Chapter Eleven
Mac
“Isaw the same woman from my room.”
“You see them too.” It’s not a question. I already know she does. When she went pale as death and screamed, I realized she was seeing something I wasn’t able to. “Is she still there, Cori?”
I work to repress the shiver that wants to skate down my back at the idea that something is here with us that I can’t see or hear.
“I…I don’t know.”
“I need you to open your eyes, baby, and tell me so I can…” What? Protect us against something already dead that I have no concept of where it is? “So, I can help you?”
She slowly blinks her eyes open and looks behind her at a spot right in front of the rickety old boat docked in one of the bays. She shakes her head no, but the death grip she has on my hand doesn’t ease up just because she can’t see anything anymore.
“You said she was in your room.”
She nods. “She…I was brushing my teeth and…”
“She’s the reason you ran out into the hall.”
She slowly shakes her head again. “No. That was the other one.”
What the shit? How many has she seen here already?
“The other one?”
“The man. He…he was big and dark and I couldn’t see him clearly. I don’t like it when I can’t see them. It means they’re trying to hide from me. When she came to me in the bathroom, I ran out and…he was on the other side of the room. Standing there looking at me. He’s what sent me running.”
“Did you see something in Room Twelve?”
She gives me another head shake, “No. I just felt…do you think…do you think it’s the same person?”
“I do.”
“Do you know who?”
“I have a good idea, but I want to gather more information before I say anything.”
“It’s him, isn’t it? The cult leader?” She whispers the last.
“When Roxie called him Mr. Anders, he corrected her. Reverend can clearly be heard on the EVP.”
“Oh, God!”
“Right now, all we have to do is keep warm and keep from getting hit by lightning. Everything else we can discuss tomorrow.”
I can almost feel how tired she is. If she’s not been sleeping since we got to the island, she has to be exhausted.
“I don’t want to be…used.”
“I know. No one is going to use you. I’m not going to tell anyone.”
“Roxie found out. She knows.”
“I trust Roxie. She won’t tell anyone either. But let’s keep it between me, you, and Roxie. There are people here who would use it.”
“Drake.”
“And I don’t put it past Ripley to try to use it to her advantage, either. We’ll let Theo know later if you want to tell him, but not while we’re on the island. The fewer who know, the better. And the safer you’ll be.”
“Safer?”
“Someone, or something, is trying to tell you something. They’re trying to show you something. Until we find out what that is, I don’t trust anyone but Roxie.”
“And Tray?” I don't like that!
“Why do you say that?”
“Um,” she doesn’t want to tell me.
“Are you two…?” I can’t even bring myself to say it as a surge of anger and jealousy washes over me.
She looks at me with her lips curled around her teeth in an expression I am quickly coming to realize she makes when she is trying to hide something.
“Not me.”
I frown and try to follow where she is leading me, but it’s late and I’m just not making those connections.
“Tray…is in love with Roxie.”
No! No way! “How…?”
"I can pick up on things if I touch someone sometimes. Not all the time, and not anything they are thinking. It's more like glimpses of the past and what they did, not what they will do or what they are thinking about doing. It’s like the ghost thing. It doesn’t happen on command or all the time.
I can’t go to a place and automatically just start doing it. ”
“How long has he…?”
“From the start. She likes him too, but they aren’t going to do anything about it because of your rule about not…being with your co-workers.”
Well damn. Turns out I’m the asshole.
“I made that rule to protect people, not to…”
She gives me a little smile with a sleepy blink that is longer than it would normally be. “I know. You’re a good man.”
Now I feel even worse. “I’m not. I’m pretty sure a good man wouldn’t have put his hands on you. I can’t be called a good man when I had a handful of your ass and even spanked you for fuck’s sake.”
She blushes so prettily that damned if it doesn’t make me want to do it again.
And that is why, no matter what she says about me being ‘good’, where she’s concerned, I’ll never be that good.
I'll never be so good that I walk away from her, never good enough that my hands won't find a way to touch her little body and breathe her in.
“Come on, pretty eyes. Let’s try to get some rest since this storm doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.”
“Do you think it’s safe? Do you think…if we go to sleep, will we start sleepwalking again?”
“I’ll stay up and make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“You’ve not slept well since we hit the island, and if I’m right, I’m going to need you to be sharp and ready to go.”
“Before we hit the island, actually. My aunt told me not to come.” She pauses so long I don’t think she’s going to explain, but then she adds, ‘She’s been dead for years.”
I can’t school my face fast enough to hide my shock, but thankfully, it doesn’t matter because my little psychic has finally drifted off to sleep, resting on my chest and snuggling into me tight.
I should leave her alone, follow my own rules of not becoming involved with someone I work with… .But I won’t!
I can’t!
'Cause I'm not that good and I never will be!