“No,” Worthy said, his voice low.
I looked at him, my throat and chest tight and hard. He was pale and there were tears in his eyes. “I killed him,” I said. “I grabbed a hunting knife from the floor, and I killed him.”
“No,” Leon said, his voice a wet rumble. “No, baby girl. I killed him. When I dropped Arle off at the hotel, he was drunk and stoned and I figured he’d just sleep it off. When I didn’t find Betty at her house, I figured she was with you. Normally, I would have gone on home, but all of Arle’s talk about revenge had gotten to me. I just had a bad feeling.
“I got over to your place as fast as I could and I saw my best friend on top of you with a…a gun to your head, and I saw you stick him with that knife. But you were only eight, baby girl, that knife didn’t go in more’n an inch, and Arle, he was about to pull that trigger. Sticking that knife in probably only gave him further justification for his drug-addled revenge. He was going to pull that trigger, Remington, but I hadn’t come without a gun. I shot him, baby girl. I killed him.”
Leon swiped at his eyes. “I killed my best friend. When his body went limp on top of yours, Remington, you didn’t scream or cry. You just stared straight ahead and didn’t speak. I took you out of there. I took you to Betty at the hospital where she worked. She saw you and she asked me to get you the hell away from your daddy, to take you somewhere he’d never find you. So I did, sugar. I brought you here, to the old family place, and I kept you hidden and safe. Maybe I was wrong, but I wanted you to have a normal childhood. I wanted you to forget all the bad you’d seen.”
I nodded, trying to take it all in, and not quite sure, yet, what I felt about all of it. I was relieved that I hadn’t been the one to kill Arle, but Leon’s pain at the memory of killing his best friend felt as real as my own. “I’m sorry, Uncle Leon. I’m sorry you had to kill your best friend.”
Tears glistened in his eyes. “Me, too, Remington, but I was never sorry that I got to raise you as one of my own.” He cleared his throat. “Why don’t you two go for a walk? Remington can show you the most beautiful sights you’re likely ever to see, Worthy.”
Worthy looked shaken and pale, but he stood and forced a smile. I wondered what he thought of me now that the whole truth was out. “That sounds great.”
Uncle Leon stood and stepped around the table. He patted Worthy on the back. “Son, why don’t you wait for Remington on the porch? I need to speak with her for a moment.”
Worthy left the kitchen without a word and we listened to his footsteps as he moved back through the house and out onto the porch. “Thank you,” I said. “I don’t remember everything, but I remember enough to be grateful to you for taking me out of a horrible situation and giving me a happy life here. Thank you for giving up your own life for me.” Tears choked me as I spoke those words, and I met Leon’s eyes to see tears glistening there, too.
“I didn’t give up anything, baby girl. You and the boys, you are my life. I never once regretted the choice I made.”
I cleared my throat. “But Byron said you were planning to marry Betty. You—”
Leon waved away my words. “She’s coming to see me next week, you know.”
“But you…Wait, what?” Hard to believe, but those words shocked me more than anything else he’d said. “You’ve kept in touch with her?”
He smiled, and nodded. “She wanted to know how you were doing. In the beginning, you…well, you didn’t say a word for the first two months we were here. You had those nightmares that woke you screaming, but you didn’t say a word. Betty was a nurse and she gave me all kinds of advice on how to help you, but none of it worked. It was Byron, who got you to talk, finally.”
“Byron?”
“He claims he was just looking for someone else for his brothers to pick on and give him a break, but he worried over you something terrible. He got you to talk, finally, by saying that Jean Grey would lose in a fight against Cyclops. You got so angry, you finally spoke. Called him an idiot.”
“He is an idiot,” I said, my heart warming at the thought of my big, tough cousin baiting me to talk. “I’d forgotten how into comic books and superheroes I used to be.”
“Yeah, I wanted to take them from you, because they were so violent. I worried they’d remind you of life with your daddy and everything that happened. Byron insisted I let you keep them and that I buy you more.”
