Games of Fire

by Airicka Phoenix

  Sophie didn’t know how to respond to that for several minutes. She stared at the woman, overwhelmed by the fury and sorrow whipping through her. “You think Spencer would cheat on me? Or that he would never love me?”

  Jackie shook her head. “Spencer is crazy about you, Sophie. I’ve seen him with Aimee, but it was nothing like this. When Spencer loves, he loves with everything in him, body, mind … soul! He opens everything up to be broken. I can’t watch him go through that again”

  Sophie gritted her teeth. “You think I’m the one who will cheat on him.”

  “I think you’re young,” was her response. “You can’t possibly know what you want this early in the game.”

  Gingerly, afraid any quick movements may force her to snap, Sophie rose to her feet. She stared down at the woman watching her with pleading eyes and felt a jolt of pity. “I can’t say we’re going to be together forever. I can’t tell you that we’re going to grow up, go to college together, get married and have babies. I want those things. I know I’ll fight for those things. But I have him now and I’m not going anywhere.”

  She headed for the door, wishing she had more anger in her. The only thing she could feel was the weary exhaustion crippling her senses. The ruckus in the background wasn’t helping. She wondered how much longer they were going to go at it before calling it quits. Her throbbing skull wished it was sooner rather than later.

  “Sophie!”

  Her head came up a second too late. She was grabbed and jerked into a familiar chest. Strong arms enclosed her, keeping her there. Sophie sighed, closing her eyes and nuzzling her favorite spot beneath his chin.

  “Why did you take off?” he demanded, gripping her tight.

  “I needed some time to think,” she answered, knowing it wasn’t a good one, but sticking to it. “I’m just so tired of everything, Spencer.”

  She felt him press his face into the hair at the top of her head and inhale. “Me too, baby.” He kissed the spot, then rested his chin there. “Mom?” He drew back an inch, keeping a tight hold on Sophie. “How did you get here?”

  Sophie kept her face buried in his collarbone, not caring what the woman had to say as she let herself be lulled by the steady patter of Spencer’s heart. It was so beautiful, an orchestra of all the very best musicians, all serenading her. She would have happily stayed in that place, in that moment forever. But she was torn away by a crash as pool sticks were tossed recklessly onto the tables. Her entire body jerked in fright and she wondered if she’d dozed off standing up.

  Spencer’s hands rubbed her back in slow easy circles as he spoke quietly to his mother. It took her a moment to realize the low rumbling in his chest was harsh, angry sounds, not the soft hum he normally had. It made her focus on the conversation being had around her.

  “That’s not your choice to make!” Spencer was saying when the world shrieked back to life around her.

  “I’m your mother! It’s my job to take care of you.”

  “Sophie isn’t Aimee. It took me a long time to realize that, too, but she’s different. I told you all this already!”

  “Please see this from my point of view, Spencer!” Jackie urged. “You’re only seventeen! You have your entire life ahead of you.”

  “So why can’t my life include Sophie? We’re not going to get married tomorrow.”

  “I’m not the bad guy here, Spence. I’m trying to protect you. You just ended a horrible relationship. Are you ready for another one so soon?”

  Every muscle surrounding Sophie went rigid. “That was two years ago! I’m moving on, Mom. I can’t … I know Dad hurt you, but I can’t go on thinking every relationship I’m going to have is going to be like it was with Aimee. I care about Sophie. I trust her.”

  It was strange being talked about like she wasn’t there. Maybe she really had fallen asleep and they assumed she still was.

  She shook herself back to reality and dislodged from Spencer. “I should find my parents.”

  “I’ll walk you.”

  She shook her head. “Talk with your mom. I’ll see you back at the room.” She hurried off before Spencer could stop her.

