A Cold Day in Hell

by Stella Cameron

  “Aren’t you going to ask why your jeans are soaked?” Eileen said.

  “They were on the floor. The bathtub’s got a hole in it.”

  “And it’s leaking water all over the place,” Eileen said, her mouth twitching. “Good job there’s a drain.”

  “I’m sorry,” Angel said. “I never wanted you frightened like that.”

  “Yes.” She curled a hand over one of his shoulders and dug in her fingers. “The bullets were meant for us.” Her stomach flipped.

  “Don’t think about it. I didn’t get a look at him, or his vehicle. He must have parked on the access road—I heard his car.”

  “Did you call the police?”

  “Not yet,” Angel said. “I want to look around first. I’m going up on the roof to look for casings.”

  “It’s so dark.”

  “I’m used to working in the dark. Can you use that gun?”

  “Yes, I can. My father—who was the local police chief—taught us.”

  Angel sighed. “Good.”

  “We can’t keep all this to ourselves any longer, Angel,” she said. “I was almost ready to believe the swamp thing was—”

  “Really an accident? But now you’re not. And neither am I, but I want you to bear with me. Give me a little more time before making me throw something to the cops. They’re going to be out of their league anyway.”

  “You’re so quick to put people down just because they aren’t big-city types.”

  “Garbage,” he said. “Come here.” He took her by the shoulders. Trying to twist away would be pointless. Angel kissed her. He broke the contact slowly, settled his lips at her temple and stroked her wet hair. “We have something to finish.”

  And right now his timing wasn’t good. “What do you think may be going on?” she asked. “Do you think those gang types or whatever they are may be involved after all?”

  He pulled her face to his neck. “I’m not sure. Really not sure.”

  “Where did you learn to work in the dark?” she asked. There was too much mystery about him.

  He hesitated, then said, “In South America. In the jungle. I put in some years with the CIA.”

  In the distance a vehicle engine rumbled faintly, growing closer. Her van remained where she and Angel had left it, its dark paint shiny-slick. Eileen didn’t know what to do next. She reached for him. “There’s someone coming now.”

  The engine grew louder. “Who the hell is it?” Angel asked, listening. “He’s got to be coming here—there’s nothing else around. You didn’t call anyone?”

  She shook her head no.

  They stood side by side and watched headlights burst on the scene. Eileen opened her mouth to breath.

  “No one comes here,” Angel muttered. “Stay where you are. Don’t—and I mean it, Eileen—don’t get in my way.”

  “Someone already was here, remember,” Eileen said. “We’re supposed to be dead in your glass bathtub. He could be coming back.”

  “He wouldn’t risk it. I’m not in a vulnerable position now.”

  Eileen shivered a little. She was too uptight to argue.

  “Shit,” Angel muttered. “What d’you want to bet it is our gun-toter being real clever. First the rear attack, then right in the front door with some big excuse. He must have heard us yell and known he’d missed us.”

  The headlights went out, the engine cut and a figure got out of a nondescript sedan. A man. He walked toward the open front door and Eileen felt blood rush to her feet. Her face prickled.

  “I think it’s time to surprise our visitor,” Angel said, his gun in his hand.

  Eileen gripped his elbow tightly. “That’s Chuck!”

  He turned his face toward her. “Who? Chuck, your husband?”

  “Ex-husband.” She could scarcely get the word out.

  “He’s back in Pointe Judah? How long have you known?”

  She swallowed. “I knew this afternoon. That’s why I went out to the parking lot at Oakdale. He was waiting there in his car. He called me to go and talk to him. Chuck was the appointment I told you about.”

  “And you went? Just like that? The man’s been a pig to you. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Don’t,” Eileen said. “I want him to go away again, is all. Getting mad takes too much energy.” And she was confused, confused about his return and about his coming to Angel’s. How would he know where she might be tonight? He didn’t know anything about her life since he’d left. Or did he? “I hate this,” she said through her teeth. “He was never supposed to come back.”

