“What were you doing in Greenville? It’s a little out of your usual range.”
“I heard there was a poker game I didn’t want to miss.”
“You get around, Dailey,” the man grumbled.
“You have no idea. Now if you don’t mind, boys… I was in the middle of something.”
“Marino’s not done with you yet.”
“He never is.”
The door shut and Collin sighed. A few seconds later, his hardened voice asked, “Where were we, Trixie?”
He’s going to finish what he started?
“It’s Tammy.” Tammy sounded irritated.
“Trixie. Tammy.” Collin sounded bored. “What’s the difference?”
“What’s the difference?”
“You’re here to fuck me, right? You’re not here to hear me say your name.”
“Are you serious?” she screeched.
“What?”
The bed groaned. “I’m out of here.”
“I don’t get it. What’s the problem?”
She cursed, and I heard a thump on the floor. “If I get fired for this, I’m coming back up to beat the shit out of you.”
“Take a number, sweetheart.”
The door slammed, but I stayed in the closet, unable to go out and face the room. To see the bed where I’d experienced the most intimate moments of my life, cheapened by Collin laying on it with that girl. While I was in the closet listening.
But that wasn’t fair. Collin hadn’t enjoyed a minute of it. I’d heard it in his voice. Nevertheless, I still wanted to vomit.
I opened the door and a shirtless Collin sat on the bed, his elbows on his thighs, his face buried in his hands. At least he’d had his pants on. He looked up, fear in his eyes, waiting.
We stared at each other for several seconds, until my eyes drifted to the head of the bed. She’d laid there. With Collin.
He must have seen the horror on my face, because he jumped off the mattress and reached for me.
I held my hand up and turned away. “Don’t.”
“Ellie, please don’t do this. I did it to save you.”
My chin trembled. I will not cry. I will not cry. I believed with all my heart that he did it to save me, yet I still couldn’t make the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach go away. I took a deep breath. “I know. I believe you.” I looked into his eyes. “I just need a minute, okay?”
He nodded, looking defeated. I hated that I was doing this to him. He’d tried to set up the scene so Marino’s men wouldn’t search the room, and it had worked perfectly. But I couldn’t get the mental image of him kissing someone else out of my head. Or taking off her clothes. And instead of thanking him, I was hurting him. “Collin, I’m sorry. I know you did it for me, but I just…” My voice broke, and the tears I’d held back broke loose in a sob.
“Ellie, I’m sorry.” He wrapped his arms around my back, and I buried my face in his chest. “This is all my fault.”
“I can’t do this, Collin. I can’t be this person, fighting for my life.” I pulled back and searched his face. “This isn’t me. I’m a waitress from Manteo whose idea of an exciting night is sneaking onto the Nags Head sand dunes after the Jockey’s Ridge State Park closes.”
“I know.”
“In the past few days my life has been in danger countless times. I’ve been attacked by supernatural beings and chased by some goon who has a grudge against you.” I smacked his chest with my hand. “I told you I wanted to go to Kill Devil Hills! I wanted to go see Oscar.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“But this. This.” I pointed to the bed. “I know I should be grateful. Thankful.” I hiccuped a sob. “I’m so mad at me right now.”
“You? Ellie, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I knew exactly who you were going into this. I knew you wouldn’t stick around. I knew you’d replace me with some other woman, but I’d hoped to God you would wait until after you left me. I’d convinced myself I could live with a short-term thing. But that was a lie. I knew you’d break my heart.”
“Ellie.” His voice sounded strangled.
“But I thought that I could survive the grief. I knew I’d found what I’d been looking for with every fucking man that’s walked in and out of my life. Goddamn my luck for finding it with a guy who wouldn’t stick around. But I didn’t care. I wanted you so bad that I fucking didn’t care.”
Collin’s eyes searched mine.
“How could you treat that girl like that, Collin? How could you be so cold?”
His chest heaved. “I… I had to get rid of her.”
I shook my head, disgusted with myself. “I’m no different than that girl. I threw myself at you just like she did.”
Horror filled his eyes. “God, Ellie. No! You are nothing like her!”
“How can you say that? All I can hear is you telling me ‘You’re here to fuck me, not hear me say your name.’”
“No! Ellie, you’re a thousand times better than any woman I’ve ever been with. I’d never do that to you.”
“Why? Why wouldn’t you?”
His hands grabbed my arms. “Don’t you feel it when we’re together? How we’re two halves of a whole. We truly are the children of the earth and the sea. We belong together, Ellie. God fucking knows I don’t deserve the chance to be with you. You’ve only seen a small part of my life, and it’s ugly. But you make me want to be someone worthy of you. When I’m with you, I think maybe I can be.”
“Collin.” Why was he telling me this?
He grabbed my face. “I want you. You. You know this Ellie. You saw it when we were linked. Our souls are bonded. Do you think I’d just throw that away?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”
“I need you, Ellie. I need you. Please believe that.”
Tears rolled down my face.
“Please, just give me a chance. Please don’t give up on me.” His mouth found mine, and I fell into him, unable to resist his pull on my heart.