“I’ll have to thank him for that. I loved those comics.”
Leon laughed. “Don’t thank him unless you want him meddling in your life more than he already does.”
I gasped. “I thought he was meddling because you told him to.”
“I told him to keep an eye on you, not to threaten your dates. I worried about you being out there after so many years of keeping you in here, but I know you need to live your life.”
I nodded, feeling overwhelmed with gratitude. “You let me leave because you knew my father was in jail.”
“That’s right. Betty let me know he’d been arrested. He did try to find you, but he was…I think on some level he knew you were better off without him. Still, I didn’t want to make it too easy for him. Once I knew he was in jail, I figured you’d be safe to live your life without him trying to drag you back into his.”
“I wouldn’t have let that happen,” I said. “I’ve been an adult for almost three years.”
Leon gave me a sad smile. “I probably should have let you go sooner, but I worried. I’ve kept you so sheltered here.”
I couldn’t stand it anymore, I wrapped my arms around Leon and hugged him tight. He squeezed me back so hard, I could hardly breathe. “Thank you,” I said. “You did everything right.”
He hugged me for a moment longer before he set me on my feet and looked into my eyes. “You don’t need to thank me, baby girl. I’m grateful to you for being a part of my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” He wiped a tear from my cheek. “Why don’t you tell me about that friend of yours who’s waiting outside?”
“I’m not sure what he must think of me. I’m not sure what I think of myself, or who I am anymore.”
Leon pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You are Remington. You’re a girl who grew up in the mountains of West Virginia surrounded by a man and four boys. You’re smart and capable and level-headed, and you’re free to experience everything, there’s nothing holding you back now. Don’t let fear become your new prison.”
“I’m not afraid of anything,” I said, sticking my chin out and narrowing my eyes at Uncle Leon.
He patted my shoulder. “Everyone’s afraid of something sometime, Remington. It’s no weakness to admit to that. Sometimes, girl, you’re too stubborn for your own good.”
“I’m not stubborn, I’m right.”
Uncle Leon chuckled. “And what about that boy you brought, is he or ain’t he your boyfriend?”
I deflated. “He’s keeping secrets from me. He disappeared for eight days without a call or a text and he won’t tell me why. I can’t trust him.”
Leon ground his back teeth. “You say you can’t trust him, yet you’re here with him. You’ve only known the boy a couple of months. Give him time, and I bet he’ll open up to you.”
“So what do I do right now?”
Leon groaned. “This is the real reason I homeschooled you, baby girl. So I’d never have to give you dating advice.”
I batted my eyelashes and he relented.
“Do you still want to be with him?”
I thought about what my uncle was asking and I let myself feel the truth. I liked Worthy and I wasn’t accustomed to giving up easily. “Yeah, I do still want to be with him.”
Leon scratched his chin. “Well, I know this will be hard for you, but just for right now don’t do anything. Pretend he never disappeared and give him a chance to earn your trust and for you to earn his. He’ll open up to you when he’s ready. And if he’s never ready, sugar, let him go. Move on. Don’t waste your life chasing someone who doesn’t want to be caught.”<
br />
“Okay, Uncle Leon.” I didn’t know much about Leon’s first wife, my cousins’ mother, but I knew she’d been unhappy with her life and had left them all when Byron was just a baby. Uncle Leon told me once that she loved poetry so much, real life just could never measure up. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“If it goes bad,” Leon said, as I started out of the kitchen. “I can always drive you back to school.” He cleared his throat. “And, Remington, send that boy on back. I’d like a quick word with him.”
“What? Why?”
Uncle Leon rolled his eyes. “Why do you always need to know the answer to every darn thing, baby girl? Maybe I just want to find out what his intentions are.”
“Fine.”
Worthy was sitting on the top porch step. He didn’t move when the door closed behind me, he just stared out at the forest like it was all he could see. I hauled myself up onto the porch railing and stared out at the forest. I watched the birds flitting from branch to branch and the squirrels scurrying up and down the trees as though they were part of some game only they knew the rules for.