  “You’re sure that’s him?” Angel said. Chuck had approached the front door and they could see him with his head inside, listening.

  “I’m sure.”

  “To do what?”

  “I don’t know.” No longer warm, she pressed her fingers to her mouth. The wind picked up again and tossed wet leaves around. “I didn’t think he’d ever leave the rigs but he said he’s come back to be here for Aaron…and me,” she finished in a tiny voice. She wanted to close her eyes, open then again and find that Chuck had never been there.

  “Really?” Angel said. “If he works on the rigs, he shouldn’t have difficulty climbing around on rooftops.”

  “He wouldn’t do that.”

  Angel fell silent.

  She touched his arm. “I mean he’s a selfish man, and he wasn’t faithful to me, but I don’t think he’s physically dangerous.” Except when he was alone with a woman who couldn’t defend herself.

  “You don’t think? But you don’t know for sure?” Angel wrapped an arm around her. “You’re shaking.”

  She knew Chuck had a twisted imagination and there had been no end to the punishments he’d thought up for her. “I want to stay here and wait for him to go away,” she muttered.

  He massaged her scalp, bent to kiss her. “If he goes quickly, I’ll go along with that. Otherwise I’m going to have to persuade him to leave.”

  “I don’t want any fuss with him,” Eileen said. “I don’t need that and neither does Aaron. He’s got some crazy notion about getting back into our lives. He could make it really difficult for us if he keeps popping up.”

  Angel kissed her ear and said, “Whatever it takes, I’m going to make sure he doesn’t do that.”

  He almost made her believe he could do anything. He also made her apprehensive. That hint of violence was there again and it terrified her. There were still parts of Angel she knew nothing about but she wondered how she would feel about them.

  “Angel—” Her voice stuck. Chuck had stepped inside Angel’s house. “He’s gone in and he didn’t even ring the bell,” she said.

  “Don’t come out of here,” Angel said, his voice toneless. “Please. I’ll go and explain about trespass. He’ll be gone soon enough.”

  She stood with the rain beating on top of her head. The tracksuit was soaked. When Angel slipped away, the wet skin on his torso glistened in the dappling of shadow and light through the leaves.

  Eileen shrank back until she stood close to an oak with a barrier of bushes in front of her. Cold struck up through her feet and her teeth chattered. The thought of a terrible fight paralyzed her. She didn’t know if she was more afraid of Angel being arrested for killing Chuck, or of Chuck managing to hurt Angel.

  Gun in hand, Angel stepped from the undergrowth and walked directly, if lightly, toward the door. He slowed when he got close.

  Chuck appeared in the doorway again, saw the gun and raised both hands. Eileen was too far away to hear what was said. She did see how Chuck turned his palms up in a submissive attitude and actually heard him laugh. The sound made her feel creepy.

  She worked her way through the bushes. No way could she hide out and not hear what was being said. It was her business.

  Now she could make out Chuck’s car, a Ford Taurus in a light shade.

  Angel put the gun into his waistband and Chuck dropped his arms. He leaned on the doorjamb. Eileen had noticed earlier that his sideburns
were turning gray. Still fit, still good-looking in a hard-jawed, watchful-eyed way, he’d kept himself in shape. She wondered, not for the first time today, why he’d left the rigs. He had always liked the chunks of money he made and the weeks off between stints out there, when he could hang around, turn her into his slave and drink too much.

  When he drank, the whites of his eyes turned bright red and his face flushed and seemed to bloat. Once he had wrapped an empty bourbon bottle in a towel and used it to beat her back, her bottom, the backs of her legs. Afterward she’d stretched out flat on her face as much as she could. The bruises swelled like purple blossoms filled with blood, one running into another.

  Eileen felt tears mix with rain on her cheeks.

  The two men continued to talk as if they weren’t standing in a downpour. She saw the way Angel’s back straightened and squared off. He was neither relaxed nor happy.

  Angel inclined his head toward Chuck’s car but didn’t get any response, other than Chuck settling harder against the doorjamb.