Everything he said was true. I needed him too. I’d only known him five days, but my life would be empty without him. I knew who he was going into this. How could I punish him for that?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
We packed up and left soon after our discussion. It was early evening and we still had several hours before Collin planned to break into the museum. We grabbed some fast food and ate dinner on the beach closer to Morehead City, watching the waves crash onto the shore.
I’d calmed down after my breakdown, and now I was embarrassed. I’d confessed things I’d never intended, but instead of pushing Collin away, my revelations brought him closer. He seemed relieved that I was still with him. At the moment, I was more worried about breaking into the museum. “What’s your plan to get past the security system?”
“I have the code.”
“You’re kidding. How could you get the code?”
He grinned.
“Let me guess. You have a friend.”
Tilting his head with a cocky gleam in his eye, he stuffed a fry in his mouth. “You’re learning.”
“So we use the code, break in, switch the bowl, and leave?”
“After we find the bowl. That might take awhile.”
“Are there guards? Cameras?”
His eyebrow rose, amused. “Listen to you. One would never guess this was your first in.”
“Shut up, Collin. And technically, it’s my second.”
“It’s no to both of your questions. It’s a bare-budget museum.”
He’d been trying his best to go back to the way things were before. Before I caught a glimpse of his real world in our motel room earlier. The way he watched me now, he knew I was thinking about this afternoon.
“Ellie, this morning…” He paused “We didn’t use a condom earlier, and I presumed, since you didn’t mention it, that you’re on birth control.”
“I have an IUD.”
His mouth pinched and he nodded. “That�
��s not why I’m bringing it up. I trust you to be responsible in regards to that. The last thing either of us needs is for you to get pregnant. I brought it up because of what happened this afternoon.” He bit his lip and stared out into the water. “I’ve slept around. A lot. That’s no secret. But I want you to know I always used a condom until this morning. Always. You weren’t exposed to anything.”
I gave him a soft smile. “Thanks.”
He was silent for several seconds. “I’m worried about bringing you into the museum. If for some reason we get caught, you’re looking at felony charges. I don’t want to put you in that situation. But at the same time, I don’t want to leave you anywhere. Especially at night. So I’ll leave the decision up to you. If you don’t want to come, I can either put you in a motel somewhere and mark up the door. Or I can take you home now and drive back and break in.”
“You’d really drive over six hours round-trip, just to take me home if I wanted?”
His anxious eyes found mine. “Yeah. If that’s what you want.”
“Do you really think my family and Claire are safe?”
He nodded. “Honestly, as long as they have salt guarding the thresholds to their houses, they’re probably safer if you’re not with them.”
That was hard to hear, but not unexpected. “I want to stay with you.”
“Are you sure?”
I knew what he was really saying—that I wasn’t stuck with him. That I could try to lay low for a day, show up for the gate closing ceremony, and then go back to my life, alone. There was no way that I could do that even if I didn’t want to be with Collin. I’d shirked my responsibilities for too long. I might not know as much about the curse as Collin, but I wanted to share equal responsibility. Besides, with us getting so close to the deadline, I could only imagine what the gods would do to stop us. We were safer together. Just like my family was safer without me.
I nodded. “I’m sure.”
“Okay.” He grinned, his eyes dancing. “Let’s plan a break-in.”
Shaking my head, I chuckled. “I think you’re enjoying this just a little too much.”
“Oh really?” His eyebrows rose in mock surprise. “And you’re telling me you didn’t enjoy breaking into Marino’s warehouse?”
“I did not.”
“You did. I watch people, Ellie. I notice things.”
What else had he noticed about me? “That was different. He’s a crook who stole your map. This is a museum.”
“A museum that stole my bowl.”
I narrowed my eyes in confusion. “I thought your brother gave the bowl to the museum.”
“He did, but it’s my bowl. Which means they should have given it back when I requested it.”
“You actually asked them to return the bowl?”
“You’re damn right I did. It’s mine.”
I shrugged. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law.”
“Which is a fucking lie. But I’ll get it back tonight.”
Collin had somehow gotten a layout of the back rooms of the museum and although he didn’t know for sure where the bowl would be, he had a general idea. The museum was relatively small so even if we had to search the entire employees-only area, it wouldn’t take more than an hour.
Collin turned serious again. “I want to talk about tomorrow night.”
My stomach did somersaults. I knew we needed to discuss it, but to do so would make it more real.
“The map is old and doesn’t have any familiar landmarks, but from what I’ve determined, the original ceremony took place next to an oak tree. I think it’s the big oak tree in the Elizabethan Gardens, next to the Fort Raleigh visitor center.”
“So we have to go to the botanical gardens?” Was that the reason Dwight was found there?
“Yes, and we have to complete the ceremony before sunrise. Like Ahone giving up his power to Okeus, the ceremony has to be performed before the dawn of the seventh day.”
“Why can’t we do it during the day?”
“Because the powers we need to invoke are stronger at night. Not to mention we’d attract all kinds of attention during the day. It’s a public place.”
“So our next date is another break-in, this time at the Elizabethan Gardens. Collin, you know how to show a girl a good time,” I teased, nudging his arm with my shoulder.
