Slightly Off Balance

by Kaylie Hunter

  “You hold grudges for years, but I only get six weeks?”

  “You weren’t built to hold a grudge more than a day,” Uncle Mike chuckled. “We all know it’s eating at you, so go clear the air.”

  Reel was still sitting on the bench across the street. I sat beside him and looked at everyone rushing in and out, helping me without being asked.

  “Your Master Plan in action,” Reel grinned.

  “Per Grandpa’s orders, I’ve put away 20 percent of my wages since my first baby-sitting job. Hated it back then. But look at me now.”

  “You have enough money, then?” Reel asked with a raised brow.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “Tansey and Aunt Carol own half the building. We had enough to put down a healthy down payment and our start-up funds. The rest the bank owns until I can pay it off.”

  Reel nodded but didn’t say anything.

  “I’m choosing to forgive you, but I’m doing it for me, not for you. I miss our friendship.”

  “I don’t want to be your friend, Deanna. I’ve been in love with you since you turned fifteen. I want you to be my wife, the mother of my children.”

  “I know you do,” I nodded. “But the problem with that is you don’t know me. You don’t know what I like, dislike, or downright hate. You have this image in your head that I’d be the perfect wife for you. But I’m not that person.”

  “You’re in love with me too. I know it. It’s why you haven’t dated anyone all these years.”

  “You’re wrong. I haven’t dated anyone in this town because you made it public that I was off limits. That doesn’t mean I haven’t dated. Had sex. Fallen in and out of love. I just had to leave town to do it. And you can’t tell me that you haven’t had your share of women over the years either.”

  “I only ever loved you,” he whispered.

  “I stopped loving you years ago. It was crushing the life out of me,” I whispered before standing and walking across the street. I didn’t look back. I didn’t want him to see the tears streaming down my face. I had never lied to him before.

  Colby waited on the front porch for me to return. “He hurt you?”

  “No, Colby. He just wants me to be someone I’m not. And I’m too old to change my ways.”

  “I think you’re pretty cool just like you are,” Colby grinned.

  “Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, well, mister, we haven’t had the conversation about school yet. Am I going to still be ‘pretty cool’ after I force that one out of you?”

  Colby didn’t look for an exit, so I figured that was a good sign. “I like school,” he shrugged. “But what happens if the state makes me go back to live with my dad?”

  “I get the feeling your dad used to hit you. So I can stop you from getting sent back to him. But are there other family members who will want you to go back home?” I turned, walking over to the porch glider, and sat down. I patted the seat next to me.

  “Nah. My mom died of an overdose when I was still in diapers. I don’t think I have any other relatives. I doubt my dad noticed I’m missing, or if he has, I doubt he knows how long I’ve been gone.”

  “Okay,” I nodded. “Let’s get the paperwork started. Loretta’s a part-time social worker, so she can help us.”

  “If she’s a social worker, why didn’t she report me?”

  “In the eyes of the state, she’s not a very good social worker,” I laughed. “And if your dad throws a stink about you staying here in Pine Valley, well, let’s just say we have a few friends that would pay him a visit and help convince him it was for the best.”

  “For real?” Colby asked.

  “We’ll keep you safe, Colby. That’s what this town does.”

  Colby looked down at the porch, and I knew he was tearing up. I rubbed his back and looked away to give him a minute to gather his emotions. Honestly, I needed a minute to gather my own.

  “Colby, why don’t you help me with the second-floor plumbing,” Uncle Mike said from the doorway. “I could use a second set of hands.”

  Colby shrugged and led the way into the house. Uncle Mike gave me a nod before following after him.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “This is the stupidest idea that you’ve ever had,” Tansey said, as she gripped my arm tighter.

  “Dumber than the time we went to that strip club and had our purses stolen?” I asked.

  “Definitely dumber,” she whispered as a man in handcuffs was led over to us and cuffed to the mounted hook in the center of the table.

