Beside Liz's house. Brie warmed each time she thought of her sister as her new over-the-creek-neighbor. Her parents would be so proud they'd kept the house in the family. Liz would be the official hostess of the New Year's Eve gathering this year.
* * *
Nathan watched her through the crowd. Brie looked beautiful in her flowing silk ivory gown that reached to just above the heels she wasn't supposed to be wearing. He had reminded her not to wear them tonight. A corner of his mouth lifted as he decided it was likely the reason she did. Her hair was bundled in an intricately laced and braided mass with curled strands falling around her bare neck. The spaghetti straps lay flat against the delicate muscles in her shoulders.
On his way to her, he passed Lucy, Sylvester and Mackenzie as they sat chatting in the family room. Brie had been embarrassed that they used her sage couch and loveseat for that room thinking her furniture didn't quite fit with the evening. He was relieved that Lucy would have Clifford to help her get through Molly's sentencing. She was looking at thirty to sixty years.
She had mingled with the crowd over the subtle sound of the quartet that played below the arch of the stairs. He wondered if anyone noticed the painting of Niagara Falls, courtesy of an eight-year-old boy, lit up behind the small orchestra. He was pleased with the floor-to-stairs wainscoting with burled walnut panels.
Walking up behind Brie, he kissed a bare spot just under her ear. "You look ravishing, Mrs. Reed." He traveled his arms around her protruding sides and rested them on the round tummy that carried their child.
Brie shivered as he raised her arm and moved his lips to her fingertips. He wondered if the thrill of the feel of her would ever ebb. She turned and adjusted the crooked tie that lay underneath his charcoal black tux.
"You look as comfortable and casual as you would in your faded jeans and work boots. You haven't sweat a drop all night," she said accusingly.
He shrugged a shoulder. "Come. I want you to meet the governor of South Carolina. He's a great guy, you'll like him. And, oh... he is a Panthers' fan."
She tucked an arm at his side as they headed toward the front. "Not something a girl hears every day."
The End
Want more from R.T. Wolfe?
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FLYING IN SHADOWS
The Back Creek Series
Book Two
Excerpt from
Flying in Shadows
The Black Creek Series
Book Two
by
R.T. Wolfe
Walking in the dark, Andy readjusted his tackle box. Moonlight shone on the dark ripples creeping down Black Creek. He spotted a raccoon as he crossed the bridge. Startled, the animal hissed at him. Andy stomped his foot and hissed back; he was in no mood for it.
In his peripheral vision, he saw movement. Larger movement. A man? The shape disappeared as quickly as Andy imagined it. When you let yourself get this worked up, you start seeing things, he chided himself.
He needed Rose.
She would calm him down and lighten his mood, help him feel normal again. He looked at his watch and winced. What were friends for if you couldn't count on them to be there? Even at this time of night. Or morning.
* * *
Rose slept soundly in her twin bed dreaming of her favorite spot at the zoo. In the small rain forest building, she allowed a newly emerged monarch butterfly to dry its wings on her apron while sharing facts about the insect to one of two visiting young boys. The other threw pebbles into the nearby wishing pond. The sound of the small rocks plunked as they hit the stone wall before dropping into the water.
Oh, crap. She woke and sat up straight. The plunking noise came fr
om outside, not in her head.
Heart in her throat, she ripped off her blankets and hustled across the hard floor to the window. It was still pitch-black out.
Grabbing the flashlight she always kept on the windowsill, Rose paused for moment. It had to be Andy, but...
She found a familiar shadowed form with the beam, then hissed loudly. "Andy! I thought you didn't get home until tomorrow."
"It is tomorrow." He held up fishing poles and tackle box.
"It's not tomorrow until the sun comes up." Tugging on a pair of jeans, Rose smiled wildly to herself. This reaction she had to Andy Reed had to stop. It was not healthy.
"I've got the worms." he called. "Get down here."
Flying in Shadows
The Black Creek Series
Book Two
by
R.T. Wolfe
~
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Flying in Shadows
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Its not uncommon to find dark chocolate squares in R.T.'s candy dish, her Golden Retriever at her feet and a few caterpillars spinning their cocoons in the terrariums on her counters. When R.T. isn't writing, she loves spending time with her family, gardening, eagle-watching and can occasionally be found viewing a flyover of migrating whooping cranes.
R.T. enjoys hearing from readers. You can contact R.T. through her website: www.rtwolfe.com