  She wasn’t trying to get away from him, she told herself, but it was hard to think when he was so close, disrupting her concentration. A few minutes of alone time to digest his mother’s words needed to be done with her alone. Were things intense between her and Spencer? Sure. She couldn’t deny that. They’d only just started this dance, even though the fire had been there long before. And they weren’t really any different from any other couple. She was almost sure of it. Wasn’t there always that honeymoon phase where everything was extra hot and wonderful? She sighed. There was no beating this argument. Their age was against them and the only way to change anyone’s mind was if they just rode it out. Eventually their parents would get used to the idea and hopefully back off.

  In the meantime, they had bigger things to worry about, like a homicidal maniac leaving dead animals on doorsteps, breaking windows and setting garages on fire. In her opinion, everyone needed to focus more on that than her relationship with Spencer, as fascinating as it was.

  “Sophie!” She turned just as Spencer jogged up to her, platinum wisps fluttering over his brow. “What did she say to you?”

  Sophie shook her head. “Let’s not go into that, okay? It was probably the same thing she said to you and the same thing my parents said to me.” She took his hand. “I won’t listen if you don’t.”

  A smile crinkled the left corner of his mouth. He brought her knuckles to his lips. “Deal.”

  Behind him, the pool-playing crowd ambled out of the rec. room, stampeding around them like a sweaty herd of cattle. Spencer nudged Sophie out of the way, putting himself between the grunting and grumbling men and her. Sophie watched them shuffle by with a slight interest. The game had clearly not gone well judging from several scowling faces. But it was one face that caught her attention more than the others.

  The man was in his thirties, tall and built like a house. His hair was thick and wavy and glinted with a hint of blue amongst the ebony strands. His square face was flushed, with anger or alcohol, it was hard to tell, but it was the three jagged scars running lengthwise on his face that had all the blood in Sophie’s body rushing to her feet.

  “Spencer … !” Her nails sunk into the taut muscles of his biceps. “I know who it is!”

  There was a whole science behind telling her parents. She hadn’t realized when dragging Spencer upstairs just how much she would have to explain and how much more trouble she would wind up getting into when the truth finally hit the fan. Aside from getting caught in a boy’s bed—twice—and talking back and now sneaking out of the house to go to a party, Sophie was promised eternal grounding right after the police were phoned, statements were taken and names were written down. Sophie did her best to keep Lauren and Jessie’s names out of the mess. She accidently, on purpose, forgot to mention them, hoping that if they were ever mentioned by anyone else as having been at the party, she could claim ignorance lapse in memory. If not, no point dragging them down with her.

  Spencer stayed with her throughout the entire ordeal, holding tight to her hand while she recounted everything that happened that night. His thumb moved gently over her knuckles in a comforting gesture.

  Afterwards, she texted Lauren and gave them a heads up. She asked Lauren to alert Roy in case the police showed up at his doorstep with his parents present. Lauren gave a halfhearted reply, which reminded Sophie that she’d been meaning to corner her friend about Roy. She made a mental note to do it as soon as the people responsible for burning her home were caught and she was allowed to go to school again, because that was the first thing her parents said the moment she told them, right after the screaming and shouting. No school until it was all cleared up. Most kids would have loved that, but the pale hotel walls were beginning to feel like a prison cell, not just for her. If her father paced the floor any more, there would forever be a rut in the rug.


  “I should have remembered,” Spencer told her as the police talked to their parents by the door. “That isn’t a night I’m likely ever to forget.”

  Sophie shook her head. “I forgot them, too. Everything’s been so crazy … and maybe I didn’t want to remember what happened.”

  He leaned over and kissed her temple just as her phone buzzed beside her.

  “Jessie.” She told Spencer, pushing talk and bringing the phone to her ear. “Hey!”

  “Did you figure out who it was?” Jessie said, sounding breathless and excited. “What did the police say? Are they going to arrest them? Do you remember their names?”

  Sophie chuckled. “Jessie, slow down!”

  Jessie gave a sheepish giggle. “Sorry. I’m just so happy they’ll finally put a stop to all this. We’re going to miss you at school.”

  Sophie sighed. “Yeah, me too.”

  “So, what are you going to do now?”

  “Wait, I guess,” she said with a shrug. “Nothing else to do.”