  “Who the hell are you?” Randall Marlian glared at Tansey.

  “She’s a friend of mine,” I answered for her, sitting up straighter. “I assume you know who I am?”

  “Sure,” Randall nodded. “You’re the granddaughter. What do you want?”

  There was something unsettling about seeing him. It wasn’t the fact that he was wearing an orange jumpsuit, and we were sitting in the county jailhouse. It also wasn’t the black cold stare that he directed my way, though something about it seemed familiar. I felt like I knew him, but at the same time, I was confident we had never met.

  “Have we ever spoken before?”

  “No,” he shrugged. “I saw pictures of you, though. You and our sister.”

  “Leave Darlene out of this,” I snapped, leaning toward him. “Don’t you even breathe her name. Ever.”

  “You afraid someone might hear that your sister’s a bastard? Afraid the cat’s already out of the bag on that one,” he chuckled. “Though I only figured things out because of Pa’s obsession with you. He has stacks of photos of you hidden in his desk. Since you were a little kid, only about knee high. I was surprised to find out that she was my sister and not you. He only had a handful of pictures of her.”

  “I don’t give a damn who Darlene’s father was. Fact is, she’s my sister. And I’ll make your life a living hell if you do or say anything to harm her.”

  “You think you can scare me?” he glared, leaning over the table at me. “Bitch, you don’t know what fear is until you’ve grown up with my old man as a father.”

  His father. That was what was so unsettling to me. Those eyes. Randall’s eyes. I had a feeling I’d seen them before, looking just as cold, staring at me with just as much hatred.

  “Ah,” Randall grinned. “So you know the old man.”

  When I stood, Tansey rose with me. She was still gripping my arm tight enough to cut off circulation. My knees shook as I led us out of the visiting area. Randall’s eerie chuckle echoed in my ears until the door closed behind us.

  “That’s it? What the hell, Tweedle? You dragged me all the way here, for that?” Tansey whispered as we walked out of the building and down the long sidewalk, enclosed on three sides by chain-link fencing.

  “I’m going to tell you something, but you have to promise not to tell anyone,” I whispered back as we waited for the gate to be opened so we could leave.

  She nodded, but I waited until we were closer to the car before I said anything. “I don’t think he’s the one who was trying to kill me.”

  “What??!” she squealed.

  “Hurry up and get in the car,” I said, taking her keys from her to drive her newly purchased Subaru.

  Her new Subaru was the same model as its predecessor and just as old and worn out. Maybe a bit less rusty. Rod was still arguing that she needed something newer, more reliable, but he couldn’t argue with the fact that the vehicle could take a hell of an impact and keep us alive.

  “What’s going on?” Tansey asked as I drove us out of the parking lot and turned toward the highway.

  I needed to collect my thoughts, and Tansey knew me well enough to give me the time to do so. I waited until we were halfway home before talking again.

  “Get my phone out and Google Morgan Marlian. I need to see a picture of him.”

  Tansey did as I asked. “I can only find a group shot. He’s the third guy from the left.” She held the phone up, and I glanced at the picture as I drove.

  Hitt
ing the brakes, I veered to the side of the road as cars blared their horns, zipping past us.

  “You trying to kill us?” Tansey yelled, with a death-grip hold on the dash.

  I threw the Subaru in park and took the phone from her, taking a closer look at the picture. What I was looking at wasn’t a man, though. He was a nightmare. A familiar nightmare that I had had on countless nights since I was a child. And in my nightmare he chased me while I ran through the woods to get away.

  “It wasn’t a dream,” I whispered.

  “Tweedle, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

  I tossed the phone into my purse before looking over my shoulder for oncoming cars and pulling the Subaru back out into traffic. My hands shook, no matter how tightly I gripped the steering wheel.

  “Did anything strange happen when we were kids? Do you remember me being scared or upset?”

  “You’re not talking about being scared of a movie or when a garter snake surprised you, are you?”