“No easing into a life of crime for you.” But his voice was strained, like he hated involving me.
I leaned over and kissed him long and slow. “We’re in this together. I know what I’m getting into.”
He nodded, but he didn’t look so sure.
“So we break in to the botanical gardens tomorrow after dark?”
“I want to wait until the early hours of the morning to decrease our odds of getting caught. We should have time to get everything set up and make sure the ceremony is complete by sunrise.” He looked away. “But right now we need to concentrate on the current break-in.”
We stayed on the beach for another hour, both of us reluctant to leave. We would head back to Manteo after we got the bowl, and draw that much closer to the ceremony that would either save humanity—or doom humanity forever.
Collin drove into the museum parking lot, parking in the back. I was nervous, even if I didn’t want to admit it to Collin. He didn’t seem very worried about getting caught, despite his offer to keep me uninvolved. Still, I had no desire to add my fingerprints to the national data bank so Marino could track me down.
I wasn’t wearing the all-black outfit I’d had Claire pack. Instead I wore a pair of denim shorts, a tank top, and my Vans. “I don’t feel appropriately dressed for a break-in.”
“Not to worry, Ellie. It’s not black tie.”
“Very funny. You know what I mean.”
“There’s no dress code for breaking in. You’re fine.”
“Easy for you to say.” He wore dark jeans and a T-shirt.
He leaned over and kissed me. “Look at it this way: If you get arrested, you’ll look gorgeous in your mug shots.”
“You think I look gorgeous?” I asked in surprise.
“Of course I think you look gorgeous. Let’s go before you start wanting to discuss how you should have worn your hair.” He opened his door before I could answer, pulling his bag out of the truck bed.
I met him at the side of the truck, my stomach flopping like a fish.
“I only have one pair of gloves, so don’t touch anything.”
“Got it.”
He looked up with a grin. “And try to stay out of trouble this time.”
“Me? You’re the one who left me with a wind god and as a result, I almost got my Manitou sucked out.”
He stood, his jaw squared with determination as he handed me one of the two flashlights in his hand. “That won’t happen again.”
“It better not or I’ll kick your ass.”
“I have no doubt you will.” I heard the grin in his voice. “Let’s go.” Collin picked up his duffel bag full of thievery tools and we headed for the back door. “There are two codes. The first gets us in the door. The other lets us stay inside. I’ve been told the second security keypad is in an office down the hall, and we have thirty seconds to enter the code before the alarm goes off.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay.” We were really doing this.
He grabbed my waist and pulled me to him, studying my face. “Ellie, it’s not too late to change your mind. If you want to wait in the truck, we can roll up the windows and I’ll mark them up.”
I shook my head. “No. We’re in this together.”
Lifting my chin with his fingers, Collin’s gaze hardened. “I know what I’m doing. If I think we’re in any danger of getting caught, we’re out of here.”
“What about the bowl?”
“We can’t perform the ceremony if we’re in jail, can we? We’ll cut our losses and hope we can make something else work.”
For some reason that made me feel better, even though I was terrified the ceremony woul
dn’t work. If we were in jail, we’d never be able to protect ourselves. And the last thing I wanted was to be vulnerable to the hundreds of spirits whose entire exit plan centered on torturing me.
Collin pulled out his phone and checked his texts. He punched a code into a keypad on the side of the door and within seconds, the door popped open. Collin shot me a smile before he headed in, motioning for me to stay close to the door.
He moved down the dim hall, his flashlight bouncing around and searching open doorways. He disappeared in one room and came back out in about ten seconds. “We’re good.”
I closed my eyes for a moment as I sighed in relief. “Where do we look?”
“There are three possibilities. We’ll search those rooms, then go from there.”
“Will it be in a case or something?”
“Probably.” Collin continued down the hall to a locked door. “If they keep the bowl under a glass box in the museum, it stands to reason they’d lock it up back here.” He pulled out his lock-picking set and told me to point my flashlight at the lock.
“I sense a déjà vu moment,” I whispered, my stomach rolling.
“We’re fine. I told you we won’t have a repeat of last time.”
I cringed. “I hope not.”
Collin tripped the lock and opened the door to small storage room filled with shelves. Most were empty, but a shelf by the door held a small metal box.
Collin headed straight for it. After he jimmied the lock, he opened the lid and grinned ear to ear.
I stood on my tiptoes, shining my flashlight into the box. It contained an almost flat, dark wood bowl with a thick lip. “It doesn’t look like much.”
“Neither does your cup.” He handed the bowl to me and removed the fake one from his duffel bag. I had to agree that to my nonexpert eye, the bowls looked similar. Collin put the new one in the box and reset the lock.
He removed his relic from my hands and stuffed it into a cloth bag, then into his duffel bag. “See? I told you. And in record time.”
“Okay, let’s go,” I said, heading straight for the back door. This all seemed entirely too easy.
Collin reset both alarms, then grabbed the handle to the exterior door.
“I suddenly have a very strange feeling that something bad’s about to happen.”
The Curse Keepers (Curse Keepers series) Page 27