“So, do you still want to spend time with me and my uncle after you’ve heard about our criminal pasts? Or do you want to head back? Uncle Leon said he’d drive me back later, if you want to go now.”
“I’m not in any hurry to leave.”
“Good, because Uncle Leon wants to talk to you.”
Worthy finally looked at me, his eyes wide, but he swallowed and recovered quickly. He got to his feet and went back into the house without a word. He returned less than ten minutes later, looking a bit shell-shocked and not meeting my eyes.
“Everything okay?”
“How about you show me that secret place of yours?” Worthy said, still not looking at me.
I had several, but I was pretty sure I knew which one he’d like the best. I stood and headed around to the back of the house, and he followed without a word. Leon worked too long and hard to go on many hikes, so the path I’d kept cleared when I’d lived at home was a bit clogged in places by fallen twigs and branches. I’d have to ask Leon, but it looked like we’d had a pretty bad storm.
It felt better than I could put into words to be back there, my feet on that trail, moving toward one of my favorite places. I set a fast, hard pace, especially as we climbed up, the trail getting steeper. I hadn’t bothered with carving switchbacks through the forest. This trail was for when I wanted a hard workout, for when I didn’t want to think. Worthy didn’t complain, but I did hear his breathing get heavier as he kept pace right behind me. I didn’t know about him, but a good heart-pounding, sweat-inducing hike was just what I needed to push away the darkness Leon had conjured.
When we reached our destination, Worthy whistled. Before us was a flat wall of rock, rising from the forest floor to the height of a two-story building and the width of half a football field. “Your own climbing wall,” he said. “Pretty nice.”
I nodded, suddenly nervous. “I always climb this free-hand,” I said. “Or I have since I was fifteen. I’m used to it, though. I can run back to the house for mats and ropes if you want.”
Worthy grinned and shook his head. “No, I’m good. This is perfect.”
So we climbed. Then we hiked back down to the bottom of the rock face and we climbed again. A few times, I pointed out routes or holds to Worthy, but for the most part, we climbed in silence. We climbed the wall until I lost count and my arms and legs were shaking. My stomach growling was really the clincher, though. “I’m done,” I said. “Let’s head back for lunch.”
Worthy had just met me at the bottom of the rock wall, and he looked a bit possessed, like he was in a zone where he just wanted to keep climbing. It took him a minute to focus on me, but when he finally did, he nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
As we walked down the trail, Worthy’s step seemed lighter. He reached over and took my hand. “Thank you for bringing me here,” he said. “It’s like you knew exactly what I needed.”
I squeezed his fingers and enjoyed the beautiful day and the warmth of the beautiful man next to me, who was still next to me, even though my name wasn’t my own and my father was a criminal. I pushed those thoughts away, because I still wasn’t sure how I felt about them, and I just wanted to enjoy the moment, enjoy Worthy, without wondering about the past or the future.
I glanced at Worthy, and he must have seen something in my expression, because he stopped and turned to face me. “Are you okay with all of this?” he asked.
“I’m getting there,” I said, surprised at his concern. “Are you okay with it?”
He took my other hand and rubbed his thumbs over the pulse points on my wrists. “I want you to know that none of this changes the way I feel about you. I still want to be with you. I still can’t think of any place I’d rather be than by your side.” He let go of one of my hands to cup my cheek and I leaned into his touch. “If you’ll have me.”
“I’m willing to try,” I said. “I don’t need to know why you disappeared, but you have to promise you won’t do it again, that you’ll send me a quick message to let me know you have family stuff to deal with and will be out of touch for a few days.”
Worthy nodded, but he had that faraway look in his eyes, like he wasn’t really listening. It was the third time I’d seen that look in his eyes that day, and it was starting to worry me. So, I stood on my tiptoes and pushed my lips against his. He froze for a moment, but then he kissed me back, almost desperately. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed me like I was the air he needed to survive.