  “You know I’m not.”

  “You don’t remember?”

  “Remember what?”

  “You went missing one night. Reel found you in your tree fort the next morning and took you to Uncle Mike and Aunt Carol’s. That was when you stopped talking for a week. Then you just woke up one day and were back to normal.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I was just a kid too. I heard Uncle Mike saying it might have had something to do with your father, but I never asked about it.”

  I exited the highway and turned toward Aunt Carol’s house. I pulled up a few minutes later and got out of the Subaru.

  “Tweedle, what’s going on?” Tansey asked, hurrying beside me.

  Aunt Carol opened the front door smiling. When she saw my face, she hurried across the lawn.

  “Is it Mike? Is it your grandpa?” Aunt Carol asked, grabbing my hand.

  “No,” I shook my head. “Get Tansey inside and lock the doors. I need to go see Reel.”

  I set my keys and my purse on top of the Subaru and started walking down the long sidewalk to the end of the road. When I reached the end, I turned left and walked another block. I stood across the road, facing the blue house. I had stood in this same spot many times over the years, unable to force myself to step closer.

  “Deanna?” Reel called, stepping out onto the front porch. “You okay?”

  I placed one foot in front of the other and stepped off the curb. When nothing happened, I took another step. Then another. Before I knew it, I was standing beside Reel’s truck, looking up at him.

  “Deanna, you’re shaking. What happened? What’s wrong?” Reel asked, resting a hand on my cheek.

  I heard a police siren and wasn’t surprised to look up and see Uncle Mike’s cruiser screech to a halt. The noise of the tires almost drowned out the noise of the gunshot. The bullet blasted the truck’s side window into pieces, not two feet behind me.

  “Gun!” Reel yelled, pulling me down and dragging me to the other side of the truck.

  “Where’d the shot come from?” Uncle Mike yelled.

  “The woods to the north,” Reel yelled back. “We need to get Tweedle out of here. Pull your car up on the lawn.”

  I was still trying to process the fact that someone was shooting at me when Uncle Mike pulled the police cruiser beside us and Reel shoved me into the backseat and closed the door. Uncle Mike drove off the curb, and by the time I sat up, he was pulling into his driveway. I was dragged from the seat and into the house in a blink.

  “What happened?” Aunt Carol asked, wrapping her arms around me.

  “I have to go back and help Reel. Lock the doors,” Uncle Mike ordered before leaving.

  I walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. I stared at the beige and cream blended carpet, seeing all the different shades weaving in and around each other, forcing my brain to stop thinking of everything else if only for a little while.

  By the time I looked up again, Reel, Uncle Mike, Aunt Carol, Tansey, Rod, Wayne, Bridget and Bones were all waiting and watching.

  “There she is,” Bridget grinned. “I told them to just give you some time, and you’d come back to us. You didn’t look as out of it as last time.”

  Looking over at the big window, even with the blinds drawn, I could tell it was pitch black outside.

  “I thought you guys went home.” I asked Bridget.

  “We did,” she said. “Our bosses threw us on a private jet when Reel called.”

  “I need to go back to the house. The blue house,” I said, standing up, only to feel dizzy and have Wayne reach out and steady me.

  “Deanna,” Reel whispered, wrapping one arm around my waist as he placed his other hand gently against my cheek. “Talk to me.”

  I nodded, looking into his eyes, but it took me a few minutes to breathe before I could speak. “Something happened when I was a child. Morgan Marlian. He was there. I remember him, but I can’t remember what happened.”

  “He’s the one trying to hurt you?”

  “I can’t prove it, but yes. And I have to know why. I have to go back to that house.” I stepped away, clearing my throat. “I have been afraid of that house for years. I have to know why.”

  “I don’t understand,” Reel said, shaking his head. “You used to stare at that house for hours.”

  “Because it was evil. Until today, I couldn’t step near it. I still don’t understand, but I’m ready to face it.”