  That was enough. Eileen emerged onto the grass verge, too aware of her bare, wet feet, and walked purposefully toward the house, her gun deliberately evident. Chuck pushed away from the door as soon as he saw her and Angel looked at her over his shoulder. He shrugged, which suggested he’d known she was bound to come sooner or later.

  “There you are, babe,” Chuck called, and Eileen shrunk a little. “Couldn’t get any information out of your friend here but I figured you were somewhere around—given your van.” He nodded toward it.

  “What are you doing here, Chuck?” she asked.

  “What d’you think? You and I need some time alone.”

  Eileen appreciated that Angel didn’t interfere. “Now?” she said. “I’m not talking to you now.” Or any other time if she could avoid it. “I don’t know why you’re back in Pointe Judah. There’s nothing for you here.”

  He lifted his chin and she was close enough to see the familiar sneer he could summon whenever she stood up for herself. “What’s going on out here, anyway?” he said. “Some new game? Running around in the dark and the rain with guns? How weird is that?”

  “It’s none of your business,” she said, as loudly as she could.

  “Is this your new boyfriend?” he asked, looking Angel over, which should be enough to make most men feel inferior.

  “I’d like you to leave,” she said.

  “Don’t be like that. We’ve got too much in common to be snippy with each other. Angel? It is Angel?”

  Angel nodded, but he kept his eyes on Eileen.

  “That Sonny’s your boy?” Chuck asked.

  “My nephew.”

  “He’s got Aaron under his thumb. He stood behind him at the door and kept telling me to get lost.”

  Eileen felt a surge of liking for Sonny. “They look out for each other.” She’d never expected to say something like that.

  “I finally got some information out of Aaron, but not without the other one trying to stop him every time I opened my mouth. He slammed the door in my face in the end. My own goddammed house and he slammed the door,” Chuck said.

  “It’s not your house anymore,” Eileen said, mortified that Angel was a witness to all this.

  “That Sonny kid’s got a nasty mouth on him.”

  Angel looked back at the other man. “Not unless he’s pushed.”

  “He thinks it’s pushy if a man asks his son where his mother is?”

  So that’s how Chuck knew where to come. He had played on Aaron. Helpless anger weighted Eileen’s body.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Chuck said, not sounding like the Chuck she knew. “Boys will be boys and they all have their little acts they play to look tough.

  “I plan to settle down in Pointe Judah. I like it here. I didn’t know how much until I moved away. And Aaron needs me.”

  The weakness Eileen felt in her limbs had nothing to do with her health and everything to do with the peace of mind she’d just lost.

  “You shouldn’t leave Aaron on his own at night,” Chuck said to Eileen. “He’s still on parole, isn’t he?”

  Rage bubbled to the surface. “No,” she said. “He’s not. And sixteen-year-olds don’t need babysitters.”

  “From what I heard, he’s been through a lot of bad times and needs keeping an eye on.” He walked toward her. “Aw, hon, it must have been so hard and a good part of it’s my fault. Let me help. I can be here for him. It’s time we got to know each other again.”

  She couldn’t speak, didn’t dare look at Angel.

  When she found her voice, she said, “We’re doing fine. We did fine when you supposedly lived here before but only showed up when you felt like it, and we’re doing fine now. Aaron doesn’t need new confusion in his life.”

  Chuck looked away. “I shouldn’t have come here tonight. I was wrong. Funny how a man never stops thinking of a woman as his own. You were mine for a long time, Eileen. It got to be a habit—a good habit. Love doesn’t die easily.”

  Eileen couldn’t believe the words were coming out of Chuck’s mouth. She didn’t want to think about the things he’d said to her before he let her know she’d been replaced by another woman as far as he was concerned.

  Angel cleared his throat and she looked at him. His eyebrows were raised in question. All she’d have to do was give him a sign and Chuck would be out of here. And she could have more trouble than she was prepared to deal with.

  She shook her head slightly. “Your judgment’s as bad as it always was,” she said to Chuck. “I’d like you to leave now.”

  “Okay.”