  “But it’ll be over soon!” Jessie said optimistically. “Things will go back to normal.” Sophie couldn’t think of a single thing she would have liked better. “Are you going to phone Joe and let him know or do you want me to? He’s been so worried and stressed about this.”

  “I’ll call him,” she said. “I haven’t talked to him in a while.”

  Jessie hesitated a moment, then gave an overly forced, “Okay! I have to go, but I’ll text you later, okay?” She hung up before Sophie could respond.

  Joe picked up on the third ring, sounding breathless as if he’d run to the phone. “Hello?”

  “Hey!” she said, putting as much cheer into the single word as possible.

  “Hey!” he said in return, sounding surprised. “How are you? Everything okay?”

  “Yeah.” She told him about her discovery and the police being called, yet again. When she finished, Joe was quiet for so long, she thought he’d hung up. “Joe?”

  “Yeah, sorry. I’m here. I was just thinking.” A resounding bong, bong, like the sound of someone pounding on metal under water echoed from his end. “Look, I have to do something, but I’ll call you later tonight.”

  Sophie shrugged. “Okay.”

  “Everything’s going to be okay, Sophie. I promise.”

  They hung up. Sophie tossed her phone down next to her on the bed and sighed.

  “He’s right,” Spencer said. “Everything will be okay.”

  It had to be true if two people said it, right?

  From the next room, a cell phone broke into a very disturbing rendition of the Macarena. Jackie hurried to get it. She returned a moment later, holding the phone to one ear and pressing a hand over the other as if the quiet room was too loud.

  “What? Jamie, slow down! Where are you?”

  There was a loud clatter, the sound of a band saw roaring to life, the grind of metal and angry winds. Somewhere in all that was the faint buzz of words too muffled to hear properly.

  Next to Sophie, Spencer rose to his feet, still holding on tightly to Sophie’s hand. “Mom?”

  Without looking at him, Jackie put up one finger for him to wait. “I don’t understand what you’re … ” Her eyebrows knit together. On the other end, Jamie’s voice grew louder, like he was shouting into the receiver. “What do you mean she’s missing?” Her hand flew to her throat. Her blue eyes became the only color on her face. “Where is she?”

  “Who’s missing?” Spencer demanded, no longer obliging to the quiet signal she was giving him. “Mom!”

  Her mother’s eyes darted over to him. The terror in them had Sophie getting off the bed. Her fingers tightened in Spencer’s.

  “Aimee.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Jamie said she went home to grab some things and never came back,” Jackie told the police officers, visibly trembling.

  “How long ago was this?” the taller of the two asked, head bent over the tiny notebook in his large hand.

  Fingers fumbling with her cell phone, Jackie looked at Sophie’s mom for the answer. When none was forthcoming, she guessed. “I think a few hours.”

  The officer sighed, not unkindly. “A person has to be missing for forty-eight hours before we can officially file a missing person’s report.”

  “She might have gone to a friend’s or to the store,” the second officer supplied helpfully.

  “But I will make a note of it in my report,” the first one said, tapping his notebook. “In the meantime, keep all phone lines clear in case she phones. Call us if anything changes.”

  From her place next to Jackie on the corner of the bed, Sophie’s mother rose to her feet, ever the gracious hostess as she showed the officers to the door. By the window, her father paced. Sophie wasn’t sure if his agitation was due to Aimee’s disappearance or just the flow of stress that seemed endless of late. Jackie remained seated, wringing the phone anxiously between her hands. A moment later, Sophie’s mom returned and sat next to her. She put her arms around the smaller woman and murmured quiet, reassuring things while rubbing her back and shoulders.

  But all of that was lost on Sophie. Her only focus was the stone-faced figure next to her, the one that had said nothing since the news was given. She’d watched him, his face, his posture for even the slightest clue to his thoughts and feelings, but it was like trying to decipher a brick wall.