I got lost in that kiss, until my stomach growled again and we broke apart, laughing. Worthy slid a hand under my shirt, his palm cool against the warm skin of my belly. “I guess we should get you fed,” he said.
I started back down the trail with him and ignored the feeling that nothing was the same as it had been before.
“So,” I asked Leon over lunch. “Will I be able to use this fake birth certificate the rest of my life, or do we have some paperwork issues?” Leon had taken the day off work to spend more time with me and he’d made us macaroni and cheese for lunch.
“It’s not fake,” Leon said. “Betty had your name legally changed. As long as you’re happy with your name, you can keep it.”
“I am happy with my name.”
“I can’t imagine you as a Rachel,” Worthy said.
I couldn’t imagine myself as a Rachel, either, but I couldn’t help wondering who that girl might have become if Uncle Leon hadn’t taken her away.
CHAPTER TEN
Worthy and I rode back to school in a comfortable silence, singing along to the radio when we knew the song. I’d made plans to return to Leon’s over my winter break in a week, to meet my aunt Betty and learn more from her about my dad. Eventually, I figured I’d meet him, but I wasn’t ready to think too much about that.
Worthy pulled up in front of the dorm and got out of the car. He walked around and opened my door, pulling me into his arms when I got out. “How are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m doing okay,” I said. “It’s good to have answers, you know.”
“I’m glad. I’ve got to work tonight, but I want to take you out tomorrow. Can I take you out tomorrow night?”
“I’d like that.”
He gave me a short, sweet kiss and walked me to my door. Then he gave me another kiss and left, walking backwards like he couldn’t take his eyes off me. His look warmed me from head to toes and I considered following him to work like a stalker, just so I could spend more time with him.
Frankie was still up, sitting in her bed, reading, when I walked in. I’d called Byron on the way back to campus and filled him in on what I’d learned. He was surprised, but he swore he was still my cousin no matter what. I wanted to curl up in my bed and go to sleep, but I needed to do some reading for my classes.
“Hi, sugar,” I said.
Frankie blinked at me in the dim light from the lamp on her nightstand. “Remy,” she s
aid. “I didn’t expect you back so soon, how’d everything go?”
I didn’t feel like rehashing everything. “It went really well,” I said. “Are you staying up for a while? Do you mind if I do some reading?”
She opened her mouth, like she wanted to ask me more questions about my trip home, but she closed it and blushed like she was embarrassed to be nosy. She was so cute sometimes, I just wanted to pinch her cheeks. “Sure,” she said. “I was just about to get in the shower, anyway.”
I knew if I sat in my bed, I’d be asleep in less than ten minutes, so I set my books out on my desk, while Frankie gathered a towel and her flip-flops. The room was too dark for me, even with my desk lamp, so I got up and turned on the overhead light. I started to read again, but I had a hard time focusing on biology.
When Frankie stepped back in and closed the door behind her, I remembered she’d had another date that evening. I spun and smiled at her. “How was your date with Duran?” I asked. “Did he take you to the observatory?”
Frankie’s eyes welled and she shook her head. “He forgot. I called him six times and, when I finally reached him, a girl answered his phone.”
I jumped up and pulled her in for a warm hug. Frankie hugged me back and burst into tears.
“Oh,” I said. “Oh, sweetie, it’s okay. I’m sorry.” I hated to see Frankie so sad, but I appreciated the distraction from my own drama.
She sniffed and swallowed hard, forcing the tears down. “I’m sorry I’m so emotional, Remy. It’s just…it’s just been a really tough day. I failed my calculus test and then Duran stood me up for some other girl.”
I needed to get reading done and I needed to get some sleep, but Frankie needed me more. I led her over to her bed and snuggled down on it with her. Then, I reached over my head and banged hard on the wall.
“What?” Bell called out sweetly.
“Get your ass over here,” I shouted through the wall.
“I’m a little busy,” Bell said. I heard a masculine laugh and I gasped. Apparently, Bell had pulled her nose out of a book long enough to meet a guy.
Remington's Tower Page 17