  Surprised, she stared at Chuck. He separated himself from the doorjamb and walked toward her.

  Behind him, Angel distributed his weight evenly and Eileen had no doubt about how fast he could move if he wanted to.

  “Will you let me say just a few words to you?” Chuck said to Eileen. “Then I’ll leave. I promise.”

  She expected Angel to protest but he still kept silent, and he moved far enough away to let her talk to Chuck in private. Eileen couldn’t stop the deep shaking in her body or the horror that came with shadowy memories of past “talks” with Chuck.

  “Okay, say what you came to say. But do it right here,” she said.

  “You’ve got it.” He kept walking toward her until he stood only a couple of feet away. Quietly, he said, “I’ve been wrong. I don’t expect it to happen overnight, but forgive me, baby.”

  She swallowed the desire to tell him not to call her baby.

  “I’ve shocked you, showing up like this. I was afraid if I let you know I was coming, you wouldn’t see me.”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Think about taking me back.”

  Eileen breathed through her mouth and shook her head. Her stomach rose and she thought she might vomit.

  Chuck stared at her and she could see a sheen in his eyes as if he were close to tears. He looked her over slowly, from wet hair hanging around her shoulders, to the clinging red sweat suit. She hated it that she felt so revealed.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said and bowed his head. “You always were. And now I don’t even have the right to look at you. You shouldn’t be out here in this rain.”

  Chuck was rough and tough and always had been. She didn’t remember a time when he was gentle with her. Tears prickled in her own eyes, not for him but for the horror he heaped on her for years. She cried for herself.

  “Going to the house was hard,” Chuck said. He raised his arms and let them fall. “I let it all slip away, didn’t I? What a fool I was.”

  “Sometimes we have to let the past go,” Eileen said.

  Chuck looked at her and frowned. “That other kid’s no good, Eileen. He’s got a foul mouth and he’s no good for Aaron. Aaron said he was his best friend.”

  “He is,” Eileen said, her throat stiff. “And he’s a good boy. He grew up where it’s tough is all. He’s learning.” Now she was defending Sonny again. She couldn’t get over her
reservations about him so easily, but if he helped get Chuck off her property tonight she owed him her thanks.

  She looked past Chuck. Angel leaned on the front of her van.

  “What do you know about him?” Chuck asked, indicating Angel.

  “That’s not your business.”

  “It’s my business if it affects my son.” He squared his shoulders and took a step closer to her. “Don’t imagine I won’t do what’s right for Aaron. If I think he needs more attention than he’s getting—”

  “I don’t know what your talking about.” Eileen stared at him. “Aaron’s learning to make his own decisions now. He’s doing a good job of getting things together. He’ll finish high school and go to college.”

  “He needs a father around.” He came closer. “I need to make things up to him.”

  She barely stopped herself from falling back a step.

  Chuck put his hands over his face. “I didn’t come to make your life harder. I want to be where I can make sure you’re okay. I was so damn wrong. I don’t know what came over me. Please forgive me. I don’t expect you to take me right back, but gimme a chance to show you I’m different. We had a great marriage once.”

  “Chuck—”

  “Aaron misses me. I could tell he does.”

  “Our marriage was hell,” Eileen managed to say.

  Chuck thrust his chin the slightest bit. “You’ve made too much of everything. And now you believe the stuff you’ve dreamed up. That’s not good for Aaron, either.”

  “Aaron is doing very well,” Eileen said. The muscles in her legs shook. “He’s really getting there.”

  “He’s not sure of himself yet. He’s going to take longer than most kids his age. I won’t get in your way but I’ll be here if I’m needed. And you can’t feel bad if I get to know my son again. He needs that and so do I.”

  She didn’t care what Chuck Moggeridge needed, but she wouldn’t make even more of a scene here, in front of Angel, who could easily decide to help Chuck leave.

  “You’re working too hard,” he said and reached for her arm. She backed away. “You look worn out. I should have thought about it before but it isn’t right for you to be running around in that Oakdale parking lot on your own at night. Don’t do that again.”