  “It’s not safe,” Uncle Mike said.

  I looked at my uncle, the man who had been like a father to me most of my life. The man who was never far away whenever I needed him. I reached over and hugged him and heard him sigh. He knew I had already made up my mind.

  “We should wait until it’s light out,” Reel said, stepping closer to me again. “It will be safer.”

  “I can’t wait. I need to know.”

  “Wayne and I will go first and check the perimeter,” Bones said. “Rod, stay with Tansey and Aunt Carol. Bridget, stay next to Tweedle.”

  Bones and Wayne left out the front door. Reel searched my face. We stood in silence for a long time before he nodded and intertwined our fingers. “We do this together.”

  I nodded, and we walked out of the house.

  I stood gripping Reel’s hand so tight, my own fingers throbbed.

  “Deanna, we can wait until morning,” he whispered.

  “It was nighttime in my dreams,” I whispered. “Why was I out so late?”

  “What were you wearing in your nightmare?” Bridget asked.

  “Pajamas,” I answered, looking over at her.

  Bridget nodded and took my other hand. “And which direction was your house?”

  I looked to the east, down the long block. I walked over to the east side of the house and started walking toward the backyard. I paused when the back porch was in view. The porch light was on, but in my nightmare, it hadn’t been. The door had been ajar, though, casting light onto the porch.

  I let go of Bridget’s and Reel’s hands and crept up onto the porch. I tried to push the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. Reel reached past me and unlocked the door. I slid inside without turning on the lights. Seeing from memory, I went to the basement stairs and stepped silently, one step at a time, down the stairs. Crouching down to look across the room before I reached the bottom. A memory played out in my mind. I watched in horror as the man I now knew to be Morgan Marlian buried the body in the basement.

  Turning abruptly, I pushed my way past Reel and Uncle Mike and barreled out the back door. Landing on all fours, I retched in the grass, choking and gagging on bile.

  “Dee,” Reel whispered, wrapping his arms around me. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”

  “He’s in the basement. All these years. He’s been there the entire time. Just waiting for me to find him.”

  “Who, Dee? Who’s been waiting for you?”

  “My father,” I said, looking up at Reel. “He’s buried in your basement.�
��

  “Holy shit,” Bones said.

  “Tweedle, your father ran away. He packed his bags and took off,” Uncle Mike said.

  “Or was that just a story that her mother told us?” Aunt Carol asked, leading Tansey and Rod to our circle in the yard. “The timing is right. Her father disappeared the same night Tweedle ran away. We always figured she saw him leave and was upset. We should have pressed the issue.”

  “No, you did the right thing,” Bridget said. “Her brain wasn’t ready for her to process what she had seen. You could have royally messed her up by forcing her to face it.”

  Bones pulled Bridget into his side and kissed the top of her head. Uncle Mike, still wearing his uniform, called for backup to Reel’s house and asked a squad car to pick up his sister and take her to the police station. He had tears in his eyes when he looked back at me.

  I sat in the grass and pulled one of Reel’s arms tighter around me. I wasn’t leaving until my father’s body was finally at peace.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “It’s been two weeks,” I complained, tossing the day-old biscuits into the tub to go to the church.

  Colby walked into the kitchen, ignoring the argument between Reel and me and snatched a biscuit. I rolled my eyes and continued, “Morgan is most likely in another country by now.”

  “You don’t know that,” Reel said. “We need to keep you safe until we find him.”

  “And when will that be? Huh? A decade from now?”

  “I don’t know. I have people looking for him, but so far, nothing.”

  “I won’t live this way,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s no point in him coming after me anyway. He was trying to kill me to keep me quiet, but now everyone knows. My father’s funeral was like a damn media circus. Hell, my own mother confessed to covering up the murder and is sitting in a jail cell.”

  “You know she didn’t know any details, right?” Reel said, walking up behind me and wrapping his arms around me.