  “I’m sure she’s fine,” Sophie whispered, wishing she couldn’t taste the bitter tang at the back of her throat. Was it so wrong that she didn’t care one way or another if the girl was missing?

  Spencer didn’t so much as bat an eyelash. He sat staring down at his knees with an unnatural blankness.

  Sophie didn’t push him, secretly angry with herself for being angry at him. It annoyed her that he cared. It annoyed her that she wished he wouldn’t. He’d once loved Aimee, so of course he was concerned. But this was the same bitch that had torn out his heart! How could he still care?

  The dilemma had her moving away from him, wishing she could as easily move away from her own selfish thoughts. It wasn’t right that she felt nothing for this new bit of information. She somehow felt completely isolated from the situation by her hatred. The girl had been evil and evil never went away. The police officer had probably been right. She was probably getting her talons done or tangled in the back seat of some other dude’s car. Who knew? Whatever the case may be, like a virus, she would return to ruin more lives soon enough.

  Her disturbing level of animosity had her scurrying into the bathroom and locking herself inside. She all but threw herself at the sink and turned the faucet on cold. Her hands shook violently as she thrust them beneath the gushing water and splashed her face.

  What is wrong with you? She asked her spooked reflection, her face frozen in a perpetual look of horror.

  She blamed her moment of temporary insanity on claustrophobia. Too many days and nights locked away in a hotel room. Too much stress and close calls against her life. Things would go back to normal as soon as the authorities caught the people after her. She promised herself a full day with the girls. Shopping, nails, lunch, movie, dinner. Possibly in that order. It didn’t matter. She needed to get away from the chaos. She needed to get back to her normal life.

  A soft knock sounded on the door, followed by her mother’s quiet, “Sophia?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Jackie wants to go see Jamie … ”

  Sophie flung open the bathroom door before her mother could finish. “I want to come.”

  Her mother stared at her with surprise. “I don’t think—”

  “I’m going crazy!” she said. “I need fresh air. I’ll stay in the car! Just don’t leave me here!”

  Ten minutes later, they were all piled in the Escalade and driving through semi deserted roads towards Richmond. Sophie had been there a few times, mostly to browse the malls, but she’d never actually paid attention to the houses. She watched them now, zipping past with dizzying speeds. Nothi
ng looked familiar, especially not the tall, brown house that rolled into view. Her father pulled up behind a Dodge Caravan and cut the engine.

  “We’ll wait for you guys here,” he said, turning his head towards the backseat to peer at Jackie.

  “Thank you, Ben. We won’t be long.” She threw open her door and lunged out into the dwindling daylight. She left the door open for Spencer to climb out as she hurried up the driveway towards the brightly lit porch.

  Sophie didn’t move when Spencer hopped out of the SUV. She sat picking at a hangnail on her thumb, pretending she wasn’t upset about being left behind or that he hadn’t spoken to her the entire drive, or that he hadn’t touched her once since the news. She willed herself to be understanding and sympathetic, but it just wasn’t working for her.

  “Will you come in with me?” His voice was hesitant, uncertain, so soft, Sophie almost didn’t hear it.

  Her head came up, her eyes blinking in surprise. She stared at him. “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. The left corner of his mouth twitched. “You haven’t met the rest of the crew yet.”

  After having met Suzy, Aimee and Jamie, she wasn’t sure she wanted to meet the rest, but she slid across the leather bench to the door he held open. She hopped down.

  “I’ll be right back,” she told her parents, accepting the hand Spencer gave her and letting him guide her up the driveway.

  The house was a two story saltbox with white trim and shutters. Someone had planted daises beneath bay windows that glowed a welcoming yellow. They walked up a cobblestone path to the door. Spencer opened it and ushered her in first.

  The foyer was grand with gleaming hardwood floors, a crystal chandelier and a winding staircase that strained over an arched doorway opening into what looked like a sitting area. On the right was a set of sparkling glass doors stowing away a dining room with mahogany furniture and soft, white carpet. There was another opening just beyond that, leading into a short hall and a single door that looked like it led into a powder room.